The Scarred Heart

Book 2 of The Scars of the Heart Series

Book 5 of The Rakehell Regency Romance Series

Sorcha MacMurrough

Ireland, 1812

Elizabeth Eltham, beloved sister of the Duke of Ellesmere, travels to Ireland with the Duke and his friend Clifford, known as the Rakehells from their days at college and in the Peninsular War. After the tragic death of their sister Jane, her brother and his friends want to protect her more than ever.

One chance meeting with a dashing stranger in a cave is enough to awaken Elizabeth as a woman ripe for love, the love of the right man. Everyone she meets longs to marry a Duke’s daughter; she must trust her instincts to choose the man who loves her best.

But her choice of husband has far more cataclysmic consequences that her own personal ones, as Elizabeth must help save her beloved, and all of Ireland, from a devastating French invasion….

“Elizabeth,” the mysterious man murmured, her name upon his lips sounding like a tender vow that the most sensual delights would soon be hers. “I shall see you again soon, my most beautiful Elizabeth. Just promise me, darling, you’ll never tell anyone about this place, our secret haven. If you promise, then one day soon, you shall be mine.”

She would have asked a million questions, and yet only one: Will you make me yours now?

Her enigmatic lover had stilled, waiting for her answer, one hand now poised around her tender throat.

She whispered, “I promise. You and the cave are mine. I don’t want to share you with anyone. I want you.”

His hand between her thighs stroking her, and his mouth descending upon hers once more, silenced her utterly. She had no urge to ask him any more questions. All she wanted was to let the incredible sensations wash over her like the thundering tide.

Elizabeth felt a flood of heat fly upwards to her face, downwards toward her hips. As one of his fingers pressed in deeply, she dug her nails into the bare flesh of his back and mewled like a kitten.

He laughed tenderly against her lips, and moved his finger and thumb. An inward quiver so strong it shook her from head to toe rippled through Elizabeth, causing her to gasp and pull away, open-mouthed with desire.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s only the beginning. A bit of light loving. I won’t damage you. Enjoy this, and keep it locked in your memory until next we’re alone, my love.”

His hand moved again, and a rainbow sparkled in her head. Elizabeth gasped, writhed, and panted, her eyes tightly shut, swirling like a feather wafted by a hurricane….

The Scarred Heart

Book 2 of The Scars of the Heart Series

Book 5 of The Rakehell Regency Romance Series

Sorcha MacMurrough

Setting: Ireland, 1812

Word Count=82,000 (approx 300 pages)

Rating: Quite Sensual

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Why the Regency, you might ask.

Cool clothes, manly men, spies and intrigue, and a rigid code of rules of conduct which could mean all the difference between success and ruin for both men and women.

It is a world very different from our own, but just think of the smouldering passions of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (especially the Colin Firth adaptation!) or the recent BBC Sense and Sensibility, and you will get an idea of the kind of eroticism that builds if you don’t just do it like bunnies or see it plastered all over the TV and billboards.

Of course, Regency romances a la Georgette Heyer have been supplanted by more racy fare. How spicy is too spicy in a Regency romance? How much comedy of manners do you prefer in your Regency? And how historically accurate do you want your Regency romance novel to be?

We would argue that so many have been done so badly recently, it is just a modern romance in fancy dress. Society was almost everything at that period of time, so racy women might well have existed, but even people with money had to observe certain social mores.

Then we have the Napoleonic War. Should it be mentioned, or left out? Why did Austen not mention it in her novels?

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The Napoleonic Period spans little more than two decades, yet the mark it has left upon Western civilization cannot be underestimated.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a Corsican who hated France, but went to live there in order to further his personal ambitions. From a humble artillery sergeant, he emerged from the turmoil of the French Revolution to become the ruler of half of the known world.

The Napoleonic Period spans roughly 1797 to 1815, with his final defeat at Waterloo. The hostilities between France and various other nations was intermittent, but one thing was clear: England was the only country to consistently remain at war with France throughout this period.

While Napoleon was able to win stunning victories against all of the other European nations, the English not only held, their own, their heroic efforts in “The Peninsular War,” from 1808 until 1814, to take back Portugal and Spain and eventually invade the South of France, was a monumental achievement that could only have been engineered by one man: Sir Arthur Wellesley, later known as The Duke of Wellington.

All of the Napoleonic War novels here at HerStory Books are based upon the eyewitness accounts of the time. Gripping, suspenseful, and sexy, they embody what makes an historical romance great.

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