reviews_and_ramblings | Loretta Chase: While Writing the Great American Novel

Ciao a tutte le mie amiche italiane!

I wish I could say everything in Italian, but I’m only a beginner student--and your beautiful language isn’t easy. Those prepositions! Those possessives! Mamma mia!

But I’ve always wanted to learn, and my 2008 book, YOUR SCANDALOUS WAYS, inspired me to take classes. This historical romance about a jaded spy and an unrepentant courtesan is set in Venice. My Regency era- 007, James Cordier, is half English and half Italian--and he and Francesca Bonnard exchange words in Italian, sometimes in anger, sometimes in passion, and sometimes to tease and joke. Discussions with my consultant in Italy reawakened my longing to learn the language. I know I’ll never be fluent, (and my accent might make you cry with pain) but I shall persevere. An Italian edition of this book is coming soon from Mondadori, and I’m looking forward to trying to read it.

Zoe Octavia Lexham, the heroine of my July 2009 book, DON’T TEMPT ME, is English, but after spending the last twelve years in a harem in Egypt, she’s not like other English girls. To survive, she learned all the arts of pleasing men--and completely forgot how to be a proper English lady. Now back in England, she’s a social outcast. The only one who can restore Zoe to her rightful place in Society is Lucien de Grey, the Duke of Marchmont. He’s tall, handsome, rich, powerful, witty . . . and stupendously lazy. Once she realizes that her future depends on a man who forgets her as soon as she’s out of his sight, Zoe does whatever it takes to get his attention--and the duke’s life suddenly become very exciting, indeed.

Right now I’m working on next year’s book, a spinoff of LORD PERFECT (which was released in Italian this month). It’s ten years later, and those two troublesome children, Peregrine and Olivia, have grown up--but some things haven’t changed at all.

I hope you’ll enjoy my books--and thank you for loving romance, in any language!

Loretta Chase

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