Hello, lovely readers!

Only two days are left until the publication of The Lord Who Adored Her and Other Love Songs, and with the end of the Art of Love series, I wanted to talk about... well, what else? Art.

I did not start out to say anything about art with this series. It came from a plot set up in Secrets Between Lovers. I wanted to write about the heroine's brothers from that book, and since there were so many of them, I knew it would be great for a series. But a conceit I'd used just for fun in SBL suddenly became the heart of this new series. The brothers' father had wasted away the estate and drained the coffers. Buying art.

As I wrote the first book, Portraits, Passion, and Other Pastimes, I found myself confused. Was I saying that art was bad? My hero certainly hated it, thought it useless. But no! I LOVE art. I think it's one of the most useful things humans do--the making of it and the consuming of it. I was suddenly stuck writing heroes who hated a thing I loved so well. And I was stuck with a pair of flawed parents who had ruined their family in pursuit of that thing I loved so well.

I struggled with this contradiction throughout the series, hating that it seemed, at times, that I was demonizing art and those who love it.

But I don't think I was. I do have several degrees in the analysis of literature, and after applying them to my own writing 🤣 I realized that the message is not "art is bad" but that, as with everything, something good can be used in ways that hurt others. If we use them selfishly.

It took me five books to articulate that, and five heroines to help the Bromley brothers see that art is life and life is art. To be master of it is not to own all of it, but to keep trying your best to understand it, to love it.

I end the book with five works of art, priceless to a family but perhaps to no one else, and you'll have to read to find out how I do that. 😉

Atlas's story will be out for everyone to read on June 17, but it's up for pre-order now! Click here!

I've said this is the summer of giveaways, and I was not kidding! Here's another for you. If you follow historical romance authors on Amazon, you'll be entered to win over 15 historical romances and one e-reader. That's a pretty great prize! You can click here to enter!

Discover a New Book

I've been bringing you a free book the 15th of every month this year, and this month it's from Sandra Sookoo! You can get Tamed by Love for free!

Grab Candace Camp's new A Scandal at Stonecliffe!

Check out Collette Cameron's Unmasked at Midnight!

And here's another Lyon's Den book! Katherine Bone's My Own Private Lyon!

Check out these books for hot summer reads!

Looking for new releases this summer? Take a look at this collection of all new books!

Happy reading!

Charlie