Welcome to Amy Rose’s Parlour… Thamsine Granville, the heroine of Alison Stuart’s ‘The King’s Man’

Award winning historical romance author, Alison Stuart, visits my parlour today to talk about her recent release, THE KING’S MAN, the second novel in her trilogy set around the time of the English Civil War.

Welcome and take it away, Alison…

Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog today, Amy. For your readers, I am running a rafflecopter contest for the launch period of THE KING’S MAN … to enter click HERE .

I love having the opportunity to chat to my characters, particularly as both Kit and Thamsine were particularly strong minded and chatty during the course of writing THE KING’S MAN.

Kit Lovell, the hero (or anti-hero) has already had his chance for a chat with readers… click HERE to read his interview… so let’s take a moment to interview Thamsine Granville, heroine of THE KING’S MAN.

AS: How do you pronounce your name, Thamsine?

TG: TAMZIN – Thamsine and Thomazine (an innumerable variations) were both popular names during the seventeenth century.

AS: You have just escaped the accusation of attempting to assassinate Oliver Cromwell, do you mind me asking why you threw the brick at his coach?

TG: That was a bit of a mistake on my part. I wasn’t really trying to kill Cromwell, I just wanted a distraction. I had no idea it could potentially land me in so much trouble.

AS: Distraction from what?

TG: I’d rather not say… shall we leave it as – a person I did not particularly want to meet.

AS: What is the worst thing that has happened in your life? What did you learn from it?

TG: My life over the last couple of years has gone from bad to worse, but ending up on the run in London, with no money in the middle of winter, probably has to count as a new low in my life. What did I learn from it? Not to try to kill people.

AS: What is the worst thing you’ve ever done to someone? Why?

TG: I tried to kill someone because he was trying to persuade me to marry him in the worst way possible. He only wanted my money but he would take both me and my fortune by force if he could.

AS: How do you feel about your life right now? What, if anything, would you like to change?

TG:   Since Kit Lovell saved me from the noose and found me a job in a tavern, life has improved considerably, but I would still rather be back in my own home. I really wasn’t brought up to be a tavern wench and I’m not very good at it.

AS: Ah, Kit Lovell. What attracts you to him?

TG: Attracts? Alison, really we’re just friends… Oh well since you ask, just between us girls, how could one not be attracted to a handsome man with a slight French accent, some intriguing scars, a limp and a penchant for rescuing fallen women off the streets of London, but he’s not mine…

AS: Not yours?

TG: Alas he has a wealthy and rather pretty mistress who indulges him shamlessly. I don’t have the money to keep Kit in the manner in which he has clearly become accustomed.

AS: What would you like to change about him?

TG: I wish he would learn to forgive himself. Something has happened in his past, which of course he won’t talk about (men!), but I think it has set him on the course of something that will end badly. All those secret meetings in the inn parlour for starters… I just have a bad feeling…

_____________________________________

ABOUT THE KING’S MAN

The second in a tantalising trilogy from award-winning author Alison Stuart, about warriors, the wounds they carry, and the women that help them heal.

London 1654: Kit Lovell is one of the King’s men, a disillusioned Royalist who passes his time cheating at cards, living off his wealthy and attractive mistress, and plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Penniless and friendless, Thamsine Granville has lost everything.  Terrified, in pain, and alone, she hurls a piece of brick at the coach of Oliver Cromwell, and earns herself an immediate death sentence. Only the quick thinking of a stranger saves her.

Far from the bored, benevolent rescuer that he seems, Kit plunges Thamsine into his world of espionage and betrayal – a world that has no room for falling in love.

Torn between Thamsine and loyalty to his master and King, Kit’s carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. He must make one last desperate gamble – the cost of which might be his life.

Buy Links

Buy THE KING’S MAN on KOBO, NOOK, iBooks and AMAZON

(Australian readers can still buy THE KING’S MAN for just 99c on AMAZON AUSTRALIA and the first book in the series, BY THE SWORD is currently free)

ABOUT ALISON

Award winning Australian author, Alison Stuart learned her passion from history from her father. She has been writing stories since her teenage years but it was not until 2007 that her first full length novel was published. Alison has now published 6 full length historical romances and a collection of her short stories. Her disposition for writing about soldier heroes may come from her varied career as a lawyer in the military and fire services. These days when she is not writing she is travelling and routinely drags her long suffering husband around battlefields and castles. Connect with Alison on her website, Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER CONTEST: Click HERE (The prize is a kindle Ereader)

(And if you would like a smile, THE KING’S MAN is featured in an ABC Art Nation program called ‘My Secret Art Life’… Australian readers can view it on my website… click HERE)