Gayle Feyrer – Heart of Deception

Today, author Gayle Feyrer is guesting. She’s talking about her latest release Heart of Deception, a historical romance. Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

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Gayle’s Favourite Sub-Genre Romance and Book Recommendations:

My favorite sub-genre of romance is m/m. As a child in the 50s, I grew up on bromances. They always seemed to have the most compelling relationships. There was the classic Greek model of the older mentor and the younger acolyte (several westerns did this, and some scifi), or the traveling companions out on the road for adventure. Women just didn’t have as much fun back then. Nowadays there are great action heroines, but I always kept my love of the m/m relationships.

I wrote a lot of m/m fanfiction long before m/m became a common romance genre, one you could prowl through on Amazon looking for your favorite tropes. I wrote it when it was undercover, sold in brown paper wrappers, and writers were in terror of being outed to their family and/or their community.

Star Trek fans came up with the virgule mark / that you see everywhere. Kirk/Spock usually meant an intense friendship story. K/S meant they were lovers. Sherlock and Watson predate Kirk and Spock but K/S was the first big TV driven slash fandom. Now there is both gen and adult fanfiction for just about every TV show ever, in all sexual permutations. The virgule is also known as a slash, and erotic couplings in fanfiction were slashfic.

And tropes—all the ones you see in the genre. For example, every single fandom I read had the turn the characters into elves trope. Except for Supernatural, interestingly enough. I never read about elves in that fandome, though there must be a story there somewhere. Instead they always did angels—even before angels became a theme of the show. Once, a fan writer overdosed on the trope had The Professionals characters forced to dress up as elves in an undercover Xmas operation.

In all genres my taste runs dark and dramatic. I prefer wit to outright comedy, though I value books that can make me laugh. I have many beloved m/m romances. Here are three:

The Society of Gentlemen trilogy by K.J. Charles is my favorite historical m/m romance. I love the way the three novels interweave. The first, A Fashionable Indulgence, is very much a classic regency but with murder and politics. A Seditious Affair is my favorite because Silas Mason is one of my top ten characters ever in any genre. He’s not the sexiest of the characters in the series for me – I tend to prefer elegant and witty with a dose of sarcasm like Julius Norreys of A Fashionable Indulgence and, even more so, the flame-haired David Cyprian of A Gentleman’s Position. But Silas the all-embracing anarchist is a brilliant creation and I adore him. A Seditious Affair also delves more deeply into the history of the Peterloo Riot that is the main political backdrops creating a clash in the social levels of the characters. And to top it off, the characters discuss Frankenstein (I love Mary Shelley’s novel!) and William Blake. The plot of the final book, A Gentleman’s Position, focuses on saving the Society of Gentlemen from exposure, and very sexy Cyprian gets to show off all his skills.

Another great favorite is Harper Fox’s duo A Midwinter Prince/The Lost Prince. This is a wonderfully romantic pair of novels pairs a beleaguered rich boy with a homeless Gypsy lad. It’s very Romeo and Romeo, poetic but also a complex thriller. Rich boy Laurie is a promising actor, and Gypsy Sasha is on the run from villainous, terrorist father. In Seditious Affair I got art and literature, here I got Shakespeare with a side of faux Twilight.

And then there’s The Seven of Spades series, five high octane thrillers with a serial killer trying to recruit his favorite cop. Main characters are homicide detective Levi Abrams and bounty hunter Dominic Russo, who becomes a private eye. Great main and supporting characters—the women characters are strong and interesting, dynamic action, lots of steamy sex. Over the top in a fun, very cinematic way.

I also always recommend Mary Renault’s Greek novels, highly romantic but not romances. The Last of the Wine and her Alexander books have m/m themes. I also praise the book that really brought gay into the mainstream, Patricia Nell Warren’s The Front Runner. One of the great almosts was Paul Newman considering playing Harlan. Too many death threats, I guess.

When I started writing historical romance, I put my love of m/m on the back burner and concentrated on developing strong female heroines. I usually added a sympathetic or sometimes a villainous gay secondary character. Years later I turned to historical mystery. The third book of my Paris Trilogy has a romance with two bisexual men who fall in love. There is a lot of kinky gay sex. It was supposed to be a sub-plot in Bitter Draughts, which deals with many forms of prejudice and I thought I could sneak in the sexual relationship. But the book got too long and now their story is the third volume. Rather risky for a historical, but I love my odd couple poet and crime lord. A Harmony of Hells will be a love story of Paris, with murders…

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Title: Heart of Deception
Series: N/A
Author: Gayle Feyrer
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: 397 pages
Release Date: May 3, 2023

Blurb: Intrigue and treachery stalk the grimy streets and the royal courts of Elizabethan England. Returning from war, Rafe Fletcher finds his family accused of conspiring to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on her throne. His only hope to save them lies in infiltrating the criminal underworld of nefarious siblings Nick and Vivian Swift.

Rafe discovers it’s Viv who is the mastermind of the duo. Bold, clever and ruthless, Viv is also loyal and fiercely passionate. Rafe fights the intense magnetism that pulls him ever closer to destruction. But desire defies every warning he gives himself and they begin a blazing affair–until murder and betrayal severs their newly formed trust. Restoring that trust may be the only way Rafe can save the Queen, his own family, and the woman he’s come to love.

Their adventure takes them from the fledgling theatres of Shakespeare’s London to the desperate corridors of Bedlam, from the deadly backstreets of the Clink to the glittering court of Queen Elizabeth. It is a world of dark secrets and darker intrigues. Will the fire of their passion burn bright enough to incinerate the lies, and illuminate the truth?

Goodreads | Amazon

“I am always hunting.” Smiling dangerously, Viv stepped to face him. “And I always catch my quarry.”

Rafe stood utterly still. “I’m sure you’re a most skillful huntress.”

Her eyes scanned him from head to foot, then lifted to meet his own, glinting with challenge. Laying one hand on his chest, she rubbed slowly against the nap of his doublet. “Soft as fur.”

Her touch was both caress and threat. Rafe’s heartbeat quickened beneath her hand, but he held her gaze steadily.

“Yes. You do look splendid in my livery.” Her fingertip skimmed the collar, her nail grazing lightly along his throat. Then she stepped back. Her voice was low, but every word was hard and distinct. “Now—take it off.”

Rafe drew a sharp breath. Lust and mutiny clashed in his nerves, stringing every lineament taut. He didn’t move. She read the tension in his body and laughed softly, mocking him, knowing that her aggression disconcerted him. He glared defiance.

“Take off your clothes.” Her voice was low, as menacing as it was enticing. Her eyes calculated his opposition. Only a flicker of laughter in their depths leavened her brazen tyranny.

Rafe wondered if his resistance made him more compelling. Was it that few resisted, or she preferred those that did? He did not think she wanted subservience, but neither did he know how much mastery she would accept.

Her voice softened to a seductive whisper. “Take them off … I want to see all of you.”

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Gayle Feyrer began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and writing when she was twelve. She holds a Bachelor’s in Pictorial Arts from UCLA, and a MFA from the University of Oregon in Creative Writing. In her varied career, she has been a tie dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and finally, novelist. A Libra with Scorpio Rising, Gayle’s romantic nature takes on a darker edge. She hopes these shadows bring depth to her romances.

A world traveler, Gayle has visited Paris, England and Italy numerous times. She lived for two years in Jakarta, Indonesia, with many trips around Asia. She currently resides across the bridge from San Francisco, with her husband and their two rescue cats, Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Bronte sisters, half Siamese and half tabby.

Follow Gayle: Tygerbright Press | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

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