Bronwen Evans is a bestselling romance writer from New Zealand best known for the Wicked Wagers and the Disgraced Lords series of novels. She has always loved storytelling and has been reading books and going to the theater and movies ever since she was a little child. One of her favorite subjects as a child was British history, perhaps explaining her penchant for writing historical romances set in the Regency period. She was born and lives in Wellington, New Zealand and is one among five sisters. She attended the Victoria University in Wellington, where she got a degree in Commerce and Administration with a focus on Accounting and Marketing. After working for several years in several financial institutions in New Zealand, she left to go to England for a six-month assignment. She loved it so much in England, and ended up spending several years in London eventually making it the base of her travel and work operations. She lives with Leigh her twin sister, who she asserts is her best critic and her two dogs Duke and Brandy. She spends her days as a high-powered Executive Director of a surgical association charged with the education of general surgeons, and her nights as a writer of romance novels.
Even as Evans grew up loving books and even went on to be a two-time winner of the Romcom Readers Crown, she never thought she would ever become a writer given that she is slightly dyslexic. It was not until she was about 45 years old that she finally buckled down to write her first novel. She took the plunge when a good friend of hers that was very ill made her promise to follow her dreams no matter what it took. After moving back to London, she talked to many of her friends about wanting to kick-start her writing career, but never got started. It was while she was holidaying in Greece that she just knew she had to write romance when she read some Mills and Boons placed on the bed stand in her hotel. On returning to London, she went to the Mills and Boon offices and got the information she needed to start writing her first novel. She would move back to New Zealand in 2005, and with the help of a friend started plotting her novel. She became a member of the Romance Writers of New Zealand the following year and enrolled in several online writing courses. She would fall into the writers’ trap of starting new titles and not finishing them until her fellow writer Nalini Singh of the RWNZ told her that she needed to find time to write, if she was serious with her writing career. Taking a part-time job in 2007, she was determined to be published in two years or go back to formal employment. Her first novel “Invitation to Ruin” was published in 2011.
One of Bronwen Evans favorite subjects while she was in school was history, which perhaps explains why most of her novels are set in the Regency period. While she gets a lot of inspiration from a movie, TV program, or a newspaper, the hypocrisy and naughtiness of the early Regency period have the most influence on her works. The Regency period lends itself to the creation of an alpha character who makes for the strong, tortured, and dark hero in her novels. The hero is typically an outwardly confident man who is hiding a tortured or wounded soul. Over the course of the novel and interaction with the heroine, they grow to become more enthralling emotionally. The heroine serves to help the hero grow into a man to be admired and loved, as he faces his inner demons and fears. The heroines are compassionate, savvy, and bright women that use their smarts to help others. Inspired by Bronwen’s Evans thoughts of how life must have been difficult for women in the sixties, the heroines represent a rebellion against the stifling of a woman’s life of the period. Her heroines realize their freedom by refusing to marry a man who does not love them or to be used as means to an end by their families or the men in their lives.
“Invitation to Ruin” is a dark, sensual tale with unexpected twists full of romance and intrigue. The lead protagonist in the novel is Miss Melissa Goodly, a woman who had only ever desired love out of a marriage. But all such hopes are lost in a night when she finds herself taken in the arms of the most unobtainable and irresistible man in England. To avoid any whiff of scandal when they are found in a compromising though highly pleasant position, she has no choice but to accept the Earl’s proposition. Anthony Crave, the Earl of Wickham has been an avowed bachelor who never dreamed of seducing such an innocent girl as Melissa. Now that he is promised to her, he discovers that she would be a very convenient wife that is so naïve to ever be tempted with the more expressive arts of romance. All such thoughts are banished when he speaks the vows to find that his new bride is just as unbridled and brazen as he is.
“Invitation to Scandal”, the second novel in the Invitation to series is a novel full of secrets, adventure, passion, and danger that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Rheda Kerrich has been the victim of scandalous rumors that threaten to shred her reputation. With the chance at making an honest living in jeopardy, she vows to do all in her power to restore her reputation without needing to get married to do it. However, the times are hard and she is soon tempted to get into the profitable through risky smuggling trade. An agent, who instead of turning her in is more interested in seducing her, soon catches her in the act. She tries to conceal her illicit profession and resist his charms until she realizes that the agent may just be her way of killing two birds with one stone. She can give in to her unbridled passion while attaining the ultimate freedom of continuing with her trade. The Viscount of Strathmore, Rufus Knight has always found it easy to charm the ladies of Kent. But when his investigations into a smuggler as elusive as a shadow leads him to the headstrong and alluring Rhe, her objections to his advances leads to a tantalizing game that just boils his blood even more. Soon they will discover that their secrets, which seem to drive a wedge between them, may yet entangle them in a web of romance they could never hope to escape.
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