I have been receiving a lot of great news recently, so I thought I would share it here. Dangerous in Diamonds made the New York Times print list at #15 its first week out. It was also on Publishers Weekly’s list, and was #41 on USAToday! These are my strongest bestseller rankings ever, so I am very excited. I even broke onto The Washington Post list at #8, which is a first for me.

I received the good news while I was out of town. I took a trip with my sisters, to show them my favorite haunts in Italy. We spent some days in Rome and some others in Florence. It was a special time for us, when we could just be together for a week. Two of my sisters had never been to either city, so I enjoyed taking them around and being the tour guide. It was exhausting too, but in the best kind of way.

News about the lists starts trickling to publishers and agents on Wednesdays of each week, and that is when the phone calls began. I was six hours ahead, so it was late at night, but I had not gone to sleep because I was hopeful. The next day at dinner we all shared some champagne to celebrate.

I sincerely thank the readers who supported me with this book and the booksellers who did too! It has been a wonderful two weeks as a result, and I am very grateful.

Madeline

Here I am, a week before the release of Dangerous in Diamonds, all excited that this book will be in the hands of readers soon! I love this book. My editor loves this book. My publisher loves this book. Will every reader love it? Probably not, because that never happens. However, I had a wonderful time writing this story and bringing two of my most distinctive characters together.

Readers of The Rarest Blooms stories have met both Daphne Joyes and Tristan, Duke of Castleford throughout the series. Daphne is composed, collected, and a bit hard to read as a personality. The other women defer to her and depend on her, but there have also been hints regarding the mysteries that she has been hiding.

And Castleford—well, what can I say? He arrived in Ravishing in Red the way many of my favorite characters do, unexpectedly. He was a bad boy from the start, bad enough that I received a few emails complaining about his behavior. As the series continued, we came to know more about him. He may be an unrepentant hedonist, but, as one reader told me, he has a surprising heart of gold, and he rises out of his perpetual ennui to meddle in friends’ lives for the best of reasons. That he is arrogant in assuming everyone won’t mind when he does, and that his motivations also include relief at having something not bore him—well, that is what makes Castleford who he is.

Of course I had to put these two together! Castleford delights in finding ways to shatter Daphne’s ice queen composure, and Daphne inevitably will bring Castleford to his knees. Along the way there will be discoveries about both of them, humor and action. I promise readers that Castleford remains Castleford through it all. Does he reform? Well, partly, but a man partly reformed is a man still half bad.

I am busy starting my next series, but as April 26 approaches, my mind is much on The Rarest Blooms and all these characters with whom I have been living for several years. I firmly believe that as a writer I need to keep moving on, but in this case I am taking a few days to fondly look back too. I hope that you will give the series, and Dangerous in Diamond a try.

Madeline

The big news is that Sinful in Satin stayed on the NYTimes list for 4 weeks. This is a first for me, so it was very exciting. I really appreciate all the notes and emails that readers and booksellers have sent to me about the book, and the series.

I have now completed Dangerous in Diamonds, the fourth book in The Rarest Blooms series, and will get an excerpt up as soon as it gets the final seal of approval from my publisher. The Duke of Castleford was a lot of fun to write about, and I think that the story reflects the same man that readers have met in the prior stories. Even when we go into his head in this one, he still has that very individual way of looking at the world, and the story ended up with a lot of humor as a result. I have had a few readers express some regrets that Castleford will have to reform in order for his book to end in Happily Ever After for the heroine, which says something about how much some readers have enjoyed his incorrigible behavior. I promise you that while he slowly realizes Daphne is worth a few sacrifices, he intends to be at least half bad forever.

So now I am planning the next book (s). This is always exciting for me too. It is world building time because I will be starting a new series. I promise that I did not leave characters hanging from the last one. By the time Dangerous in Diamonds ends we know what happens with Katherine and the marquess (not together, though). As much as I loved The Rarest Blooms series, and all these characters, it is time to meet some new ones. They are forming even as I write this, and I will post another note once everything has fallen into place. In the meantime I get to play with ideas, and also clean my office which, during this series, with its fairly quick succession of deadlines, has become a disaster. I may even find some time to get back on Twitter!

Madeline