Q&A with Eloisa James

 

 

 

Eloisa James is the author of the new novel Hardly a Gentleman, the second in her Accidental Brides series. She is a professor of English literature, and she lives in New York.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Hardly a Gentleman, and how did you create your characters Clara and Caelan?

 

A: My husband and I traveled to Scotland and (naturally) checked out a lot of castles that a) were adorable b) were small and c) looked hard to clean. I thought it would be great fun to create a lady who was pretending to be a housekeeper and would need to tackle not just the mess, but a laird who preferred fishing naked in a stream to clothing or cleaning.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between them?

 

A: My daughter Anna—my harshest critic!—told me that she didn’t want to leave the castle when the book was over because Caelan and Clara’s banter was so funny, sexy and heartwarming. This isn’t a book where the characters go from enemies to lovers: from the moment Caelan sees Clara, he wants to marry her. (She doesn’t agree!)

 

Q: The Booklist review of the novel says, “James cleverly constructs another whimsically witty addition to her superbly entertaining Accidental Brides series.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I like it! Writing books in a series is not easy: you have to draw in new readers while satisfying readers of the previous novel. I was thrilled by that review.

Q: You are also an English literature professor, and in addition to writing under the name Eloisa James, you wrote a novel as Mary Bly. Is your writing process different depending on which genre you're involved with?

 

A: No matter what I’m writing, I also progress in 25-minute writing sprints. It’s just the right amount of time to concentrate, and before you know it, they pile up and you have a manuscript!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: The sequel to Hardly a Gentleman is The Last Lady B, which will be published in the spring of 2026.  The novel is also set in Scotland, and already up for preorder!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I just finished a contemporary love story (my first set in the present was Lizzie and Dante). It’s with editors right now, and hopefully a publishing house will love it as much as I do. It’s about a Shakespeare professor and her dad, an aged rock star—plus (of course) a grumpy British solicitor.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Eloisa James (as Mary Bly).