by Lynne Graham, author of Jewel in his Crown (Harlequin Presents, November 2011)
When I was creating the characters for Jewel in his Crown I wanted a book which took a different angle to my previous desert romances. I dreamt up an ordinary heroine placed in extraordinary circumstances when she discovers that she’s a princess and heir to the throne of her late father’s country. It gives my heroine much more room and reason to grow in the course of the book.
This is the story of Ruby and Raja’s arranged marriage and it’s more serious than my usual plots because their marriage was laid down as part of the peace agreement between their respective warring countries and the first step in their unification.
While Raja has been raised to do his duty, Ruby has to find out how her devastated birth country has suffered before she can contemplate giving up her freedom. Colourful outspoken Ruby explodes into Raja’s conservative existence like a hurricane and challenges everything he knows. Raja is honourable and serious and in need of Ruby’s lively spirit to lighten him up a little. Put in a situation where she has to depend on him, Ruby is resentful and fiery while Raja, to his surprise, enjoys being protective. As he learns to abandon the rules by which he has always lived and treat her as a wife, seeking her happiness before his own, cynical Ruby is impressed against her will even while she worries that she has been seduced to order to ensure the survival of their marriage. Does love really matter, she asks herself, feeling that she’s greedy to want more.
When she learns that she was not the only victim in their marriage and that Raja felt equally trapped by the need to marry a stranger, she is devastated that she had never looked at the situtaion from his point of view before.
More than anything else, I was keen to make Jewel in his Crown a traditional love story with a warm heart at the centre of it. When Raja reflects that his only experience in pleasing women is to give them diamonds and flowers, he is acknowledging how empty his past affairs have been and I hope my readers are as pleased as I was when he demonstrates that he has a much more impressive repertoire to draw on when it really matters.
Lynne, this sounds wonderful and yes, a completely different slant to to discover unexpectedly that you are a Princess. Wow. What a slam to the psyche!
I like the fact that Raja is prepared to change for the woman he loves and that Ruby learns to look at a situation from his perspective.
This story sounds rich and many layered – but then, your stories always are!
Hi Lynn, I really enjoyed the novel and I reviewed it for RT.
Deb
Sharon, sometimes you really need that extra pop of creativity to write. And my heroes always have to change from the selfish creatures they are at the start of the story!
Glad you liked the book, Debbie
Hi Lynne,
Looking forward to another great read from you! Love the character growth- so essential in an emotionally gripping story.
Gosh, I wish someone would tell me I am a long lost princess. That’s the ultimate fantasy!
Love this and all Lyn books…I loved the fact that lost princess had backbone and had a big enough heart to fall in love with a child who needed I love books that include children thoughts an welfare.
Thank you for the kind comments, Melanie and Vickey. I think we all have a long lost poriness fantasy in childhood and that’s what fired my imagination. And i love putting children in books.