6.01.2007

Tessa Radley - Rich Man's Revenge


When Passion And Danger Collide

When I started writing RICH MAN'S REVENGE, my June 2007 release from Silhouette Desire, I wrote it for myself. I often find that the seeds of an idea come from the book that goes before. The manuscript I had completed before I started writing Rich Man's Revenge had been a romantic suspense. 90 000 words. Complicated. Exhausting. I wanted to write something short, intense, with lots of spark between the hero and heroine…but I wanted that edginess that a hint of danger brings to passion. And I wanted to write a revenge story…I've always loved reading Harlequin Presents novels with a revenge plot…so my hero, Rico D'Alessio had to be an Italian. No one does revenge better than a gorgeous Italian hero.

Danielle Sinclair is a bit of a modern day fairy princess. I drew a little on fairy tale mythology. Rapunzel in her tower perhaps. Even Sleeping Beauty a little. Danielle is a good girl. She's been given everything she's ever wanted in life…except freedom. She's as trapped as the ancient fairytale princesses. Rico D'Alessio lies on the other side of the scale. He's worldly, powerful, a widower…and a man who returns with a mission. Revenge. That's what he wants more than anything in the world.

Because of what happened to him at the hands of the Sinclair family Rico became an exile. He roamed the world and set up a successful business as a kidnap retrieval expert. He's dark and more than a little damaged by the time he comes back into Danielle's world, a dark angel of death and dishonor. His arrival is well-timed, because Danielle is in danger. His solution? A marriage of convenience. But Danielle is no passive, perfect princess…she makes choices which are sometimes flawed and have consequences that both she and Rico have to face.

While RICH MAN'S REVENGE is not a romantic suspense—there's no space for a complex suspense plot in such a short book, but the backdrop against which they fall in love is a world full of bodyguards and threats, double cross and betrayals…and a fake wedding. I had such a blast writing it. And I was so sorry to let these characters go that I think my next proposal to my editor may have to be a story linked to RICH MAN'S REVENGE.



Tessa Radley's debut Silhouette Desire BLACK WIDOW BRIDE hit the shelves in March this year, and her second book is a June 2007 release. She loves the magic of creating characters who fall in love…despite the odds stacked against them.