The duke and Esmeralda’s story, The Duke’s Desire, began much earlier than the prologue of their book. While I included some glimpses into their past connections so that The Duke’s Desire would stand along, you may want to read those earlier encounters in their entirety.
Here’s a brief history of appearances of Esmeralda and the Duke of Haynesdale in my books. 🙂
Esmeralda and made her first appearance in A Most Inconvenient Earl, book four of the Brides of North Barrows, my first Regency romance series. (Sebastian Montgomery was the man who first broke Esmeralda’s heart.)
I was intrigued by her right away.
The Duke of Haynesdale makes his first appearance in The Christmas Conquest, but his holding has appeared in my stories before. You might want to read about Bartholomew, an earlier Lord Haynesdale who reclaimed his stolen legacy in my medieval romance, The Crusader’s Kiss.
The duke and Esmeralda’s story was originally intended to be a subplot and a thread running through all the other books in the Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction series, but by the time I wrote The Widow’s Wager, they were starting to steal the limelight.
The Duke’s Desire begins at roughly the same time as The Hellion’s Heart, which is when I forcibly pushed these two into the background. 🙂
The duke meets Mrs. Oliver at Rockmorton in The Christmas Conquest when he visits Rockmorton at Christmas.
In The Widow’s Wager, Esmeralda is charged with Jacques’ crime and Damien decides to make matters right – and also when he visits her in prison to present his plan. (I love that scene!)
In The Hellion’s Heart, Damien retrieves Sylvie from France while Esmeralda remains imprisoned.
The Bluestocking’s Bargain has few scenes with this pair, but it does follow Patience and Arthur’s quest to publish Esmeralda’s book.
What happens next? The Duke’s Desire ties up many ongoing plot threads in this series, but there’s one more story I want to write. More about that next time. 🙂
The romance between the Duke of Haynesdale and Esmeralda Ballantyne was planned to be a sub-plot that carried through the entire series. By book four, it became clear to me that these two needed their own book as they were not inclined to stay in the background. The Duke’s Desire begins at roughly the same time as The Hellion’s Heart.
This book stands alone, and includes references to earlier scenes between these two. If you would like to read all the detail, please start at the beginning of the series. The duke meets Mrs. Oliver at Rockmorton in The Christmas Conquest, and spars with Miss Ballantyne at the soirée in The Masquerade of the Marchioness. In The Widow’s Wager, Esmeralda is charged with Jacques’ crime and Damien decides to make matters right – and also when he visits her in prison to present his plan. (I love that scene!) In The Hellion’s Heart, Damien retrieves Sylvie from France. The Bluestocking’s Bargain has few scenes with this pair, but it does follow Patience and Arthur’s quest to publish Esmeralda’s book.
Esmeralda Ballantyne is the most successful courtesan in London, a woman envied by many and a mystery to all. When her past threatens the future of her younger sister, she finds an unexpected champion in the Duke of Haynesdale, a gentleman driven by his honor to intervene on her behalf, despite his disapproval of her trade. Does she dare to trust her newfound protector with her truth, or is the duke – like so many men of her acquaintance – interested in only one kind of compensation from her? As much as she refuses to surrender to any man, Esmeralda fears her impulse will lead her astray…will the price of capitulation be her fiercely defended independence or her heart?
Damien DeVries, the Duke of Haynesdale, abandoned his rakehell ways when his father bought his commission. The youngest of three sons, he never expected to inherit the duchy, and finds himself discontent, burdened by responsibilities and – according to his mother – past due to wed and provide an heir. The difficulty is that the only woman of interest is the forbidden beauty, Miss Ballantyne. There could not be a less appropriate choice for his duchess, but no other woman tempts him…
Drawn together by an irresistible desire, duke and courtesan agree to a short affair. But their mutual need proves insatiable, growing stronger with each night together. The duke becomes convinced that they must marry – but can Esmeralda ever trust a man fully? Her one last secret will either draw them together or drive them apart forever – when she finally shares it, can they put the betrayals of the past behind and forge a future on their own terms?
The Duke’s Desire is available today from my online store, Hazel & Honeysuckle Press! You can also pre-order it at the portals for delivery next week.
Esmeralda Ballantyne is the most successful courtesan in London, a woman envied by many and a mystery to all. When her past threatens the future of her younger sister, she finds an unexpected champion in the Duke of Haynesdale, a gentleman driven by his honor to intervene on her behalf, despite his disapproval of her trade. Does she dare to trust her newfound protector with her truth, or is the duke – like so many men of her acquaintance – interested in only one kind of compensation from her? As much as she refuses to surrender to any man, Esmeralda fears her impulse will lead her astray…will the price of capitulation be her fiercely defended independence or her heart?
Damien DeVries, the Duke of Haynesdale, abandoned his rakehell ways when his father bought his commission. The youngest of three sons, he never expected to inherit the duchy, and finds himself discontent, burdened by responsibilities and – according to his mother – past due to wed and provide an heir. The difficulty is that the only woman of interest is the forbidden beauty, Miss Ballantyne. There could not be a less appropriate choice for his duchess, but no other woman tempts him…
Drawn together by an irresistible desire, duke and courtesan agree to a short affair. But their mutual need proves insatiable, growing stronger with each night together. The duke becomes convinced that they must marry – but can Esmeralda ever trust a man fully? Her one last secret will either draw them together or drive them apart forever – when she finally shares it, can they put the betrayals of the past behind and forge a future on their own terms?
This morning, I moved out the publication date for The Duke’s Desire to May 28. It’s just a short delay, as the book is longer than I’d anticipated and I want to give it another read-through (or two) before loading the files to the portals.
If you have pre-ordered this book already, you will likely get a message from your portal of choice about the change.
Esmeralda Ballantyne is the most successful courtesan in London, a woman envied by many and a mystery to all. When her past threatens the future of her younger sister, she finds an unexpected champion in the Duke of Haynesdale, a gentleman driven by his honor to intervene on her behalf, despite his disapproval of her trade. Does she dare to trust her newfound protector with her truth, or is the duke—like so many men of her acquaintance—interested in only one kind of compensation from her? As much as she refuses to surrender to any man, Esmeralda fears her impulse will lead her astray…will the price of capitulation be her fiercely defended independence or her heart?
Damien deVries, the Duke of Haynesdale, abandoned his rakehell ways when his father bought his commission, and the injury he sustained is a permanent reminder of his wasteful youth. The youngest of three sons, he never expected to inherit the duchy, and finds himself discontent, burdened by responsibilities and—according to his mother—past due to wed and provide an heir. The difficulty is that the only woman of interest is the forbidden beauty, Miss Ballantyne. There could not be a less inappropriate choice for his duchess, but no other woman tempts him to abandon convention and return to his wicked ways again.
Drawn together by an irresistible desire, duke and courtesan agree to a short affair. But their need for each other proves so insatiable that it cannot be denied. Does Damien dare to surrender his heart to a woman like Esmeralda? Can Esmeralda trust any man fully and give Damien his deepest desire? There is one last secret she holds that will either draw them together or drive them apart forever—when she finally shares it, can they put the betrayals of the past behind and forge a future on their own terms?
I’ve been thinking about Kickstarter and new editions of my books, and am revising my plans for campaigns to run this year. The current economic situation made me reconsider my plans, but now I have a new strategy.
As much as I love the shiny books with foil, they end up being pretty expensive to produce – and they have to cross borders, which means they’ll likely incur tariffs now. I know I wouldn’t be in a hurry to buy pretty books without being sure whether there would be tariffs or how much they might be. Also, since my books are in series, to collect the whole series in the pretty format, you need to buy multiple books. I don’t think in this economy there will be as many people fired up about spending $80 per book, no matter how pretty they are. Production costs drop with a print run of several hundred books, but hmm, I could end up with 1000 hardcovers in my garage pretty easily. The mister likes to park the car there. And such editions often are printed in Asia, which might mean more tariffs.
On the other hand, I really enjoy the Kickstarter campaigns. I like creating the new editions and though the campaigns are challenging for me to set up, I think they’re a good exercise for me in improving my marketing skills. Plus I love the interactions with readers and backers.
In my January campaign, the new editions of my time travel romances were in trade paperback, and those books were drop-shipped from the printer to backers. Since this printer has facilities in the US, UK, AU and EU, that meant that fewer books had to cross borders to be delivered. It also kept down the shipping costs since the books shipped once (instead of twice, as they must when I sign them). Each book had a page in the front for a bookplate, and I sent signed bookplates to backers to place in their books. So, the books ended up with a signature and for a fraction of the cost of shipping entire books to me and then to backers. So, this will be my model going forward, at least for the short term.
I have two historical romance campaigns in the works at Kickstarter. First up, there will be new print editions of The Champions of St. Euphemia. For the hardcovers, the dust jackets will be new images, type and object based, and there will also be new images on the case laminates. The trade paperbacks will be similar to the new editions for Blood Brothers: the outside of the cover will have the new type and object based image, while the illustration of the couple will be duplexed, i.e. printed on the inside of the trade paperback cover. The books will have new interiors and chapter headers. There will be bookplates that will be signed and mailed separately to backers, and a special page in the book for that bookplate. These books won’t ever be available at retailers, just directly from me.
There will also be new maps for the series included in the print books and available as digital downloads. Backers who buy all five books in either print format will also get a luxe foiled bookmark and a set of stickers featuring the couples from the illustrations. There are more details to work out, but I’m planning to run this campaign in July – the designer is working on the covers now and I’ll show you them as they’re finished up. I should have actual books before the campaign so you can see them.
The second campaign will run closer to the end of the year, though deliveries won’t happen before Christmas. It will be for my Regency romance series, the Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. Right now, these books are available in mass market paperback, which has become markedly less cost effective now in print-on-demand. (That’s due to increased paper costs that came into effect on April 1.) We’ll do them in trade and hardcover in the campaign with new covers (no people) and some additional character art. There will be signed bookplates and a bookmark for this campaign, too. I may try a different printer for those: I’m liking the idea of a slipcase for the series, so need to learn more about sources for that.
The new book in this campaign will be The Daughter’s Disguise, Ophelia Pearl’s story and book #7 in the series. It will be available first from Kickstarter, in both ebook and print. I’ll put it up for pre-order at the portals after the campaign, and it will ship from there in summer 2026.
These campaigns also give you the opportunity to buy previous Kickstarter editions, so if you’ve missed a campaign, you can still add those books to your keeper shelf. They probably won’t have all the add-ons, though.
Right now, you can follow the campaign for the new editions of The Champions of St Euphemia, right here, and KS will notify you when it launches.
Claire Delacroix 