People often ask me where I came up with the idea for THE HUSBAND TRAP, the first book in the Trap Trilogy. Although I can’t remember all the details now, I do recall hearing about a pair of real-life twin brothers who thought it would be great fun to switch places for a day and trick their wives. Their plan worked splendidly — for a while. Once they got caught . . . well, their wives made sure they never wanted to try it again!

As tidbits of trivia and the like often do, this one started percolating in my brain. Before I realized it, I had the makings for a story.

Given my love of history, and Regency period England in particular, it was only natural that my imagination would take that kernel of an idea and spin and twist it around until I had something completely new.

What if, I asked myself?

What if it was look-alike twin sisters who traded places instead of brothers? What if the sisters lived in the Regency era? What if the twins have opposite personalities — one vivacious and socially outgoing (Jeannette) while her twin (Violet) is shy and bookish. To add more to the mix, Violet happens to be head over ears in love with Adrian Winter, the handsome, powerful Duke of Raeburn, the man her sister is engaged to marry. And the best what-if of all — what if Jeannette gets cold feet and backs out of the wedding at the last moment, convincing Violet to secretly switch identities and marry the duke in her place!

Even with this idea, the trilogy wasn’t yet born, that happened after the manuscript for THE HUSBAND TRAP was written. Once my agent and my acquiring editor read the story, both of them asked me if I would consider writing two more — one book for twin sister, Jeannette, and a third for stand-out secondary character Lord Christopher “Kit” Winter, Adrian’s younger brother. I thought about possible stories for these two strong characters and quickly came up with the plots for their books. Suddenly my first sale multiplied from one book to three and I found myself contracted to write a trilogy!

In the second story of the trilogy, spoiled hellion twin sister Jeannette obviously has to pay for her part in the switching deception and what better place to be exiled than the dull Irish countryside — purgatory for a London socialite like Jeannette! Have her meet a devilish Irishman who appears to be a commoner but isn’t, and you have premise for the rollicking game of wits and passion played in THE WIFE TRAP.

In THE WEDDING TRAP, the final book in the trilogy, carefree, debonair rake Kit Winter finds himself needing to step out from behind the shadow of his dynamic older brother. When Violet convinces Kit to help transform her wallflower friend, Eliza Hammond, into a Society belle, he doubts such a miracle can be performed. But as Eliza emerges from her cocoon and turns into a beautiful butterfly, Kit finds himself wanting to trap her in his net and keep her forever his own.

Another important aspect of putting together a trilogy is the titles. Originally, Violet and Adrian’s book was titled WINTERLEA, after Adrian’s palatial ducal estate. But my agent thought the title needed some jazzing up. So we put our heads together and started brainstorming. After several unsuccessful suggestions, my agent mentioned the quintessential twin switching story – The Parent Trap. Suddenly inspiration flashed. With “Trap” as the central linking word, we came up with titles that seemed to perfectly express the trilogy’s overarching themes of love and marriage. We presented them to my editor and she was thrilled!

As a new author, getting the opportunity to write a trilogy and have all three books released back-to-back has been, and continues to be, absolutely phenomenal. My agent, editor and publisher are simply wonderful and I’m very grateful for all their help and support! I loved writing these books and I’ve loved watching my trilogy blossom from initial concept to finished novels. I hope you’ll love these books too!

Join the discussion for a chance to win an autographed set of all three books in the Trap Trilogy — THE HUSBAND TRAP, THE WIFE TRAP and THE WEDDING TRAP. Five other readers will win Trap Trilogy bookmarks and magnets! And don’t forget to visit my website to enter my contest for another chance to win the Trap Trilogy!

Now let’s chat!