Today, historical romance author Sharon Page gets readers ready for her new novel, Engaged in Sin. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how the author connected with her newest leading couple, and then don't miss your chance to enter to win a copy of the new novel!

I have so many things I love about writing romance, and I got to experience each one while I was writing Engaged in Sin. First, I got to create a sexy, tortured but noble hero in Devon Audley, the Duke of March. Then, I got to live through my feisty survivor of a heroine, Anne Beddington, who has escaped from a London brothel. Since Anne desperately needs a powerful man’s protection, she works very hard to seduce Devon. When Devon reveals to Anne the reasons why he has nightmares of the battlefield, I was wiping the tears from my cheeks while typing. And of course, I got to savor the happy ending.

In Engaged in Sin Anne helps to heal Devon as she helps him learn to cope with his blindness, and to make peace with the guilt that led to his post traumatic stress. Devon helps Anne heal from her time in the brothel as he gently teaches her to feel pleasure. But my favorite parts to write where those moments when Devon realized Anne was right.

I love the moments when the hero realizes the heroine is right. Those are the instants when the hero is humbled by love, when the shell he has built around his heart gets cracked, and when his arrogance gets toppled.

Here’s an excerpt of one of those moments from Engaged in Sin: (the heroine Anne, is masquerading as a London courtesan named Cerise)

Devon let one of the footmen put on his tailcoat. He could feel the weight of it dropping on his shoulders. He held out his hand for his beaver hat and drew it on ruthlessly. Once he cared about his appearance. He had no right to anymore, not when a choice he’d made had cost a good soldier his life, which meant the man’s wife and child had been thrown into grief and poverty. And now they had vanished somewhere in London’s slums. 

He needed his liquor, but Cerise’s warning kept hammering in his brain. Was the brandy hurting him more than it helped him? 

He’d thought drink would dull the pain, grief, and anger. When he didn’t soak his mind with liquor, his nightmares were soaked with blood and echoed with screams. Brandy turned them into vague and formless things he couldn’t grasp but that still tormented him. Admittedly, it had never once given him the gift of a night’s sleep. 

Perhaps she was right. 

If he couldn’t escape in liquor, he had to do it another way. There was sex, but he wasn’t in the mood for an activity that required him to act more like a human and less like a growling, guilt-ridden blackguard. Anyway, he sensed there was a wall between them, forged by his determination to drown his anger and guilt in drink and her equal insistence that he stop. Intriguingly, the only way to tear down the wall was for one of them to win.

What about you? Do you have favorite "battle of wills" romances? Any favorite moments you remember where the hero finally admitted the heroine was right?

- Sharon Page

GIVEAWAY ALERT: One lucky reader will win a copy of Page's new novel, Engaged in Sin. To enter leave a comment below telling us about your favorite "battle of wills" romance. The winner will be announced on November 16.

Don't want to try your luck? You can pick up a copy of Engaged in Sin, which was released earlier this week. And for more genre coverage, check out our Everything Romance Page!

Tags: RT Daily Blog, Romance
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