I just got these in the mail the other day–six copies of TO RUIN THE DUKE in Italian! The title reads SCANDALOSO DUCA (Scandlous Duke), and they’re hardcover. It’s always exciting to get foreign editions in the mail. On my bookshelf, I have other titles that have been published in Russian, Dutch and Japanese. This is my first Italian edition. It’s a beautiful cover.
I enjoy taking today’s news out of the headlines and twisting it into historical time periods. TO RUIN THE DUKE was my take on identity theft in the Regency. There were no finger prints on file in this time period, no driver’s licenses. There weren’t even photos (yet), only paintings where the accuracy of the images were often influenced greatly by the need for the artist to flatter the subject and get paid well. (This meant that artistic license was often taken!) There were handwritten papers with seals to designate who one was, but very often, personal validation from friends and acquaintences was the most positive way to identify someone.
So what would happen if a wealthy duke had a doppelganger out there imitating him? Racking up debts in his name, getting into duels, seducing women? What if one of those seductions resulted in a child? This is where TO RUIN THE DUKE begins, with our heroine, a friend of the child’s dead mother, appearing on the doorstep with a baby who she claims is the duke’s son, and she is determined to make him take responsibility.
TO RUIN THE DUKE is availabe in English in both print and ebook, and now Italian in print only.
