Maisey’s Foray Into Revenge

Written revenge at least! (Am a bit too much of a marshmallow to exact real life revenge. Although, if you ask my younger brother about an incident involving crumbled saltine crackers and his bed sheets, he might prove me a liar…)

Revenge is such a popular premise, in all genres really. It’s a staple of action movies, thrillers, and of course, romance!

One reason it works so well as a driving force is that it’s such a powerful motivation. A wrong, even a perceived wrong, if it cuts deep enough, can spur someone to do things they would never normally do. And as far as romance goes, revenge, anger, is all very passionate. Ehen you bring this sort of dark passion into play, all that intense emotion, when it combines with desire the pages can singe your fingertips!

That said, while it’s something I’ve always gravitated to as a reader, it wasn’t something I’d been inspired by as a writer.

Until a conversation I had over coffee with Lisa Hendrix. We were talking about the American Aristocracy. Of course here we don’t have titles, per se. But there is a class system. It’s not felt very strongly in a lot of parts of the country, but there are places where the origins of your family and how long you’ve been in the country matter quite a bit. Where the age of your money is more important than how much you have.

So I started thinking about class, old money vs new money, the daughter of a First Family and a first generation immigrant with no idea who his father is. And what might happen if the two collided.

From there, Lazaro Marino and Vanessa Pickett came to me pretty fully formed. Vanessa had grown up wealthy, in a huge home in Massachusettes with sprawling grounds and a full staff. Lazaro was the son of one of the housekeepers, and an occasional groundskeeper himself.

They met when they were teenagers and fell for each other, but a man of his background wasn’t allowed to sully the precious Pickett Princess and Vanessa’s father got rid of him as soon as he found out.

Fast forward twelve years and things have changed for both of them. Lazaro wants revenge on the man who destroyed his life, and he also wants in to a society desperate to keep him out. Vanessa is the key to both.

But Vanessa needs something from Lazaro too, and she’s hardly passive in their arrangement. She chooses to go with him every step of the way to try and rescue her family business.

This was also a bit of a reunion story, which was new to me as well. Two people who found each other once, but lost each other. But that meeting, those feelings they had for each other shaped them, even apart, which was something that was so fun to explore.

As an aside, I really enjoyed researching the settings for this book. Boston and Buenos Aires were so fun to write, and very different from each other! (there’s also a scene in this book where Vanessa puts her photography skills to work in a very creative way…)

THE ARGENTINE’S PRICE is available now from Mills and Boon UK.

You can read an excerpt or by the book by clicking on the widget!