Guest post written by Look Before You Leap author Virginia Heath
When Virginia Heath was a little girl, it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Now her Regency rom-coms (including the Wild Warriners and Merriwell Sisters series) are published in many languages across the globe. Thirty-two books and four Romantic Novel of the Year Award nominations later, it still takes her forever to fall asleep.
About Look Before You Leap (out June 24th 2025): In this hilarious second installment of a Regency romance series, a single lord is forced to settle down…and when a houseparty brings a happy-go-lucky lady’s companion his way, his grumpy heart is unexpectedly warmed.
I’m a sucker for an old Hollywood musical.
I also might have used the odd one as book inspiration too. That all started way back in the earliest stages of my writing career when Seven Brides for Seven Brothers heavily influenced my first ever series—The Wild Warriners way back in 2017. There’s a distinct flavor of My Fair Lady in Never Fall For Your Fiancée, which was my first release with St Martin’s Press in 2021 and last year, All’s Fair in Love and War (the 1st of my new Miss Prentice’s Protégées series) had undeniable Sound of Music vibes. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to hear that my latest release, Look Before You Leap, was born out of my intense love for Doris Day’s iconic portrayal of Calamity Jane.
Frankly, throwing Calamity Jane into the upright, uptight and very proper world of Regency England, with all its etiquette rules and suffocating restrictions, was just too tempting an idea not to pursue. It’s also ripe with endless possibilities for what I call Romcom shenanigans. Those perfect situations and circumstances where you can create funny chaos to make your readers chuckle.
And what’s not to like about a heroine who climbs a tree better than she embroiders? Who prefers billiards with the boys to blending into the woodwork like a proper servant should and cannot seem to curb the desire to gallop astride a horse in breeches whenever an opportunity arises? Lottie Travers was an absolute joy to write because, as the title suggests, she also has a reckless tendency to look before she leaps and prefers to put of worrying about the consequences of her actions until tomorrow. I love her sunny seize-the-day-and-grab-it-by-the-horns mentality—even if it does get her into constant trouble. Especially when she is expected to maintain the highest levels of decorum and behavior as a lady’s companion to the crochety, aristocratic and impossible to please doyenne of polite society Lady Frinton.
Lottie hits the poor hero like a wrecking ball from the first time they meet and knocks the wind out of his sails—both figuratively and literally from the outset. I won’t spoil their not-so-cute meetcute by telling you all about it here, except to say that it involves a stolen stallion, a tempestuous Arabian, a mad gallop across Hyde Park at dawn and a whip!
Grumpy, staid, semi-reclusive and burned-by-love viscount Guy has never met anyone like her and when fate throws them together again a few weeks later when Lottie turns up at his house with his aunt, as the old adage says, opposites really do attract. With whopping clanking bells on! The crackling chemistry between them is instant even if their unlikely romance isn’t.
And, because I am basically quite an evil author when it concerns my lead characters, I figured what better way to torture a man who avoids both romantic entanglements and society like the plague than to fling him headfirst into a situation he would absolutely hate? Give him a meddling, matchmaking mother desperate for grandchildren, toss in her incorrigible battle-axe of a sister and her unlikely whip-wielding companion that he cannot stop thinking about, then throw him a surprise 30th birthday house party that lasts for 5 whole days. A house party filled with an annoying gaggle of desperate husband-hunting debutantes who are all utterly determined to be his wife. Debutantes who are not averse to stooping to all sorts of antics to catch his eye—or catch him in a compromising position.
You’ll have to read Look Before You Leap to find out if my ray of sunshine heroine and angry, storm cloud hero manage to outwit all those debutantes to find their happily ever after together. But I can promise you plenty of Romcom shenanigans, plenty of heat and one of the best last lines that I think I have ever written.
And don’t worry if you haven’t read the 1st book in my Miss Prentice’s Protégées series yet as this story, like all of my stories, can be read as a standalone. It’s also simultaneously release in paperback, eBook and audio book formats on the 24th June, so however you like to consume your books, we’ve got you covered!
