New release: Last of the Summer Vines

I continuously remind ROSA members that they can use this blog to promote their new releases, but my own release day came and went and I didn't even think to post about it here! So, to set a good example for all our members, today I'm talking about my book Last of the Summer Vines, which released two weeks ago.

This wasn't a book I planned to write. I'd written a book set behind the scenes on a television series (which won't surprise readers of my previous books) and had just started work on its sequel. But I was struggling to find a home for the completed book, and with each passing month my motivation for writing died a little more. It's hard to write a sequel, no matter how passionate you are about it, when every agent or publisher you query rejects the first book in the series.

Thank heavens for my lovely editor at HarperImpulse, Charlotte Ledger. Though my new books were very different from the kinds of books HarperImpulse were currently publishing, she agreed to read it and give me feedback - and then she gave me the best gift ever: she suggested I write something completely different.

Charlotte suggested I write the kind of book that's currently selling really well in the UK, books I'd taken to calling 'cosy teashop' books. These are gentle books, in which the heroine leaves the big city to rediscover herself in a simpler, country setting - and they usually involve lots of tempting food. Charlotte also suggested Tuscany as a setting. And so I started researching both the genre and the setting. And through researching and then writing this book, I rediscovered my passion for writing again.

Last of the Summer Vines is now on sale, and the reviews that are coming in are very encouraging. But they are just the cherry on the top, because even if no one else likes this book, it's achieved a miracle in my life. It inspired me again, and showed me new possibilities for my career - all the things that the book's heroine, Sarah Wells, discovers when she spends a summer in Tuscany.

I don't expect readers to experience any life-altering revelations while reading Last of the Summer Vines. But if you read this book and get swept away for a few hours, then my joy will be complete.


Love grows where you least expect to find it…

When ambitious workaholic Sarah Wells discovers she has inherited her estranged father’s vineyard near Montalcino in Tuscany, the last thing she wants is to take time away from her busy schedule to sort out a crumbling mess of a palazzo. But, of course, life never runs smoothly and when she makes a rare error, her bosses decide a holiday is just what she needs.

When Sarah arrives in Italy, she learns that she is not her father’s sole heir. In fact, she only has a partial stake in Castel Sant’ Angelo because of a loophole in Italian law. Her father has left the vineyard instead to his business partner, the gorgeous and infuriating Tommaso Di Biasi – and Tomasso doesn’t want to sell.

At first, Sarah wants the deal done as quickly as possible so she can get back to her life in London, but it seems Italy has other plans for her. Under the warmth of the Tuscan sun, with a glass or two of the local vino rosso, and brooding Tommaso challenging her all the way, Sarah starts to realise that that there might just be something to la dolce vita…

Last of the Summer Vines is available from Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.

Vote for your favourite Bachelor

Please come join in the Bachelor Auction on the Harper Impulse blog to let us know which of the secondary characters from my previous books you'd most like to see get his own book:

The Bachelor Auction

Excerpt Sunday: Waking up in Vegas

What happens in Vegas…
Waking up to the bright lights of Vegas in an unfamiliar penthouse suite, cocktail waitress Phoenix Montgomery finds she’s covered from head to foot in gold glitter and not alone – aside from the empty bottle of champagne, there’s a mystery man in the shower and a huge sparkly ring on her finger!

Stays in Vegas?
There’s no denying Max Waldburg’s demi-god sex appeal but commitment-phobic Phoenix doesn’t do relationships. Only it seems her new husband (agh!) has other ideas…he’s trying to keep that ring on her finger and his wife firmly back in his bed. The only question on her lips is – why? Or maybe, why not?

* * *

“Since I’m obviously at the disadvantage here, I don’t suppose we could speed this up a little? Like full name, place of birth, age, job description?” The reason why I married a complete stranger?
He eyed her for a long moment and she resisted the urge to squirm. For a mad second she thought he was weighing something up and deciding how much to tell her. God, she hoped he wasn’t a con man. That would be awkward if she was left with the bill for this fancy suite. She didn’t think her life savings would stretch to breakfast, let alone a night in this hotel.
Then he smiled, mouth wide, eyes crinkling, and her heart thundered against her chest. With a smile like that, it was amazing he was still single. Well, single enough to marry her, of course.
Assuming he wasn’t some Mormon with three wives back home. Was bigamy legal here in Nevada?
“Max Waldburg. I was born in a tiny principality in Europe you won’t have heard of, my age is on our marriage contract, and I work for my grandfather on his farm.”
Farm. Napa. Something clicked. “A vineyard. You make wine.”
“I’m a vintner, yes. Five years of studying viticulture, and a whole lot more as an apprentice to my grandfather, and the critics say I’m getting quite good at it.”
He reached for her hand, and this time she didn’t push him away. His touch was more than a caress; it was as if she stood in a rainbow, in a shaft of sunlight on a cold day.
“You’ll love it there. The farmhouse has a wrap-around veranda and a kitchen the size of forever. You can stand at the front door and look out over the entire valley and see nothing but vines and trees. At sunset, it’s truly magical.”
She’d married a poet. That figured. She always managed to attract men with very little grasp on reality.

Waking up in Vegas is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and All Romance eBooks.

Excerpt from 'The Trouble with Mojitos'

This week's excerpt is from the ideal summer holiday read, The Trouble with Mojitos.

For those headed back to work tomorrow, this light-hearted romance will help keep that holiday vibe going. For those of you still on holiday... Shush, I don't want to hear it!

 * * *

Juan brought two big earthenware platters to their table, filled with huge grilled lobsters, shelled and fresh from the barbecue, served on a bed of rice.
Kenzie licked her lips. “And what are these?” she asked, pointing at her plate.
“Plantain chips. They’re like bananas – sweet.” Rik lifted one off his plate and held it to her lips.
Her gaze held his for a fraction of a second before she opened her mouth and took a bite.
“Are you flirting with me?” she asked, once she’d swallowed it down. He was right, it was sweet. Better than plain old potato chips back home.
“Of course. Isn’t that what one does when on a date with a beautiful woman?”
She choked on the plantain chip. “This isn’t a date!”
“It isn’t?” His eyes held that dangerous glitter again. “Dinner, moonlight, pretty woman...sure looks like a date to me.”
“Yeah, but I’m leaving in three days.”
He grinned. “What difference does that make? It’s just a date, not a lifelong commitment.” The way his face pulled at that thought, she could guess what he thought of lifelong commitments.
“I don’t do one-night stands,” she said, as haughtily as she could muster.
No, she had a tendency to throw herself into long, complicated relationships and lose her heart and a piece of herself in the process.
And pick up a reputation.
She concentrated on her lobster and pretended that the idea of getting down and dirty with Rik wasn’t giving her hot flushes.
He leaned back in his seat and eyed her. “I’ve never had a one night stand either, but there’s always a first time for everything.”
A man who’d never had a one-night stand? Yeah right, and pull the other leg.
Her mojito glass was empty. She chased down the last of the lobster with Rik’s untouched drink.
Perhaps it would be different if she just indulged her body for a change, and kept her heart out of it. Perhaps a one-night stand was exactly what she needed.
Three days...that wasn’t enough time to lose her heart. Right?
The hot flush headed south. She pressed her thighs together, but that only made it worse.
No, she couldn’t. She’d sworn a vow. And that mischief in Rik’s eyes definitely put him in the ‘off limits, avoid-at-all-costs’ category.
“I think you should take me home,” she said. Her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat.
“That was easier than I expected.”
She choked again. “I mean...I need to work tomorrow...”
He grinned and rose. “I know what you meant.”
Rik dropped cash on the table, then moved to hold her seat for her to stand. Such old-fashioned manners did nothing to ease her erratic pulse. Why couldn’t he be a straight-forward jerk and make it easy on her?
Juan waved them out the restaurant with another beaming smile, and then they were back on the boat which suddenly seemed even more intimate than their table at the restaurant had been.
While Rik guided the boat out of the harbour, Kenzie lounged back on the bench, no longer caring that her dress rode up and flashed way too much thigh. She was rewarded by his lingering gaze on her legs.
Good. She hoped his pulse was just as affected as hers. She hoped she drove him just as crazy as he drove her.
The coastline of Los Pajaros shimmered with magic in the dark, tiny fairy lights glittering between the trees, the beaches edged with dancing phosphorescence.
But the real magic show was above. She leaned back on her elbows and looked up. She’d lived close enough to London all her life that the sight of the Milky Way was still a treat. That was one of the best perks of her job – it took her to places where she could escape the light and noise pollution and actually see the stars.
This night sky was a hundred times better than any she’d seen, and she’d travelled enough to have seen a lot of impressive nights.
A balmy breeze stroked over her bare limbs. Her skin felt more alive, almost electric.
Los Pajaros had awakened her senses. Every colour seemed brighter, every experience deeper. The lazy heat that caressed her skin, the rich scents, the tastes…sweet and tart melting together.
And she definitely felt hungry for more. Of everything.
It was as if she’d been only half alive before, and here she was awakened, a new person, a better person.
This sense of possibility was familiar, it was that feeling she’d had as a child, that sense that she could have anything, do anything, be anything. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. She wasn’t a screw up. She was a young woman with the world at her feet, and a future, not just a past.
Today could be the beginning of a whole new life.

* * *

Turquoise blue waters. Sandy white beaches. Mojitos... Film location scout Kenzie Cole has found herself in paradise. Working in the Caribbean for a week is just what she needs to escape the long line of exes in her closet. Though the last thing she expects is to be picked up at the resort bar by a disgraced former Prince!

Luckily for Kenzie, exile is suiting the man formerly known as Prince Fredrik very well. And it’s not long before his rugged, pirate charm is proving hard to resist.

But Rik’s been spending his time in paradise exorcising demons of his own and he has danger written all over him. If Kenzie was sensible she’d run a mile instead of lose herself to lust - although, they do say sometimes you have to get lost before you can be found....


The Trouble with Mojitos is published by Harper Impulse, a division of Harper Collins, and is available from the following online retailers: Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and All Romance eBooks.

Why Do We Write?

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve had my nose buried in books since I was old enough to turn the pages. Words are my passion and my love for reading eventually developed into a love for writing. 

Now that I’m a published author and discovered what being an author involves, my relationship with books has changed.   When I see a book – regardless of whether it captures me or not – I treat it with new found respect because I know what it took to write it.

Although it's a wonderful and exciting experience, the writing process is a tricky one that often sparks the question:  Why write?

The answer is simple but before I explain, here’s a glimpse of a few things I’ve learnt about what being an author entails and why I view books so differently now: (And I don’t speak for all the authors out there!)

1.  Writing is fun but it's hard work.  Seriously hard work.  Late nights, long hours, plot twists, word counts, sleep deprivation, doubt crows, edits, revisions, and more. 

2. Unless you’re a JK Rowling or EL James, many authors don’t make their fortunes through book sales and it’s a frequent struggle weighing up the income earned versus the time, tears, and hard work it takes to push out a book.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3. The late nights mean that we often write in our PJ’s and slippers! What could be more comfortable? I have a nightly ritual once my kids are in bed – I shower, slip into my comfies and head to my laptop to write for the night. I make a point of showering and dressing every morning before going to my desk. If I don’t then I might never get there once I lose myself to my characters!

4. Many authors are not full time writers. We write because we love it but there are still bills to pay, children to care for, homes to run, or jobs to go to. Writing often has to fit into the brief available gaps in our daily schedules.

5. Reviews count. As a reader, I never realized the importance of reviews until I became an author myself. So why review a book once you’ve read it? Because authors like to know your thoughts. Personally, there’s nothing more exhilarating for me than when I receive a message from a reader who loved one of my books. Pure joy.

6. But reviews can also hurt. Remember that old rhyme? “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” Well in this case, bad reviews might not break our bones, but they definitely sting. We realize that our books aren’t for everyone and often view the reviews as a way of improving our craft but hope that any negative reviews are done so with respect and carefully considered words.  After all, there’s a human being at the tail end of that review!

7. Actual writing takes up only a small portion of our time. Social media, research, book edits, website management, blog posts, and marketing take up the bigger chunk. It’s so easy to lose precious writing time to all of this and we often have to remind ourselves to get back to what we really love – writing.

8. We LOVE to hear from our readers. So next time you adore a book, pop the author a message and make her day! (She might just be encouraged to write another one!)

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

9. As exciting as it is to receive "The Call"” from a publisher with an offer, the road to being published is a daunting process subject to a lot of public evaluation. Often, a Rhino’s skin is called for!

10. So ... having said all this, what makes us write besides our passion for storytelling?

Knowing that somewhere, someone was touched by our stories enough to keep turning the pages - and loved them!

And that’s why we write!

Thank you for reading.

Rae Rivers
www.raerivers.com

The Keepers is a magical Paranormal Romance Series published by Harper Impulse, an imprint of Harper Collins. 

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

 

 

The Trouble with Mojitos

I love the research part of writing, the excuse to spend hours surfing the internet and calling it work. For my latest novel, The Trouble with Mojitos, my research took me onto luxury yachts, Caribbean beaches, drinking cocktails in tiki bars... yeah, it's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it.

You can't research the Caribbean without reading about sea turtles. The fictional cursed island of Tortuga in The Trouble with Mojitos is named for these amazing creatures - survivors of the dinosaur era, and yet the scary thing is that every year there are fewer and fewer of them.

As an author my key aim is to entertain. With all the unhappiness in the world, if I can help someone escape from the realities of everyday life for just a few hours and bring a smile to the reader's face, then I'm happy.
But let's face it, writing words that other people read is also a fantastic opportunity to share the things that are important to us.
Saving the sea turtles from extinction is important to me.

So I wrote a scene into The Trouble with Mojitos in which the hero and heroine watch a turtle hatching. I'm more than a little jealous of them, as this is something I've only seen via YouTube - though it's definitely on my bucket list. If you're in South Africa and would like to experience this for yourself, the area around Rocktail Bay on the Kwazulu-Natal north coast offers sea turtle safaris.

For those who, like me, have yet to see this amazing spectacle for real,here's a YouTube clip that will have you 'oohing' and 'aahing'.

Turquoise blue waters. Sandy white beaches. Mojitos... Film location scout Kenzie Cole has found herself in paradise. Working in the Caribbean for a week is just what she needs to escape the long line of exes in her closet. Though the last thing she expects is to be picked up at the resort bar by a disgraced former Prince!

Luckily for Kenzie, exile is suiting the man formerly known as Prince Fredrik very well. And it’s not long before his rugged, pirate charm is proving hard to resist.

But Rik’s been spending his time in paradise exorcising demons of his own and he has danger written all over him. If Kenzie was sensible she’d run a mile instead of lose herself to lust - although, they do say sometimes you have to get lost before you can be found....


The Trouble with Mojitos is published by Harper Impulse, a division of Harper Collins, and is available from the following online retailers: Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and All Romance eBooks - and it'll be available in print too soon!

Waking up with .... Harper Impulse

Not so long ago I posted here on the blog about an exciting new digital-first imprint from Harper Collins. In the short time since then the people at Harper Impulse have been busy. They've signed not one but two South African romance authors - myself and Rae Rivers.

The first two books (including my debut Waking up in Vegas) launched on 9th May and have already received some lovely reviews.

Harper Impulse have been such a joy to work with. Not only do they move at lightning speed, but they're fun, friendly and approachable, and they're passionate about books. For me, perhaps the best thing about this imprint though has been their desire for books that don't fit the mould. They want fresh voices and fresh angles, so no formula reads here!
If you're interested in submitting to Harper Impulse, check out their website here.

 

What happens in Vegas…
Waking up to the bright lights of Vegas in an unfamiliar penthouse suite, cocktail waitress Phoenix Montgomery finds she’s covered from head to foot in gold glitter and not alone – aside from the empty bottle of champagne, there’s a mystery man in the shower and a huge sparkly ring on her finger!

Stays in Vegas?
There’s no denying Max Waldburg’s demi-god sex appeal but commitment-phobic Phoenix doesn’t do relationships. Only it seems her new husband (agh!) has other ideas…he’s trying to keep that ring on her finger and his wife firmly back in his bed. The only question on her lips is – why? Or maybe, why not?

Waking up in Vegas is available now from Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iTunes.

Harper Collins launches new romance imprint

Harper Collins have announced a new digital-first imprint called Harper Impulse. This exciting new venture, a UK-based venture similar to HC's US-based Avon Impulse, is headed by Kimberley Young, former editorial director at Harlequin.

They are open to unsolicited submissions, and their submission details can be found here. Email your submission to romance@harpercollins.co.uk.

 

 

WHO ARE HARPER IMPULSE?
♥ Harper Impulse is a new digital first imprint that will publish romance fiction for today’s woman – bought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins.
♥ Their aim is to find, publish and break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations – they want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking.
♥ They are aiming to reach out to women who read everything from big summer bonkbusters to the most recent 99p read on the Kindle top 10. Women who love glossy magazines, chicklit films from favourite weepies such as The Notebook to laugh out loud comedies like Bridesmaids and the very best in original storytelling!

WHAT HARPER IMPULSE ARE LOOKING FOR:
♥ New writers who dare to be different – and the more the merrier!
♥ The imprint will publish from fun & fast Adult and New Adult genre fiction to more mainstream novels; particularly contemporary, historical, paranormal and erotic fiction.
♥ They are looking for any length & really want writers who want to push the boundaries in terms of storytelling – whether that be mashing genres, experimenting with length etc.

Check out their Facebook page to meet the team, and participate in fun votes and conversations. Their FAQ are here.