Poll: What is Your Favorite Wedding Trope?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Amy in marriage of convenience

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Pssst, I’ll let you readers in on a little secret — I am writing this poll post from the past (May 1) because I’m not in the Harlequin HQ office right now but for a great reason. As of two weeks ago, I am a married woman! I’m actually off on my honeymoon right now :)

Clearly, I’ve had weddings on my brain for over a year now…so today I want to know what kind of weddings you like to read about! So what kind of wedding tropes do YOU like in romance novels? Make your pick in the poll below and please share why you love those tropes in the comments!

p.s. And I can assure I wasn’t forced, blackmailed, arranged or otherwise married ;)

 

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Excerpt from “Maid for Montero” by Kim Lawrence

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Amy in excerpt, mistress

Today we’re featuring an excerpt from Kim Lawrence latest Presents novel Maid for Montero, which has a tough Spanish hero and a Cinderella-like housekeeper plot. Keep reading for an excerpt!

About Maid for Montero:

Hired as his mistress!

Zoe Grace is terrible at being housekeeper of the Montero estate. So bad that she faces being fired after just two weeks! Desperate to keep her job, she’ll do anything to convince her handsome Spanish boss to give her just one more chance….

Isandro Montero cannot believe that his new housekeeper is so inept! She has to go—rapido! Except, firing beautiful Zoe would ruin his reputation, as she has two young charges to care for. So Isandro will put Zoe where he can keep his eyes on her—and maybe his hands… In his bed!

Excerpt:

Some men in Isandro’s position would have whined about press intrusion. He didn’t. He considered he had little to complain about in life, and he knew it was perfectly possible, even for someone whose financial empire drew the sort of global media attention that his did, to have a private life.

Of course, if his taste had run to falling out of nightclubs in the small hours or the routine attendance of film premieres with scantily clad models, it might have been more difficult, but neither pastime held any appeal for him.

He viewed security as a necessary evil, a side effect of success—like midges in the Highlands—but he was hardly a recluse who lived his life behind ten-feet-high walls.

If he had had a family to consider, possibly he might have seen potential danger lurking around every corner, but he didn’t. He only had an ex-wife, with whom he exchanged Christmas cards these days rather than insults, and a father he had very little contact with. Given that he was confident in his ability to look after himself, Isandro was not alarmed when the electronic gates that guarded the entrance to his English estate—which did actually have ten-feet-high walls—did not swing open as he approached, for they were already open.

Slowing his car, he swept the area with narrow-eyed, irritated speculation. While he didn’t automatically assume this suggested anything dark and sinister, it did suggest a carelessness that he did not expect from those who worked for him.
Continue reading »

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Carol Marinelli on How a Bad Boy Gets Away With Being Bad

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Amy in heroes, miniseries

by Carol Marinelli, author of A Legacy of Secrets (Book one of Harlequin Presents Sicily’s Corretti Dynasty series, May 2013)

A Legacy of Secrets is the first in the sizzling Corretti series and, for me, it was love at first sight when I met my hero Santo. He is a little different from my other heroes – he appears to care about nothing and is so shamelessly debauched that many times I tried to reel him in!

I couldn’t.

‘How’s the book?’ My lovely editor emailed one morning as I inched towards/over deadline.

‘Nearly there.’ I typed back with one hand as I chewed my nails on the other, having read back what I’d written. You see, the more I tried to tone Santo down the more he refused to behave.

Because of the time-difference I couldn’t ring my editor so I waited till everyone was at school and closed all my windows so that the neighbours couldn’t overhear, then I did what I do when in crisis – I called a friend.

A writing friend!

Because I have the best/strangest job in the world, I occasionally wonder what people would think if they got a crossed line when I am chatting about one of my books. I also worry what the police might think if they ever had to tap my phone! Especially with the Correttis!

‘He’s just picked up his brother from prison!’ I started to regale my plot and I got to the bit that was troubling me – I thought I might have gone too far with a sex scene. My friend listened (hopefully no-one else was!) and we chatted some more and then she asked ‘Why do you like him?’

I had my answer.

‘He makes me laugh.’

Santo could get away with anything because he made me laugh and, rather too often, he did!

Yes, he might have some explaining to do to Ella but I am so glad that it wasn’t a tamed version of Santo that I tried to deliver.

I hope you love him as much as I do and I hope it whets your appetite for the rest of the fabulous Corretti series.

I can’t wait to read the rest of the stories. I shall read them, as I always do a continuity series, in one hit — over a very long weekend, with lots of chocolate, hot chocolate and a nice red wine in the evening.

Do you read a continuity series one by one or are you like me and like to have them all there before you start?

Love to all,

Carol x

About A Legacy of Secrets:

Personal assistant Ella is never without her “Santo Bag”—not the latest designer “must have,” but emergency supplies to handle whatever the devilish Santo Corretti throws at her. But no pair of sunglasses will cover the darkness in her boss’s eyes this morning.

Scandal is circling. Santo’s family is in tatters. His brother is languishing in a jail cell and his latest film’s on the rocks. All Santo wants is a little TLC. Except, Ella’s heart is not part of the playboy fix-it kit.

But what Santo Corretti wants he gets!

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Note: This blog entry was first posted on The Harlequin Blog.

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Pippa Hearts Holidays!

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Deb in heroes

Pippa Heart Presents

The journey of one (relatively) young, single girl’s romance with Harlequin Presents!

by Editorial Assistant Pippa Roscoe

I’m so excited! As you read this I will be sunning myself in the beautiful Italian countryside. The smells of freshly cut grass, sunshine, sunscreen, and an Aperol spritz will be the perfect back drop to a wonderful week off. But there is no rest for the wicked. And whilst I’m not exactly wicked – I do plan on being a little naughty! For where better to begin my search for the fabled Italian Alpha Male?!

Some of my favorite things about Presents are the international heroes and the glorious destinations the heroines find themselves in. Although my travels have taken me to quite a few gorgeous destinations, none of them have been as wide and varied as those covered by our Presents author’s! When I first started reading Presents and delving into the exotic and fascinating worlds the clever authors brought to life, I began to make a list of all of the places I’d never been, and now so desperately wanted to go …

  • Dubai: for the glitz, glamour, gold, luxury, and pure exoticism.
  • Hong Kong: aside from the delicious food, where else should you get lost in translation with an International businessman?
  • Russia: where better to wrap up warm than in the arms of a thrillingly brooding Russian magnate?
  • New York: the last time I was there I was 11 years old, and I’d like the chance to view it through adult eyes, preferably with a Manhattan in one hand and an American Tycoon in the other!
  • The Desert: I’m not fussy, any desert will do… as long as there’s a Sheikh waiting at a beautiful Oasis, ready for me to unravel his darkest secrets!

But ladies, I am realistic. I might have to find me a rich alpha male before I can even think about getting to all of these glorious destinations – and it’s unlikely that any alpha male of mine would be happy with me running off with a different tycoon every time my foot touched a new continent!

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my sights (from beneath my fab sunglasses!) firmly on all the Italians I can find. And you never know… my next blog might just be about the perfect holiday romance!

So tell me ladies, what’s the best thing about holidays for you? And have you ever indulged in a holiday romance? (And more importantly… did it last!?)

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Q&A with Carole Mortimer on Buenos Aires Nights, “A Touch of Notoriety” & “A Taste of the Forbidden”

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Deb in Uncategorized

A Touch of Notoriety

A Taste of the ForbiddenWhen Carole’s editor asked her if she’d like to write a duo of Presents books, featuring Argentinean heroes, under the title ‘Buenos Aires Nights’, she immediately said YES.

She had never been to Argentina, and simply couldn’t resist writing a duo of books with two tall, dark and sexy Argentinean men as the hero.

 

 

How is A Touch of Notoriety connected to A Taste of the Forbidden?

The connection between A Touch of Notoriety and A Taste of the Forbidden, the first in the Buenos Aires Nights duo, featuring two tall dark and gorgeous Argentinean heroes, is that the two heroines, Beth and Grace, are sisters.  Well…not quite.  But that’s the mystery left for the reader at the end of A Taste of the Forbidden and answered in A Touch of Notoriety!

Could you tell us a little about the hero and heroine of A Touch of Notoriety, Raphael and Beth?

Raphael Cordoba has a military background, and is the best friend and Head of Security for Cesare Navarro, the billionaire hero of the first book in the duo Buenos Aires Nights.  Raphael is a man who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so when he’s asked by Cesare to act as bodyguard to Beth Blake, the sister of Cesare’s fiancé, Raphael is not best pleased when Beth refuses to listen to any of his security advice, and he has no hesitation in letting her know just how much he disapproves of her and her reckless independence.

I love writing about strong, arrogant heroes and feisty heroines, and Raphael and Beth are exactly that.  Which means the sparks are about to fly!

 If A Touch of Notoriety was made into a movie, who would you cast as Raphael and Beth?

That’s a tricky one.  But I think I’d have to choose a buff – very buff! – Hugh Jackman as Raphael – with a deep and sexy Argentinean accent, of course!  Hugh is one very sexy man, and an actor who is capable of being tough as well as revealing his more tender side, as Raphael does in A Touch of Notoriety.  I might even be persuaded to ask the director to put in an extra scene, and have Hugh strip off to the waist and tip a bucket of water over his head and chest – as he did in the film Australia.  Whew – it give me hot flushes just thinking about it!

For Beth I would probably choose Amanda Seyfried, the young star of Mama Mia.  She’s blonde and beautiful, and can definitely play feisty and independent, as well as vulnerable, which Beth is under all that fieriness.  Yep, definitely Amanda Seyfried as Beth.

What are you working on next?

I have a Regency Historical duo out in August and December of this year.  And a Presents two-in-one, also coming out in December, with both books set in the often scandalous and exciting world of films and television.

I’m currently working on the first in a Presents trilogy, coming out in 2014, and featuring three very wealthy, very ruggedly handsome, very arrogant brothers, who are the owners of three galleries and auction houses in London, Paris, and New York.

I could tell you more about this Presents trilogy, but as I’ve only written the first book, and my characters invariably take over and decide to write their own story, I can’t guarantee that anything I say about them now will actually happen!

Every day, when I sit down in front of my laptop, is as much of an adventure for me as it is for the reader, because I have absolutely no idea where my hero and heroine intends taking me today!

 

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