My Inspiration

Thank you for having me! I’m happy to talk about my background and what inspired me to write my latest historical romance, How Not to Marry a Duke.

I grew up in the restaurant business and my Armenian family owned a restaurant for thirty years. I worked as a tween rolling silverware in napkins. As a teenager, I moved up to hostess and then waitress. The tips paid for my prom gown. My mother was a talented cook, and she spoke five languages. English is my second language.

I’ve always wanted to write a historical romance series with diverse characters, and my research revealed that Regency England was rich with people from different races and cultures. The book also includes food, and I share my family’s shish kebab recipe in the back of the book. (I’m sharing a different recipe with readers today.) My Daring Ladies series includes characters from different cultures in the Regency period. As with all my books, How Not to Marry a Duke is a standalone novel.

My heroine is half Middle Eastern and half English. My hero is a duke. They clash right from the beginning when her pet pig charges him. Man, woman and swine all end up in a tangled mess on the ground in the first chapter. What a fun scene to write!

Adeline is a healer and she learned Middle Eastern medicine from her mother. Our hero, the Duke of Warwick, is an inventor. One of his inventions with gunpowder resulted in a painful burn on his arm. The English doctors have not been able to help and even made the pain worse. Along comes Adeline, and for the first time, Warwick finds relief. But it’s not easy to convince a stubborn duke to accept help from his country neighbor who happens to be the half sister of his childhood rival.

I’ve always enjoyed the enemies to lovers trope, and these characters were a pleasure to write. I hope you like the book!

As promised, I’m sharing my family’s recipe for hummus. It can be served as a dip with wedges of pita bread or vegetables and goes well with broiled or grilled meat. It can also be used as a healthy alternative to mayonnaise on sandwiches.

Ingredients:

1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
3½ teaspoons tahini (sesame seed puree found in international aisle of most supermarkets)
3 cloves minced garlic (1½ teaspoons)
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

Drain can of chickpeas and reserve ¼ cup fluid. Mix tahini thoroughly before using to incorporate oil that separates during storage. Using a food processor or blender, combine and blend all ingredients until smooth. If hummus is too thick, add a few tablespoons of reserved fluid from chickpeas and blend again. Pour into serving platter. Enjoy!

HOW NOT TO MARRY A DUKE
The Daring Ladies, Book Two

Two unlikely allies make for one scandalous courtship…

From the moment her pet pig attacks him, Adeline Foster knows she does not care at all for the Duke of Warwick. Certainly the man is handsome, but such an arrogant arse. But when her scoundrel half brother demands she marry a stranger over a failed investment, the duke does something shocking…he announces he’s courting her.

One moment, Daniel Millstone is enjoying tinkering with his inventions in his quiet country home with relative anonymity. The next, he’s courting the willful Miss Adeline. It might have begun as a way to vex her half brother—his childhood nemesis—but her striking beauty and kissable lips prove an irresistible temptation.

Now Adeline and her faux beau must convince the ton and their families that they’re an item. It doesn’t matter if they can barely tolerate each other. It doesn’t matter that scandal is only a touch away. Because if this charade doesn’t work, Adeline will find herself in dangerous hands…

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