We’re thrilled to be joined on our blog by True Love author, Susan Meier. Susan writes uplifting romances that celebrate the rush and intensity of falling in love and today she shares her writing inspiration behind her new trilogy, Scandal at the Palace.

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With a widowed king and two handsome princes, how could there not be a scandal in the palace?

Royalty intrigues me. When I started His Majesty’s Forbidden Fling, I intended for it to be a standalone book. But a widowed king who’d been in a marriage arranged specifically to produce an heir, had to have children, at least a son. So I gave him two kids.

With his heirs set and loyal to the wife who’d been an excellent queen, King Jozef doesn’t want another woman in his life. Especially not the woman sent to the palace to clean up his reputation. Rowan is beautiful and sexy in a way that attracts him when he knows better than to pursue her. For heaven’s sake, she’s only a few years older than his kids—but that actually adds even more heat to the forbidden romance.

Even as he’s trying to prove to his subjects that he’s still a strong king, Josef’s discipline and self-control desert him. But isn’t that what a good romance is all about? The surprise and longing of real love. I had a great time writing that story.

But what about those kids?

I thought about Josef having a son and a daughter, but as I wrote that didn’t seem right. That was when Axel was created and when I met the rebel prince I knew this had to be a series.

Axel wasn’t the stand-around-and-look-royal kind of kid. He was always in trouble and his brother, Liam, the heir, always seemed to be cleaning up his messes even as he was just a tad jealous of his brother’s freedom.

All three of these royals needed to decide who they really were. What constituted a temptation to avoid and what was actually part of their destiny. All three of them faced circumstances that tested them and forced them to make the kinds of decisions that might not play well in the tabloids. All three of them had to stand up for what they knew was right—even if their subjects gasped every once in a while.

But who wants a paper royal? I know I’d rather see a king strong enough to be his own person. I like a rebel who figures out that even bad boys have a place. I could happily root for the heir who was human enough to rescue his princess even if that meant he couldn’t have her.

Liam, the last of the royal family to find love, genuinely believed he’d had the love of his life, but being forced to do things out of his comfort zone might just show him that what he’d thought was love wasn’t even close. Because real love doesn’t merely test a person’s strength and beliefs…It changes a person.

The question was…Could Liam change enough to make room in his heart for the kind of bride who forced him to be strong, loyal and have the type of courage only truly great people have?

Demi was about to show him that love—real love—was worth the price.

I loved the stories of the royals of Prosperita, a big island in the Mediterranean that seemed perfect—until you looked a little deeper and saw no palace is without its scandals.

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Start reading Susan’s Scandal at the Palace trilogy here.

By Lauren Gardiner