By Miranda Owen About a million years ago, while hanging out in various online historical romance book groups, people kept extolling the virtues of Lisa Kleypas’ books. Specifically, readers said that nobody writes to-die-for heroes like Lisa Kleypas does. Particular favorites in the book groups were Zachary Bronson from WHERE DREAMS BEGIN and Derek Craven in DREAMING OF YOU. These self-made, passionate men are incredibly complex characters and capture a reader’s imagination. I enjoyed Zachary’s story, but I am firmly and forever Team Alex rather than Team Derek. Over the years, my Lisa Kleypas addiction grew. Whenever there’s a reader poll for top ten favorite heroes, I find a majority of my picks are created by Lisa Kleypas. My favorites include Alex from THEN CAME YOU, Nick Gentry from WORTH ANY PRICE, Simon Hunt and the devilish and delicious Sebastian from the Wallflowers series, and Leo Hathaway in MARRIED BY MORNING. I was ecstatic when I first learned that Lisa Kleypas was coming out with the Ravenels series, since I’m wild for her historical romances. Happily, this series does not disappoint. The deliciously gothic setting of Eversby Priory combined with the passionate Ravenels makes for entertaining stories. The heroines in…

Not every book I write contains supernatural elements, but I believe there’s a suggestion of darkness in all of them, one that harkens back to my childhood. I don’t mean to say there was a lot of darkness in my upbringing. In fact, looking back, those years seem wonderfully sunny and bright. But, oh, I did – and still do – love a good scare. That feeling of being terrified and right on the edge of unsafe began with a visit to my aunt’s boarded-up farmhouse in Saskatchewan. My aunt and uncle lived there when they were first married. Knowing my aunt, it would have been a clean and lovely home. However, by the time my sister and I saw it, everything inside the place was old and rolled and silent as the grave. We didn’t learn why until after we’d scared ourselves silly with thoughts and imaginings of dead bodies trapped inside those rolled-up carpets and ghosts lurking at the rusty handpump that once upon a time would have filled my aunt’s kitchen sink. My newly married aunt discovered a mouse in her house. Huh. How strange is that? Finding a mouse in a farmhouse that was surrounded by…