"My First Kate Walker" 1

Now we really are going back to the celebrating - and I'm going to post the first winner of a 'My First Kate Walker' prize.

This is from a long-time reader - and hopeful would-be writer Sophie Adams who lives in Norfolk. Sophie wrote to me about her first ever Kate Walker novel which was - my very first The Chalk Line. And it was also Sophie's first ever Mills & Boon read. So a triple first!
Here's what she has to say:

Hi Kate - this is just a quick note to tell you that, when looking at your website recently (I'm a great fan of your books and an even bigger fan of your '12 points...' book), I was astonished to see 'The Chalk Line!' What is the reason for my astonishment? Well, this is the FIRST ever M&B book I ever read - I remembered the title and even the storyline as soon as I saw it! I would have been 13 when this was first published. Alas, I never got to keep the copy I read as I had borrowed it from the library. Well, I've bought it (of course), and it's now sitting on my desk, waiting for me to read it. I can't bear the suspense! What if it's not as good as I remembered it? Surely not...!

Later she wrote to tell me that the book lived up to her memories

Well, my second first (if that makes sense?) impression of the Chalk Line is that I can't believe it was your first M&B book - it is so well written and polished. I can see that a lot of hard work went into it. I am really really enjoying it (I always knew I would ). I think it stands the test of time really well - the characters all seem lifelike, especially Rowena whose motivations are reactions are realistic, and Alan and Robert (I don't need to tell you what I think of them!). As for Leo, I guess nowadays we'd get more insight into his feelings, but I think they are adequately clear from his reaction to her.

Sophie touches on some of the differences in the books I was writing back in 1984 - the most obvious one was the fact that the hero's point of view was very rarely, if ever, shown. Therea re other differences too - but I'll look at those in my next post when I tell you how the rather delirious thoughts I had with the flu turned into the book that won me my first ever publishing contract.

In the meantime - thank you Sophie for your memory of your first ever Kate Walker novel.

Have you got a 'First Kate Walker' memory you'd like to share? I'd love to hear it. And please send in your votes for thre Top 5 favourite Kate Walker books over the past 25 years. I've already been collecting up votes and so far the top 20 list looks like this:

1. The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife




2. The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife




3. The Antonakos Marriage




4. His Miracle Baby




5. The Italian’s Forced Bride




6. Cordero's Forced Bride




7. The Twelve-Month Mistress




8. The Sicilian's Wife




9. The Hostage Bride




10. Desert Affair




11. Kept for her Baby




12. Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride




13. Bedded by the Greek Billionaire




14. Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife




15. Constantine's Revenge




16. Wife for a Day




17. Hers for a Night




18. Rafael's Love-child




19. The Duke's Secret Wife




20. Bound By Blackmail

There's an interesting mixture of old and new books there with the newest - Kept for Her Baby already in at #11. Are your favourites here? Do let me know

I've also asked some of my writing friends and fellow authors to give me their lists and I'll be posting some of those in the coming days. I'm fascinated to find out their favourites too.