Extra Type: Author Notes

When my editor asked if I wanted to participate in a multi-author trilogy around a diamond shop, I said, “Yes, please!”

I love when I get to connect with author friends. Maya Blake and Emmy Grayson are both exactly as wonderful as you can imagine and we had some fun conversations around how the diamond shop would be accessed and the level of security and what sorts of shenanigans could happen there to ruin our characters’ lives.

In my case, Saint (who does not live up to his name) purchases a pair of earrings for Fliss after their very passionate night together. He met her at a gala that she attended on a stolen invitation. When the earrings are misdirected, their affair is exposed and Fliss has to hide from the paparazzi.

Given the scandal, she doesn’t want to see him again, but she has to when she realizes she’s pregnant. The twist? When she tells him, she says she only wants him to deny he’s the father so she can raise the baby alone and in peace.

Saint, who does not live up to his name, has to decide: Will he take the easy way out or do the right thing?

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After writing the first story in this duet, The Baby His Secretary Carries, I had worked out all of Sasha’s backstory and most of her front story with Rafael. He was still a bit of a mystery, but he was chasing business with the hero from the first book, Gio, so I knew a lot about him.

It made this one of the quickest books I’ve every written and, honestly, it could have been about thirty thousand words longer. There is so much story here. They are such a wonderful couple with so much more I could have explored. I really hurt for Sasha and I adore how Rafael learns to see her and care for her and love her.

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After he gets over how mad he is that she fakes amnesia.

Yeah, I went all the way over the top with writing The Secret of Their Billion-dollar Baby and loved every second of it. I hope you get a kick out of reading it.

You don’t have to read The Baby His Secretary Carries before you read this one, but you’ll probably want to.

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I write a lot of secret baby books and I’m always looking for a fresh angle so, when my editor asked if I was interested in writing a duet and “one of them with a baby” I said, “Sure. I’m thinking of a surrogate?”

This was long before I began writing the book so all I was thinking was that there are two stories to tell–the woman who surrogates and the couple who are the parents.

When I dug into it, I had to consider why Molly would volunteer to carry a pregnancy. I came up with her wanting to repay her friend who placed her own baby for adoption with Molly’s family, but now has fertility issues. And yes, I did learn that doctors typically don’t work with surrogates who haven’t already carried a successful pregnancy, but this is romance and the father of the baby is stinking rich so Molly is pregnant with a baby that is not hers. He also paid very well for her to keep it super-secret for reasons that are explained in Book Two.

Then I had to figure out who she falls for and how that pregnancy gets in the way of her romance.

Along came Gio, her boss, a sexy Italian whose grandfather is ill and his only wish is that Gio would marry and give him an heir. When Gio finds out his very efficient P.A. is pregnant, he’s shocked–and very curious who the father might be. He also sees an opportunity to give his grandfather his dying wish. He talks Molly into posing as his fiancée.

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She goes along with it because it’s an old man’s dying wish… Except he doesn’t die and Gio keeps kissing her and things get very complicated.

These turned into very big stories in very sexy, fast-paced books, but I had so much fun writing them. I hope you love The Baby His Secretary Carries and its companion story, The Secret of Their Billion-dollar Baby.

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This book started with an editor saying, “I’m looking for a Western romcom, maybe with a hero with kids.” I said, “What about a mail order bride?” She said, “Sure.”

So I wrote a few chapters, not sure I could even write a book set in old-timey times. Her reaction? “Where’s the rest?”

That was in mid-2020. The book probably would have come out sooner if I’d finished it that year, but life and pandemic and loss got in the way.

Some good things got in the way, though. My daughter said, “I was reading about divorce in the 1800’s…” and I instantly knew my heroine should be divorced. That meant I had to research divorce law, which was different in every state. I also learned about passenger pigeons and the Oregon trail, revolvers and cholera, and how gold was used as currency. (Sometimes gold dust was stored in goose quills.)

That’s all fun window dressing to a story about a grumpy hero who doesn’t know how to father his children, but learns to show the love he hides beneath his gruff manners. The heroine finds agency and acceptance among the colourful miners of the frontier and gets the family she always longed for along with a husband who really, truly loves her.

I’m so thrilled with how this book turned out. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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After writing the intense, intertwined quartet of Four Weddings and a Baby, I was ready for a simple, stand-alone story. Something over-the-top and sexy and wild.

I had pitched my editor on a royal and a beauty queen. The only other thing I had was a vision of the heroine swimming for her life and landing like a mermaid at the hero’s feet.

That isn’t exactly how this one plays out, but it’s close. Claudine is lured onto a yacht by Felipe’s evil twin and she has to escape him.

She makes it to Felipe’s private island where he falls in love with her on sight, but of course he doesn’t recognize it because his family is terrible. He wouldn’t know love if it threw sand in his eyes, which Claudine does.

If you love glamor and betrayal and secrets and an old-fashioned duel, I hope you’ll let Awakened on Her Royal Wedding Night sweep you away.

When I started planning Four Weddings and a Baby, I knew there would be a wedding that was crashed by the groom’s secret baby. I literally got out my pink and blue index cards and started matching everyone:

• Book 1: Groom with Secret Baby Mama (Cinderella’s Secret Baby)
• Book 2: Bride with Best Man (Wedding Night with the Wrong Billionaire)
• Book 3: Brother of Bride (who is standing in for Father of Bride) with Maid of Honour (A Convenient Ring to Claim Her)

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Then I got to Book 4 where the groom’s sister will fall for the Secret Baby Mama’s brother. Makes sense, right? Except, when I started writing, Vienna was already married (to a jerk.) Amelia’s brother was missing.

These are the problems I set up for myself. By the end of book one, I knew Jasper was alive and Vienna was secretly divorcing. I had a good idea why she has been playing the Good Girl for far too long, but I didn’t have a handle on Jasper until I delved into what had happened to him while he was absent.

They’re both suffering some ‘Am I good enough?’ twinges and Vienna didn’t even think she could get pregnant, so it’s your average pair of messy people trying to make it work. #SpoilerAlert: they eventually do and they’re wonderful together.

All of the books in my Four Weddings and a Baby series stand alone, but if you love interconnected stories and a visit with three other couples living their HEA, you’ll want to read the others first. Otherwise, jump right in to: A Baby to Make Her His Bride. Happy reading!

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Quinn and Micah turned into one of my favorite couples ever. They hold the distinction of being my *second* manuscript accepted without revisions.

They have one of my very favorite dynamics–they are horribly in love with each other and cannot see it. They are convinced they are having a convenient affair, that they are very wrong for one another, and think they kind of hate the other. And that the other one hates them.

At the same time, they have the power to devastate one another (and do!) Then they also are compelled to rush to the other’s side when their world turns upside down.

I don’t want to give too much away on this one. It’s book three in my Four Weddings and a Baby quartet. You don’t have to read the first two to figure out what’s going on with this pair, but if you like rich world building, you’ll want to read:

Book 1: Cinderella’s Secret Baby
Book 2: Wedding Night with the Wrong Billionaire
Book 3: A Convenient Ring to Claim Her
Book 4: A Baby to Make Her His Bride

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When I first began structuring this series, I knew the first book would be a secret baby ruining a wedding. (See Cinderella’s Secret Baby.)

I liked the idea of the second one being the jilted bride running away with the best man, but that’s one of those ideas that looks great as a one-line pitch, but when it comes time to execute, I had to ask myself why she runs away with him. How well does she know him? Were they actually involved in the past? Then why did he let her almost marry his best friend? It’s very tricky!

Pretty soon I realized there would have to be a family feud, something that makes it near impossible for them to be together no matter how strongly they’re drawn. It made for all sorts of lovely angst as these two star-crossed lovers (Yep, they became loves the minute they got the chance) as they try to resist what is fated for them. Also, it help me set up the third book, about the bride’s half-brother and the maid-of-honor (Yay!)

Five years ago, Remy kissed Eden in Paris only to have Eden’s brother break them apart. He told her Remy was using her to get at him. She was young, impressionable, heartbroken, and hasn’t felt the same for any man since.

Remy didn’t know Eden was related to the Gould family, but he’s carrying a family secret they can never learn. Five years after their one passionate kiss, he still hasn’t forgotten her. It took all his strength to stand by as she prepares to marry his best friend, but when the wedding falls apart, it’s his one chance to catch her.

I hope you enjoy this series of weddings, secrets, drama, more weddings, and yes, at least one baby!

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When I pitched this concept, I knew it would have a wedding interrupted by the groom learning he has a baby by another woman. I knew the bride would then fall for the best man and the rest of the wedding party would find love.

As I was chatting it out with my editor, I said, “I could put a wedding in all four books and we could play on Four Weddings and a Funeral.”

Welcome to Four Weddings and a Baby!

In this first book, Hunter’s arranged marriage falls apart when Amelia’s father crashes the society wedding to reveal Hunter is a father. Hunter recognizes Amelia as the waitress he slept with once last summer–in fact, she’s been impossible to forget–but why did she wait until now to tell him?

I wanted to use a lot of Canadian settings so I staged the wedding in a vineyard at Niagara-on-the-Lake. They quickly return to Toronto, then are whisked to Banff for their honeymoon and settle in Hunter’s North Vancouver mansion. And of course there is the wonderful Cinderella aspect of Amelia being unprepared for Hunter’s lavish lifestyle. Don’t worry, she rises to the occasion while he rises to the responsibilities of fatherhood.

I love this pair. They’re strangers who are stuck in a tough situation, but they love their baby and are kind to one another. Amelia is cheeky and vulnerable and steely when she has to be. Hunter falls for her like a ton of bricks (even though he swore he wouldn’t!)

Happy reading!

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You’ll notice that I write a lot of linked books, which I love, but occasionally I like to write one that stands alone. I knew I would be starting Four Weddings and a Baby next so I wanted to keep this one simple. (I always think it will be simple.)

It wound up with a complicated back story, as usual, but a good old-fashioned enemies-to-lovers has built-in conflict. Ilona is very sweet and very self-protect and Leander really lets her down at the wedding. (I love that awful, awful scene.)

I didn’t know how she would flower into such a strong heroine, one who outsmarts Leander in the best possible way, but I was so proud of her when she did! And I love that Leander finds his own way past darkness and thirst for vengeance to love and Happily Ever After. Enjoy!