Special Valentine's Offers from Harlequin and Mills & Boon

Three lovely boks to download for cents/pennies this Valentine month!


The Billionaires are for readers in thr US -

The Bride is for readers in the UK.

I'n sure there's a deal for those of you in Ausrralia/New Zealand, too, Check the Mills and Boon Aus website to make sure you don/t miss out.

It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas...

One of the fun things about being an author is writing a Christmas romance in the middle of the summer. I don't have a new one out this year - right now I'm knee deep in snow in a book that's going to come out in July. :)

Happily, Mills and Boon have been having a re-release fest with my books in the last few months and here are some of my backlist Christmas stories that are now available -

All She Wants for Christmas

In which Maddy, on a break from Christmas, ends up sharing a deserted island with a man she's convinced is conning her Godmother out of her life's savings.

Mistletoe and the Lost Stiletto

In which Lucy Bright, on the run from her fake fiance, discovers that Santa isn't always wearing a red coat.

Christmas Angel for the Billionaire and it's "Changing Places" twin Her Desert Dream

in which the nation's beloved Lady Rose changes places with her "lookalike", supermarket checkout girl, Lydia.

  A Surprise Christmas Proposal

in which employment challenged Sophie gets a job as a dog walker and changes the lives of everyone she meets.

What is your favourite ever Christmas romance? Share it with us in the comments below - leave a little taster quote and a link if you have one. I'm not sure what Blogger will make of that, but I'll check the spam and make sure they're not held up there for long.

Christmas around the world

It's December, and here's a roundabout of a few of my Christmas titles available around this world this year!

Gekust met kerst / Verliefd in de sneeuw

Als Lady Rose toevallig haar lookalike tegenkomt, aarzelt ze geen moment. Zo kort voor haar huwelijk met de uiterst verstandige Rupert lokt de vrijheid, dus ruilen ze voor een weekje

Harlequin, Holland

Hamupipőke tűsarkúban

Amikor Lucy rádöbben, hogy dúsgazdag vőlegénye becsapta őt és megtévesztette a közvéleményt, elhatározza, hogy leleplezi. Az üzletember biztonsági őrei azonban a nyomában vannak, és ő egy áruház karácsonyi forgatagában keres menedéket. Futás közben elveszíti a cipőjét, amelyet Nathaniel talál meg. Elhatározza, hogy megvédelmezi a halálra rémült lányt… 

Harlequin, Hungary

ALL' IMPROVVISO UN MILIONARIO

Lucy Bright si trova in un mare di guai: inseguita dagli scagnozzi del fidanzato non sa dove rifugiarsi. Il suo volto è troppo noto. Non le resta che confondersi tra la folla dei grandi magazzini più esclusivi di Londra, dove di certo nessuno guarderà una donna in cappotto rosso e con le scarpe in mano.
Nathaniel Hart è proprietario e direttore generale dei grandi magazzini Hastings & Hart. Tutto ciò che succede nei suoi locali non sfugge al suo occhio vigile, così non può fare a meno di notare il comportamento insolito di quella bellissima e misteriosa bionda. Chi è e perché si guarda intorno con aria impaurita? Ma la vera domanda è: perché dopo un solo fugace incontro lui non riesce più a togliersela dalla testa?

Harlequin, Italy

Idylle dans le désert

Ressembler trait pour trait à Lady Rose a toujours été un atout pour Lydia. Un atout qui se transforme même en conte de fées quand la princesse lui demande de passer, à sa place, une semaine de rêve dans le désert. Seulement, dès que Lydia croise le regard de jais de Kalil al-Zaki, le prince chargé de l'escorter à Bab el Sama, elle sent le trouble la gagner. Comment, dans ce décor des Mille et une Nuits, résister à cet homme fabuleux ? Comment, alors que tout son être brûle de mieux le connaître, ne pas lui révéler la femme qu'elle est vraiment ?

Harlequin, France

Lucy Bright nie wierzyła własnemu szczęściu, gdy ona – zwykła sekretarka – została narzeczoną multimilionera. Niestety okazało się, że ich związek to jedynie trick medialny. Na konferencji prasowej Lucy zrywa z „narzeczonym”, a uciekając przed dziennikarzami, wpada w ramiona przystojnego Nathaniela Harta. Kiedy Lucy znika w tłumie, Nathaniel postanawia za wszelką cenę ją odnaleźć. Czy pomoże mu w tym jej zgubiony czerwony pantofelek?

Harlequin, Poland

Lucy Gordon/Liz Fielding 

Från att ha varit modeoraklet Rupert Henshawes sekreterare är Lucy Bright nu plötsligt innefolkets favorit – och det stundande äktenskapet med honom har verkligen fört henne till himmelriket. Men då Lucy upptäcker att Ruperts intresse för henne egentligen bara är en väl genomtänkt pr-kupp inser hon att hon är grundlurad. Efter en presskonferens hon helst av allt vill glömma flyr hon förkrossad fältet, och var kan man bättre gömma sig än på ett varuhus där julhandeln pågår för fullt? Lucys hjärta är krossat, men när hon av en slump hamnar i famnen på en annan man verkar det som om det finns en chans till ett lyckligt slut ...

Harlequin, Sweden

Ein Traummann zu Weihnachten?

Lucy fühlt sich wie im Märchen. Verkleidet als Cinderella, findet sie sich plötzlich an der Seite eines reichen Geschäftsmannes wieder. Doch dann entdeckt sie: Es ist alles eine Publicity-Maßnahme, um dessen schlechten Ruf aufzupolieren. Schockiert will sie den aufdringlichen Reportern entkommen – und läuft dem attraktiven Londoner Unternehmer Nathaniel Hart in die Arme. Vom ersten Moment an lässt er ihr Herz höher schlagen. Aber kaum glaubt Lucy, endlich ihren Traummann gefunden zu haben, muss sie ausgerechnet an Weihnachten fürchten: Nathaniel sucht nur eine Affäre
… 

Harlequin, Germany

A SURPRISE CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL

Her Christmas gift came in a small velvet box...

"Isn't it strange how things turn out? A week ago I was virtually jobless, almost homeless, and had totally sworn off men--a sad way to be before Christmas, don't you think? Now I'm not only working for the most gorgeous man alive, but I'm living in his house!"

Meet sassy, smiley Sophie Harrington. Read in her own words how a much-needed job brings her up close and personal with rugged bachelor Gabriel York. Although Sophie is hardly a waif or stray, Gabriel ends up taking her in as a temporary lodger in his exclusive London home. How long before he realizes Sophie isn't just for Christmas--but for life...?

Harlequin, North America

July translations

Tempted by Trouble in Sweden

Livets alla frestelser

Elle Amery vet att hennes mammas förmåga att falla för lite vilda typer inte var den bästa egenskapen att ärva. Så när den tuffe Sean McElroy dyker upp med glassbilen Rosie blinkar alla varningslampor rött. Och hon gör verkligen sitt bästa för att ignorera gnistan av attraktion mellan dem. Men när de ger sig ut på en resa upptäcker de båda att livet, precis som glassen, rymmer många olika smaker ...

Kyss mig igen
Miniserie: Nu och för evigt (4/4) Eve behöver aldrig träffa sin chef, mångmiljardären Leo, i det verkliga livet eftersom hon är hans assistent på distans. Så när hon låter sig övertalas att för en rejäl summa pengar låtsas vara hans fästmö vid en viktig affärsmiddag förändras plötsligt allt. Men att spela förälskad är trots allt inte så svårt. Eve har aldrig glömt deras första, korta möte för ett antal år sedan. Attraktionen var omedelbar och hans kyssar oförglömliga ... Ska hon nu äntligen få veta hur deras första möte kunde ha slutat?

Christmas Angel for the Billionaire in Hungary

Jackie Brown: Sejk a konyhámban
Lázasan készülődik Emily egy jótékonysági vacsorára, amelyre az ő cége szállítja az ételt. Takarékosságának hála egyre közelebb kerül élete nagy álmához, hogy nyisson egy saját éttermet. Még aznap éjjel nagyvonalú megrendelést kap Madani Tarim sejktől, akit mindenki csak Dannek hív. A férfi titokzatos és vonzó, Emily érzi, hogy ő sem hagyja hidegen, Dan mégsem ajándékozza neki a szívét, mert a hazájában már várja a neki kiszemelt menyasszony…

Sabrina Philips: Sivatagi nászéjszakaRéges-rég volt, hogy Kaliq sejk és Tamara egymásba szeretett az egzotikus sivatagi országban. A lány azóta ünnepelt modell lett, de a férfi sosem tévesztette szem elől. Most azzal keresi meg, hogy viselje a híres Azam-zafírokat egy gálaesten, amelyet Kaliq azért rendez, hogy elterelje a sajtó figyelmét haldokló apjáról és az ország ingatag politikai helyzetéről. Tamara vonakodva és félve mond igent a csábító ajánlatra…

Liz Fielding: A hercegnő dublőre
Remek ajánlatot kap Lydia: egy hét fényűző pihenés vár rá a mesés Keleten, és az utazás egy fillérjébe sem kerül. Cserébe Lady Rose hasonmásaként az orránál fogva kell vezetnie a lesifotósokat, akik az angol hercegnő nyomában járnak. A lány biztonságáról nem más gondoskodik, mint Kalil, az emír unokaöccse. De vajon mit fog tenni a férfi, ha megtudja, hogy a lány csak egyszerű bolti eladó?
Jackie Brown: Sejk a konyhámban

MORE SHEIKHS, MORE SHEIKHS...

When I was in Matera a couple of years ago, doing a book signing in starlit square with my lovely Italian editor, Stephano, at my side, he kept whispering in my ear, "More sheikhs, Liz. More sheikhs."

Well HER DESERT DREAM is for you, Stephano!

Those of you who've read CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE will know that Lydia Young, who does "look alike" gigs as the "people's angel", has traded places with Lady Roseanne Napier to give her a break from the media.

The tricky part is getting past the press cordon at the entrance to the hotel where they do the swap, but after that it's going to easy. A week of luxury in the private Ramal Hamrah holiday villa of Princess Lucy al-Khatib (The Sheikh's Guarded Heart) where no one has ever met Lady Rose. All she has to do is take a daily walk along the beach to give the paps a target for their ever present cameras.

The best laid plans...

Princess Lucy has another friend who needs her help and she seizes the chance to infiltrate Kalil al Zaki into the royal household under the guise of a bodyguard for "Lady Rose".

From the first moment Lydia and Kal set eyes on one another the temperature rises but falling in love with a national treasure will do his cause no good. And Lydia knows that next week she'll be back on the supermarket checkout.

Here's the moment they meet: --

It was like some dream-come-true fairytale, Lydia thought. Check out girl to princess. Pure Cinderella.

All she needed was a pair of glass slippers and a fairy godmother to provide her with someone tall, dark and handsome to play Prince Charming.

She wouldn’t even have to flee when the clock struck twelve. She had a whole week before she turned back into Lydia Young, whose job as on the supermarket checkout was occasionally enlivened by a look-alike gig.

She automatically reached for the door to the VIP departure lounge, but it opened as she approached; a “Lady”, with a capital L, did not open doors for herself. She was so intent of covering her mistake by adjusting the veil on her hat that she missed the fact that her escort had stopped at the door.

‘Mr al-Zaki will take care of you from here, madam.’

Who?

She thought the word, but never voiced it.

All sound seemed to fade away as she looked up. She was tall, but the knee-meltingly gorgeous man waiting to “take care” of her was half a head taller and as his eyes, dark and intense, locked with hers, she felt the jolt of it to her knees. And yes, no doubt about it, her knees melted as he lowered his head briefly, said, ‘Kalil al-Zaki, Lady Rose,’ introducing himself with the utmost formality. ‘Princess Lucy has asked me to ensure that your holiday is all that you wish.’

Graceful, beautiful, contained power rippling beneath exquisite tailoring, he was, she thought, crazily, the embodiment of Bagheera, the bold, reckless panther from her childhood favourite Jungle Book. She’d made her father read over and over the description of his coat like watered silk, his voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree.

Her own, as she struggled for a suitable response, was non-existent.

Kalil al-Zaki might favour well-cut British tailoring over a fancy Ruritanian uniform but he was as close to her own Prince Charming fantasy as she was ever likely to come and she had to resist the temptation to look around for the old lady with wings and a wand who’d been listening in on her thoughts.

‘You’re coming with me to Bab el Sama?’ she managed, finally, knowing that she should be horrified by this turn of events. The frisson of excitement rippling through her suggested that she was anything but.

Here's what Romantic Times said:

"Complex characters with powerful chemistry, a compelling conflict and plenty of humour highlight this memorable story. A keeper." 4.5 stars.

To read the entire first chapter, click on the UK cover --

As you'll see from this, lucky UK readers will also get the fabulous Lucy Gordon's THE BRIDE WORE RED as part of the new 2-in-1 format. Lucy's book is part of the "Escape Around the World" series and is set in China. Lucy is a trooper. Nothing is too much for her fans and she went to China twice to research the book. :) She's captured the country so beautifully that you'll think you've been there yourself. The romance is great, too!

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

It's time to stock up on Christmas reads -- the ones that smooth out the aches after shopping, baking, decorating the house! -- and Harlequin have put their whole collection onto one handy page for you to take your pick this year.

Just click here to see all those gorgeous covers!


THE GRAND-PETS

We don't have any animals of our own now and enjoy the vicarious pleasure of the grand-pets -- four dogs, two cats and an assortment of other small creatures.

Here's the oldest of them all, Kees, a ten year old black Labrador who these days has a grey muzzle but still manages to keep the three youngsters to keep in line.

Every morning they all get taken to the Biesbosch for a run. This photograph was taken yesterday by the first born, who shares the passion for photography with his father.



AND ANOTHER SHEIKH

The second of the TRADING PLACES duet, HER DESERT DREAM, is now available online at eHarlequin

Romantic Times gave this second book the same stellar 4.5 stars as Christmas Angel for the Billionaire.

This is what they said about it:

"Complex characters with powerful chemistry, a compelling conflict and plenty of humour highlight this memorable story. A keeper."

And a reader, on the eHarlequin community said:

"Double WOW! This is a companion book to last month’s story about Lady Rose--Christmas Angel for the Billionaire by Liz Fielding, HR Nov09 #4131, Trading Places--and it is a lush, fascinating tale of a celebrity double’s life. Fielding is a skilled storyteller and she delivers yet again."

It's all a bit thrilling to be honest and you can read the entire first chapter here, courtesy of Mills and Boon (This is the UK cover and since it's a 2-in-1, you get two books for a bargain price of £4.99 -- I'm sharing this one with the fabulous Lucy Gordon and her Escape Around the World title, The Bride Wore Red, which is set in China.

BRIEF POST...

...to wish you all a wonderful and safe Bonfire Night. I'll be chained to my laptop because having delivered The Bachelor's Baby Proposal (working title) on Monday, I started SANTA'S SECRET ELF on Tuesday, which has to be in eds hand by mid January so that you can read it next December.

Heroine Lucy Bright
Hero -- uh-uh. He hasn't appeared on page yet and I'm still struggling for his name -- need to check brilliant suggestions offered by you all earlier in the year.

Setting -- a fabulous London department store in the run up to, you've guessed it, Christmas. (Second Christmas book in a row. I must be mellowing in my old age -- and you still have time to win a copy of Christmas Angel for the Billionaire, so scroll down to the previous post and check it out.)

LISTENING TO: Nothing. I had to set up my computer after major problems and somehow the leads from the speakers didn't get attached and I am so not going under the desk. But singing Jingle Bells a lot to get me in the mood.

READING: Just finished Heaven Can Wait by Cally Taylor -- cried through the entire last chapter. In middle of Girl From Mars by Julie Cohen, which is making me laugh a lot, but has a deep sadness, too. In awe of her writing. Just broken down and ordered the hard back of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

WATCHING: Garrow's Law, Spooks, Muriel's Wedding.

SINGING A DUET…

Or rather writing one, since even the people who love me beg me not to sing. :)

It was nearly two years ago – another November – when I had a breakfast meeting with my editors at the plush Churchill Hotel in the west end of London to discuss what I’d write in the year ahead.

I had all kind of ideas floating around in my head but the eds had only one. A duet. They wanted a duet for November/December and please, please, please could one of them be a Christmas book.


I resisted. My worst experience with a book was a Christmas title. It had a gorgeous cover, one of my prettiest, but the truth of the matter is that you can’t sell a Christmas title when the hero and heroine are standing under a palm tree wearing nothing but swimsuits – even if the palm tree is strung with tiny Christmas lights. And, let’s face it, when it comes to scheduling, not just for its first outing, but for those important foreign sales, there are only two months of the year when a Christmas title will fit the bill.

But the last time I did a Christmas duet – unintentionally, I wrote consecutive books about friends – it was, apparently, a big hit and RomanceHQ wanted a repeat.

The really big problem about writing a duet is that it’s really hard work. They have to be delivered promptly, close enough together to be scheduled in consecutive months. And Christmas won’t wait. But what can a starving writer, caught in a pincer movement between her editor and the series editor, say? With her crispy bacon and scrambled eggs rapidly cooling in front of her there is only one answer. "If I say “yes”, can I eat?"

At which point we come to the second problem with writing a duet. They have to be linked in some way. One story twisted around the other. You have to think of two books at the same time and they have to overlap in some way. Which leads to other problems. Set up a scene in one book and you have to deliver it in the next. Easier said than done!

But the books were written, the duet was given a name “Trading Places” and the strap line written –

Annie wanted anonymity -
Lydia wanted the spotlight -
They both found love.

So here we are. It’s November and first up is Annie’s story, Christmas Angel for the Billionaire. Having been in the media spotlight all her life, she’s desperate for the chance to just walk down a street, stop at Starbucks for a coffee, check out the latest High St fashions without being pursued by the paparazzi. What she needs is a place holder, someone for the media – and her over-protective grandfather’s bodyguards -- to watch while she disappears for a while. And then she comes face to face with her “look alike”, Lydia Young. The open road beckons and things are going swimmingly until she misses her turning and ends up in the Saxon’s kitchen being played off in a battle of wills by George Saxon and his teenage daughter.

As for Lydia, she’s having a ball until she discovers that she, too, is caught in the middle of a struggle between a divided family. More about that next month. For now I have a 2-in-1 UK edition of CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE, twinned with Jessica Hart’s sparkling, funny and emotional Under the Boss’s Mistletoe to give away.

For a chance to win, tell me who you’d like to trade places with and why. I’ll pick the winner on Friday.

In the meantime, here's the first chapter...

And there is another excerpt on my website

(I'm also running this competition on the Harlequin Romance Authors blog at eHarlequin here if you want to have two goes -- with two different "Trading Places" stories!)

And to keep you busy, while I'm holding my heroine's hands as she says "I do" (she doesn't!), click here for a jigsaw of the cover of Christmas Angel for the Billionaire.

Just alittle bit of fun to keep you all out of mischief. :)

It’s October. The kids are back at school, the nights are drawing in and the local supermarket have shifted the cereals and filled the shelf with seasonal goodies. Try as we might to bury our head in the sand and ignore it, it’s nearly Christmas. And that means it’s time for Christmas titles from Harlequin and Mills & Boon.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Christmas title on sale. I’ve only done two others – All She Wants for Christmas and A Surprise Christmas Proposal. Both of those were accidental Christmas books.

This year, I’m making up for ignoring the season and you’ll be getting two books from me. In the “Trading Places” duet -- Christmas Angel for the Billionaire (November) and Her Desert Dream (December) – Lady Roseanne Napier and Lydia Young swap places for a week just before the holidays.

Lady Roseanne, orphaned just before Christmas when she was six years old, has become the “people’s angel”. At sixteen she stepped into her parents’ shoes to become the face of the charity they founded. Ten years on, she’s a young woman cut off from real life, confined within the protective bubble of bodyguards and protocol.

Here she is –

Annie smothered a yawn. The room was hot, the lingering scent of food nauseating and all she wanted to do was lay her head on the table in front of her, close her eyes and switch off.

If only.

There was a visit to a hospital, then three hours of Wagner at a charity gala to endure before she could even think about sleep. And even then, no matter how tired she was, thinking about it was as close as she would get.

She’d tried it all. Soothing baths, a lavender pillow, every kind of relaxation technique without success. But calming her mind wasn’t the problem.

It wasn’t the fact that it was swirling with all the things she needed to remember that was keeping her awake. She had an efficient personal assistant to take care of every single detail of her life and ensure that she was in the right place, at the right time. A speech writer to put carefully chosen words into her mouth when she got there. A style consultant whose job it was to ensure that whenever she appeared in public she made the front page.

That was the problem.


There was absolutely nothing in her mind to swirl around. It was empty. Like her life.
In just under a minute she was going to have to stand up and talk to these amazing people who had put themselves on the line to alleviate suffering in the world.

They had come to see her, listen to her inspire them to even greater efforts. And her presence ensured that the press was here, too, which meant that the work they did would be noticed, reported.

Maybe.

Her hat, a rich green velvet and feather folly perched at a saucy angle over her right eye would probably garner more column inches than the charity she was here to support.
She was doing more for magazine and newspaper circulation than she was for the medical teams, the search units, pilots, drivers, communications people who dropped everything at a moment’s notice, risking their lives to help victims of war, famine, disaster, a point she’d made to her grandfather more than once.

A pragmatist, he had dismissed her concerns, reminding her that it was a symbiotic relationship and everyone would benefit from her appearance, including the British fashion industry.

It didn’t help that he was right.

She wanted to do more, be more than a cover girl, a fashion icon. Her parents had been out there, on the front line, picking up the pieces of ruined lives and she had planned to follow in their footsteps.

She stopped the thought. Publicity was the only gift she had and she had better do it right but as she took her place at the lectern and a wave of applause hit her, a long silent scream invaded the emptiness inside her head.

Noooooo…

A chance encounter with her “look-alike”, Lydia Young, gives her the opportunity to escape, to grab a week of freedom, be invisible. Be herself. It took planning, careful timing and a lot of nerve on Lydia’s part, but now she was off, free, the open road in front of her and no one but herself to please. But life isn’t ever that easy. All it takes to throw a spanner in the works is a missed turning, a car that isn’t quite what it seems and George Saxon.

Here’s George –


George Saxon, bare feet propped on the deck rail of his California beach house, laptop on his knees, gave up on the problem that had been eluding him for weeks and surfed idly through the headlines of the London newspapers.

His eyes were caught by the picture of a couple leaving some gala. She was one of those tall, patrician women, pale blonde hair swept up off her neck, her fabulously expensive gown cut low to reveal hollows in her shoulders even deeper than those in her cheeks.

But it wasn’t her dress or the fact that she’d so obviously starved herself to get into it that had caught and held his attention. It was her eyes.

Her mouth was smiling for the camera, but her eyes, large, blue seemed to be looking straight at him, sending him a silent appeal for help.
He clicked swiftly back to the program he’d been working on. Sometimes switching in and out of a problem cleared the blockage but this one was stubborn, which was why he’d left his Chicago office, his lakeside apartment. Escaping the frantic pre-Christmas party atmosphere for the peace of the beach.

Behind him, inside the house, the phone began to ring. It would be his accountant, or his lawyer, or his office but success had insulated him from the need to jump when the phone rang and he left it for the machine to pick up. There was nothing, no one --

‘George? It’s your dad…’

But then again there were exceptions to every rule.

And here’s what Romantic Times had to say –

CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE (4.5) A delicate blending of fantasy and reality, this story has everything, including a difficult but irresistible hero and a clever, gutsy heroine who's in every way his match.

Christmas Angel for the Billionaire is on sale as a 2-in-1 with Jessica Hart’s fabulous story, Under the Boss’s Mistletoe in the UK, or on it’s own from eHarlequin, in both paper and eBook formats.

There’s a chance to win signed copies of both “Trading Places” books on the Harlequin Romance Authors blog at eHarlequin from Friday this week – you just have to leave a comment to enter the draw.

There will also be an interview with me on Friday here so do drop by and say hello if you have a moment.

And you can let me know what you think of the book on Twitter, too.

You'll find more about the book on my website, or you can Browse the Book --

SHOPPING EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS...

I don't actually believe in shopping early for Christmas.

I try to ignore it altogether until the week before but some things, if you don't grab them when they appear, you're going to miss. I just noticed this book here at the Mills & Boon website (it'll be retail next month).

It's a collection of stories by authors such as Lucy Monroe, Heidi Rice and there's one of mine in there, too. A nice little stocking filler -- I didn't want you to miss it.

...OR JUST GOING TO THE LIBRARY

The first of my "Trading Places" duet books, Christmas Angel for the Billionaire, will be available in UK libraries this month.

Here's a tiny taster from the inside cover:

"Annie."

She looked up.

"I love you."

She opened her mouth, took a breath, shook her head. "You don't know me."

"I know what makes you laugh," George said, lifting a hand to her face, wiping his fingers across the tears that were running unchecked down her cheek. "I know what makes you cry."

She didn't deny it, just shivered as he put his arms around her, drew her close, resting his own cheek against her pale hair.

"I know how your skin feels beneath my hands," he continued. "The taste of your mouth. The way your eyes look when I touch you. I know that you're kind, generous, caring, intuitive, smart." He looked down at her. "I know that no matter what I say you'll go home. What I'm asking is, will you come back?"

Something else to look out for -- and the great thing about this one, is that it's absolutely free!