Laura Kinsale
Personal Information
Description
Laura Kinsale grew up in a small country town, surrounded by the influence of her family's women: her mother, her grandmother and some maiden aunts. During her childhood she dreamed to be a painter, own a twenty-thousand acre ranch in Arizona or the first woman president. But, she became interested into geology because near her grandmother's house, there was a road-cut, that it showed the layers of limestone clearly, and there were fossils in it. Laura obtained a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked as petroleum geologist, a career which consisted of getting out of bed in the middle of the night and driving hundreds of miles alone across west Texas to sit at drilling rigs, wear a hard hat, and attempt to boss around oil-covered males considerably larger than herself. While working, also spending a great deal of time sitting rigs and living in horrid little motel courts in small towns, and she started reading a lot. It was pure escapism for her. She didn't really consider writing as a serious career until she figured out her first plot, at thirty-five years after six years as a geologist. Laura Kinsale became a winner and multiple nominee for the Best Book of the Year award given by the Romance Writers of America. Her heroes are full of flaws or with physical problems, and her heroines also are imperfect. She says: "It's well known that I think making the heroine too perfect is a great way to create a character readers will hate!". She spend long periods of time, attempting to figure out What-Happens-Next, and she confesses that her husband, David, greatly assists her in figuring out how to end a scene. She says: "Really, his name should go also on the cover too, but he refuses. I wonder why?". From 1985 to 1994, she wrote one book a year, but she decided she needed more time to write her books. Laura divides her time between Santa Fe and Dallas.
Books
Flowers from the Storm
The Duke of Jervaulx was brilliant and dangerous. Considered dissolute, reckless, and extravagant, he was transparently referred to as the 'D of J' in scandal sheets, where he and his various exploits featured with frequency. But sometimes the most womanising rake can be irresistible, and even his most casual attentions fascinated the sheltered Maddy Timms, quiet daughter of a simple mathematician.
The Dream Hunter
Searching for a legendary mare known as String of Pearls, restless wanderer Lord Winter discovers the disguised Zenia Stanhope, the daughter of the Queen of the Desert, who longs to reach the bloodless lands in England.
Seize the Fire
In Seize the Fire, Adam Nicolson, author of the widely acclaimed God's Secretaries, takes the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British and Franco-Spanish fleets in October 1805, and uses it to examine our idea of heroism and the heroic. Is violence a necessary aspect of the hero? And daring? Why did the cult of the hero flower in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a way it hadn't for two hundred years? Was the figure of Nelson -- intemperate, charming, theatrical, anxious, impetuous, considerate, indifferent to death and danger, inspirational to those around him, and, above all, fixed on attack and victory -- an aberration in Enlightenment England? Or was the greatest of all English military heroes simply the product of his time, "the conjurer of violence" that England, at some level, deeply needed?It is a story rich with modern resonance. This was a battle fought for the control of a global commercial empire. It was won by the emerging British world power, which was widely condemned on the continent of Europe as "the arrogant usurper of the freedom of the seas." Seize the Fire not only vividly describes the brutal realities of battle but enters the hearts and minds of the men who were there; it is a portrait of a moment, a close and passionately engaged depiction of a frame of mind at a turning point in world history.
Midsummer Moon
All the king's men could not surpass the intellect, nor all the king's ladies the beauty of Merlin Lambourne. As the infamous Napoleon's deadly army grows ever closer, Lord Ransom Falconer frantically searches for an inventor who can create a new way to defeat the advancing forces. He unexpectedly finds that only the lovely Merlin is adequate for the challenge. Drunk from her intoxicating beauty, Falconer whisks Merlin backto his home on a trail of tender kisses, oblivious to mounting whispers of scandal. His quickly falls under the spell of her magical touch. But as Napoleon draws nearer, Falconer must use Merlin's own inventions to protect her from danger. The magic of love surrounds them as they fall under the spell of undeniable passion.
Uncertain magic
Roderica Delamore has a "gift." Cursed with the unwanted ability to hear the thoughts of others, she is dedicated to raising her family's prize thoroughbreds and resigned to living without love. But one man's mind is inexplicably closed to her: a mysterious Irish rogue who may be the lover she has been dreaming of her entire life. They call Faelan Savigar "the Devil Earl"—a handsome, impoverished lord damned by dark rumor and whispered innuendo. But the secrets Faelan hides within are what stir Roderica's desire—and her need to experience the intoxicating ecstasy of his kiss. But be he liar, swindler, or worse, Roderica knows she can have no other—and she will trust this enigmatic stranger with her life...and her heart.
The Hidden Heart
FATE, IT SEEMED, HAD DONE ITS WORSTWith his life in ruins, Richard, Duke of Cleybourne, returned to his country estate to deal with the tragic loss he had suffered four years earlier. His plans, however, were interrupted by the arrival of Miss Jessica Maitland. The feisty, flame-haired governess had come to present her charge, Gabriella, as his new ward.UNTIL LOVE EXPOSED MUCH MORE TO THE STORYAs if their unwelcome presence weren't bad enough, Jessica also revealed that Gabriella was in danger. Someone was after the girl's fortune—perhaps someone the duke knew only too well. Now fate and a raging snowstorm have brought together an odd assortment of guests at Cleybourne Castle. And when murder strikes, Richard and Jessica must catch a killer and unravel a dark mystery, even as they are plunged into the most passionate mystery of all—the secrets of the hidden heart.
For My Lady's Heart
A young knight will take up his sword for the honor of a beautiful and mysterious princess--and risk his life for the love that burns between them
The prince of midnight
From Publishers Weekly Romance readers should be enchanted with Kinsale's ( Seize the Fire ) unlikely 18th-century duo: a staunchly unsentimental heroine and the has-been highwayman who joins her quest for vengeance. Leigh Strachan's parents and sisters are dead, and she's determined to murder the man responsible: The Right Reverend James Chilton. To this end, she tracks down S. T. Maitland, once the infamous robber called the Prince of Midnight but now a recluse--he can teach her how to handle a gun and a sword. But her "prince" is a disappointment: he's deaf in one ear, inclined to dizzy spells, a hopeless romantic starved for female company--and he fancies a wolf as a housepet. Just as Leigh concludes that S.T. is useless, he decides to become her champion. As they travel to Leigh's home to challenge Chilton, each emerges from a kind of cocoon: S.T. regains his skills, Leigh her capacity to feel affection. Unfortunately the unscrupulous reverend and his deluded followers are far less interesting than the bantering Leigh and S.T., and the prolonged confrontation seems more drab than dramatic
The Shadow and the Star
From nationally acclaimed bestselling author Laura Kinsale comes a boldly original, breathlessly unforgettable tale of honour, adventure and undying love. The Shadow is wealthy, powerful and majestically handsome, he is a man of dark secrets - a master of the ancient martial arts of an exotic distant land. Scarred by a childhood of shocking degradation, he has sworn to love chastely ... but burns with the fires of unfulfilled passion.The Star is lovely, innocent and nearly destitute, and drawn to him by a fevered yearning she could never deny - following her enigmatic 'shadow warrior' into a dangerous world of desire and righteous retribution.
El Senor de la Medianoche
Una vez fue el Seigneur de Minuit, el señor de la medianoche, un hombre al margen de la ley, un aventurero que imponía su ley y su justicia en los caminos de Inglaterra. Una vida peligrosa y heroica de la que tuvo que alejarse por la traición de una mujer. Ahora S. T. Maitland vive exiliado en un castillo francés en ruinas, apartado de todo y de todos. Hace tres años que cerró la puerta a un pasado que, sin embargo, la joven Leigh Strachan quiere hacerle revivir a su pesar. Por ella, que ha perdido todo cuanto amaba y solo piensa en vengarse, tal vez sea capaz de hacerlo. Ambientada en la Francia y la Inglaterra de finales del siglo XVIII, El señor de la medianoche ganó el premio al mejor libro romántico histórico otorgado por la Asociación de Autores de Novela Romántica de Estados Unidos. Con una historia original y atípica, como todas las suyas, Laura Kinsale demuestra una vez más que es una auténtica narradora que consigue sorprendernos en cada uno de sus libros.
Shadowheart
The Raven are caught in the flames of war. Three of the mercenary band are dead, but the survivors will keep the faith and keep their promises. All while one of them struggles with a burgeoning power that could herald a new world--and destroy the old.