Even though Seattle romance author Marie Tremayne never used her English major to become a teacher as she expected, she never lost her love for reading. As she told Kirkus in a recent interview, after years of reading historical romances, she thought, “What if I were to write a book? It’s so much fun to read it, maybe it’s fun to write it.” Tremayne kicked around a story idea for 10 years before her husband encouraged her to sit down and write what became her first novel. That book, Lady in Waiting, is a 2019 RITA finalist (awarded by the Romance Writers of America) in two categories: best first book and long historical romance. Her new release, Waiting for a Rogue,is the final book in the Reluctant Bride series.

Tremayne knows that the romance and characters are the first priorities for readers, but her goal as a writer is to “include enough history so it immerses the reader.” The world of Victorian romance usually has a tight focus on the small, insular world of the British aristocracy. Titled British noblemen are the stars of the show. Once in a blue moon, an American heiress puts a stuffy English nobleman through his paces. But Waiting for a Rogue is a rarity: Instead, it is an American hero falling in love with an English lady. 

Tremayne’s hero, Jonathan Cartwick, was a boy when his father moved the family to America, tired of the judgment and snobbery aimed at the merchant class in England. Upon a distant relative’s death, Jonathan accepted a title and lands back in England to please his mother. Tremayne credits some of the inspiration for the plot to Lisa Kleypas’ Scandal in Spring (2009), thinking, “What if I did my own spin...with an American and a duke’s daughter?” 

Researching the laws of naturalization and expatriation in the 1840s was a challenge. “It was hard to find out the ins and outs of how that would work,” says Tremayne. “I checked with a historical society, wondering if they had heard of anything like it, and they hadn’t; but they thought if he did [claim the title], he’d have to give up everything in America.”

It is not class but the patriarchy which causes problems for Jonathan’s love interest, Lady Caroline Rowe. After being jilted by a suitor makes her a pariah in polite society, Caroline retreats to the country to care for her beloved aunt. She resents the arrival of “The American” next door. Jonathan and Caroline are thrown into immediate conflict on multiple levels: gender, familial duty, and class. “It’s a conflict of the aristocracy and landed genre,” explains Tremayne. “It’s a hierarchy by birthright, which seems strange to modern readers. But it’s also something that keeps people apart, and that was my fascination with it.”

This is Tremayne’s first time writing enemies-to-lovers, a trope beloved by romance readers, and she was surprised at how much she enjoyed it. “When the conflict is higher and more forbidden, the more animosity there is, they are fighting against that. It is that much more explosive when they realize they are attracted to each other.”

Looking forward to her next series, Tremayne is more comfortable with herself and her writing process. “I am trying to do things that are a little different each time, but I have a handle on my voice. It isn’t such a chore to make it sound the way I want it to.” She is the president of her local RWA chapter and has cultivated an extensive network of author friends. “Writing is incredibly lonely, and that’s something I didn’t realize when I started. It’s fulfilling to be with other people who get me, the frustrations, the elations. It fills the well when I’m around those kindred spirits. It’s refreshing creatively.”

Jennifer Prokop is the Kirkus romance correspondent and co-hosts the romance podcast Fated Mates.