Dare to Surrender (35 page)

From the desk of Laurel McKee

Dear Reader,

When I found out I had just a few days to come up with something for The Dish, I froze! There were just so many things I
could
write about that I couldn’t decide. Should I talk about the rich history of late eighteenth-century Ireland? The beautiful
Georgian architecture of Dublin? The gorgeous fashions? Irish music? The inspirations behind the characters? Or maybe a cautionary
tale of my one attempt at Irish step dancing (there were head injuries—that’s all I will say about that!).

I confessed my dilemma to my mom, who suggested we throw an Irish party with lots of Irish food and some Chieftains CDs, and
then I could write about it (though there would be no dancing).

“Great!” I said. A party is always good. “But what are some Irish recipes?”

“Er—there’s your grandmother’s soda bread recipe,” she said after some thought. “And, um, I don’t know. Something with potatoes?
Fish and chips? Blood pudding?”

“And Guinness,” my brother added. “Every Irish party needs Guinness. And maybe Jameson.”

I happily agreed. Fish and chips, soda bread, Guinness, Irish music, and you have a party! Blood pudding, though, can stay
off the menu.

It was lots of fun to have what we called a “halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” party. I just wish my characters, the Blacknall
sisters and their handsome heroes, could have joined us. And if you’d like to try the soda bread recipe (which is supereasy—even
I, officially the “Worst Cook in the World,” can make it), here it is:

4 cups flour

1½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

2 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a round pan. Mix the ingredients thoroughly before kneading into a ball.

Cut a cross in the top, and bake for 50–60 minutes.

Serve with fresh butter and a Guinness!

And for some background on the history and characters of COUNTESS OF SCANDAL and the Daughters of Erin series, be sure to
visit my Web site at
http://laurelmckee.net
.

Enjoy!

From the desk of Lilli Feisty

Dear Reader,

For those of you who have read my previous book,
Bound to Please
, you may have noticed I have a bit of a thing for music and musicians. My latest novel, DARE TO SURRENDER, is not about a
musician, but it’s still related to music. It’s about a woman whose emotional release is to dance. She won’t dance in public;
she’s much too shy for that. But she dances by herself. A lot.

And it’s not just any sort of dancing; she prefers to belly dance. She’s quite good at it, better than she thinks. In fact,
Joy is better at a lot of things than she gives herself credit for, and it was great fun helping her realize that. Because
don’t we all have our hang-ups? And working our way through them can be quite an exhilarating release.

If you read DARE TO SURRENDER, I’ll tell you right now that there are a lot of similarities between the heroine, Joy Montgomery,
and myself. She’s a redhead. She’s not necessarily comfortable with her curvy figure. She’s totally disorganized. Her handbag
is the size of a small suitcase.

There’s more. She works in an art gallery—I owned one. She’s very spontaneous, to the point of getting herself in crazy binds
because of it. I do that. A lot. She drives an old Mercedes. So do I.

So you can see we have a lot it common. Except the dancing in public thing. To put it simply, I love to dance. Am I any good
at it? Probably not. But I simply can’t help myself. If I’m out, and I hear a good beat, I’m lured to the dance floor. In
fact, I tend to dance at any opportunity, however inappropriate. It was quite pathetic, but just the other day, I was reprimanded
at the grocery store for doing the Wang Chung in the frozen food aisle.

However, let me tell you, belly dancing is not as easy as it looks. To be good, you have to be able to move separate parts
of your body at varying speeds and rhythms. For some people (me), it’s not easy. But that’s irrelevant—it’s fun, and once
you let yourself go, it really doesn’t matter how good you are. You feel the music take over your body and you want to shimmy.
To undulate. To dance! I think belly dance is one of the sexiest, most feminine, mesmerizing forms of dance there is.

Some people assume belly dance was created for the sole purpose of entertaining men. In fact, this is not true. It was invented
by women, for women. I think that’s why it’s such a sexy form of dance. When you belly dance, you’re celebrating being a female.
You use your hips, your arms, your waist. And, of course, your belly. And you don’t need to worry if your belly is a bit round
because it’s about having fun and using your body to express yourself. And let’s not forget the costumes. Belly dancing costumes
are pretty darn gorgeous.

So this is Joy’s hobby. And it’s mine too. The only difference is that Joy is too shy to do so in public so she only practices
in her own bedroom. (Also Joy is way better at it.) Of course, when she meets Ash Hunter, he slowly begins to chip away at
Joy’s inhibitions. But does he get her to dance in public?

Well, I won’t give away the ending. But I will say, by the end of their story, Joy is ready to take the dare to surrender
everything, even if it means embracing every facet of her femininity.

I hope you enjoy their story.

XXOO,