The appeal of the single dad

There’s something very appealing, isn’t there, about a loving dad and his sweet baby?

I had a friend who was a single dad with a dear little girl. He went on a walking vacation with her in a backpack and said he couldn’t get over how much female attention he attracted. I told him I didn’t know why he was so surprised!

I like to challenge myself in my writing. My February release for Harlequin Romance, Second Chance with the Single Dad, is my first “single dad” story. It’s also my first “friends to lovers” story.

Girl-next-door schoolteacher Georgia Lang and handsome self-made millionaire Wil Hudson go way back as “just friends.” They know each other so well they claim to read each other’s thoughts. But not everyone wishes the platonic friends well and the friendship ends abruptly and painfully. What happens when Wil becomes a single dad to adorable baby Nina and asks Georgia for help? Can they salvage the friendship—and perhaps acknowledge the tiny flickering flames that just might have been there all along?

Here's the blurb for the story:

From long-lost friends...

To newfound family?

“Georgia and Wil were best friends until he married and disappeared from her life. Now he’s back, asking Georgia to forget the past and help him secure his future—the daughter he never knew he had! Georgia’s heart goes out to new dad Wil, but there’s an uncharted chemistry fizzing between them and she must protect her heart. Can they confront their unspoken attraction and finally become a family?”

I’m always seeing on social media happily married couples saying they married their best friend. Do you think friends-to-lovers is a good basis for a happy relationship? Or do you prefer the quick flare of instant attraction?

I’d love to see your comments! Post a comment to be in the draw for a signed copy of my new release Second Chance with the Single Dad. Please include your email contact if you’d like to be in the draw.

Second Chance with the Single Dad is a February 2019 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & Boon True Love in the UK; and Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter,Pinterestand Instagram

Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon—Kandy Shepherd

Have you ever met someone just fleetingly, yet you can’t get them out of your head?

That happened to me with a minor character named Cristos in my last novel for Harlequin Romance, ConvenientlyWed to the Greek (May 2017). Cristos was the cousin of that book’s hero. I didn’t know a lot about him other than he was extremely good looking. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Cristos. Why was someone so handsome on his own? Why did I sense secrets and sadness behind his happy-go-lucky mask?

I had find out more about Cristos Theofanis—so he had to have his own story! I discovered Cristos was estranged from the wife he’d adored, Hayley Clements. They’d married young but trauma and tragedy took the gloss off their marital bliss and they’d spiralled apart. When Hayley unexpectedly reappears, she and Cristos get a last chance to save their marriage.

Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon is set in the beautiful Ionian Islands in Greece. What a perfect place for a couple to reignite the spark of their passion and fall in love all over again—just in time for Valentine’s Day!

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit those beautiful islands and hope to return. Our visit was in September when the weather was hot but not too hot and the water glorious for swimming. People there told me, however, that they could have a cold winter on the islands. I discovered that sometimes it actually snowed.

What’s more romantic? Summer where clothes are minimal or winter where you can snuggle to keep warm? I decided to set Cristos’s story in winter—with snow!

Where I live in Australia, we get snow. Not in Sydney but certainly in the mountains. In fact I learned to ski on the Australian snowfields. We’re having a very hot summer DownUnder. But I know right now friends in the northern hemisphere might be snowed in. Is it actually as romantic as we authors suggest in romance novels like Strandedwith Her Greek Tycoon?

UK edition

What are your thoughts on snow? Comment here for a chance to be in the draw for a paperback copy of Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon.

US edition

Kandy Shepherd’s Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon is a February 2018 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & Boon True Love in the UK; and Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand. 

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

Three Greek heroes – Kandy Shepherd

Making my first visit to the glorious Greece islands in 2015 must really have fired my creative process. (Or should I say being surrounded by gorgeous Greek men on that and a subsequent vacation the next year might have done the trick!)

Whatever the inspiration, I realised I have written three books in a row for Harlequin Romance with tall, dark and very handsome Greek heroes: Lukas Cristophedes, Greek Tycoon’s Mistletoe Proposal(November 2016); Alex Mikhalis, ConvenientlyWed to the Greek (May 2017); and Cristos Theofanis, Stranded With Her Greek Tycoon (February 2018).

I didn’t intend to write hero number three. I was going to write quite a different story with a different hero. But I couldn’t stop thinking about a minor character in the second book,cousin to the hero–he just had to have his own book! 

I didn’t know a lot about Cristos except that he was incredibly handsome, very charming and had a deep, hidden sadness in his eyes. Turned out he’d separated from Hayley, the wife he’d adored and couldn’t forget. I just knew I had to get Cristos and Hayley back together again and the story was born. (Yes, I know it sounds a little crazy but my characters seem so real to me that I feel I really know them!)

Here’s the blurb for Stranded With Her Greek Tycoon:

One night to win back his wife!

Can Hayley resist Cristos’s seductive charms?

After the demise of her marriage, Hayley fled to nurse her broken heart. Now she’s back to ask her husband, Cristos Theofanis, for a divorce—but he has other ideas! When a storm hits and they’re stranded together, Cristos has one night to prove himself. Can Hayley resist the temptation of Cristos’s kiss or will she find herself back in his arms?

 The next story I’m working doesn’t have a Greek hero and is set not on a Greek island but on a tropical island. But I won’t tell you anymore as things can sometimes change in the writing!

Do you enjoy a particular type of hero? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please make a comment!

 Kandy Shepherd’s most recent book ConvenientlyWed to the Greek is a May 2017 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & Boon Cherish in the UK; and Mills & Boon Forever Romance in Australia and New Zealand. Watch out for Stranded With Her Greek Tycoon in February 2018.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

 Visit Kandy at her website

 www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

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