Taryn Kincaid started writing as soon as she could and never stopped. Sometimes she has been lucky enough to get paid for it. As an award-winning reporter and columnist, she covered everything from fires and homicides, to corrupt politicians and hero dogs. And also the fun-and-fluff stuff. Not usually a bit like TV. Nowadays, she haunts courthouses. That’s not usually a bit like TV, either. Taryn reads and writes all genres. She is a member of RWA, Hudson Valley RWA and RWA’s Beau Monde, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapters. She is the author of Healing Hearts, a Regency novella, and Sleepy Hollow
Dreams, an erotic paranormal. Taryn is addicted to the blogosphere. And Twitter.
Welcome, Taryn! Please tell us about Healing Hearts, your new release from Carina Press.
Healing Hearts is a romantic, sensual, Regency novella about two people with damaged hearts and spirits, who discover they are made for each other! And the healing power of passion and love.
Here's the blurb:
As a girl, Emma Whiteside asked Adam Caldwell, Viscount Riverton, to wait for her to be of marriageable age. Now, twelve years later, Emma hates Adam as much as she once loved him, holding the former army major responsible for the death of her brother on the battlefield.
Adam already blames himself for the loss of the men under his command. But the fiery young woman Emma's become sparks his arousal, as well as emotions Adam thought long dead. The passion between them makes him want to reclaim the man he was before the war.
Though she tries to hold on to her hatred, Emma's longing for Adam is undeniable, especially after the two share a smoldering kiss. Still, Adam is certain no woman would want a man so damaged. Can Emma prove him wrong?
And here's an excerpt:
The wind blew off the sea, moaning and wild, buffeting the man pacing the cliffs.
Hidden by a wall of rock, Emma Whiteside shielded her eyes against the bite of salt spray and continued to watch him, as she did every dawn.
Today, she thought. Today she would approach him at last. Confront him. Give him the royal tongue-lashing he deserved. She had nothing left to lose, after all. And she might not have the opportunity tomorrow. Or ever again.
The things I will say to you, Riverton, will peel the skin from your bones and lay you lower than anything Napoleon's Grande Armée had to offer.
A small voice nagged Emma from within, the advice reasonable considering her current dire circumstances. Better to seek the man's aid than chide him. But she snapped her mind closed against the unwanted counsel. The viscount was the last man on earth she'd ever ask for help.
Grief chilled her, numbed her heart, deadened the tender feelings she'd once had for him. Only her need for vengeance broke through her frozen emotions now. She longed to set Riverton in his place, however little effect her words might have on a man so impervious to remorse.
But once again Emma could neither confront him nor beseech him. The evidence of his stiff-necked pride—and her own—continued to hold her back with as much force as if an unseen hand pressed down upon her shoulder. She glared in the man's direction, as if it were his hand oppressing her.
Fierce gusts punished him, impeding his tortured progress. Pain twisted his handsome features but he confronted the gale without flinching. A tiny chip splintered off from the ice sheath encasing Emma's heart.
Damn him.
How do you bear it, Riverton? Are you made of stone?
She knew he was not. She saw the agony against which he fought, the stalwart way he pushed himself onward, despite the uneven gait that hampered his progress.
A cold blast of wind whistled past, ripping the hood of Emma's cloak aside, whipping her hair against her neck. The frigid current stung her eyes, wringing reluctant tears. She blinked the moisture away and rubbed the damp trail from her cheeks.
No tears, she instructed herself. Not for him. Never for him.
Riverton wore no coat or cravat. His linen flapped about him, white shirttails torn from his trousers—an unlikely flag of surrender when he refused to give quarter.
Did you stand so against the French?
Emma could think of no oath dark enough to curse a man so remarkably stoic. She envisioned him in her mind's eye, saber raised, hastening up and down the lines, shouting at his men to hold: Major Adam Caldwell, Viscount Riverton, at his most courageous.
She shuddered, conjuring the brutal attack that haunted her grimmest moments, the scene clouded by smoke and thunder, blurred by the limits of her grief and imagination. The battle where her twin had fallen, belly pierced by an enemy bayonet.
Michael admired you so, Riverton. I will never stop blaming you. 'Tis time you knew it.Anger burned within her breast, bright as her love for the viscount once had.
And yet...her gaze swept him again, lingering on the trousers that molded his muscular thighs, the loose shirt that emphasized the breadth of his shoulders. 'Twas but the vicious wind that stole her breath, she told herself.
More excerpts (and reviews!) are at my blog:
http://dreamvoyagers.blogspot.com/Awesome, intense excerpt! Do you have a review you could share with us?
Sure could! And I'd be thrilled to:
From The Romance Reviews
HEALING HEARTS is a sweet historical romance story that any girl could love. This tale is the perfect combination of drama, angst and passion that will entertain you throughout. If you are looking for that stunning, but short read, HEALING HEARTS is the novel for you.
I was amazed by how deeply I was sucked into this short story. You barely have a hundred pages to understand the characters' past, their passion and their pain but Taryn Kincaid does an amazing job of condensing their story. The heroine, Emma, has a whirlwind of emotions she goes through within such a small amount of time, but you never feel rushed or cheated by the brevity of this story.
I love a tortured hero as much as the next girl and Adam was an amazing tortured hero. You could tell he was considered a somewhat arrogant lad before he went to war, but of course, he has come back a changed man.
Regardless, Emma has loved him for a very long time, but Adam took her twin brother with him to war and did not bring him back. Suffering the despair of her loss and the massive debt her family is in, she is torn between whether or not to confront Adam and ask for his help. She believes that she hates him, but one kiss from this wounded soldier melts her heart. Adam has no doubt Emma belongs in his life as his wife, it's just the small matter of convincing her they belong together.
Shorter stories are normally not my favorite since I sometimes feel you are cheated out of the emotional attachment you could have in a full-length novel, but that was certainly not the case with this story. Adam and Emma pulled me in with their desire for one another, hooked me with their inner torment and satisfied me with their happily ever after.
Ms Kincaid is certainly an author to watch out for. HEALING HEARTS looks to be her second published works and with her talent she has nowhere to go but up.
(Read more great reviews from Happily Ever After Reviews, Over A Cuppa Tea, Once Upon A Chapter, Cloudy With a Chance of Books and My Guilty Pleasures on my blog!)
What a great review! What inspired this story?
Years and years ago, I adored Laura Kinsale's Seize the Fire and its damaged and reluctant hero. Seize the Fire was so different from other romance novels I was reading at that time and it stayed with me. I've always been fascinated by the toll wars take on our warriors. Adam is based on one of the first heroes I ever tried my hand at. That hero's heroine was not a bit like Emma, though (she was more of the typical Regency heroine, making her debut and not mature enough to deal with such a man). And, of course, I didn't know enough to do justice to their story. But the returning soldier theme is one I love to explore. I just love the damaged hero so!
OMG I'm a huge fan of Laura Kinsale. I love her damaged heroes. Seize the Fire is one of my favorites too. Why did you choose your setting and why was it perfect for your book?
Ah. The setting is Kent, a fictitious cliff somewhere near Dover. The cliffs, the waves crashing against the rocks below, the angry wind that whips the hero and heroine to and fro...just seemed to reflect the inner tempests warring within them and their stormy relationship!
Ooh, sounds amazing and atmospheric. Which of your characters is most like you? And why?
Probably the character most like me is from a paranormal WIP. He's the Lord of the Underworld. You don't really want to explore why he's most like me! Also, the heroine in my current WIP, a romantic suspense, is a lot like a younger version of me! She's a journalist, as I was.
Please tell us about Sleepy Hollow Dreams.
Hey, thanks for asking!
Sleepy Hollow Dreams is an erotic urban fantasy paranormal, loosely (very loosely) based on the Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow stories from the mystical Hudson Valley and the pen of Washington Irving (who takes a verbal beating from my hero, Ryck Van Winkle, miffed that Irving got his story so wrong! ) It started out as a small Halloween story and then it grew and grew. Ryck visits Katy in steamy, sexy dreams, but when demonic forces threaten Sleepy Hollow because of his nightly escapades, he arrives in Sleepy Hollow in the flesh! Hunky flesh. I originally submitted Sleepy Hollow Dreams to The Wild Rose Press' paranormal line. But the editors thought it more suited to the Scarlet Rose erotic line. (With a few added up-ticks of the mercury on the heat level thermometer!)
Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?
Keep reading. Keep writing. Cut mercilessly. If you've said it once, no need to say it six different ways in the same paragraph. (A hard one for me, since I love metaphors and similes and often muse myself with them.)
What’s next for you?
A few WIPS, including the above-mentioned romantic suspense (a pretty new genre for me), and the paranormals. Would like to revisit Sleepy Hollow. And Regency England!
Would you like to ask readers a question?
What are your favorites? What do you like to read most? How do you feel about damaged characters, wounded heroes? What romance tropes do you love the best?
