Today, my guest is another author participating in the Christmas at Castle Keyvnor collection – please welcome Elizabeth Essex!

I have a confession to make: I LOVE research. In fact, one of the primary reasons I write Historical Romance instead of any other genre is the absolute delight I take in the hours and hours I get to spend doing historical sleuthing.

My affinity for research is of long standing—long before I ever thought of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to write romance novels, I was a Nautical Archaeologist, specializing in the underwater excavation and research of shipwrecks. For a few months every summer, I would don my diving gear and head under the waves to investigate likely wreck sites. And every fall, winter and spring, I would spend the rest of my time researching and drafting and writing about what the previous summer’s excavation had taught me.

But the whole time I was excavation and writing, I was also daydreaming, wondering what it might have been like…

As a result, nothing delights my sea-faring heart more than ripping good tale of adventure and romance on the high seas, which is where a good deal of my novella, “A Merry Devil”, in TEMPTED AT CHRISTMAS, is set. While the action begins and ends in our fictional Cornish town of Bocka Morrow, our heroine and hero take to the seas to find true love.

Our heroine is Tressa Teague, youngest daughter of the vicar of Bocka Morrow, (sister of Nessa Teague of last fall’s “Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea”) and the secret mastermind behind the village’s smuggling operation. Our hero—and Tressa’s nemesis—is Captain Matthew Kent, sent to Bocka Morrow by the Admiralty to find a traitor hidden amongst the smugglers. In my mind, their test of wills and match of wits could only play out on the deck of a sailing ship!

The vessel I chose for our Tressa and Matthew is a traditional Cornish lugger—a small sailing vessel with lug sails—that was used both for fishing in the pilchard-rich waters off the Cornwall coast, and for smuggling brandy, gin, lace and silk past the Revenue officers and into England. One of the more fascinating bits of research I found was that the sails of the luggers were often a dark red, which would not have shown in the moonlight as they were ghosting along the coast! But my, even in the daylight, don’t they look yar?

To me, there is nothing more heroic than a man who can sail a ship! Nor anyone more fit to tame him than a wily smuggling woman!

I hope you enjoy A MERRY DEVIL as much as I have. Cheers & Happy Reading!

Elizabeth Essex is the award-winning author of critically acclaimed historical romance. Her three Brides Series (Dartmouth Brides, Reckless Brides and her new Highland Brides) have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and Seal of Excellence Award, and RWA’s prestigious RITA Award. The Reckless Brides Series has also made Top-Ten lists from Romantic Times, The Romance Reviews and Affaire de Coeur Magazine, and Desert Isle Keeper status at All About Romance. Her fifth book, A BREATH OF SCANDAL, was awarded Best Historical in the Reader’s Crown 2013.

When not rereading Jane Austen, mucking about in her garden, or simply messing about with boats, Elizabeth can be always be found with her laptop, making up stories about heroes and heroines who live far more exciting lives than she.  It wasn’t always so.  Long before she ever set pen to paper, Elizabeth graduated from Hollins College with a BA in Classics and Art History, and then earned her MA in Nautical Archaeology from Texas A&M University.  While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing lush, lyrical historical romance full of passion, daring and adventure.

Elizabeth lives in Texas with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Essex, and her active and exuberant family in an old house filled to the brim with books.

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Tempted at Christmas includes

Elizabeth Essex’s A Merry Devil
Captain Matthew Kent has always been bound by his service to the Royal Navy. But when the Admiralty rewards him handsomely for cleaning out a nest of Cornwall smugglers, he is tempted to throw it all away for a second chance with Tressa Teague, the very woman he should not admire—a smuggler. Tressa is the daughter of the vicar, expected to be everything sweetness and light. But instead she has the heart of a pirate. She thought she’d seen the last of the dangerous sea captain who left her heartbroken before. But when he returns to the rugged coast of Cornwall to offer her the chance of a lifetime, will she lose her freedom, or only her heart?

Buy Tempted at Christmas now!