Can't Help Falling in Love...with Heather Snow! (Guest Post + Giveaway)

Please welcome to the blog newly published authoress, Heather Snow!
I am so excited to have her on the blog today to celebrate the release of her new novel, SWEET ENEMY, which will be available from Penguin Publishing in all formats on Feb. 7th!
Until then, you'll have to make due with the delicious sneak peeks laced throughout this thoroughly entertaining guest post she has put together.
Without further adieu:

About Heather:

Heather Snow is a historical romance author with a degree in Chemistry who discovered she much preferred creating chemistry on the page, rather than in the lab. She is forever trying to wrangle her left and right brain to work together (some days with more success than others!), but if her two sides had to duke it out, left would win every time—which can be a creative challenge. Luckily, she loves challenges…she just goes about solving them analytically. 

Heather lives in the Midwest with her husband, two rambunctious boys and one very put upon cat. She sincerely hopes you find her stories have just the right chemistry…

Find Heather Online: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

About the Book:

Buy links at the bottom of post!

Sweet Enemy

A Veiled Seduction Novel 

Book One

"Historical intrigue and heart-pounding passion make Sweet Enemy a great read. Romance fans will love it." 

-#1NYT Bestselling Author JULIE GARWOOD

Geoffrey Wentworth, a war hero and rising political star, never wanted to be the Earl, but when his brother dies, he knows his duty—take up the responsibility for his family’s estates. His mother’s definition of duty differs from his, however, and can be summed up in one word—heirs. When Geoffrey rushes home to answer her urgent summons, he finds himself host to a house full of women, all vying to become the next Countess of Stratford. But his love is Parliament, where he wields his influence and reputation to better the lives of ex-soldiers, until a tempting houseguest and a secret from his past threaten his freedom…and his heart.

Liliana Claremont, a brilliant chemist, doesn’t want to be any man’s wife, much less a Countess. If she had tuppence for every time she’d been told her place was filling the nursery, not experimenting in the laboratory, she could buy the Tower Bridge. However, when she receives a coveted invitation to the Earl’s house party, she trades in her beakers for ball gowns and gladly takes on the guise of husband hunter—for the chance to uncover what the Earl had to do with the murder of her father.

Liliana believes the best way to get the answers she needs is to keep her enemy close, though romance is not part of her formula. But it only takes one kiss to start a reaction she can't control...

The Guest Post:

Can’t Help Falling in Love...

a Guest Post by Heather Snow

### 

 “Is it always like this?” she asked, her voice a breathy sound that stroked him as surely as if she’d touched him. “This . . .” She pressed her lips together and her brows dipped, and Geoffrey knew her innocence struggled to find the words for how she was feeling. “This overwhelming, gnawing ache inside?” She smoothed her palm down her center, settling it low on her stomach.

Geoffrey shook his head. It had never been like this for him before. Ever. “No,” he whispered. “This is something special.”

She gave a slow nod of comprehension, never looking away from him.

She was something special. What she made him feel was something special. Something he’d never before even wanted to feel but now was beginning to suspect he didn’t want to live without.

Geoffrey held her in his lap a moment longer, loath to lose the weight and warmth of her. Then he helped her to rise, to right herself. As they restored their appearances and gathered the horses, Geoffrey’s mind was awhirl, and though it circled quickly, he didn’t doubt what he was thinking. His instincts had proven to be solid over his life, and they were telling him one thing emphatically.

He wanted Liliana as his wife.

Honest, forthright, curious, unconventional, passionate, brilliant Liliana.

But she didn’t want him. Not as a husband, anyway. She just wanted to experiment.

But he could change her mind. She’d given him the perfect opening, just the right ammunition—her nature. If experimentation was the way to a scientist’s heart, he’d oblige her. And every step they took would bind her more and more to him.

Deep in his chest, Geoffrey felt a smile form and expand until it couldn’t be contained. It built, rose in him until it burst forth on his face. He was more and more certain Liliana would be a good wife for him.

How ironic that he was now no different from everyone else here at Somerton Park.

He was planning to trap someone into marriage.

### 

Did you know that men fall in love faster than women? No, really. According to Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist from Rutgers University, it’s true. “Men fall in love faster than women do. Women take longer because they have to create a “memory trail” of their mate’s behaviors. She has to remember what he promised, what he’s done for the partnership, and what he failed to do.” Dr. Fisher’s work on the brain chemistry of love is fascinating, fascinating stuff, equating romantic love to chemical addiction and explaining just what goes on beneath the surface that attracts us to one person but not another, sometimes against our own will.

As a sciency-type myself, I love studies like these. I use them to inform my writing, and hopefully create love stories that feel authentic when you read them. I also have a laugh at my poor clueless heroes and heroines, who can’t possibly even know that they don’t stand a chance against the powerful biological forces of attraction, lust and love.

Take poor Liliana, for example. She emphatically does not want to fall in love with Geoffrey. The man is her enemy. She’s pretty certain someone in his family killed her father, and fully expects that even if Geoffrey doesn’t know anything about it, once he finds out, he’ll do what he must to protect his own. And yet, she can’t seem to stay away from him. Subconsciously, she is drawn to him and once she gives in, even just a little, she’s trapped. Geoffrey has her nailed (literally) when he decides to use her natural curiosity and experimental nature to bind her to him, first with kisses and then with more.

You see, though she couldn’t possibly have known this in Regency times, if Liliana truly didn’t want to fall for Geoffrey, she never should have let him touch her. Human touch, particularly in women, releases a hormone called oxytocin into our bodies. When combined with estrogen, oxytocin creates a desire to be penetrated…and we all know what that leads to ;). Unfortunately for Liliana (or fortunately, in my opinion!), orgasm causes oxytocin levels to spike three to five times higher than normal, bonding her further to Geoffrey in the bliss called afterglow. So, every time they kiss, every time they touch, every time they make love, her hormone levels rise, making her want him more and more, despite her better judgment, in a lovely, delicious cycle.

Sure, this makes for great internal conflict for our heroine, but how does this great sex lead to everlasting love? Well, oxytocin is also known as “the cuddle hormone.” It’s the same that is flooded through a new mother’s body to bond her to her newborn. It creates feelings of strong attachment and satisfaction that, combined with the other hormones that flow through our brains during the early stages of lust, can push us over the threshold to love. Dr. Fisher says, “Having sex can trigger love—probably because after orgasm, there’s a peak in dopamine activity. So watch out if you casually bed down with someone—you might unintentionally fall for them.”

You didn’t know we romance novelists were so scientifically accurate when we wrote love stories, did you?

And yes, Liliana does eventually fall for the handsome earl, not just because of her hormones and the fabulous sex. Though that doesn’t hurt , it’s only a small part of Geoffrey and Liliana’s love story. I hope you enjoy my tale of two enemies who discover, against all odds, that their happily-ever-afters lie together. 

Sweet Enemy hits the shelves on February 7th, wherever books are sold. However, I’d be happy to give away an advanced copy of Sweet Enemy to a random commenter today. Have you ever found yourself 

ridiculously attracted to someone and you couldn’t explain why? I’ll go first… When my eldest son was a 

toddler, I carried a torch for Murray, the Red Wiggle. (Don’t ask me. I don’t understand it myself…) 

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Sweet Enemy is available for Pre-Order right now wherever books are sold and will available widely on February 7, 2012.

Pre-order Sweet Enemy today! 

Rainy Day Books (Heather’s local Indie) 

Amazon (Kindle Edition) | Amazon (Paperback Edition)

Books-A-Million 

Barnes and Noble | Indiebound

~*~GIVEAWAY~*~

Heather has generously offered to give away an advanced copy of her novel, SWEET ENEMY, to one (1) lucky commenter! All you have to do is comment below answering her question and fill out the rafflecopter form below. Giveaway ends 2/3 !

a Rafflecopter giveaway