Sweet Surrender won first place in the Historical category of San Diego RWA's Spring Into Romance contest! The complete list of winners and finalists is here; congratulations to the other Historical finalists: Mayo M. Lucas, Anna Cowan, and Linda Gilman. Agent Laura Bradford judged the category and she reps some authors I really love (Jenn Bennett, Anne Calhoun, Megan Hart...), so getting props from her felt really good.
She sent back some really lovely comments with my entry - especially this: "I didn't know what to make of the 1st glimpse of the hero...he felt incredibly menacing at first but I found him wonderfully compelling after we discover he is the Earl, not a ruffian....At first I thought I might not like this...it was very startling. Then I decided I really loved it. Nice job!"
The shift from "menacing" to "compelling" is pretty much exactly what I'm going for with the opening to Sweet Surrender (which, yes, seriously needs a new title...), so I'm glad it's working as intended.