Friday Favourites # 20: Rose Lerner

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This is my 20th Friday Favourites post and after a short break I'm happy to be back with the lovely Rose Lerner as my guest today. Check her favourites and read an excerpt from her latest release, a novella in the Gambled Away anthology of historical romance. She is also an ebook copy of the anthology to one lucky winner, all you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

1. Favourite place

My couch, definitely. It's purple and fuzzy and the warmest spot in the house.

2. Favourite food and drink

No, I have so many! Potatoes, maybe? Especially latkes. And I would say 99% of the time I drink water, but I am also a big fan of strawberry lemonade or a Dark and Stormy.

3. Favourite music/genre/artist/song

This changes every week, but right now, The Mountain Goats, "Cry for Judas." What a good song.

4. Favourite movie/TV series

Star Trek: the Original Series.

5. Favourite hobby besides writing, if you consider writing a hobby

I don't consider writing books a hobby--it's definitely a job--and so is cooking, my next favorite thing to do after writing and what I do at my day job. So I'd have to say my favorite hobby is fiction of all kinds: movies, novels, TV. I just love stories. I love digging into a world and pulling it back over me like a blanket, especially if I have a friend or two to dig in with me. I love the emotional roller coaster ride and the jokes. Fiction is my jam. Nothing else will ever come close, whether I'm creating it or consuming it.

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Rose Lerner's latest release is All or Nothing, a novella in the historical anthology Gambled Away which came out earlier this month. Enjoy a sexy excerpt from the story next.

Blurb

Get revenge. Pay a debt. Save a soul. Lose your heart.

Spanning centuries and continents, five brand-new novellas from beloved historical romance authors tell the stories of men and women who find themselves wagered in a game of chance and are forced to play for the highest stakes of all: love.

“Gideon and the Den of Thieves” by Joanna Bourne

London, 1793 – Soldier of fortune Gideon Gage has come home from halfway around the world, fully prepared to face down a ruthless gang to save his sister. But there’s one member of the gang he could never have been prepared for: fascinating Aimée, driven from her own home by the French Revolution and desperately in need of his help.

“Raising The Stakes” by Isabel Cooper

California, 1938 — When the flute she won in last night’s poker game unexpectedly summons an elven warrior bound to her service, two-bit con artist Sam takes quick advantage. With Talathan’s fairy powers at her command, her shakedown of a crooked preacher is a sure thing…but would she rather take a gamble on love?

“All or Nothing” by Rose Lerner

England, 1819 – Architect Simon Radcliffe-Gould needs someone to pose as his mistress so he can actually get some work done at a scandalous house party. Irrepressible gambling den hostess Maggie da Silva would rather be his mistress, but she’ll take what she can get…

“The Liar’s Dice” by Jeannie Lin

Tang Dynasty China, 849 A.D. — Lady Bai’s first taste of freedom brings her face to face with murder. A dangerous and enigmatic stranger becomes her closest ally as she investigates the crime, but can she trust her heart or her instincts when everyone is playing a game of liar’s dice?

“Redeemed” by Molly O’Keefe

Denver, 1868 — After agonizing years in the Civil War’s surgical tents, Union doctor James Madison has nothing left to lose. But when beautiful, tortured Helen Winters is the prize in a high-stakes game of poker, he goes all in to save her—and maybe his own soul.

Here's the anthology website: https://gambledaway.com/

Purchase link: Amazon

EXCERPT

"Let's make this simple," Henney said. "You double your stake, you win. You lose your stake, you owe me twenty guineas. Seem fair?"

Simon nodded, fighting the impulse to stake all his fish on one card and have it over with. But he was as likely to lose that way as win, and he couldn't give up twenty pounds so quickly.

Of course, in faro you generally were as likely to lose as to win. That was why it was so damn popular—better odds than most games of chance. He'd watched Clement play for countless hours, when they were in school. It had felt peaceful when it wasn't his money at stake, cards and coins moving and changing hands, talk washing over him.

Now the cards were in his hands, and it was his money, and it didn't feel peaceful at all. He steeled himself and put six sad, gasping little fish on the figure card with a blue cross, which he remembered dimly indicated a bet on the ace, deuce, and three. One of Miss da Silva's trailing ringlets brushed his arm as she leaned over to inspect his bet.

She did not, it turned out, smell either like orange-flower water or violets. Tuberoses burst in his nostrils—heady, carnal, and narcotic. Cloying, even, in the way smells were in bed, arousing because they were too strong. He remembered, with great force, that the delicate white blossoms' scent was said to be most powerful at night. He shut his eyes and breathed in.

"I'll lay you a guinea Radcliffe-Gould's cock stands within five pulls," someone said quite audibly.

'Pull' meant a draw of two cards, one laid to Henney's right and the other to his left. If Simon's bet matched the first card, he lost his stake, and if it matched the second, he won.

But Simon immediately imagined Miss da Silva's hand round his cock.

Author Bio and Links:

I discovered Georgette Heyer when I was thirteen, and wrote my first historical romance a few years later. My writing has improved since then, but my fascination with all things Regency hasn't changed. When not reading, writing, or researching, I enjoy cooking and marathoning old TV shows. I live in Seattle.