Elizabeth Boyle, Historical Romance

The Bachelor Chronicles ·· View Bachelor Chronicles family tree

the marlowe series ·· View Marlowe family tree

the Danvers Family ·· View Danvers family tree

connected novella

The Brazen Series

A stand-alone book

The Bachelor Chronicles
While most people might think this series began as a spin-off of the Danvers books, believe it or not, the inspiration for this series was an exit sign on a freeway near Port Orchard, Washington. The exit reads: Sedgwick Road, Clifton Road, and Tremont Street. As it often is with inspiration, I couldn't get those names out of my head. Sedgwick, Clifton and Tremont. Oh, and I could see them as well. A trio of bachelors determined to remain unwed. Ha! I could fix that quite handily. Sedgwick's demise began in Something About Emmaline. Since he had made up a wife to escape the matchmaking wits in London, I knew he needed to be taught a lesson by putting a living, breathing Emmaline into his life. The subplot of this book, about Emmaline's true identity, actually was a story idea I'd kicked around after I'd written No Marriage of Convenience. After I nipped the notes out of an old file, I realized I had ready made secondary characters waiting in the wings of the previous Danvers books, giving Temple, Diana, and Elton from Stealing the Bride opportunities to make cameo appearances.

In fact, the title for this series, The Bachelor Chronicles, didn't even come into existence until the I began writing the second book, This Rake of Mine and introduced the meddlesome Langley sisters, Felicity and Thalia, as well as their cousin, Lady Philippa. Once they arrived in the pages with Felicity's infamous catalogue of bachelors in hand, the nickname seemed a perfect fit. Besides, I needed their help as that devilish Jack Tremont proved a little more elusive to bring to heel than I had originally planned.

Love Letters From a Duke continues the Bachelor Chronicles with Felicity Langley’s determined search for a ducal husband. This story of mistaken identity finds Felicity falling in love not with a duke, but her heroic footman and it is up to Tally and Pippin to help her discover which is more important: to marry a title or marry the man she loves. In April 2009, Thalia meets her match in Confessions of a Little Black Gown, with Pippin’s story following the next month in Memoir of Scandalous Red Dress. What I've loved most about writing The Bachelor Chronicles is how much fun it's been to weave Sedgwick's and Tremont's adventures into the already existing Danvers' storylines, allowing readers a chance to see Temple and other Danvers characters once again.

The Marlowe series
"What would you wish for if you had one wish, Mommy?" That was the question posed by my young son one night after we'd watched a movie about a magic coin. But instead of answering him, I had a moment of inspiration. Not a coin, but a ring. A nondescript bit of silver that gave each bearer a single wish. And a family. Oh, not the usual heroic, spying on the sly for the King and country, rich and powerful nobleman and his aristocratic family, but a ramshackle sort of collection of relations, on the fringe of the ton who wouldn't bat an eye at the notion that magic was real. Thus came to life the Marlowes--all named after characters in Shakespeare's plays by their overbearing, madcap mother--and each about to be granted their most deepest desire.

Sebastian Marlowe was first, finding himself the subject of Miss Charlotte Wilmont's wish in His Mistress by Morning. The second book, Tempted by the Night, features the popular Lord Rockhurst and Sebastian’s madcap sister, Hermione. What I've loved about writing these books is not so much granting wishes, but seeing how awry things can go when a character makes an unwitting wish. Charlotte, a simple, overlooked spinster becomes London's most infamous courtesan. Hermione who desires above all else to be noticed, turns herself invisible. It's when things go so very wrong, that the story becomes a delight to write.

The Danvers family
I have to describe this series as serendipity, because I never, ever intended to write an entire series when I started Once Tempted. If I had, I might have written them in some sort of logical order. But no, as it is with happenstance, as I wrote each book, a story idea for the next one would come blossoming up from the pages and I found myself moving back and forth through the Danvers family and bouncing around the Regency timeline. While Once Tempted takes place in 1812, the next book, One Night of Passion takes place years earlier in 1801. Readers have expressed confusion over all this jumping back and forth, so I'll just point an accusing finger at my muse for not being more orderly. Luckily for you, there is a cheat sheet: The Danvers Family Tree.

Now I blame all this confusion on Orlando Danvers. Immediately after killing him off in Once Tempted, I found myself regretting it. "He would have made a great hero," I muttered as I wrote. So I gave him a twin brother, Rafe, a handsome, half Spanish rebel with a devilish streak. I was smitten. Then Colin Danvers came on the scene, and he was so darn heroic standing on the deck of his disreputable ship. Yet in the back of my head I kept telling myself, I wasn't going to write a series.

That is until Olivia began quizzing Colin as to how he met his wife and Colin offered a very guarded answer about having met Georgie at a ball. To help him out, his son Gavin adds:

"It wasn't a regular sort of ball, Da," Gavin said. The impetuous boy turned to Olivia. "They met at the Cyprians' Ball."

The moment I wrote that line, I knew I had to write Georgie and Colin's book. In fact, my editor underlined that passage in red pencil and put a note in the margin of the manuscript that said, "This IS going to be your next book." Within days of Once Tempted being published, the fan mail poured in clamoring for "the book about the Cyprians' Ball." Because I was just as curious to find out what Colin's seemingly respectable wife was doing at the Cyprians' Ball, I began writing One Night of Passion and feeling smugly satisfied about doing a two book series. That is, until Temple came tripping into the pages, scene-stealing heartbreaker that he is. "Fine," I told myself, "I'll write a three book series."

Temple and Diana's story, Stealing the Bride, like all the Danvers books uses a theme I explored in The Brazen Series: that deceptions and disguises can hide a character's darkest secrets from society, but will always be found out by their true love. Letting Diana strip down Temple's mask of being Society's gadfly and reveal him as the brave hero he truly was, had to be one of my greatest joys as a writer. But I still had one Danvers left, Rafe Danvers, who stolen hearts in Once Tempted as an adult and teased us all with his mischievious ways as a youngster in One Night of Passion. His book, It Takes a Hero, finished the Danvers series. Well, as long as you don't count Jemmy Reyburn's adventures in Hero, Come Back and the fact that Kit Escott's story is still untold, and I've always wondered what happened to Cochrane when he grew up. Then there is the never ending chorus from the "Bring back Orlando Danvers Fan Club"...

The Brazen Series
Starting with Brazen Angel, the award-winning Brazen series tells the story of three siblings, caught up in the throes of the French Revolution and ultimately in the political turmoil of Regency England. It starts with Sophia D'Artiers and her daring plans to save her family from the guillotine in Paris, continues in Brazen Heiress with her younger sister, Lily D'Artiers, masquerading as a French heiress to aid the one man she swore never to fall in love with, Webb Dryden. And ends with Brazen Temptress, a story of betrayal and deception that finds the youngest D'Artiers sibling, Julien facing off with a pirate queen who has vowed to unmask his deceptions. The series features every thing I've always loved about romance: high seas adventures, daring rescues and risks that seemed insurmountable. But over and over, this trio of stories utilizes my all time favorite theme: lost loves found.

~ The Bachelor Chronicles Family Tree

~ The Marlowe Family Tree

~ The Danvers Family Tree