Today we have Sofie Darling here to answer a few questions alongside the release of Lady Amelia Takes a Lover, book two in the Windermeres in Love series!
Welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what got you into writing?
I’m afraid I’m the typical sort of writer who loves reading, writing, drinking tea, and generally hanging out with my dog all day.
It was reading that got me into writing. When I was twelve or thirteen, I happened across Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, and I was immediately hooked on romance. Though those novels aren’t technically historical romance, as Austen and Bronte were writing of their time period, they read like historical romance to the modern reader. So, I knew if I ever started writing, I would have to try my hand at historical romance as my first genre.
What do you enjoy most about writing historical romance?
Historical romance combines two things I truly enjoy: romance and history. I love combining real-world research with the fictional worlds I get to create.
What inspired this series in particular?
The Windermeres came together from a few different inspirations, actually. Firstly, I’d been wanting to write a siblings series. I love the dynamics of brothers, sisters, and close friends, that ebb and flow of how they feel about each other at any given time, but how the love and affection are always there.
Secondly, I wanted to write a series that was light, rompy, and super sexy. In 2019, my mother passed away, then in 2020, covid hit. And I decided I just wanted to write a FUN series that was summer on the page. Something that would make me feel as good writing as it would make readers feel reading.
What made you decide to use Italy as the setting for this book?
That question leads me to my third inspiration for the Windermeres—A Room with a View by E.M. Forster, which is also set in Italy.
I loved the idea of taking this fun-loving, scandalous band of siblings out of England and placing them in lovely Florence for this book. I had fun with starchy Amelia trying to maintain her propriety, even as she feels the pull toward sensuality and freedom.
What is your favorite aspect of Lady Amelia Windermere’s character?
I definitely took inspiration for Amelia from Lucy Honeychurch, the heroine of A Room with a View. There’s something both powerful and relatable in choosing love over propriety and safety. A sort of liminal space exists between falling in love and choosing to trust that love will last forever. One must make a leap from one side to the other, and it feels dangerous. I love that, in the end, Amelia is brave enough to take that leap and trust her heart.
What is your favorite aspect of Duke Triston Carteret’s character?
Apart from his delicious grumpiness, one thing I absolutely adore about Tristan is how he sees through Amelia’s strict propriety to her true wants and desires. He’s a duke who doesn’t have any need or use for Society’s strict rules. Even as he accepts his dukely duties, he wants to live a free sort of life. And what a shock it is that the very proper Lady Amelia Windermere harbors that same secret desire.
What do you like most about the dynamic between your two main characters?
I love how simple Tristan and Amelia’s attraction is: Despite their external differences, they are the same inside.
Which is all anyone truly wants in love.
What can readers expect next in this series?
Up next in the series is Lord Archer Catches a Contessa. This is the story of Archie and Valentina, who join forces to swindle the swindler who stole Valentina’s family fortune. And in the process Archie and Valentine just might steal each other’s hearts…
Want to know more about Lady Amelia Takes a Lover?
A proper English lady…
A little time in beautiful Italy is just what Lady Amelia Windermere and her family need while their latest scandal dies down. Amelia is hard at work on their triumphant return to London society when she meets Tristan Carteret, the Duke of Ripon, a sculptor who is too wild for any proper lady.
Meets a dissolute duke…
Tristan isn’t eager to let go of la dolce vita that he’s enjoyed in Florence—until he meets Amelia. She may appear to be one more uptight debutant, but he soon realizes there’s a talented artist and a passionate woman just aching to emerge. If only she can forget what society says and concentrate on what she feels when she’s with him.
And that’s how Lady Amelia takes a lover…
Exploring their art leads to Amelia and Tristan exploring much more than stone or canvas. But Amelia knows that indulging her desire for the dissolute Duke comes with a price—more scandal. Tristan refuses to give up on the real Amelia just because of society’s rules, but can he sway her to make him her future?
Meet Sofie Darling:
Sofie Darling is an award-winning author of historical romance. The third book in her Shadows and Silk series, Her Midnight Sin, won the 2020 RONE award for Best Historical Regency.
She spent much of her twenties raising two boys and reading every romance she could get her hands on. Once she realized she simply had to write the books she loved, she finished her English degree and embarked on her writing career. Mr. Darling and the boys gave her their wholehearted blessing.
When she’s not writing heroes who make her swoon, she runs a marathon in a different state every year, visits crumbling medieval castles whenever she gets a chance, and enjoys a slightly codependent relationship with her beagle, Bosco.
You can find Sofie Darling on her website or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or BookBub!
