Extra Type: Author Notes

Read | Buy

When I wrote Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation, I was dying to explore Luca’s relationship with his sister more. You don’t sacrifice a throne for someone who isn’t worthy so I wanted to know her better.

Thankfully, my editor suggested I write this novella where Sofia reacts to Luca’s scandal and takes the throne. And thankfully, I had had her make what I thought was a throw-away comment about sitting in a hotel room worried about a possible pregnancy. When did that happen? Who was the potential father?

Read

I got to answer all those questions in this very fast-paced novella. I hope you enjoy it!

Read | Buy

I’ve written a few duets and the challenge is always to find two stories that are complimentary, take place in the same world, but are different enough to be interesting.

It’s especially hard when the main characters are siblings or, in this case, identical twins. In Book One, Married for One Reason Only, Oriel knows she’s adopted. When she learned the truth about her birth mother, it’s a shock, but she’s always had questions in the back of her mind.

Read | Buy

When I came to write Nina’s story, I needed a fresh angle. Even though she knows of Oriel and has been told she looks like her, it never occurs to her to think, “Maybe she’s my twin.” As far as Nina knows, she is a blood relation to the family she’s always known. Once she learns she was given to strangers in secret, her entire sense of self is shaken.

And even though she and Reve ended their brief affair on a very sour note, she barges back into his life as hers is falling apart. He’s very cynical and guarded, but he couldn’t help but step in and step up to help her–which endeared him to me so much! I hope you love him as much as I do.

I hope you enjoy the unraveling of the mystery in my Secret Sisters duet!

Read | Buy

For a long time, I had a phrase on my whiteboard that read Secret Royal Baby Twins. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it until my editor asked if I had any duet ideas and I started to pitch that to her.

But I was coming off of Ways to Ruin a Royal Reputation and I wasn’t ready to invent another fictitious kingdom (or two.)

My brain hopped around other types of pseudo-royalty–Hollywood? Bollywood. I was picturing a beloved Julie Andrews type of actor who couldn’t possibly have a baby out of wedlock without losing her career. At least, her manager convinces her that she will be ruined if she does. Of course, he’s more worried about his own golden egg, but he whisks Lakshmi to a discrete clinic in Europe to have her baby and pressures her to give it up. She winds up needing surgery and he forges her signature while she’s unconscious. The baby is gone when she wakes up.

Read | Buy

I wish I could tell you how hard I laughed when I began telling my husband about this premise. He was very supportive and said, “Well, that has lots of meat. You can–”

“Wait,” I said. “There’s a second baby.”

He was so taken aback he staggered into the cupboard, saying, “Whaat?” It was priceless. I mean, it’s a duet, dude. Of course there’s a second baby.

Read | Buy

This first book, however, is about the baby everyone knows about. Except they don’t. Oriel knows she was adopted, but she was given misinformation. She’s shocked when Vijay turns up as an emissary for her birth family–especially since they had a one-night affair and she’s just discovered she’s pregnant!

I hope you enjoy all the twists and turns and surprises in my Secret Sisters duet. Be sure to read Manhattan’s Most Scandalous Reunion for the story of the double-secret twin, Nina.

Read | Buy

The germ of this idea began when a reader asked if I had written any Canadian heroes. I knew my next book would be set in Asia and that made me start thinking about our huge population of Chinese Canadians in Vancouver.

At first, I thought Jun Li would be Canadian, but we also have a huge number of foreign students of all ages who come to study in Canada and I liked the idea of him having come over quite young. He was homesick and accosted by culture shock and never really enjoyed his time in Canada. This made for a nice contrast with Ivy who is a second generation Chinese Canadian who regards Vancouver as home.

The larger conflict is, of course, the fact she gets pregnant after he told her he had a vasectomy. What I loved most about this idea was the flip of an unplanned pregnancy. Ivy is definitely reeling from the shock, but so is Jun Li. He really feels ambushed by the news and by his sudden paternal instincts which he absolutely never expected to experience.

From there, they’re strangers trying to get through the first weeks of marriage and a very serious pregnancy complication, taking their time realizing they are actually perfect for one another. I hope you enjoy their journey to HEA!

Read | Buy

I can’t take credit for the wonderful set up in this book. My editor asked if I’d like to be part of a trilogy with two other authors (the incomparable Clair Connelly and the tremendously talented Tara Pammi.

I always say YES! to these opportunities. Writing is a lonely business so having an excuse to email my writing pals and call it ‘work’ is awesome.

The project was pitched as ‘three friends from boarding school now run a wildly successful PR firm called London Connection.’ It sounded like a hoot and it’s always nice to be presented with an outline for a story rather than stumbling through on my best by golly. I’ve always enjoyed the stories I’ve been assigned, but this one was particularly fun.

Luca is very restrained and Amy is outgoing and sparky and blurts out some of the worst things at the very worst time. I had a riot with that and hope you enjoy the sundial scene especially. ~wink!~

Alas, I’m back to writing alone in my fortress of literature, but Clare, Tara and I–like our heroines–will always have London Connection.

Read | Buy

Way back in my pre-published days, I had an idea for a story where the heroine was stuck in a country she couldn’t leave without a male relative to escort her.

In that iteration, I imagined the hero posing as her husband or maybe they got married under forced conditions–I still want to write that story. But in this one, I decided Leon and Tanja would be married, but estranged. They haven’t spoken in five years, but he suddenly gets the news that she needs him and he swoops in to rescue her.

I was in the middle of writing that delightfully dramatic opening when a baby began to cry in the other room. Not here in my house, but there in that storybook bungalow where everyone’s nerves were already balanced on a knife’s edge.

There was Leon thinking he only had to get Tanja free of these rebel forces, then they could get their overdue divorce and move on with their separate lives. He hasn’t seen her in five years so he knows darned well that the baby she brings out and claims is his isn’t.

Being a true hero, he gets both of them off of the remote island, but that’s only the beginning of their adventure. I hope you enjoy their reunion and gentle fall into becoming the family they all need.

Read | Buy

I don’t love the premise of any woman being called an ugly duckling, but I adore a heroine who feels like an odd duck. I think we all feel like that at one time or another, so I loved the idea that Hannah has felt out of place all her life. She doesn’t fit fashion-magazine ideas of beauty, she’s very smart and was bullied for it as a child. She became a librarian because libraries were always a safe space for her. When her grandmother dies, she decides to quit waiting for Prince Charming and make her own happily ever after with a Happiness List. Her first item of business is getting pregnant at a clinic.

Through the magic of modern storytelling (Mills and Boon Modern–wink!) she does get pregnant by Prince Charming. Sadly he dies and his brother, the very grumpy Prince Akin, shows up to inform her that she’s carrying the next king of Baaqi. This is not on Hannah’s list, but she had little choice. Fortunately, she is an irrepressibly cheerful person who is determined to make the best of a difficult spouse. Akin doesn’t stand a chance!

I had so much fun writing this story. I hope you fall for Hannah and Akin as hard and fast as I did.

Fun Fact: I’ve wanted to get my Princess/Sheikha wives together for a long time and this one gathers them for a couple of scenes. Look for a visit with Fern and Zafir from The Sheikh’s Sinful Seduction, Galila and Karim from Sheikh’s Princess of Convenience, and Angelique and Kasim from Pursued by the Desert Prince.

Read | Buy

Back in 2005, still seven years before I sold my first book, I saw a documentary called Murderball about wheelchair rugby. The men were hardcore alpha males, very athletic and confident and full of testosterone.

My first thought was that ‘someone’ should write a hero like that because they were really sexy, but I didn’t see myself as up to the task. I hadn’t even sold a book yet and I was still playing things very safe.

Fast forward to 2019 and I watched the new season of Veronica Mars. Spoiler alert, the ending sucked. I was so annoyed, I decided to rewrite that ending more palatably where, instead of her husband dying, my hero, Giovanni, fakes his death. Freja suspects he’s alive and is trying to flush him out to prove it. When he surfaces, there’s built-in conflict because she’s furious he let her believe for one second that he was actually dead.

So I pitched it to my editor while pitching some other stories and I actually said, “I’ve always wanted to do a James Bond sexy spy-guy so maybe this hero could be an ambassador or something and does secret spy stuff and fakes his death and what do you think?”

She told me to run with it, but shortly thereafter, asked if I’d ever thought of doing a character in a wheelchair. I thought of those Murderball guys, but writing an athlete hero in a wheelchair was a ‘one day’ aspiration. Maybe I’d think about it for a future book, but it wouldn’t fit for this book. This hero was a super spy-guy who fakes his death. Murderball hero would have to wait.

Except, once I asked myself, “Why can’t super spy-guy be in a wheelchair?” I was sunk. Because I couldn’t think of a reason he couldn’t be sexy and a spy and dynamic and a Sicilian tycoon…and also happen to be in a wheelchair.

And Freja is his perfect match. She’s sharp and tough and funny and sweet. I hope you adore both of them as much as I do.

Read | Buy

I was secretly calling this duet the Brother’s Grim even before my editor asked if I could give it a Beauty and the Beast spin, but I was so happy to!

Javiero was supposed to be the ‘good’ brother. The one who was honourable and devoted to his family and the legitimate heir. His mother was briefly married to Javiero’s father, Niko, until she learned that Niko’s mistress was pregnant with Val from A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him. Val, for all his darkness, is fallen angel beautiful. Javiero was always compared to his brother and found wanting in the looks department. Now not even ruggedly handsome. He’s disfigured and people are keeping their children away from him.

Read | Buy

Scarlett is a beauty, inside and out, but she doesn’t feel it. She had a rough childhood and she has worked really hard to help her family, but they still behave in ways that make her feel her background is a blight on her character. Between that and the move to Spain and the new baby, she catches a bad case of the baby blues and feels even worse about herself.

I wanted to include postpartum depression because it’s real. It happens to lots of women. If you or someone you know is struggling as a new mom, you can read more about postpartum depression here.

I won’t spoil the end, but I will say that Scarlett does help break the spell that has left Javiero embittered most of his life. I hope you enjoy their story!

Read | Buy

When I first conceived of this–conceived. Ha!–I knew I wanted a pair of heroes who were brothers, but rivals. They shared a father, but had had some kind of falling out with him. Somehow, that father had found out both of these men had impregnated women. He secretly brought the heroines to live with him and made their babies his heirs. I knew the heroes would discover this after their father’s death. I thought maybe the heroins would be his housekeeper and his nurse or something.

When Kiara hit the page, however, she came with paint brushes and canvases and dreams. After a brief affair with Val (who up and got married shortly after their night together) she was staring at giving up her artistic aspirations because she was pregnant. Enter Niko. He gave this orphan the security she longed for, a limitless future for her child, and a studio to call her own. All she had to do was wait until he died before telling Val he was a father.

It was an offer she couldn’t resist!

Val, however, has good reasons to hold a grudge against his father and when Niko dies, and he learns that Kiara kept his child secret for three years, he isn’t prepared to forgive easily. Did I mention he’s the illegitimate brother and and determined to live down to his label of ‘bastard’?

Kiara has a challenge on her hands, but fortunately, she’s adept at making a masterpiece out of raw materials.