In times of old, sea-faring men labeled the unexplored regions on their maps with the words “Here be giants and monsters.” Book One of THE HIGHLAND HEIRESSES–HEIRESS OF SCANDAL–is populated with it’s own giants, both benevolent and villainous.

The story puts a Celtic twist on the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  I gave the story’s heroine, Cara MacKinnon, seven benevolent human ‘Giants’, the MacKinven brothers, to serve as friends and clansmen — and occasional comic relief. A tragic reversal of fortune compels Cara, our first HIGHLAND HEIRESS and one mere woman, to take up the role of would-be laird for her father’s seaside Highland estate. Who better than a bunch of brawn men in kilts to stand as allies at her back?

But make no mistake; even in Regency-era Scotland, Cara counts herself any man’s equal. She means to prove it, but must draw on every bit of wit and will to hold the remnants of her clan together through difficult times. The legend of a true Scottish giant, Benandonner, sets the back-drop for a deadly mystery and, too, reveals a surprising clue to a threat that’s slowly entangling up Dunamor Castle, her family’s ancestral home.

In the end, it’s not just myths or monsters that Cara must contend with. The devil comes to Dunamor in the guise of one stunning, arrogant English lord. The sea spills Lord Nicholas Weston onto Cara’s shore and into her life, and leads her to a place as frightening yet compelling as any quest into a giant’s uncharted lands.

But then, when it comes to any journey of the heart, the warning here be giants or monsters … or devils is nothing to dissuade the truest soul.

Like any writer, I’m often asked where I get the inspiration for my stories. Sir Frank Dicksee’s painting, The Mirror, spun off a world of possibilities in my head.

Is the woman in the painting admiring her face in the mirror? Or have we caught her in a moment of deeper soul searching?

What do you see?

Book Two, HEIRESS OF SEDUCTION, is a Beauty and the Beast tale of love and retribution in the Regency-era Highlands. Christiane MacKinnon, our heroine and the second of the HIGHLAND HEIRESSES, is considered an incomparable beauty, but she’s never put much store in such things. She’s no woman to sit around looking in a mirror. Suitor after suitor has pursued her, never peering deeper than her face and rumored wealth. She’s damn well grown tired of the attention. For all that, Regency-era conventions reach even to the Highlands when you’re the daughter of a laird. Christiane sees little recourse but to marry. She has no illusions she’ll find a love match.

Enter Kendrick MacLaren, the earl of Calechcraig, a man like no other she’s met. He has a way of looking at her as if to pierce beneath her skin. Christiane begins to unlock the truths of his guarded past. She finds wounds she hadn’t imagined — physical wounds and scars deeper still — and a sensuous spiral of passion that he initiates, then seems hell-bent to end as soon as desire becomes a two way seduction. In such a moment, any woman might seek out a mirror to show her what’s locked in her heart. . . as surely as she could hope it might reveal what’s locked in his.

~ Jenna