Catching up with books

I've spent this last week catching up with so much - updates for my web site, reading scripts to critique for the RNA's New Writers' Scheme, tidying and sorting out my office which is in it's usualy post-book chaos. I added to that chaos by buying new shelves for my bookcases. The new shelves are very useful - but buying new shelves means that I had to move the old shelves up or down several spaces in the bookcases . Which meant that I had to take all the books off the shelves in order to do so. So now I have the new shelves in and all the books to go back on them. But for once in my life, I actually have some spare shelves without books on them! I wonder how long that will last?

In amongst the new books I have to put on the shelves (see - I know those spaces won't stay for long) I have the latest of my own. I have the copies of both the UK and USA editions of The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife with their wonderful sunset covers. It's good to be looking forward to seeing them out in the shops while over on Amazon .com, and .co.uk that 50th title The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge is still on the best selling romance charts after 3 months. And today when I was out shopping, I spotted the 3 in 1 By Request collection Mistress Material which has my book The Married Mistress reprinted in it. (This also has books by Lucy Monroe and Daphne Clair in the volume.)

And when I have sorted out the shelves I hope that I will find my next TBR book! While I was still concentrating on writing Angelos's story, Anne McAllister sent me a copy of her The Boss's Wife for A Week which is out now in Presents - and has been on the Waldenbooks Bestseller list for three weeks! Congratulations Anne! This only makes me want to read this book even more. I did snatch a glance at it while I was still wrestling with Angelos, and before I knew it I was at the end of the first chapter - and I so wanted to go on! But I had to be strong. I had my own book to write.

So I put The Boss's Wife For a Week away safely to avoid temptation. But the trouble is that I put it somewhere so very safe that now that I have time to read it, I cant find it - it's somewhere in the piles of books that need to go back on the shelves! Oh well, at least that means that I have an extra incentive to sort the books out in order to find it. But it also means that when I do find it I shall probably down tools and read until I've finished it. I hope I find it soon.

In the meantime, I've been reading lovely India Grey's first book - The Italian's Defiant Mistress which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's one of those books where I could hear India's own voice as I read which for me is a real plus in a book. It shows an author who has an individual writing voice that will be hers no matter what story she tells. I'm a little bit late reading this in the UK edition which came out in July - which just shows how busy I've been. But like Anne's book this one is out in America this month so if you're looking for a good read why not grab both of them before they're off the shelves?

No - it's no good - now I've mentioned The Boss's Wife for A Week, I'm going to have to find and read it. I've heard such great things about that I just can't wait.

I'll be back when I've got all the books back on the shelves and hopefully found it - and read it!

Great Big Blog Party 21 - India Grey

Following the policy of putting up blog posts in the order in which they arrived, I find that today's Guest Blogger is the lovely India Grey.

Now India is one of those people who if she wasn't so truly nice you would have to hate her for being so beautiful, slender and elegant, intelligent - and now she's proving herself to be talented as well with her very first ever Modern Romance/Presents title - The Italian's Defiant Mistress - out in July.(Readers in America will be able to get their hands on it when it comes out in Presents in October) And even worse this is one of those rare books that has been accepted on her first submission. (But she credits the 12 Point Guide as being a great help to her so I'll manage not to be totally eaten up with jealousy) India is great fun to be with too - and add into the mixture a husband who could be a M&B Hero himself and a cat called Ruby who is lovesick for Sid (Sid says to send his best purrs to Ruby, India) and you will begin to see how I might have problems with this lady. ;-)

But when India on our first meeting tells me how much she loved what is affectiuonately known as 'the knicker scene' in my book Bound By Blackmail - and she has chosen to write about it for her guest blog - well, then what can I do but admire her great taste? I have India's own first book on my mountainous TBR pile and if it wasn't for a Great Big Blog Party and a pestiferous Greek hero who wants his story told I would be indulging in reading it right now

(That scene in Bound by Blackmail seems to have struck a chord with a few writers - 'Lord Alfred' who won Julie Cohen's prize wrote about it too - do take a look at that here)

Here's how India describes herself:

India Grey’s first Mills&Boon Modern romance (The Italian’s Defiant Mistress) is released a month after Kate’s fiftieth one. A year ago she was unpublished and unhopeful, and might well still be today had it not been for The Twelve Point Guide To Writing Romance!

And India wants to write about her :

GOLDEN MOMENT

Fifty glorious heroes, fifty lucky heroines, fifty passionate happy-ever-afters.... and countless hours of drama, pleasure and heartache! In honour of Kate Walker’s Golden title, I set myself the task of distilling all of the above down into one Golden Moment, which would encapsulate everything that makes Kate’s books so special, and the fiftieth one such a cause for celebration.

It wasn’t easy. But it was a great excuse to collect together all my Kate Walker books (most of them tattered and oddly creased from having been carried around in handbags and read in the bath) and indulge in a glorious, indulgent reading session! Three weeks, countless very sleep-deprived nights and a box of tissues later, I’ve narrowed down my shortlist and come up with my best and all-time favourite Kate Walker Golden Moment, and because Kate herself is the most generous person in the world, I’m sharing it with you along with the reasons why I like it so much. However, I am not nearly so selfless and giving as Kate and am only sharing it in the hope that other people will post theirs too and I can get to go back and read them all over again!

Mine comes from Bound by Blackmail, when Jake comes face to face with Mercedes at her half-brother’s wedding. He had met her for the first time a few months previously, and attraction had instantly flared between them. However, she ran out on him—literally—as they were about to make love. Now, surrounded by her protective family and her slightly slimy fiancé, she wants to pretend she doesn’t know him.


Her chin came up even more defiantly, tilting her perfect little nose higher in the air. And the cold, dark eyes met his head on, rejection the only emotion he could see in them.
‘Do I know you?’
‘You know you do.’
‘I know nothing of the sort.’
She even managed a smile, though it was so false and brittle that he almost expected it to shatter and fall as splinters onto the ground at his feet.
‘I think you must be mistaken—Mr...’
Jake didn’t even honour the pointed hint that he should give her his name with as much as an acknowledgement. This ‘I don’t remember you’ act didn’t convince him for one moment.
‘No mistake, I assure you. You know that and I know that-- but if you need any further convincing...’
He had been thinking of just this moment when he had packed his case, and again this morning as he had dressed for the wedding. in the left hand pocket of his suit jacket, the sliver of silk not even bulky enough to spoil the line of the superb tailoring was the evidence of the truth—the knickers she had left behind in her headlong flight that night in London.
he pulled them out, crushed in his hand, opened his fingers just enough so that she could see exactly what he held—but had no chance of reaching for them, trying to snatch them away from him
The effect was everything he had hoped for.

It’s BRILLIANT! I love the way the build up is so slow and languorous and unhurried. Mercedes is behaving appallingly—really, all things being equal I should just want someone to come and slap her legs. But the thing is, her character is drawn so perfectly and I know that haughtiness and naughtiness stems from embarrassment and insecurity. I can totally identify with her—who hasn’t been in a situation at some time or another when someone they really don’t want to see appears at the worst possible moment? (Usually this happens to me in supermarkets when one of the children is having a tantrum and someone important from school or a posh friend of my mother’s hoves into view. The instinct for total denial is natural and irresistible.) Beneath Mercedes sophisticated exterior is a sheltered, naïve little girl, so in her case it’s more than denial. It’s childlike wishful thinking. If she says she doesn’t know him maybe it’ll make that incident that she’s so disturbed by and ashamed of just go away.


At the same time we’re also deliciously, painfully aware of Jake’s tightly-controlled anger. It’s menacing, but never threatening, and the fact that it’s motivated by hurt makes it powerfully sexy. I feel outraged on his behalf, which is why when he pulls off his audacious knicker stunt I should be shocked—I am shocked, but I’m also loving him so much I could scream.

Oh yes. He’s a total twenty first century hero. He’s honourable, emotionally articulate, sexy and breath-takingly human. Kate Walker is one of the undisputed queens of the alpha hero: quite simply (and I hope the BM will forgive me for saying this) she knows her men, and over the course of 50 books has shown every variation of the alpha male. Jake is alpha with a twist— he has all the power, control and integrity that defines the species, but his heart is on his sleeve, not buried beneath a wall of ice. When pushed to the limit he doesn’t resort to bullying or humiliation... just that one silent, eloquent, gesture which speaks so much more about their intimacy and her duplicity than any words ever could.

Everything is here—sexual tension, anger, hurt, rejection, all set against the sumptuous backdrop of a Spanish society wedding. Add in some to-die-for writing (smile... splinters... totally fab) and two of the best characters ever and it’s just pure Kate Walker gold. I adore and admire the way she can express the universe in a few well chosen words and create a character in a single, defining moment. A golden, gasp-out-loud, Kate Walker moment.

GIVEAWAY QUESTION:
I’d really love to know what's your favourite Kate Walker Golden Moment, book or character

GIVEAWAY PRIZE:

I have a copy of my first book* (compared to fifty how sad is that!) to give away, along with some golden goodies to someone who will be chosen randomly (very randomly, believe me) from all those who post a comment by Ruby the airhead cat.

(* I really feel I should be giving away my beloved copy of Bound by Blackmail too.... but I just can’t bring myself to part with it!! Sorry!!)