Isadora: A Duke's Obsession #author DG Rampton

 Isadora: A Duke's Obsession (Book Series)

Isadora's Story. In the 2nd instalment of the Taming of the Dukes series from bestselling humorous historical romance author DG Rampton, London's ballrooms are left behind for a sweeping adventure across the high seas.


Beautiful, clever, and rich, Miss Isadora Jones was the reigning belle of London society until a spurned suitor’s lies turned her from "Incomparable" to "Ineligible" overnight. With her reputation hanging by a thread and the ton whispering behind their fans, her parents pack her off to India.

Much to her delight!

But freedom comes with a catch ... a rather large, annoyingly attractive one.

And soon, Isadora finds herself under the obsessively watchful eye of a brooding war hero (and secret Duke), who always seems to be on hand to extract her from the calamities that come her way with regrettable frequency.

Through a series of adventures – and a fake marriage she never realised was fake! – Isadora discovers that her greatest challenge isn't a stalking tiger, a storm at sea, or an Ottoman slave trader. It’s the infuriating man tasked with keeping her safe, and his refusal to admit his feelings for her.

To connect with DG Rampton ...
https://dgrampton.com/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/DG-Rampton/author 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good morning, DG Rampton. Welcome back to Yellow Shelf.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hi, Joe. I'm so happy to be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

I'm so happy to have you back. Book number two. Last time we spoke about book number one. Book number two is out. Congratulations. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Book number two of the second series. It's actually book number six that I've written. That's insane. I know. It's incredible. I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Tell us about the tell us about the book. Tell us all about it. What do we need to know?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

So, book two of the Taming of the Duke series is um it's a Regency sort of historical romance. Um and normally Regency romances are set in England, specifically around the London season. But uh this time I wanted to go somewhere a bit more exotic. So because Daphne from book one, um, Isidora's sister travels to India. Book two, which is called Isidora, um, Isidora goes to visit her sister in India. And I got to really enjoy the adventure of um, you know, say the sailing trip, for example. I had to do research on that, and I read the diaries of this English woman who traveled around the same time, about 1820. Um, and I just discovered a whole new world, and I wanted to put that into the book, and so everyone could enjoy the adventure. So we had the two journey, we have um in India in Calcutta, what it was like at the time. And and then they do they travel up to the kingdom of Sakim, which like I didn't know I was gonna write about that when I started, but I just it's such a beautiful, exotic place, that whole area. I just wanted them to travel out of India and explore a little bit. So we ended up in um basically the foothills of the Himalayas. Um, and so yeah, look, I just had so much fun writing this book because of the adventure and the romance.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

And humorous, historical, you said romance, which can often be slow burn.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Yeah, well, this is very much a slow burn because the poor hero, um, he's been pining away for this girl pretty much for years. He's like uh he's assigned as a bodyguard to her because um she's at risk for various reasons, which you'll find out. But um yeah, so he's been around her for years and uh has to pretend like not to have anything to do with her, not to care about her. So I sort of enjoyed that slow bird. It's always got um, you know, that pining that happens in Twilight. Yes, it was that it was that sort of thing I was trying to capture where you know it's yeah, it's a journey, it's a journey uh historically and physically.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Um, and something you mentioned, you the research that you do for this book, uh all these books and these series, fascinating. Like that must be a journey for you as as the author to kind of dive into historical, you know, visualizing, you know, transpiring it into your work. Uh, what's that like? Do you want to share us a bit about the experience? And that's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Oh, look, it's so much fun. Like when I uh I do a uh historical regency set in England, I sort of know quite a lot about the period already. Just look, I'm a Jane Oster and Georgette Hayer reader, so I'm very much immersed in the period. But um, it's still fun just to find out little facts along the way. But taking it out of England was a whole new experience for me. And I was a little bit daunted at the beginning. I was like, okay, this is not my my comfort zone. Um, but I I so enjoyed it, like the way that they used to live, you know, the way they traveled by ship to such massively exotic places, but such massively long distances. They traveled for like five, six months at a time.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Um, and I had no idea what life on board ship was like. So this is where the diaries of this woman came in, like they were so useful. They were amazing.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and tell us about the series. Is there going to be a third book? Does the series move on? Like, what's in store as an author? You know, I'd love, I'd love to keep having you back on, but what's what's in store for the future?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

So um, so my first series was three books, and this series is also going to be three books. So it's three sisters, basically, this one. Um, so it's good to read it in order because they feature in all three books, and it's a sort of it's a progression through the years. Um, so my next book is going to be Emmeline, the youngest sister. Um, and yeah, I have a lot of little interesting things for her. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Well, I mean away in my head at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yes, it's yes, it's there. Well, you know, I'm gonna want you back because you've obviously shared uh initially with book one with Yellow Shelf, Daphne, which I'll put a link into the interview because it's it's good to go back and watch for anyone who's curious. Um do you want to tell us um a bit about you outside of like being an author and a researcher? What do we need to know about you?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um, so I'm not sure whether I told you this last time, but I used to work in the corporate world. I've got a screen. Yeah, I'm interested in background, and and so I had quite a serious job. So it was very much a departure um following my passion. But I think when you've got kids, you've got to slow down anyway. Um, so it just fit perfectly with my life once I had my daughter and and I could dedicate some time to you know doing something I've always loved doing, but I I never took it seriously.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

So once I sat down and had the time to think of myself as an author, it slowly I mean it didn't happen overnight. You do feel a bit like um you just don't feel like you deserve called an author because you didn't study it. Um, and it took me years actually to feel probably around book three. I started thinking, yeah, okay, okay, I'm an author. I've sold, you know, 20,000 books or whatever. I'm definitely an author. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's it's it's a journey and everyone's different. But I found it quite difficult in the beginning to think of myself in that way.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah, and I remember in our first interview, you talking about yeah, the corporate world. And you know, I'm a huge fan because I am from the corporate world as well. I've had a career. It's okay to be corporate and creative, and I think the more people advocate for that, that yeah, you don't have to be defined by your previous, you know, career or whatever. And and as you said, you know, it was a time in your life where it was right and you persisted at the craft. Um, and yeah, well done. I I know there's gonna be heaps more to come, so this is great. This is great.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Oh, thank you. I actually see it as um a lifelong career being an author. Uh, you don't have to stop at 65, you know, you keep going.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

I know, right? I interviewed a 90-year-old author last year.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Did you?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

A 90-year-old. I'll send you the link because I've recorded it. And uh they were a first-time author. Insane.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yes, magical. So, yes, there's plenty of plenty of time, plenty more writing. That's it. DG Rampton, if we're watching anywhere in the world, if we're curious about you, if we're curious about the book series, the previous book series, if we're into historical romance, or we need to get into it, point us in the direction of like the website, Instagram. Where do you want us to go to learn more?

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Oh, okay. So my website is really easy, dgrampton.com. And I'm also on Instagram, I'm on Twitter recently, although I'm still I'm new to it, so I'm not very good. Um, what else am I on? Facebook. Oh, yeah. But basically, if you type in DG Rampton, I'm all the usual um socials. Yeah, yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Well, I'll put some links into the show notes to make it easy for anyone to connect with you and your work. Thank you so much for joining me in 2026. I know you're gonna be back, you're gonna keep coming back. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

27. 27, I'm back.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Locked in. All the best. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Bye.