Conveniently Wed to the Greek - Kandy Shepherd

Do you have a favorite romance trope? “Beauty and the beast”, “Cinderella” and “secret baby/pregnancy” are among my favorite romance story tropes. I love reading them and I’ve also enjoyed writing them into my books for Harlequin Romance.

“Marriage of convenience” is another favorite. I’ve written an “engagement of convenience” and a "girlfriend of convenience" but only now have I written a marriage of convenience story, when a man and a woman marry for reasons other than love. Of course then in a romance novel they fall in love—or admit that they were in love all along. Sigh, I love a happy ending!

Is this wedding for real - or a fake "marriage of convenience" for reasons other than forever love?

 The reason I haven’t tried to write this trope before is that I think it can be difficult to make believable in a contemporary romance. I love a marriage of convenience in a historical novel. For a book set in times when making love, or even kissing, before marriage were strictly forbidden with dire social and personal consequences for people who broke the rules, the “marriage of convenience” is a marvelous plot device to give the characters the freedom of intimacy. After all, they’re married!

Not so easy for a contemporary novel. Many of my fellow romance authors tackle this trope brilliantly with feasible reasons for a marriage of convenience including inheritance, terms of a will, a job, to give a child a parent. I had to think really hard of how I could make it work for my story set squarely in the twenty-first century.

The title of my May release from Harlequin Romance, Conveniently Wed to the Greek, flags from the get go that a marriage of convenience is part of the plot.

I think I’ve given good reason for two very contemporary people, feisty food critic Adele Hudson and her former adversary hospitality tycoon Alex Mikhalis, to undertake a pretend marriage. I hope I make it believable. If you get a chance to read the story, let me know if you think it works!

Do you have a favourite romance trope? Or one you really don’t like? I’d love to read your comment. If you you’d like to be in the draw for a signed paperback copy of Conveniently Wed to the Greek please be sure to include your email address.

Conveniently Wed to the Greek, is a May 2017 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & BoonCherish in the UK; and Mill & 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

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The Sheikh and the One-Handed Writer

It's been an interesting start to the New Year.

Those of you follow me on Facebook or Twitter will know that I broke my arm in the middle of January. There was a horrible week in which I had a slab plaster from shoulder to palm. Thankfully it was replaced with this much lighter contraption but it's a bad place to break and the prognosis is 8-10 weeks.

Since then I've been waddling around like a one-winged duck, unable to drive, unable to do the most basic things. Try opening a jar of your favourite spread with one hand, buttering a slice of bread, cutting up your food and you will see what I mean. :)  I'm calling this the one armed diet. Pulling on a pair of pants with just one hand reminds me of something from a Laurel and Hardy movie. Which has been another problem. Not many of my clothes have sleeves wide enough to cover the brace. Thank goodness for the best beloved's T-shirts!

Working has been a struggle. I'm writing one of a quartet of books for Tule at the moment with three fabulous authors Anne McAllister, Sophie Weston and Jessica Hart. Getting the words down has been a battle. The choice has been using voice recognition software, or typing one-handed, neither of which is much fun - it's been really hard to ge a flow going. On the other hand, the four of us are having a day out in the Cotswolds next week to familiarize ourselves up close and personal with the setting for our Invitation to a Royal Wedding series.

However on the positive front The Sheikh's Convenient Princess, published by Harlequin Romance has been storming away during February, garnering a very pleasing number of five-star reviews on Amazon and at Goodreads. Even readers who wouldn't normally choose a sheikh have loved Ruby and Bram's story.

You can read an excerpt at my website, or here are the links to The Sheikh's Convenient Princess 

Harlequin

Ibooks  Barnes & Noble

Kobo
 Amazon US
Amazon UK

Hopefully I'll be back in one piece next month when I'll tell you all about the exciting Summer at the Villa Rosa.

Happy reading.

Introducing Her Christmas Earl!

by Anna Campbell

It's that time of year again!

The time of year when we writers go all misty-eyed and sentimental and jolly and start penning Christmas romances.

This is the third year in a row that I've done a Christmas novella. My first was THE WINTER WIFE which was a reunion story set on the snowy Yorkshire Moors. My second was "His Christmas Cinderella" which was an ultra-romantic addition to the free anthology A GROSVENOR SQUARE CHRISTMAS.

This year I'm writing a marriage of convenience story featuring a rake ripe for redemption and the straight-talking unfashionable woman he finds himself married to as a result of bad luck and scandal (except as in all good romances, the bad luck is actually very good luck in disguise).

Here's the blurb for HER CHRISTMAS EARL: A REGENCY NOVELLA:

No good deed goes unpunished…

To save her hen-witted sister from scandal, Philippa Sanders ventures into a rake's bedroom - and into his power. Now her reputation hangs by a thread and only a hurried marriage can rescue her. Is the Earl of Erskine the heartless libertine the world believes? Or will Philippa discover unexpected honor in a man notorious for his wild ways?

Blair Hume, the dissolute Earl of Erskine, has had his eye on the intriguing Miss Sanders since he arrived at this deadly dull house party. Now a reckless act delivers this beguiling woman into his hands as a delightful Christmas gift. Does fate offer him a fleeting Yuletide diversion? Or will this Christmas Eve encounter spark a passion to last a lifetime? 

You can read an excerpt of HER CHRISTMAS EARL on my website here: http://annacampbell.info/xmasearl.html

And all at only 99 cents! 

You can buy HER CHRISTMAS EARL from:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Her-Christmas-Earl-Regency-Novella-ebook/dp/B00OQY2X06/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1413942208&sr=1-1&keywords=her+christmas+earl

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/486725

There's something lovely about writing a Christmas romance. It's a time of hope and family and love and generosity, and all of those qualities feed into a feel-good love story. I really enjoyed meeting clever, direct Philippa Sanders and her dashing, handsome, disreputable Christmas Earl, Blair Hume. I hope you feel the same! 

So are you a fan of romances set around Christmas time? Any favorites?

Is love lovelier, the second time around?

One of the special pleasures in a writer's life is that moment when, having reclaimed the rights to a book that has been out of print for a while, she has the opportunity to give it a new life.

Last autumn, the rights of A Point of Pride, my second book, were turned to me and since it was always a favourite - reunited lovers, a marriage of convenience - I relished the opportunity to give it a makeover. Freshen it up. Put on a new cover.

It wasn't a light wasn and brush up, however. A flick over with the spray polish and duster.

As soon as I started reading this book that I hadn't picked up in years, I realised that it was going to be a lot more than that. There was stuff about mobile phones (then new and the size of house bricks) that would make no sense to the modern reader. And while it had a sexy edge it seemed to lack the emotional impact of my later work.

I got stuck in and had a really good time getting to know Casey and Gil again, smoothing out some new writer snags,, giving them both a lot more heart.

A Point of Pride is now on sale (for a limited time only) at the bargain price of 99c. HURRY!