Those who know me know I may be a romantic but one wouldn’t know it from my writing. Other writers make romance the THING. Case in point, American Book Festival finalist for Historical Romance, Lizzie Jenks.
Lizzie, who are ya and what’s your story?
I am a multi-award-winning author of historical romance by night, and a historian by day. Needless to say, those two callings weave together delightfully. In grad school, I never paid much mind to any historians who poo-poo-ed historical fiction authors or re-enactors. Historians tend to be focused on how all the pieces fit together to create the big picture, but histfic authors and re-enactors are often much more attuned to the tiny details that bring the era to life. And believe me, I have been grilling re-enactors to get the details right for my current series.
How else are you going to learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly of running through the woods during a sticky summer heatwave in a wool breechcloth? That is NOT something they teach you in grad school!
What is the book about?
Passion’s Duty is the first book in a series about a group of New Yorkers from the Mohawk Valley during the French and Indian War. This first story belongs to James Carroll, a barely literate former indentured servant from Ireland, working for William Johnson, and Faith Richmond, the daughter of an English colonel, and expected to marry her father’s lieutenant in order to further her family’s fortunes. They are helping Johnson’s preparations during his grand conference with the Iroquois and get caught up in French raids before they can even join the army proper for the first Crown Point campaign. And it is a steamy romance, so they fall in love and into each other’s arms along the way.
What is it about that time period or character that appealed to you? What are the roots of the story?
This period has always been a favorite of mine because it is so much richer and more complex than we all learned in high school. As I was brainstorming the story, I attended an open-house at the home William Johnson lived in during the war. The museum caretaker let me go up into the attic of the house, even though it wasn’t technically open that day. As he was showing me around, and telling me about what was stored up there, and how it was defended—two-pounders on swivels in the attic, facing the river—I looked up at a rather unsteady ladder and envisioned myself falling off it (because I am a klutz), and I suddenly had my inciting incident and was off to the races.
What is your favorite scene in the book?
So many favorites! Here is one that is early enough not to contain any spoilers. James is on patrol with his best friend and encounters Faith and her father in the woods, so the couple first meets at gunpoint. Once they have sorted out that they are all on the same side in the coming war, her father becomes belatedly concerned for Faith’s safety and asks James to escort them back to the road and their hired carriage. In the process of doing so, they encounter some uniquely North American wildlife. The Richmonds can’t understand why James and his friend are so very intent on avoiding it when they learn it isn’t likely to injure them.
Where can we learn more about you and your book(s) Goodreads, Amazon links, twitter, Facebook, website etc.
You can find me at LizzieJenks.com, on Amazon, and on Goodreads. I am also on Instagram and Facebook, but I am an absentminded professor, so I forget to check my notifications for months at a time. The best way to get in touch is via my website and my Readers’ List. And if you join my Readers’ List, you will receive a $0.00 copy of Passion’s Return, which is an award-winning six-chapter story that is part of this same French and Indian War series. And at roughly 30 pages, it is a smaller commitment to try out a new-to-you author. I hope you enjoy it!
Check out The Deserter- a Tale of the Foreign Legion. “Wayne Turmel’s The Deserter manages to feel both old fashioned and strikingly original. While it possesses qualities of the adventure tales of old—whether that be those of daring from Scott and Cooper or stoical Hemingwayesque figures or most directly P.C. Wren of Beau Geste fame with even a bit of T.E. Lawrence. “– Michael Harnett, author, Windmill Bluff
It’s an American Book Festival 2026 Winner for Best Adventure/Historical Novel!
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