The Big Love Letter Event + Giveaway: A.C. Gaughen

It's week three of The Big Love Letter Event, a joint month-long feature hosted by Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and myself, and I hope you guys are having as much fun with these letters as we are. If you haven't yet had the chance, be sure and take a look at the letters from Wendy Higgins, Kasie West and Tiffany Schmidt posted over the past two weeks!

*A note about Danny's letter: She will be posting her letter from the amazing Gena Showalter tomorrow (Saturday, the 22nd), so be sure and check back at Bewitched Bookworms then because you won't want to miss this one!

I'm positively giddy today over the fact that I have author A.C. Gaughen stopping by the blog to share a letter between Rob and Scarlet, two of her extraordinary characters from a series that has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. I read Scarlet last year and I couldn't have loved it more if I tried, I was just in awe of Scarlet's strength and determination, and that love only deepened after reading Lady Thief.

There simply aren't enough positive things I can say about Scarlet herself, she's everything I could ever want in a heroine and I HIGHLY recommend these books to those who have yet to experience them. I'm going to keep this introduction short and sweet because the below letter from Rob truly speaks for itself, and I hope it affects all of you as profoundly as it did me! *starts sobbing*

My Scarlet—

I know the moment when I knew for sure that I loved you. 

It isn’t an easy thing, Scarlet. To know love when your heart is this untrusty object in your chest. My heart went cold and quiet when I was in the war, and I confess I didn’t care much what it had to say. My heart made everything more difficult. 

You, of course, were no exception. I shouldn’t expect anything to ever be easy with you.  My love—my hard-won love. 

It was our first winter together. We’d been living in the tree, and then it got cold, and we found the cave. Then the snow came, and the cave wasn’t warm enough. John never seemed bothered by it—why would he, he’s made in the image of a horse—but you shivered cold every night. You shivered so hard you rattled the hay, and I’d stay awake, listening to the sound, wondering what I was meant to do about it. I tried to leave warm things—cloaks, a blanket—near your pallet but you’d never touch them. I practiced, whispering to the night, what I might say to you—here, take my blanket. Here, you look cold. Or more likely, Just use the damn blanket, Scarlet. And each attempt I made in my mind you pulled away from me, horrified that I knew you were cold, mortified that somehow you’d let it slip that you might need something from anyone, and I stayed quiet, because I wanted anything but you farther away from me.

Which made me feel like a proper idiot, even in my mind.  More than that—a moony idiot. And an unchivalrous idiot, that I had no idea how to help you.  And a guilty idiot, that I’d dragged you all up to Nottinghamshire and never thought of the damn winter snows. 

But one night when the fire went out and the cold had gotten so bad your teeth were chattering, you were quiet as a mouse as you rolled out of bed and took one of your blankets with you. Silent and still like the thief you are you went over to Much—he was so small back then—and you put your blanket on him. 

And I realized he wasn’t just cold—he was so cold he wouldn’t last many more nights. And I got everyone up and took us to the monastery—thinking it would just be for the night—and they took us in for the winter. 

And I stayed up many more nights, waiting for Much to sleep better, waiting for his chest to clear of the cough he’d gotten, and hating myself with every breath. Hating you, because you’d made me blind. You had filled up so much of my heart I couldn’t see him anymore, and I hadn’t seen his suffering.

I know I was mean to you. Cruel at times—those where the times when I hated myself the most, and it was easy to tell my heart that it was only full of darkness, that any feelings it might offer would only bring pain about in the world. I didn’t know how to love you and have it mean something good. 

And now we’re back in the cave. In a few weeks you’ll begin to shiver and I’ll move us to the monastery, and instead of hating myself, I hate that gold band on your finger. I hate the man who put it there. I hate the dreams that haunt me at night, of every pain and betrayal my heart has seen, and I wonder, Scarlet, if I will ever be free to love you without hate in my heart.

I can’t promise you that. I’m too afraid I’d break that promise—but every day when your gaze catches mine and I remember that I’m the one you love, that your pure heart chose my dark one, you give me hope. 

And hope is all I need to live another day. 

- Rob

*sobbing intensifies*

Do you see why you must read this series now? YOU MUST! I think I just died a little inside reading that and knowing I have to wait a full year before I can find out how things end for the two of them.

*leaves to go eat large amounts of chocolate*

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LADY THIEF

Scarlet’s true identity has been revealed, but her future is uncertain. Her forced marriage to Lord Gisbourne threatens Robin and Scarlet’s love, and as the royal court descends upon Nottingham for the appointment of a new Sheriff, the people of Nottingham hope that Prince John will appoint their beloved Robin Hood. But Prince John has different plans for Nottingham that revolve around a fateful secret from Scarlet’s past even she isn’t yet aware of. Forced to participate at court alongside her ruthless husband, Scarlet must bide her time and act the part of a noblewoman—a worthy sacrifice if it means helping Robin’s cause and a chance at a future with the man she loves. With a fresh line of intrigue and as much passion as ever, the next chapter in Scarlet’s tale will have readers talking once again.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

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A.C. GAUGHEN

I’ve been madly in love with writing since I was in kindergarten. Not kidding–some of my earliest memories revolve around books and writing, like reading in front of the class, reading with my mother, and writing a story in first grade that was so funny (it dealt with a gorilla finding someone naked in the shower, and was, sadly, the culmination of my humor writing skills) it got me kicked out of class. Which was also the first and last time for that.
 

No that’s a lie. In third grade I got detention for ripping bark off a tree.
 

I know, I’m a rebel.
 

From there, it was a long road. I wrote all through middle school and starting submitting novels (I hope I still have those very kind, gentle rejection letters somewhere) when I was thirteen. ACK you have no idea how bad those novels looked. All through high school I was writing in a notebook instead of taking class notes (explaining the less than perfect GPA). It was always novels for me–the first time I seriously wrote short stories was at the end of my college career, to get into my graduate program, and it felt awkward and weird.
 

But I got in to grad school, wrote like a fiend, and when I graduated I spent three miserable years as a freelance writer while working on several different novels. I wrote them, prepped them, submitted them, and kept on working, because as far as I can tell, the actual writing is the only thing that I can control, and it’s the part that really makes me happy.

Website • Facebook • Twitter

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GIVEAWAY

Danny and I have an amazing giveaway to share with you all, one that will have 14 winners in total!

• Winners 1 and 2: Each will get a book of their choice from one of the authors featured during the event (open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you!)
• Winner 3 : Signed Copy of Crash Into You by Katie McGarry (open US/CAN only) – Prize is provided by the author – A huge thank you to Katie!
• Winners 4- 14: Sweet Trilogy swag packs from Wendy Higgins (open internationally) - Prize is provided by the author – Thank you so much Wendy!

The giveaway will run until March 7th and you can enter via the Rafflecopter form below!

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Don't forget to check back both here and at Bewitched Bookworms every Friday in February for more letters and a whole lot more love from these fantastic authors:

•      Wendy Higgins (Sweet Reckoning)

•      Katie McGarry (Crash Into You)

•      Kasie West (Split Second)

•      Sara B. Larson (Defy)

•      A.C. Gaughen (Lady Thief)

•      Tiffany Schmidt (Bright Before Sunrise)

•      Gena Showalter (The Queen of Zombie Hearts)

•      Nichole Chase (Recklessly Royal)

•      Lorraine Heath (When the Duke Was Wicked)

•      Lynne Matson (Nil)

•      Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die)