When I was eleven years old and first falling in love with historical romance, I wanted to read about the Good Girls. Heroines who were gorgeous, charming, and well-mannered, who earned their happily-ever-afters, one charity basket delivered to the foundling hospital at a time. It felt like oddly reassuring math: X Brave Smiles + X instance of Turning the Other Cheek = A Hot, Besotted Man with a Big House.
But as I grew up, I drifted toward the Elizabeth Bennetts of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, or Jessica Trents of THE LORD OF SCOUNDRELS. With quips alone, they reduced men to puddles on the floor. And while my heart will always beat faster for kindness, sharpness began to catch my attention.
When the itch wouldn’t be denied, and I found myself writing a historical romance, I wasn’t surprised at what kind of character erupted onto the page. My Anna is awkward, flinty-mouthed, and as “difficult” as a mule. And I was the devil on her shoulder, urging her on.
It’s important to know that I wrote most of my book the pandemic, in Brooklyn, with a husband and two little boys in an apartment that’s big for Brooklyn but mouse-sized outside the city. My husband was working, and I wasn’t, but he took the boys to the park every day at lunch for two hours, leaving me with stolen time to write in the eerie quite of pandemic New York, nothing to hear but birdsong and ambulances. All around me schools were closed, children had to be educated and occupied, and so many of the families in my life—and the women in particular—were working double, triple, and quadruple-time just to stand still.
No wonder my character was spitting mad and unwilling to accept the status quo. No wonder I let her stomp through the world creating gleeful mayhem. I wanted her to run in the pivotal race at the end of the book, to have her start the gambling ring, to have her drive the action. The tighter my world became, the bigger her ambitions grew.
So every day, the children left the house and I flipped open my laptop, following along as my character became ever more difficult and her world got bigger, richer, and more filled with raucous joy. “I don’t want a husband,” she says to her friend in an early scene in the book. “I’d much rather have a really good horse.”
Of course, I gave her both a great horse and a great man.
And she didn’t have to earn a damn thing.
THE TROUBLE WITH ANNA by Rachel Griffiths
A tart young woman and an arrogant lord collide in this flirty, sexy, and remarkably modern historical romance, perfect for fans of Bridgerton.
Anna didn’t intend to ride in a high-stakes horse race or start up a betting ring. She certainly didn’t mean to find herself in so many darkened corners with Lord Julian Ramsay, quarreling and kissing. But when her grandfather’s strange will stipulates that Anna must marry or she’ll be left broke, there’s nothing she won’t do to win her fight for independence. Even go head-to-head with Lord Ramsay, with her own heart as the prize.
Fans of the slow burn will devour this frenemies-to-lovers story perfect for fans of Sarah MacLean and Evie Dunmore.
Romance Historical [Gallery Books, On Sale: March 4, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781668052945 / eISBN: 9781668052952]
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About Rachel Griffiths
Rachel Griffiths was most recently an editorial director at Scholastic, where she published more than twenty New York Times bestsellers. As you might guess from a book full of high-stakes horse races and romantic midnight rides, she spent much of her childhood in the saddle and knows from painful experience how it feels to take a fall at twenty-five miles per hour.
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