A Most Unlikely Princess - Annie West

My latest story is just out now. It's about a woman called Luisa, who grew up on a dairy farm. She knows how to milk, fix a tractor, juggle increasing debts and run a farming co-op. She's very practical - she's had to be, with the family farm having a bad run of luck with drought and now flood. But Luisa knows that her hard work will be worth it to get the farm back on track and in the black.

This day is tougher than most. The bank is talking about foreclosure and she's spent hours down at the creek, saving a cow that got trapped in deep mud. Caked in muck, she returns to the old farm house longing for a hot shower.

But this is the day her plans go awry. Instead of an empty house she finds a helicopter, guys in dark suits whispering into earpieces and one man who stands out from the crowd:
The sun silhouetted a man who was long, lean and elegant. The epitome of urbane masculinity. She could make out dark hair, a suit that probably cost more than her car and tractor put together, plus a formidable pair of shoulders.
He looks a little like this.

Fortunately he's not from the bank. Instead he's foreign royalty, there specifically to see Luisa so she can take up her long lost inheritance as princess in his kingdom. He promises her the wealth and position she thought would never come to her since her mother was disinherited.

There's only one catch: in doing so she must also fulfil a contract signed years ago - for her to marry the prince. She'd never have to worry about money again. But is that what Luisa wants? It takes more than money to impress her. And even if she's persuaded to agree, how would a down to earth dairy farmer ever hope to transform herself into a princess?

This book was such fun from the moment I envisaged the meeting between Raul in hand stitched Italian suit and glossy shoes, with a mud-smattered and not so easily impressed Luisa. I also got to use two of my fave themes - the fish out of water and marriage of convenience.

Do you like fish out of water stories? If you had to create an unlikely princess, what background might you give her, just to make things interesting?

Annie will send a selection of signed cover flats as a prize to someone (drawn at random) who leaves a comment.

PRINCE OF SCANDAL is on sale now in the UK. You can find it at Amazon, Harlequin Mills and Boon and The Book Depository. Then in June it's released in Australia/New Zealand and finally in mid July in North America. If you want to read more about it, visit my website where you'll find an excerpt, background information and even a contest where you can win the book.