Book Extras

SPOILER ALERT: This wonderful piece, written by the reviewer Janga after the publication of the final book in the Falcon Club Series, contains plentiful spoilers.

The Discovery of Self: The Identity Theme in Katharine Ashe’s Falcon Club Series

By Janga

In When a Scot Loves a Lady, the first book in Katharine Ashe’s Falcon Club series, the hero, Leam Blackwood, says to the heroine Kitty Savege at their first meeting, “But things be not always whit thay seem.” That statement, which Kitty understands all too well and later repeats to herself, introduces a theme that is woven through the Falcon Club books, the original trio of novels and the two books in Ashe’s current Devil’s Duke series. Neither Leam nor Kitty is what they seem to be, and this will hold true for the protagonists of the four novels that follow as identities shift and meld and emerge. The theme reaches its richest complexity in The Earl, Ashe’s most recent novel.
Keep reading about Leam, Jinan, Wyn, Constance and Colin →

A few months into living as Joseph Smart, Libby sat down for a confidential interview about her life studying medicine, her childhood, and her feelings about her housemate. Libby has finally allowed that interview to be made public.

Interviewer: When you met Ziyaeddin what was your first impression?

Libby: I met him more than two years ago at Haiknayes Castle, the home of the Duke of Loch Irvine, who is a particular friend of my father and me. I went to the library to retrieve a book and the strange man there teased me. He is a dreadful tease, actually. I tell him not to, yet he teases me anyway. At first it disconcerted me; I prefer direct speech. But I have become accustomed to it and have even learned to tease him, which I think he enjoys.

Interviewer: Were you offended when he told you your idea to dress as a man to study medicine was “absurd?”

Libby: I don’t take offence easily. I thought he was wrong to reject the idea so speedily (and look how well it has turned out, after all—so ha ha!). But mostly I felt desperation. I really had no other choice.

Interviewer: Do you think you as a future surgeon and he as a portrait painter have a lot in common regarding the human body?

Libby: Not particularly. But he does. He insists on it. He is exasperating. And very handsome. And kind. And generous. And unexpectedly fierce at times. But exasperating. It is true that I have come to see that he paints not only what is on the outside of a person, but also what is within that person—pain, longing, fear, joy. He is an exceptionally fine artist. I wonder sometimes why he wishes to paint me. What I am within is entirely on the surface for everybody to see.

Read more of the interview…

In The Duke, Amarantha travels a lot! Here are the most significant stops on her journeys in Scotland, and along Gabriel’s travels as well. This map also includes Loch Lomond, the left bank of which Lady Justice and Peregrine traverse in The Earl.

Many thanks to Mary Brophy Marcus for the fabulous idea and design concept for this map, and to Jenn Zapf of Waxcreative Designs for the gorgeous execution of it.

1) While I was researching When a Scot Loves a Lady, a gorgeous bartender in a cozy pub in Edinburgh taught me how to enjoy whisky. (Scots spell whisky without the “e”, which he also taught me.) Also, the bartender turned out to be a rock and roll guitar player in a band.

Keep reading for facts 2 through 5 →

Wonderful Vanessa Kelly invited me to interview Corinna Mowbray and Ian Chance, the heroine and hero from My Lady, My Lord, for her readers. Corinna thinks it’s a great idea. She hosts a fashionable, elite salon in London, and enjoys conversing on all sorts of subjects. The trouble is, when we suggested it to Ian, he… well… he squared his handsome jaw and headed toward the card room.

Read the interview →