Grazie Maristella, for your interest in reading my books. What an interesting question! Actually, I would say I’ve written two books in which the hero had not gone through painful experiences and or otherwise had a dramatic past. In AWAKEN, MY LOVE Charles had spent 10 years in the Army in India and had a scar slicing across his cheek because of it, but it didn’t really scar his soul. What he came away from India with was knowledge of the KAMA SUTRA, which had far more impact on him than any battles. James in SCANDALOUS LOVERS had nothing really traumatic in his past. He was very ordinary in that respect, in that he unquestionably believed in traditional Victorian values: i.e., he believed it was a man’s duty to marry and have children, and that a responsible man took a mistress to spare his wife his lust. When his wife was killed in a carriage accident, James realized he had never known his wife, and that it was DUTY that had made them strangers. AWAKEN, MY LOVE was my first romance novel, so I can’t say if it was difficult to write simply because Charles did not suffer from a tragic past. James was a difficult character to write until I embraced his passion, which was the law. It was fascinating watching James emerge as a very passionate man who could love a woman with the same devotion with which he loved the law.

Baci,

ROBIN SCHONE