Man Meet Monday with JK LeBanc! (Part One)

Hello all in the land of Harmless Smut! Thank you gracious hostess Monica Kaye for inviting me, and my muse, to visit today!

I am so excited about a few things. So let me get to it. I wrote a book. YAY! I know, oo ahh wow. The book is a romance. (it’s getting better right?) I’m a photographer as well. (are you getting excited yet?) Let’s see what we’ve got.

Romance novel + photographer = illustrated romance.

No manga (STOP! I’m not hating, just saying) No cartoons, no doodles or stick figures. Photographs, images, a man and a woman, and all the sexy times we can squeeze under the cover. See what I did there? Because it’s a book, with a cover— okay I’m also a geek. There you go, out for all to see in my geekdom, because seriously who else could have possibly done this.

I wrote a time-traveling historical romance novel. Then I spent a year with smarter people making it better, then I went all anal and took over the cover shoot, and while there decided to go ALL. THE. WAY. I know you love it. Enough about me.

Let’s talk about His Grace, Gideon Alrick Trumbull, 10th Duke of Roxleigh, Earls of Kelso and Sussex, Viscounts Devon and Pembroke. Oh yeah, Rox is a country unto himself, a powerful Duke, and all about the business. Grrr…

Now those of us who love historicals know that every peer of the realm has a terribly important job, the begetting of heirs —and spares— to toe the line. This is no different for our Victorian duke as he sets out to find a suitable woman to take to wife. Problem is he’s a bit of a recluse. He hates the party crowd; doesn’t care for the ton and its accompanying gossip; can’t stand the mama’s tossing their daughters in his path, he generally doesn’t want to have anything to do with any of it even though they all want a piece of him. He would rather spend time on his beloved horses than deal with these issues.

Second problem. His brother Perry is a rake. Oh we all love the rogues don’t we? Perry (The Lord Peregrine Trumbull, Viscount of Roxleigh) loves to harass his elder brother, the one he hopes lives forever —or at least until he begets that heir— so he can continue to rummage through the innocent’s of London on the wings of his courtesy title. God forbid something happen to Rox, then Perry would have to step up and take the reign of that powerful dukedom.

So how does Rox find a woman, keep his brother at bay, and control his interests without succumbing to the pressures of the society he hates? How does Perry manage to, well…we’ll just watch Perry do what he does best—

—until his brother needs him the most. Then the truth of his dedication will out. I can tell you this. Rox does some of it with his clothes on…