Jennifer Blake has been called a “pioneer of the romance genre”, an “icon of the romance industry”, and the "greatest and most legendary" of the romance novelists. A New York Times and international best selling author since 1977, she is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, member of the RWA Hall of Fame, and recipient of the RWA Lifetime Achievement Rita. She holds numerous other honors. She has written over 60 books with translations in 20 languages and more than 30 million copies in print worldwide. She and her husband live on a lake in Northern Louisiana.
Do you use myspace, facebook, twitter, or other social networking sites? If so, how do we find you on those sites?
Twitter: JenniferBlake01 Facebook: Jennifer Blake
What books are you currently reading?
Frommer's VENICE DAY by DAY, A guidebook for an upcoming visit; A NOBLE RADIANCE by Donna Leon, a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, and Linda Lael Miller's McKettrick trilogy.
What are your favorite books?
Books on my Keeper Shelf: Dorothy Dunnet's Lymond Chronicle; the Regency novels of Georgette Heyer; M. M. Kaye's books set in India; Agatha Christie's and Dorothy Sayer's mysteries, and many others. My favorite types of books are mysteries and romances, with a smattering of best sellers in the (non-gory) thriller and courtroom drama categories.
What books would you recommend to your readers?
Whatever I'm enjoying at the moment. I normally read 10-15 books per month, usually at night before turning out the light.
Any message to your readers?
Many, many thanks for reading my work over the years, for searching for all my books after reading just one, and for enshrining them, now and then, on your keeper shelves. Writers have no purpose without readers, and I appreciate everyone of you.
What is your book about? Please provide a description.
Royal Seduction, set in Louisiana in 1829,is the tempestuous story of an innocent Louisiana lady and a daring Balkan prince: At a soirée near St. Martinville, sometimes known as Le Petite Paris for its population of French refugees from both The Terror and the defeat of Napoleon, Angeline Fortin encounters Prince Rolfe of Ruthenia. It is not a pleasant meeting. Rolfe mistakes her for her cousin Claire and cannot be convinced of his error. Sweeping Angeline onto the dance floor under the protection of her suitor and horrified aunt, he conducts a deadly serious interrogation. Rolfe’s mistake is not unnatural for someone who has seen Claire only from a distance. Angeline and her cousin were often confused after she came to live with her aunt and cousin following her parent’s deaths. Angeline, with her russet hair, gray-green eyes and quiet mien, is like a muted version of vibrant, red-haired, emerald-eyed Claire. Yet the situation is alarming. The prince, with his cadre of fighting men, his garde du corps, has traveled to Louisiana on Claire’s trail. He seems to believe she has some knowledge of the death of his older brother, Maximilian, heir apparent to Ruthenia’s throne, in a murder-suicide pact gone awry. Claire was, he declares, his brother’s mistress, and may have connived at his death because Maximilian dared dismiss her. Rolfe intends to discover what she knows, one way or another. Believing Angeline to be Claire, he tells her: “I am not Maximilian, all stiff decorum and unfailing politeness. I travel my own road, one some say will lead to damnation. Be assured that I will drag you along it with me, naked and without dignity, to achieve my purpose.” And so he does, through storm, betrayal, and attempted murder, to a final confrontation where he and Angeline must choose between death and dishonor, also between love and life itself.
How long have you been at work on this book?
This book was a New York Times Best Seller in its original trade size edition in 1983. It was also a selection of the Doubleday Book Club.
How did the idea originate?
One day, over coffee, a good friend and I were discussing the qualities that make a great hero in a romance novel. In a flippant mood, she said, "Every woman deserves a prince!" I decided she was exactly right, and created Royal Seduction to give them one.
