Trish: Please tell us three random things we might not know about you.

Tamera:—I may look relatively "sweet" (or so people tell me) but I'm really quite sarcastic. I have to watch that at times. It's gotten me in deep trouble more than once.

—I love cemeteries.

—Since a very young age, I've held a fascination with death and the world to come.

Trish: Please tell us a bit more about the plot of A Beauty So Rare.

Tamera: Eleanor Braddock—plain, practical, no stunning Southern beauty—knows she will never marry. But with a dying soldier's last whisper, she believes her life can still have meaning and determines to find his widow.

Impoverished and struggling to care for her ailing father, Eleanor arrives at Belmont Mansion, home of her aunt, Adelicia Acklen, the richest woman in America—and possibly the most demanding, as well. Adelicia insists on finding her niece a husband, but a simple act of kindness leads Eleanor down a far different path—building a home for destitute widows and fatherless children from the Civil War. While Eleanor knows her own heart, she also knows her aunt will never approve of this endeavor.

Archduke Marcus Gottfried has come to Nashville from Austria in search of a life he determines, instead of one determined for him. Hiding his royal heritage, Marcus longs to combine his passion for nature with his expertise in architecture, but his plans to incorporate natural beauty into the design of the widows' and children's home run contrary to Eleanor's wishes. As work on the home draws them closer together, Marcus and Eleanor find common ground—and a love neither of them expects.

But Marcus is not the man Adelicia has chosen for Eleanor, and even if he were, someone who knows his secrets is about to reveal them all.

Trish: Why will readers care about Eleanor?

Tamera: Eleanor Braddock is an "every woman." The most relatable heroine I've ever written, I think. As the back cover says, she's plain, practical, no stunning Southern beauty, and yet she does have a beauty about her. It's simply not one that's readily visible. You have to see her with your heart. I love that about her. I also love her compassionate heart—that's tenacious in pursuing her dream but which can be downright vicious when confronted with injustice.

Trish: If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your lead roles?

Tamera: The pictures I submitted to my publisher to provide inspiration for the cover was Cate Blanchett for the heroine, sans makeup, a picture from one of her more "raw" films.

And for the hero, Richard Armitage. Enough said!

Trish: What fictional character would you like to meet or know in real life?

Tamera: Hadassah from Francine Rivers' Mark of the Lion series. She's the most unforgettable fictional character I've ever met. I mean…read.

Trish: What is the last novel you read that you would recommend?

Tamera: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I read it while on a trip to Germany last fall, visiting concentration camps, Hitler's headquarters, walking that horrid, gut-wrenching road, and the book came alive within me. A little too much at times. I've read several of Picoult's novels and this by far is my personal favorite.

Trish: What are you working on now?

Tamera: The second of three novels in the Belle Meade Plantation series, set against the real history of the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, TN. The first book in the series, To Whisper Her Name, explores the struggles of real people of the post-war South and the journeys of a man and a woman scarred by betrayal. I adore Southern history.