Come visit a tropical paradise! - Kandy Shepherd

One thing I love about the Harlequin Romance series line I write for—apart from the lovely emotion and the happy-ever-after ending!—is the fact that these books often spirit me away to an aspirational and sometimes exotic destination.

As an author, we are often told to write what we know. I find it difficult to actually bring a place to life if I haven’t actually been there. Fortunately, I have travelled a bit and stayed at the destinations where my books are set. 

 My July release Best Man and the Runaway Bride is set on the beautiful small island of Nusa Lembongan in Indonesia, off the east coast of the much larger and better known island of Bali. I was fortunate enough to visit Lembongan last year and actually wrote some of the story while I was on location.

This month I thought I’d share with you some of the events in the novel, that actually happened to me on the the trip.

We stayed on a beautiful resort similar to the fictional Big Blue resort in the book. Our lumbung was right on the sea and it was absolutely heavenly! (With mod cons like our own bathroom and airconditioning.)

The lumbung where we stayed

View from our room - bliss to wake up to

 There’s a pivotal scene in the book where the hero Max and heroine Nikki dine at a restaurant with their feet in the sand and witness one of the awesome sunsets the area is famous for. We did that too!

This is the meal that inspired Nikki and Max's in the book - love that Indonesian food!

 Nikki and Max go snorkelling on the reef surrounding the island, in a small traditional fishing boat known as a jukung. We bravely set out and snorkelled and it was an utterly wonderful experience.

This little boat transported us to a beautiful reef where we snorkelled and saw the most beautiful fish and coral

Just remembering the experience is making me want to go back there as soon as I can—or perhaps to another wonderful destination that will inspire a story! And of course I'm hoping while my readers are flicking through the pages of my book, I'll transport them for a few hours to an exotic, tropical island!

Is there a “dream destination” you’ve always wanted to visit? Do you have a favorite setting for a romance novel?

Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you! If you want to be in the draw to win a signed paperback copy of Best Man and the Runaway Bride, also include your email address.

Kandy Shepherd’s Best Man and the Runaway Bride is a July 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

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Paradise calling

 I’m sharing the cover for my June release from Harlequin Romance, From Paradise to…Pregnant!

 I just love this North American cover, thank you, Harlequin art department. It depicts an important scene in the book, and the hero and heroine are very like how I imagined them to be.

 I also love the emotion visible between Zoe and Mitch. “They’re really into each other,” my daughter said when she first saw it. Of course they are—there’s a pregnancy involved here!

The first part of the story is set in the beautiful tropical island of Bali in Indonesia. Bali is a very popular destination for visitors from around the world and is a particular favorite with Australians.

 I spent a week in the gorgeous resort area of Seminyak last year with my husband as we celebrated our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

In fact I wrote the final words of From Paradise to…Pregnant! while lying around next to the lovely lap pool in our private villa. (Yes, I know I was meant to be on vacation, but writers never really stop!) There’s nothing quite like researching a location—especially when it’s somewhere as fabulous as Bali!

This book is a reunion, friends-to-lovers story and I loved writing it.

Here’s the blurb:

One night with consequences… 

A week in Bali was accountant Zoe Summers's dream vacation. But when the tropical island paradise is hit by an earthquake, she's trapped—alongside Mitch Bailey, sports star and blast from her past! High on the thrill of survival, they seek comfort in each other's arms… 

It was only supposed to be one night, but Zoe soon discovers an unexpected souvenir—she's pregnant! Now Zoe and Mitch will have to ask themselves…can one night lead to parenthood and a lifetime of love?

From Paradise to…Pregnant! is a June 2015 release from Harlequin Romance and is available for pre-order now.

Kandy Shepherd is an 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.

 www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook and Twitter

What’s your favorite romance fantasy?

Whenever I imagine my dream vacation, it’s always a variation of the same scenario. Tropical island. Clear aquamarine waters lapping up onto long stretches of white sand. Palm trees leaning toward the shoreline. Brilliant tropical flowers. Endless sun. A gorgeous dark-haired man, with rippling muscles, wearing next to no clothes—

Whoa! Stop right there. Where did he come from? My husband is blond, and of course he’d be the star of my vacation fantasy.

Sorry about that, darling hub. My romance novel fantasy butted into my vacation dreams… Which is what happens to authors. I'm sometimes surprised to read back over my work and see themes and issues from my own life interlaced through my story. I didn't intend them, they just got there via my subconscious.

The tropical paradise thing, for example. In Home Is Where the Bark Is, Serena and Nick plan to honeymoon in Hawaii where Serena will pose in a swimming pool of chocolate for a commercial. Hmm. Don’t ask me where that particular fantasy comes from! Come to think of it, chocolate seems to sneak into everything I write...

My newest story The Castaway Bride has all the above tropical island wonders and, come to think of it, chocolate as well. The dark-haired fantasy lover? Well of course!

I so enjoyed writing Matt Slade. He’s succeeded in the business world against tough odds but he’s been betrayed by people he trusted. That’s made him cynical about love but there’s a wonderful chivalrous streak in his nature that keeps fighting its way to the surface—especially when runaway bride Cristy Walters is close by. He helps her escape from her cheating bridegroom only for them to end up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Cristy has her own issues—in particular she doesn’t trust lust—and boy does she have to struggle against her feelings for hot hunk Matt!

Is there a dog in The Castaway Bride? That’s one of the first questions people ask me. (My Berkley Sensation books, Love is a Four-Legged Word and Home Is Where the Bark Is, have lots of dogs in them.)

Yes and no. Matt is taking time out on his yacht. He’d love to have his beloved black Labrador Jake sailing with him, but Jake gets seasick and can’t be on board. Matt has to Skype his dog to keep in touch. So Jake is part of the story but never actually appears on the pages. Needless to say my heroine Cristy Walters finds Matt’s devotion to his dog endearing. Oh, and there’s a tame dragon lizard named Sam who plays a part in the plot.

But the focus of The Castaway Bride is purely on two people, both emotionally wounded in their own ways, finding passion and true love in a tropical island paradise. Alert: it’s a tad steamier than my doggy books.

The Castaway Bride is my first foray into the exciting world of indie publishing and is available only as an e-book at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and other e-book retailers. It’s on sale for the introductory price of $0.99c (that’s another thing I love—a bargain!) But I’m giving away a free copy to anyone who comments here over the weekend, via a coupon for Smashwords where you can download the book in a format to suit any e-reader or PC.

Do you have a fantasy vacation destination? A favorite romance scenario? I’d love to hear your comment. Be sure to leave your email address if you would like a free download of The Castaway Bride.

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

Photos courtesy of Tahiti Tourisme and Tourism Queensland.