HUG A BOOK with Serena Fairfax

Hug A Book is sponsored by

Volkan-Watches

It’s HUG A BOOK and this weekend it’s with Serena Fairfax

You could win a Kindle copy of

WILFUL FATE

Meet Serena

I spent my childhood in India, qualified as a Lawyer in England and joined a large London law firm. I’m still in the day job.

My first romantic novel STRANGE INHERITANCE (published by Robert Hale Ltd  went into UK and USA large print editions in 2004 (published by BBC Audio Books Ltd and Thorndike Press) and is a Kindle  and Smashwords e-book. The next romantic novel was PAINT ME A DREAM (published by Robert Hale Ltd ) which went into UK and USA large print editions in 2004 (published by BBC Audio Books Ltd and Thorndike Press) and is also a Kindle and Smashwords e-book.

Fast forward to a sabbatical from the day job when  I traded in books and mortar for a houseboat and  embarked on WHERE THE BULBUL SINGS a time-zone saga set in India spanning the last days of the Raj to the present day. This emerged in 2011 as a Kindle e-book, Smashwords e-book and a printed book.   IN THE PINK (Kindle and Smashwords e-book ) is a departure in style. GOLDEN GROVE and WILFUL FATE are both romantic novels and are Smashwords and Kindle e-books.

I'm a member of the Romantic Novelists Association. It's a wonderfully supportive organisation.

I live in London and rural Kent (Charles Dickens said: Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent. Apples, cherries, hops and women) with my golden retriever, Inspector Morse who can't wait to unleash his own Facebook page.

Details of WILFUL FATE

Jacintha runs a clothes shop in the country from a converted barn. Up in London for the day buying stock from rag trade wholesalers, she stumbles across an epitaph immortalising a notorious seventeenth century highwayman and womaniser, Claude Du Vall. Pre-occupied with thoughts of him, her van skids in an unfamiliar residential area of London, demolishing the  original Victorian cast iron railings of a fashionable town house. Dazed and shaken she is rescued from the wreckage by its owner, Ed, a charismatic and vibrant  business tycoon and race horse owner who she blames as responsible for hounding her fiance out of office. The excitement of riding and race horses in an idyllic English location of bluebell woods, hawthorn hedges and may blossom is the setting for the clashes between Ed and Jacintha and the ups and downs of their  relationship.

Available for Kindle and Ereaders from Smashwords

Excerpt

 

Here lies Du Vall; Reader, if male thou art,

Look to thy purse, if female, to thy heart.

Much havoc did he make of all

Men he made stand and women fall...

Who were you? Jacintha nudged her small white van through the press of traffic, her imagination tantalised by the epitaph she’d seen just an hour earlier on a crumbling tombstone. The shade of the ancient London churchyard had provided welcome respite from the unseasonably warm May day and her haggling with veterans of the rag trade. She glanced in the rear view mirror, her berry- brown eyes dancing with satisfaction at the pile behind her semaphoring contemporary and classic labels. And what would Du Vall have made of it? If she half-closed her eyes she could see him now – a predatory, virile bandit and her lips curved in a wry smile that this man, long dead, long forgotten, could stir her blood. I'm going to Google strip search you, she resolved raking a hand through her glossy gold-dark fall of hair, itching to free him from the dusty pages of history.

‘Dammit- should've taken a left at the lights,' Jacintha muttered. Her ditzy preoccupation with lady-killer Du Vall had sidetracked her into unfamiliar territory – an upscale residential area of London where cream, stucco fronted, four-storied Victorian houses overlooking a tree-lined garden square rose behind immaculate black railings.

The dusty road suddenly glistened with a treacherous oiliness...the van began a wild dance of its own. Jacintha’s hands tightened over the steering wheel, her heart pounding as she closed her eyes in the grim realisation that she was skidding out of control. There was a grinding crunch of metal as the van surged through cast iron railings; the windscreen raced to meet her as she was flung forward; shards of breaking glass rained down. The vehicle shuddered to a stop, its wheels spinning wildly, straddling a steep drop across a basement well. This isn’t meant to happen. But the seat belt had saved her from a gory end – that much Jacintha sensed as she slowly opened her eyes, nausea creeping over her.

'A woman driver- surprise, surprise.’ It was a deep male voice tinged with sarcasm and emerging from a kind of fog it took Jacintha several moments to grasp what was happening. The nearside door was being wrenched open- she felt strong hands reach across, unbuckle her seatbelt and slowly hoist her into the solid muscle of his chest. Desperately trying to keep a fragile hold on herself, Jacintha’s heartbeats almost sped off the radar as the Good Samaritan’s eyes, silver grey in a lean, sun-bronzed face, raked her face as he steadied her upright on the pavement. And although she was 5’6”, he was all height, broad shoulders, rock hard body and sensual mouth.

‘Well that’s the meet and greet out of the way. And you look ok to me -how do you feel?'

'As safe as…’ She stared at him, his sheer physicality nearly making her go weak at the knees. He’s hot, like one of those alpha males in a romantic novel.

‘… Don’t say it. Not this house.’

'My van -’ Jacintha wailed on an edge of hysteria as she assessed the damage. It was intact – although that could scarcely be said of her flayed emotions – but for a badly buckled wing and a smashed windscreen. She exhaled a long sigh of relief that she hadn’t lost a valuable business asset

'You just don’t get it! This is one hell of a home coming for me.’ Exasperated eyes locked with hers.

Serena’s Links

Website     http://www.serenafairfax.com/

 Blog             http://www.serenafairfax.com/serena_fairfax_author_blog/

 Email:           info@serenafairfax.com

 Linkedin      http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/serena-fairfax/4a/852/a67

 Twitter        http://klout.com/user/Sefairfax?n=tw&v=connect_twitter

Facebook     http://www.facebook.com/serenafairfax

Question

Of whom is the inscription on the gravestone?

Answers in the comments and good luck!