Tag: romance fiction

What’s the Lure of the Sheikh Romance? Asking Author Pippa Roscoe

Today, author Pippa Roscoe has come to MBB to talk about her new release, Conquering His Virgin Queen. Romance fiction is one of the biggest selling genres and within that, the subgenre of fiction romance fiction is enduringly popular. In fact, it has been so ever since the days of Rudolph Valentino in the era of silent movies (yes, they had sheikh romance movies back then). It really makes me wonder what it is about sheikh romance novels that win the hearts of readers. Is it the mystery of the desert? The lure of dark, brooding eyes and long, mysterious robes? Whatever it is, it hits the spot. I wanted to ask author Pippa Roscoe some searching questions to satisfy my curiosity about sheikh romances. Read on to see what she says.

Author Pippa Roscoe on the web:

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Author Pippa Roscoe interviewed by MBB



Can you tell me the reason why ‘sheikh’ romance novels are so popular?

It’s a very good question! I think if writers knew the magic formula for what makes something so popular, we’d bottle it and sell it! (Or keep it for ourselves!). For me, I love the fantasy of a Sheikh romance. The pure escapism of it, and the fact that my imagination that can run wild creating a fictional kingdom with rules and systems that often force the brooding, powerful hero’s hand in a way that nothing else could. And I love the tension that wars between duty and desire… all mixing together to create such a fun backdrop to the romance. 




Do you personally know any such romance which really happened? Just asking…

Nope, sadly not. Though I’m still hopeful that one day I may be whisked off my feet and away to a beautiful desert palace with incredible mosaic tiles, stunning indoor pools and amazing sunsets.



Did you do much background research to write this story?

As an ex-researcher, I really should have done much more than I did! Much of my research involved images, looking for the right ‘models’ for my hero and heroine, and researching the Heron Tower in London. But because the romance is contained within twelve hours there were less ‘travel opportunities’ – they couldn’t very well travel back to the Hero’s Kingdom or the entire events would have taken place on his private jet! Though, that’s an idea!! – but I greatly enjoyed researching beautiful Greek homes for my current work in progress. 



What’s your all-time favourites romance book, or favourite romance writer?

The Princess Bride. It has everything! Romance, adventure, humour, sarcasm, not to mention the Cliffs of Insanity or the Rodents of Unusual Side. But I also love The Steadfast Tin Soldier, because it’s a very beautiful and very sad story. 



What’s next for author Pippa Roscoe?

World domination? No, perhaps I’ll leave that off the list… at least for now. I’m working on the second book in my Winners’ Circle Trilogy – a fabulous Greek hero, his beautiful heroine and their very unexpected one night baby! 




Author Pippa Roscoe

Mills & Boon author Pippa Roscoe lives in Norfolk near her family and makes daily promises that this will be the day she will leave the computer and take a long walk in the countryside. She can’t remember a time when she wasn’t dreaming of gorgeous alpha males and misunderstood heroines. Totally her mother’s fault of course—she gave Pippa her first romance to read at the age of seven! She is inconceivably happy that she gets to share those daydreams with her readers. 

Thanks to author Pippa Roscoe for the interview. And now, the book:


Conquering His Virgin Queen by author Pippa Roscoe. Published by HM&B
USA Edition








Six months ago, their marriage ended…

He has twelve hours to claim her back!

Odir Farouk is about to become king—but to take his throne, he needs his errant wife by his side! Odir denied his hunger for Eloise, refusing to compromise power for passion. His rejection drove her away. Now Odir has until news of his succession breaks to win back his queen…and pleasure will be his most powerful weapon!



UK Edition


Read Reader Reviews
Buy on:
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New Release: Throwing The Light by KA Servian

MBB welcomes the exciting new author KA Servian to the blog today. After a twenty-plus-year career in the applied arts industry, including owning her own fashion and jewellery labels, this author, who is otherwise known as Kathy, decided to turn her creative skills to writing fiction. Her first novel, Peak Hill, was a finalist in the Romance Writers of New Zealand Pacific Hearts Full Manuscript contest in 2016. She now squeezes full-time study for an advanced diploma in applied writing in around writing novels and short stories, teaching sewing and pattern making and being a wife and mother.

K A Servian on the web:
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Join K A Servian’s Newsletterand get a free copy of: Missing the Obvious.


Keeping the pages turning……….

To create and maintain suspense and tension in a story, Try taking the complete plot outline, breaking it into pieces which hold the main plot points and then drip feeding those pieces to the reader. It’s vital to never give away too much too soon. Drop hints and throw in the odd red herring to keep them guessing, that’s what makes the reader keep turning pages.

I’ve done a lot of beta reading and I find that one of the most common mistakes rooky writers make is to ‘mind dump’. They don’t trust the reader’s ability to fill in the gaps for themselves. I used to do it too and forcing myself not to is an ongoing battle.

Try and think of your writing as a sketch. A skilled artist can render a beautiful image using only a few well-placed lines. They allow the viewer to fill in the gaps in the image with their mind. It’s the same with writing, use a light touch, only say what you need to and don’t weigh the story down with too much information. If the reader must wade through pages of backstory, character self-analysis and soap-boxing the suspense and tension will be lost. 


Throwing Light

Grace is trying to come to terms with her mother’s death and handle the unexpected arrival of her ex-boyfriend when a mystery document she finds in a box in the attic turns her life on its head and raises questions she is compelled to answer.

In her search for the truth, she stumbles into the middle of a missing person cold case in a small town where the inhabitants have kept a secret to protect one of their own for twenty-five years. Grace’s investigation unearths long-held rivalries and opens old wounds, causing the past to collide with the present with terrifying results. 


Buy on:

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Spotlight on THE FIRE TRILOGY by author Devika Fernando

Check out the contest alert below

BOOK ONE : PLAYING WITH FIRE 

If you’re playing with fire, prepare to get burned – or to fall in love.
Sparks fly when Felicia and Joshua meet. Discovering her inner fire and unleashing unimaginable powers makes her realize that all her life, she has been hiding her true self. When buildings burn and people are in danger, the tempting game of playing with fire becomes serious. Will their love and desperate struggle for control save her life, or will the fire magic turn itself against its mistress?
BOOK TWO : DANCING WITH FIRE

When a fire witch and an ice wizard flee to Iceland to build a new life, they never expect the one thing that could tear them apart – Kyle, adding his own magic into the mix. Felicia starts questioning everything they have. She is torn between the man who loves her but is her polar opposite, and the man who attracts her but means nothing but trouble. 
As if her confusing emotions weren’t enough, Felicia finds her life turned upside down when a terrifying natural disaster threatens the end of the country and the entire world. 
 
Will she be able to control her gift and play the part that is expected of her? Will she give in to temptation or will she save the world? 
BUY @
BOOK THREE : LIVING WITH FIRE

When a fire witch and an ice wizard flee to Iceland to build a new life, they never expect the one thing that could tear them apart – Kyle, adding his own magic into the mix. Felicia starts questioning everything they have. She is torn between the man who loves her but is her polar opposite, and the man who attracts her but means nothing but trouble. 
As if her confusing emotions weren’t enough, Felicia finds her life turned upside down when a terrifying natural disaster threatens the end of the country and the entire world. 
 
Will she be able to control her gift and play the part that is expected of her? Will she give in to temptation or will she save the world? 
BUY @
AN EXCERPT – FROM LIVING WITH FIRE


Joshua was gaping at her, his mouth opening and closing silently like a fish out of water. There was a sudden increase in icy coldness, and he froze into a statue, his face now expressionless and his eyes drawn and unfathomable as always when he was deeply distressed or too emotional for his own good. “Can you hear yourself? You sound like some fatalistic, maniacal sect member or the leader of a dangerously foolish occult movement,” he said with that unnerving, neutral calm of his. To cover up the disappointment and hurt and anger at his reaction, Felicia threw her head back and laughed coldly, mirthlessly. She tossed her hair over one shoulder, stood up straight and stared into his eyes. “Thanks for the suggestion. I think I’d rather like that. An occult movement revolving around the power of fire. I’ll be the terrifying fire goddess ruling mercilessly, with everyone falling at their feet and offering me their heart on a platter. I’ll make the world burn until it puts the sun to shame. Want to stick around and watch, snowman?” As soon as the words had left her mouth, she wanted to take them back. What had she just said? This wasn’t her, this wasn’t normal, this wasn’t right! This was her Joshua she was wounding and repelling…and yet, she would not take the words back. Didn’t she have every right to behave like this? The choice is yours. Rise and shine. Go out and rule! The voice inside her mind was so powerful she half thought she had spoken the words out loud. Beside her, Kyle was cackling and clapping his hands, and her fire dragon was turning cartwheels a little ahead. There was so much heat around her, inside her. It needed out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds – something that influences her writing. Her trademark is writing sweet and sensual, deeply emotional romance stories where the characters actually fall in love instead of merely falling in lust.
What she loves most about being an author is the chance to create new worlds and send her protagonists on a journey full of ups and downs that will leave them changed. She draws inspiration from everyone and everything in life. Besides being a romance novel author, Devika is a faithful servant to all the cats and dogs she has adopted. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or thinking about writing. 
Contest Alert !!!

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Sally Clements – Back with a SNOWBOUND SUMMER

MBB welcomes Sally Clements.  She’s back with another lovely story for us.  I always enjoy Sally’s romances, they have such compulsive storylines and insightful writing.  I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her latest release and to feature SNOWBOUND SUMMER here. The review will be appearing soon here, so please look out for it.

Sally Clements on the Web:

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Sally, does writing become easier as time goes by?  Or harder? 
In one way, writing becomes easier, because having had a lot of practise, I make less grammatical mistakes. In another way, it is more difficult to come up with interesting ideas to write about!

Tell me how you got the inspiration for your latest book.
My latest book is book 3 of my Logan series – Nick Logan made a fleeting appearance in book one, and has been brewing in my mind for a long time. As Nick is a vet, I wanted to include an animal in the book, and I also wanted to write a story about a best friend’s big sister, so when Summer popped into my head, and the idea of being snowbound, it all came together really quickly.

How long did it take you to write?
Snowbound Summer has been my fastest written book to date – I think because I have started to use dictation software as well as just typing – it took around 6 weeks to write and then was off to my editor.

Please give me a Tweet-sized summary (140 characters)
Snowbound with the one woman he can’t fall for…


So what’s next?
Next is book 4 in the Logan series – Stealing Gold. Stealing Gold is the last Logan brothers’ book, featuring Adam Logan, ex husband to country singer Stacey Gold. He’s going to steal her back.. After that, I will be writing the last Logan series book, which is Amy Logan’s story.



SNOWBOUND SUMMER

Summer in the snow… 
Restaurant owner Summer Costello, reeling from recent failures in her perfect life, is hiding out in her childhood home. When she finds an injured dog outside in a snowstorm, she calls the local vet, who turns out to be her younger brother Declan’s best friend, gorgeous Nick Logan. 
She’s his secret crush–no woman Nick’s dated has matched up to the fantasy of being with Summer, the woman who blazed out of Brookbridge for a new life in London years ago. Now, a dog needs his aid, and despite treacherous conditions he drives out to help. She’ll be there with her boyfriend, and surely his infatuation will have burned itself out? 
Stranded in a snowstorm, Summer sizzles with attraction for the man Nick has become. And when Summer confides her long-term relationship is over, and suggests a clandestine fling, is there any way Nick can resist her, even though she’s the one woman Declan warned him to keep away from? 

GET THIS BOOK HERE:  Amazon     Amazon UK  iTunes   Kobo   Barnes & Noble

Guest Post: Welcome Author Libby Mercer

Today, I’d like to welcome author Libby Mercer.  Libby’s second novel ‘Unmasking Maya’ has just been published.  Libby has written a guest post especially for this blog, in which she shares the story of an old love of hers, one that unfortunately got away.  Who knows, this hero just might make it into the pages of one of her romance novels one day.  And you never know, reunion stories make great romance stories.  So, take it away Libby….
My Real Life Romantic Hero
Confession time: I’m a bit of a cliché. I sit around dreaming up romantic scenarios and fleshing them out in the form of love stories, but I am, in fact, a card-carrying singleton. I even have two cats!
Despite my current situation, I haven’t always been single. I’m still waiting for “the one” but among the not-terribly-interesting scenarios in which I met my various exes, there is one that stands out as very memorable. Magical even.
I was at Brit Pop Night at a club in New York when I saw a super hot guy on his own. Needless to say, I’d already had a few drinks because I marched right over to him and gave him my most charming smile. “Are you gay?” I asked. Perplexed, he said no in an accent I wasn’t able to identify.  “Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked.  He replied in the negative.  So far, so good.   “Do you find me hideous?” I asked. He laughed and said no, he didn’t find me hideous. “Would you like to dance?” I asked. Luckily he did, and we danced (and flirted and kissed) until the club closed at three or four in the morning.
His name was Vagos (actually a nickname for Evangelos) and he was Greek. Super sexy, super tall, chiseled cheekbones, ink black eyes and all. We exchanged numbers and within days we’d embarked upon a fabulously exciting romance. My sister remarked on the dreamy, faraway look in my eyes when I told her about him. And when I was on the phone with him when he was at work, his boss grabbed the phone and asked if I was the Scottish girl who gave him that goofy grin. I’m definitely not Scottish, but Vagos called me his Scottish Girl because of my red hair, freckles and pale skin. All systems were in place for our happily ever after, but after two short months, our romance was nipped in the bud by the American government.
It was 2001, and when Vagos went home for Christmas, they wouldn’t let him back into the US. He’d been lax about renewing his visa, which hadn’t been a problem before 9/11, but afterwards, that was obviously not the case. He had an attorney in Athens trying to sort out his paperwork, but then the Greek navy came for him. It’s mandatory for all Greek men to serve in the navy, but Vagos had managed to avoid that while earning his degrees and working abroad. Once he was home and not working, he had no choice but to serve his time. We talked on the phone a lot for a few months afterwards, but our communication began to taper off and we’ve since lost touch.
I’ve often wondered what ever happened to Vagos (he’s not on Facebook. Believe me, I’ve checked. Haha) but I do know that I will one day model one of my romantic heroes after him. Apart from the fact that he looked the part (did I mention he was a hottie?) even though we only dated for a couple of months, he was more supportive of my writing than any of my other more long-term exes, hands down. In fact, I promised to bring him to the Academy Awards as my date when I was nominated for Best Screenplay. We talked about that a lot. I plan to one day honor the memory of that short but sweet romance by immortalizing him in my fiction. I only wish I could somehow let him know about it.
Unmasking Maya
Fresh from a career-killing scandal, New York fashion girl, Maya Kirkwood, arrives in San Francisco to reinvent herself as a fine artist. She’s offered the opportunity to create an installation at the Silicon Valley headquarters of a hot new tech company. Fabulous, right?

Not so much.

She can’t stand Derek Whitley – wunderkind software genius and CEO of the company. Hot as he may be on the outside, inside the man is a cold, unemotional, robotic type. Way too left-brained for her right-brained self.

As Maya and Derek get to know each other, however, their facades begin to crack. She catches her first glimpse of the man behind the superhuman tech prodigy, and he starts to see her as the woman she used to be. But is this a good thing? Once that last secret is revealed, will it bring them closer together or will it tear them apart?

Click here for Desere’s review.

Buy Links:  Amazon  

Libby on the Web:

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