Sunday Smooch with Barbara Wallace

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a smooch from Their Christmas Miracle by Barbara Wallace.



Merry Early Christmas Lovecats!

I’m so excited to share with you my latest romance: Their Christmas Miracle. Writing a Christmas romance has become a bit of a tradition for me. This marks the third year in a row I’ve decked the halls for Mills & Boon.

THEIR CHRISTMAS MIRACLE was especially fun to write because it’s an amnesia story.  Amnesia is one of my favorite romance tropes because it opens the door for a reunion romance.  There’s so much you can pack into a missing memory!  And believe me, I packed in as much as I could.

Lost: One wife and mother.

Found: Their forever family?

Finding the wife he'd believed lost to him forever in a remote Scottish village seems like a miracle to wealthy CEO Thomas Collier. Rosalind is suffering from amnesia - she can't remember anything from before her accident, including her husband and their daughter! As Christmas draws near, back in their London penthouse, can Thomas help Rosalind regain her past and embrace the loving future they all deserve?

THE FIRST KISS:

“Because...” He angled his body so that, instead of standing side by side, he held her in a semi-embrace. “I’m not ready to share you with the rest of the world.”

Whether from his hips close to hers or the mistletoe hanging above them or the gentle whiff of aftershave on his neck, awareness washed over her. She looked up through her lashes. “Then you shouldn’t have left me alone in the crowd.”

“Ah, but then I couldn’t have bought you this.” His lifted his free arm to reveal a brown bag. “Merry early Christmas.”

It was a geode. Broken open to reveal the pink crystal formations inside. “You told me once you like the pink ones best. That the color’s created by—”

“Magnesium.” The whispered answer came to her without having to think. “And it’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome.” She looked up to find his eyes had grown hooded and dark.
Her insides started to pulse.

“You know, we are under the mistletoe,” he told her.

“I know.”

“Be almost sacrilegious if we didn’t...”

“Sacrilegious indeed.”

His lips brushed against hers. The kiss was soft and sweet, full of the kind of promise that made Rosalind’s knees want to buckle.

And then it ended, as a public kiss should. Leaving her tingling and wishing they were alone.

“Let’s go home,” Thomas said. “We have a tree to decorate.”

Amazon

Mills & Boon

Because I’m in a Christmasy-mood, I’m giving away a copy of THEIR CHRISTMAS MIRACLE to one lucky Lovecat Visitor.  For a chance win, leave a comment below and tell me if you’ve been naughty or nice!

 

 By the way – if you’re not in a Christmas mood, you can always check out my limited edition Bachelorette anthology featuring Ali, Ivan and Danny on the cover!




Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Book Fest!

In the first two months of this year I’ve read eighteen books. That’s a really good number for me. Anybody else out there keep lists? I do. For January and February in 2012 I read eleven, in 2013 it was nine, and 2014 it was ten. Mind you, this year nine of my completed reads were part of my RITA judging packet (which I’m not allowed to discuss—even though there were a couple of right royal treats along with one absolute gem in there).

But I’ve had a blast with all of this lovely reading and I thought I’d share some of my favourites with you.


RE-READS
I had a rash of these. I received Marilynne Robinson’s Lila for Christmas and immediately started it on Boxing Day. I adored the book so much I immediately had to re-read the other two books in the series—Gilead and Home. These aren’t romances—they sit squarely on the shelves of literary fiction—though love relationships  lie at the heart of the books. They’re powerful and heartbreaking…and  full of hope.

I also reread The Hobbit (the movie made me do it) and LM Montgomery’s The Blue Castle (she’s the author of Anne of Green Gables, and as Anne is the reason I became a writer…). I found it for a bargain basement price for my Kindle and had to grab it and read it again immediately. The book was first published in 1926 and it’s definitely a product of it’s time, but this is one of my favourite sweet romances.

BEACH READS
I had a week at the beach and I read two really cracking books during that time. The first was my book group’s selection—Gone Girl. I found this book utterly compelling. The characters weren’t “nice” but they were fascinating. It was like watching a train wreck and not being able to look away.

The second was fellow LoveCat Rachel Bailey’s Cover Story. This book is so much FUN! I loved Toby’s voice and the crazy cast of characters (not to mention the gnome puns). It’s very, very funny but not at the expense of the emotion (which can be a bit of a bug bear for me in romantic comedy). Really truly, if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favour and go grab it. Now.

CATEGORY ROMANCES
There were two standouts and they’d both been sitting in my TBR pile for *ahem* a little too long.

Susan Meier’s The Tycoon’s Secret Daughter (2012). The hero and heroine were married when the hero (there are reasons) fell into alcoholism. When the heroine became pregnant, she left him for the sake of her unborn child. Without telling him she was pregnant. Flash forward six years and a chance meeting between them and… Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. This pair has some serious baggage and yet the book doesn’t get bogged down in it. It’s gorgeous. I’m not the only one who thinks so—it was nominated for a RITA.

Barbara Wallace’s The Courage to Say Yes (2013). This one won the Booksellers Best Award and I can see why. It deals with domestic violence and a heroine who is trying to get back on her feet after leaving a god-awful relationship with a man who continues to stalk her. The heroine is wonderful and the hero is wonderful and the story is wonderful.


I’ve just started fellow LoveCat Annie West’s latest offering—The Sultan’s Harem Bride. Oh, and am I loving it or what? Annie writes in a gorgeous lush style that lets me sink into an ultimate fantasy world of powerful men who meet women that rock the foundations of their worlds. Glorious.

As you can see, my reading year has started off rather nicely. What about you—been reading any good books lately?

How BDSM and Sweet Romances are connected...

by Michelle Douglas

The Chocolate Box authors are holding a Spring Blog Hop Giveaway. Just look at this box of goodies that's up for grabs! To enter see the link below.

So in honour of the Spring Blog Hop, today I'm hosting fellow Sweet Romance author, Barbara Wallace, with her take on how BDSM and Sweet Romances are connected. :-) Take it away, Barb...


Recently Esquire Magazine published an essay by Stephen Marche entitled, “The Sex Scene is Dead” in which he noted that graphic movie sex had become old hat.  This got me thinking, would the same thing happen with romance novels?  Is it happening already?

When Fifty Shades of Gray first came out, the romance writing world went crazy.  Granted, erotica had been around for a while, but suddenly, there was real money to be made in pushing the envelope.  Grab your leather and whip, baby, because BDSM was where it was at.  You couldn’t log onto Facebook or Twitter without seeing at least one reference to domination.

Lately, however, I’ve suspected readers might be becoming less enthusiastic then they were two years ago.  Like with the actual Shades of Gray books, BDSM books have gotten repetitive.  I saw one tweet the other day chuckling over how the characters in a book were shocked by sexual activities that she considered ‘been there, done that’.  And on some message boards, a few readers have complained about BDSM and erotica creeping into their romances.  (Thus denoting an important difference between romance and erotic romance, btw.)  To me, these are subtle signs of reader fatigue.  I predict that, in another couple of years, the erotica boom will decline.  Will it disappear?  Never.  Subgenres might shrink, but they never truly dry up.  But the wagon jumpers – the writers who piled on because there was money to be made – they’ll start to depart, leaving the dedicated erotica writers – the ones who were there all along – to satisfy their readers.

So, why do I, a sweet romance writer, care about the BDSM trend?  Because, my friends, the pendulum swings both ways.  You know how, when you’ve had too much candy, you suddenly want something healthy?  Well, that’s how it works with romance novels too.  After awhile, readers want something different.  At conference this fall, a well known contemporary author commented that she saw a growing interest in sweet romances.  A new trend is coming, and for once, I might actually be ahead of the curve.  I’m looking forward to it.

What about you? Do you think the erotica craze is slowing down?  Do you even care?  Do you think readers will be looking for sweeter, gentler romance?

Click here to enter the Spring Blog Hop!