Love, Honour, and Temptation: A Valentine’s Interview with Vanda Vadas

With Valentine’s Day celebrating love won against the odds, I was keen to speak with Vanda Vadas about The Scoundrel Scot and the powerful romance at its centre. Set against the fierce beauty of the Scottish Highlands, Lachlan and Helene’s story is shaped by honour, restraint, and secrets that make every step towards love a risk. In this interview, Vanda reflects on the cost of trust, the appeal of an honour-bound hero, and why the most compelling romances are those in which love must be earned before it can be fully claimed.

Mary Anne: Valentine’s Day celebrates love won against the odds. What makes Lachlan and Helene’s romance especially hard-fought?

Vanda: Lachlan and Helene are each bound by obligations that directly oppose love. Lachlan’s sense of honour, shaped by past mistakes, makes him determined never to surrender his heart again, while Helene arrives carrying a dangerous deception borne of desperation. Their romance is hard-fought because every step toward one another carries real consequences, emotionally and morally. Readers who enjoy romances where love is earned through difficult choices will find their journey especially rewarding.

Mary Anne: Lachlan is sworn to protect Helene’s virtue while fighting his own desire. How does restraint become an expression of love in this story?

Vanda: For Lachlan, restraint is love. He believes protecting Helene, even from himself, is the only honourable path, regardless of how deeply he desires her. Each moment he chooses her safety and reputation over his own wants becomes a quiet declaration of devotion. Readers who appreciate honour-bound heroes and simmering tension will recognise restraint here as one of the most romantic gestures of all.

Mary Anne: Helene’s mission begins in deception but grows into something deeper. At what moment does love truly begin to outweigh duty for her?

Vanda: Love begins to outweigh duty for Helene when she realises that Lachlan’s honour is unwavering, and that he would sacrifice his own happiness to protect her. In that moment, her mission no longer feels justified. What once seemed necessary begins to feel cruel.

Mary Anne: Temptation plays a powerful role in the novel. How did you balance sensual tension with emotional intimacy?

Vanda: I wanted the sensual tension to arise naturally from emotional closeness rather than physical opportunity alone. Forced proximity brings Lachlan and Helene together, but it’s their shared vulnerabilities and unspoken longing that fuel the heat. The Scoundrel Scot is for readers who love a slow-burn historical romance, and they’ll find that the emotional intimacy makes every moment of temptation far more satisfying.

Mary Anne: Lachlan believes himself unworthy of love because of his past. How important was self-forgiveness to his romantic journey?

Vanda: Lachlan’s belief that he is unworthy of love is rooted in betrayal. He is convinced that surrendering his heart is both foolish and dangerous. His vow never to love again becomes a form of self-protection, but also a quiet punishment he inflicts upon himself. Self-forgiveness is essential to his journey, because loving Helene requires him to release the guilt he carries from the past wound. Lachlan’s struggle to forgive himself is at the very heart of his redemption, and what makes his eventual surrender so deeply satisfying.

Mary Anne: Valentine romances often hinge on trust. What does it take for Helene and Lachlan to risk trusting one another completely?

Vanda: For Lachlan, trust means risking the kind of heartbreak he has already survived once, and vowed never to endure again. For Helene, is means confessing a deception that could cost her everything. Complete trust only becomes possible when both choose honesty over self-preservation.

Mary Anne: The Highlands are fierce, beautiful, and unforgiving. How does the setting mirror the intensity of falling in love?

Vanda: The Scottish Highlands provide a backdrop that mirrors the romance perfectly: wild, breathtaking, and demanding respect. Love in The Scoundrel Scot unfolds much the same way. Readers who delight in richly textured historical settings will find the landscape inseparable from the emotional intensity of Lachlan and Helene’s journey.

Mary Anne: Both characters carry wounds from betrayal. What does the story suggest about love’s power to heal—or reopen—those wounds?

Vanda: Love in The Scoundrel Scot does not bypass pain, but rather demands that old wounds be faced head-on. Lachlan’s past betrayal makes loving again terrifying, while Helene’s deception risks reopening that wound entirely. Yet the story suggests that love’s true healing power lies in honesty and forgiveness. It’s the willingness to risk pain that allows something stronger to grow in its place.

Mary Anne: If Lachlan were to plan a Valentine’s gesture worthy of Helene, what do you imagine it would look like?

Lachlan would favour meaning over spectacle. His gesture would be private and sincere, perhaps a quiet ride through his lands or a promise spoken plainly and kept faithfully. 

Mary Anne: At its heart, is The Scoundrel Scot more a story about earning love, or about daring to believe you deserve it?

At its heart, the story is about daring to believe you deserve love. Both Lachlan and Helene begin by believing love must be paid for through sacrifice. Their journey challenges that belief, offering historical romance readers a deeply hopeful reminder that love, once chosen, can be freely given, and bravely accepted.

My thanks to Vanda Vadas for sharing her insights into The Scoundrel Scot and the richly emotional journey of Lachlan and Helene. Her reflections on honour, restraint, and the courage it takes to risk love offer a fitting reminder this Valentine’s season that the most enduring romances are those forged through difficult choices and hard-won trust.

✔️ A sweeping Highland romance perfect for Valentine’s Day

✔️ A guarded Scottish laird with a rake’s reputation

✔️ A spirited heroine caught between duty and desire

✔️ Slow-burn attraction with emotional depth

✔️ Secrets, honour, and love tested by betrayal

Check out the blurb:

In the Highlands, love is forged in fire—and
bound by home.

Her agenda is deception. His vow is protection. However, fate has other plans.

Lachlan MacLanoch is a Scottish laird with a rake's reputation, yet his past has left him embittered, untrusting of women, and unwilling to marry. When an English aristocratic lass arrives at his Highland estate, he is pledged to protect her virtue—at all costs. But the spirited and beautiful Sassenach is so very, very tempting…

To atone for one sin, Lady Helene Beckett is forced to commit another. She undertakes to dupe and seduce the Laird of Drumocher Castle as part of a desperate mission to save her young sister's life. Complications arise when the laird's honourable code of conduct proves impenetrable—and her feelings begin to soften towards him.

Outside forces conspire against them—meddling families, secret wagers—forcing Lachlan and Helene to rethink their long-held beliefs. Will it be enough to mend hearts broken by betrayal, heal souls scarred by secrets, and discover a love brave enough to forgive?

The Scoundrel Scot is available now in ebook and paperback. If you’re ready to escape to the Highlands and lose yourself in a story of passion, honour, and hard-won love, you can pick up your copy HERE. 💕

Born in Papua New Guinea and raised under the canopy of the rainforest, I found my first love in the stories hidden within the ancient stones of England’s Warwick Castle. My childhood adventures across the globe—from the bluebell woods of England to the traditional parades in Canada—ignited a passion for history and storytelling that has never faded.

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