I have a problem that I’d like you to help me solve. I need a title for the second book in my Reformed Rakes Series (Yes, I recently decided it needed a name as my next series has one). The current title of my second book is THE GAUNTLET. I have a terrible fondness for this title. It just fits the plot of the book. However, THE GAUNTLET is not the least romantic sounding or sexy is it? Well that’s what I’m looking for, something that’s fits either of those categories and of course fits the book.
I decided to have some fun with this title naming exercise. I’m going to give you the blurb for Book 2 and an excerpt, and from that hopefully someone, anyone, will be able to come up with a title I can take to my editor. The person who supplies me with that title will win a current release (max retail $7.99). Now if we end up using the title, you’ll also receive a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate and of course, a copy of the book when it comes out next year. So is everyone game? Perfect, let’s begin with the blurb.
~*~*~
Thomas Armstrong vows only the loss of his faculties could ever convince him to take Amelia Bertram under his care during her father’s absence from England. Sadly, that loss does occur… the moment Lady Amelia publicly states that rumors of his exalted sexual prowess are more fable than fact. Responding like any man with an ounce of pride would, he picks up the gauntlet she throws down on the ballroom floor.
When Amelia’s last failed elopement attempt has her sharing a roof with the very man who took her place in her father’s affections, she is determined to escape her prison to marry a man of her choosing. But, what she discovers in the seclusion of the viscount’s country estate is the ton’s ‘golden Greek god’ is more than the sum of rumor and innuendo, and under their mutual acrimony rages a fire not even a deluge from the Thames can extinguish.
But letting go of the past is difficult. Can Thomas and Amelia bury old jealousies and grievances for the promise of a love powerful enough to surmount his pride and crumble the walls surrounding her heart?
~*~*~
As you can see, my hero and heroine have that whole oil and water thing going for them. Now let’s look at one of their, er, um, exchanges. In this scene Amelia has been summoned by her father to his study. It’s clear she should take more care opening doors. And perhaps, Thomas, our hero, should watch how closely he stands to said doors.
Upon reaching the study, she blithely thrust open the door, only to make jarring contact with a body standing on the other side.
She heard the thwack and a low masculine grunt—the sound a mixture of surprise and pain. Instinctively, she took a quick step back, her hand still clutching the knob. Lord, what was her father doing—
Before she could complete the thought, Lord Armstrong’s imposing form stepped into view, tapered fingers rubbing a spot near his right temple. He observed her through narrowed eyes, apple green and ponderously lashed, pinning her with the type of look meant solely to make a person squirm.
Squirming was not in her nature, but her heart performed an odd lurch and her pulse quickened at the sight of her father’s protégé. She was once again unsettled to discover that with each meeting, the golden-haired viscount could elicit such a response in her. But then—her gaze swept the length of his body—he did exude an elegance and raw masculinity she grudgingly conceded might appeal to a less discerning woman—which thankfully, she was not.
“Pardon me.” Amelia kept her tone level and polite. Easing the door open wide enough to allow for the sheer volume of two layers of stiff petticoats beneath her pink, flounced skirt, she entered the room. She immediately blinked against the glare of the sun pouring through large paned windows dominating the eastward facing walls.
She caught the clean, subtle whiff of bergamot and rosemary. His scent. She’d recognize it blindfolded and spun around. How she’d grown to thoroughly dislike that scent. She loathed the man whom she’d forever associate with it even more. Inhaling a breath deep and slow, she took up a spot on the area rug, a comfortable distance from both men.
“I didn’t expect someone would place themselves so near a closed door,” she added in case he’d misconstrued her statement as an apology.
Her father’s face seized up as if in the midst of an apoplexy. Lord Armstrong’s mouth flattened, his regard narrowing to a squint. Amelia returned his stare placidly. He could stare—or glare, as it were—at her all he wanted. She didn’t give a whit, ignoring her heart knocking a frantic beat beneath her breastbone.
“It is also customary to knock before opening a closed door,” came the viscount’s glib reply.
“Might I remind you, my lord, it is I who resides in this house.” The gall of the man, trying to chastise her. Who told him he should situate himself thus? Hinges on doors were not meant as frivolous ornaments; they did have a purpose.
“Amelia is regrettably sorry,” her father hastily interjected.~~~
Like hell she is. The bloody woman had probably parked herself outside waiting for the opportunity to bash his head in. Thomas wouldn’t put anything past her.
Tamping down his growing irritation, he replied smoothly, “Yes, Harry, I am quite certain she is.”
“I hope I’m not preventing you from leaving. You were on your way out, were you not?” she asked in dulcet tones, a smile curving her lips.
If it had been any other woman, Thomas could have envisioned many other uses for such a mouth; plump lips the deep pink of a man’s erotic dreams. And if one were dealing purely in aesthetics, who could fail to appreciate the dark-haired beauty’s jaw-dropping figure shown to its best advantage in a gown the exact sapphire blue of her eyes, the fitted corsage allowing for the glorious display of creamy skin. But as stunning as she was, he wouldn’t have her if she begged him. Not that he would mind the begging part. That he would enjoy most heartily if only to have the pleasure of refusing her.
“Er…Thomas, thank you for calling. I expect I shall see you again before my departure.”
Thomas issued Harry a curt nod. “Yes, I expect you will.” He returned his attention to her. “And as always, Lady Amelia, it was a pleasure,” he said, managing to remain quite straight-faced, for surely Judas could not have told a grander lie.
For a brief moment, something sparked in her blue eyes, breathing life into the flawless, glacial beauty of her countenance and hinting at a slumbering fire. If he gave a damn—which he most assuredly did not—it’d give him cold satisfaction to see her icy hauteur reduced to a puddle on the floor.
So what do you think? What is the perfect title for this book?
Hi Beverly,
Titles are tough but here are my attempts:
Dare to Desire
Amelia’s Dare
Risky Rivals
Dare to Surrender
Sinful Dare
A Lesson For Amelia
Passionate Enemies
Dare to Love
Force of Passion
H i Beverly !
Great idea for a contest. This new book sounds perfect (love those oil-and-water couples).
Now here are my ideas, depending on what kind of title you prefer (funny, related to the previous book…):
– Tempting Rivalry
– Love at First Dare
– Don’t Ever Mess With a Viscount
– Daring to Surrender
Thanks for the fun 😉
I think you can keep the idea of the gauntlet in there. You just need a minor tweak.
Casting Down the Gauntlet
At least to me, it captures the idea of a challenge, which evokes a sexy, adversarial sort of relationship.
I’ll give it a shot, though I actually love the title The Gauntlet. 🙂
Desire’s Defiance
Passion’s Promise
Love at Twenty Paces
Dueling Hearts
Like Oil and Water
Let the Games Begin
Have a great day, everyone! 🙂
Why not simply: Love’s Gauntlet?
The minute I read the first paragraph, the first title to pop into mind was ‘The Dare’.
Here are some others:
Feuding Hearts
A Clash of Hearts
Willful Hearts
Daring Hearts
I don’t know what’s with me and ‘hearts’, lol!
Sounds like a great book, can’t wait to read it!
I too like The Gauntlet
Arduous Aversion
Ardor and Aversion
Devotional Differences
Dangerous Desires
Games of Love and Hate
Ravishing Rivalry
Temptation’s Triumph
Defy the Devil
The Seducer’s Spoils
Conquest by Seduction
Take Not My Heart
Lord Armstrong’s Challenge
The Lord’s Challenge
The Lord’s Sinful Challenge
Sinful Challenge
Sorry, I missed yesturday with Chloe Harris. Sigh, I was busy at work.
Sinful Demand
The Lord’s Demand
hmm this is difficult…
Taming of a Lady
Loves Rivalry
Challenging the Viscount
War of Love
you gals came up with some good ones! good luck bev
Hmmm this is hard! I loved The Gauntlet
Champions Challenge
Surrender of Desire
Sword of Hearts
Desires Challenge
Sword of Surrender
Raptures Rivalry
Best of luck!!
Lynette, you still have time to enter for Chloe’s. I do one drawing a week on Fridays. 🙂
I’m really digging some of these titles, ladies.
While I like The Gauntlet, it seems to hint at medieval romance rather than a later period. My offering:
Dare Anything for Love
Love’s Sweet Challenge
Daring to Love
Never Dare a Viscount
Lady Throws the Gauntlet
The Lady’s Challenge
Taming the Lady
The Lady & the Rogue
A Rogue by Any Name
Good luck with the book & the naming.
Hi Bev,
Interesting challenge.
Since gauntlet means glove why not: “The Gloves of Romance”.
Both Amelia and Thomas clearly don’t like each other at first. The one thing you put on when you don’t want to touch or feel something you don’t like is gloves. In this case, these gloves that they are wearing leads to romance between the characters. Therefore “The gloves of romance”. ^^
Some other suggestions:
The Gloves of Love (basically the same thing, but throwing in the word love).
Cupid (greek god reference ~o^) wears a gauntlet
Here are my puny attempts. 🙂
THE LADY’S GAUNTLET
PASSIONATE COMBAT
CHALLENGE AND DESIRE
HEARTS THAT CHALLENGE
THE LOVELY GAUNTLET
THE LOVELY CHALLENGE
A SEDUCTIVE GAUNTLET
LOVING MY ENEMY
DARING TO DESIRE
Oh, there are some really, really good ones here.
How about
A Rake’s Surrender
How about: Passion’s Pride
The Pride and the Passion
I’m going to play off of some of Brynna’s ideas, i love the Love at Twenty Paces but it sounds too Western, in fact Brynn, if Bev doesn’t want it. . .:) But any way what if Dueling Hearts was changed to Dueling Desire? I suppose you could
Pistols and Rapiers
Pistols at Dawn
Meet Me At Dawn
I have a couple of suggestions:
Passion’s Pride
The Pride and The Passion
I am just getting warmed up though, I may be back with more.
Wow, there are some awesome titles here!
I really like THE GAUNTLET, though.
I’m not much good at this, but…
The Gauntlet of Passion
Passion’s Challenge
Challenging the Viscount
My thoughts…
The sum of a Viscount’s parts
Pleasure’s Gauntlet
Never Discount a Viscount
The Melting of Amelia
For Love of a Golden Greek God
For Love of a Viscount
Love’s Golden Gauntlet
I need to ask about her gown. The skirts are pink in the first paragraph yet the gown is described as sapphire blue in the second. Am I missing something?
As for title. Dare Me.
@Gwynlyn Great catch. I’d screwed that up before and I see I did it again. Thank goodness I’ve only started the revisions. 😀
hmmm..let’s see, how about:
Tempted
Seduction’s Secret
The Viscount’s Temptation
Touch Of Seduction
Seduction’s Touch
At The Viscount’s Pleasure
Pursuit Of Pleasure
After thinking about this, I didn’t realize how difficult it actually is to name a book. 😉
Love’s Golden Defiance
Passion’s Prideful Gauntlet
The Gauntlet of Desire
I also like the word Gauntlet in there, evokes an image of a medieval glove being thrown down between them, a challenge, a fight. It brings so much to the table, it would be too bad if you had to leave that word behind!!
The Taming of Amelia
Beloved Enemy
The Viscount and the Shrew
Seducing the Enemy
Seduction at Dawn
I like Gauntlet, but your right it is not at all sexy.
Tempting Surrender
A Rake’s Desire
For the life of me I can’t remember how Amelia was described in Sinful Surrender upon her first meeting with Thomas, and the scene is so memorable! I am going to have to search the book for it and see what I can come up with.
LOL, Renee. Feel free. 🙂
Titles are definitely not easy – here’s my stab at it:
Pride’s Surrender
The Promise of Love
Using my psychic abilities……The Love War, Opposites Do Attract, or Love at Ten Paces.
Glad someone else caught the pink/blue dress thing. I was instantly reminded of Sleeping Beauty, where the dress kept changing color as the fairies argued! LOL!
Titles? Too bad you can’t keep Gauntlet, because I do love it. OK, here goes:
To Dare a Duke (I know. He’s a Viscount. I just liked this!)
Tempting Thomas
Dare Anything
Love’s Challenge
The Velvet Challenge
Defying Love
Never, Darling
Good luck choosing something. There are some great title suggestions here!
Fighting Destiny
I like THE GAUNTLET.
DUEL FOR LOVE
LOVE’S DUEL
DUEL FOR SATISFACTION
THE VISCOUNT AND THE CONTENTIOUS LADY
Good luck with the book.
You have some good choices 🙂
The one I kept going back to is a play on All’s Fair in Love and War, especially since you like The Gauntlet so much, but I would take out the War, so…. how about
All’s Fair in Love and Ballrooms
Dueling with the Debutante
If I think of anything else I’ll be back
Surrender ,
How about The Gauntlet, The Challenge and The Ordeal…..or maybe just add his/her names to the titles along with them???
it seems most things have been taken lol Hi Bev!! Been busy lately, but here’s my suggestion:
– Daring Sin
or
– Daring Desire
unfortunately that’s all my creative juices can come up with at this point in time XD
Bouncing of my very sore and brain exhausted sister (LOL it’s true, ask her), since we DID do the same senior level english and literature classes together:
– Tempting Sin or
– Tasting Temptation
or something completely different:
– All or Nothing
– Claiming Amelia (or The Claiming of Amelia)
– The Temptation of Thomas
-Dueling Desire
Hope they at least help.
Oooh titles. I always leave them for last.
Challenging the Viscount
Heated Hearts
Clashing Hearts
Rules of Engagement
Contesting Love
Take Me On
Defiance
Resisting Love
Clashing Wills
I do believe I’ve exhausted my brain. xD I hope these were helpful!
Surrender to Seduction
Spark of Passion
My Beloved Enemy
Her Vexing Viscount
How about:
A Duel with the Viscount
The Duel
Surrender to the Master
Seducing the Vixen
Passion’s Duel
Seduction’s Challenge
My Dearest Enemy
Midnight Challenge
Midnight Gauntlet
master of seduction
duel hearts
duel seduction
gaunlet of seduction
gaunlet of love
viscount of seduciton
seduciton of teh viscount
heart o f teh viscount
seduction in the larid
heart of desire
gaunlet of desire
taming amelia
seduciton of amelia
Dear Beverley,
How about one of these titles:
“A Lady’s Guide To Scandal”
“When Scandal Becomes You”
“When Scandal Becomes A Lady”
“Leave Seduction To A Viscount”
“The Viscount Tames The Lady”
“The Viscount Tames His Lady”
“Gamble of Love”
“The Wager”
Beverly,
As I finished “Sinful Surrender” thsi morning!!! My mind was whirling over what your next story would be and which characters you would cast… I can’t wait to read Thomas and Amelia’s story. As for titles I really like “The Gauntlet”, so what about…
Gauntlet of Surrender
Surrendering the Gauntlet
The Lady’s Gauntlet
Melissa
Hi Beverly
I have thought of some titles. I am french, so some of them may not be correct in english. So sorry in advance 🙂
Amelia’s glove
In his strong arms (Thomas Armstrong 🙂 )
Gauntlet and Silk Glove (and or against)
Gauntlet and Velvet Glove
Run the gauntlet of love
Running the gauntlet
Caring for Amelia
Fiery Pride
Fire, Water and Love
Firing ice (the fire and water thing between them)
In the lord’s arms
And I too had that ” In Love and war…” quote
There. Thank you for sharing your books with us.
Amelia/She Throws/Throwing Her Gauntlet
He Picks/Picking Up Her Gauntlet
Ach, I’m terrible at this–no imagination. But it certainly sounds like an interesting story.