A Double With Donna

This month sees the eBook release of A Deal at the Altar in the UK.

My SOS: Convenient Husband Required is paired with the debut book of one of my best writing buddies, Donna Alward, Hired By the Cowboy, in this 2-in-1.

Donna has gone on to write the fabulous Jewel Cove series of books and is now a New York Times bestselling author.

Here are the blurbs -

This convenient arrangement could be so much more! Two popular marriage of convenience stories—in one convenient volume!—from New York Times bestselling author Donna Alward and Liz Fielding.

Hired by the Cowboy
Alexis Grayson can look after herself—even if she's alone and pregnant. But gorgeous cowboy Connor Madsen seems determined to take care of her. Since he needs a temporary wife, Alexis decides she can help him. A short-term marriage will solve their difficulties…until this wife-for-hire wants a marriage for real!

SOS: Convenient Husband Required
May Coleridge must marry to inherit her family home and keep her new business afloat. Adam Wavell has turned his life around and is a corporate success story. But when his sister leaves him with her screaming baby, a deal must be done. May will help Adam with his niece if he'll answer her SOS!

Here are the links -

Amazon (this link will take you to your local Amazon store.
Harlequin
iBooks
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Mills and Boon

COLORADO AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

I had a bit of news last night, just before I went to bed.  The kind that good dreams are made from.

SOS: Convenient Husband Required has been shortlisted in the Short Contemporary Category for the Colorado Award of Excellence

Also listed is my good friend, Harlequin Romance author Donna Alward for her book HER LONE COWBOY - which I have read and loved.

And if you want to check out more recent good news for Harlequin Romance authors, then click here

I'M BACK!

I'm back from my holiday and first up I have to thank Christine Stovell for being my guest last week. I loved TURNING THE TIDE and hope the taster will send you all rushing out to buy it.

The winner of a signed copy is TracyE with her brilliant seasickness cure - sell the boat. Nice one, Tracy. :)

And thanks to May and Adam for standing in for me.

Having read a really excellent review someone posted about the book I feel I should post a competition to see who spotted the mistake that slipped past me, my editor and my copy editor in this book. (Answers in a plain brown envelope.) But honestly, I'm hoping you didn't notice and anyway it's illegal to have a competition where you actually have to buy something, so maybe not.

So what did we do on our hols? Not a lot to be honest. We sat about reading in the sunshine - a glass of something chilled conveniently close to hand. We went to Dartmouth on a steam train that runs along the coast and saw a wedding taking place at one of the old stations en route, which was fun.

We revisited Brixham for the first time in over 40 years. It seemed shabbier despite the fancy new aparts along the harbour, but we took the ferry to Torquay where we sat outside a lovely Italian restaurant and had great food.

Paignton Zoo was fun. Loved the meerkats and they have some huge giant tortoises. I'm not a huge fan of zoos but the setting was lovely and they some great conservation work, particularly in Botswana which, as you all know, is dear to my heart.

On the way home we stayed for a couple of nights in Frome. Lovely buzzy town with a terrific cultural and artistic life. Wish I could be there for the festival this month.

This is Cheap Street, which is very old and where a tiny stream still runs through a rill at the centre and contains temptation in the shape of a great book shop and a store that sells beautiful Radley bags.

The weather was amazingly kind to us - just one shower in the evening when we were safely back in the cottage.


But it's lovely to be home again.

A kindly neighbour kept my pots watered so everything was looking lovely. Let the taps run for a minute, then make that first cup of tea just the way you like it.

Perfect.

A SMALL PROBLEM?

Small? I have to find a husband in less than a month, he wants me to take care of his baby niece and Adam Wavell thinks that's a "small" problem?

Sorry, I'm May Coleridge. Liz has taken off for a week and she asked me to keep an eye on her blog but I see that Adam got here first. But then I have a business to run, a baby to take care of and Adam moving in...

He's right about me always being in trouble, though.

As if I didn't have enough to worry about there was this stray kitten up a tree.

Adam, typically, didn't arrive in time to do anything useful. Like help. He just stood there enjoying the view while he made fun of me, just he the way he always did. Calling me that ridiculous nickname.

Danger Mouse!

Maybe I should have called him Penfold. He did wear glasses back then. I suppose he's had his eyes lasered, because they are history. Not that I could ever think that straight when he was close. Not then. Not now, to be honest.

But I certainly fixed him today. I didn't fall into his lap as he suggested, I flattened him.

Tubby!

Well, okay, I'm no lightweight but he dines with presidents these days and you'd have thought he might have learned some manners to go with the designer suits, the luxurious bachelor apartment on the Quays. The success.

Maybe I should tell him how he got his job, that would wipe the smug smile off his face. But he's right. I need him as much as he needs me. And it's only temporary. He needs a nanny, someone who won't ask awkward questions - like where is the baby's mother. And I need a husband. Needs must...

A TINY PROBLEM

Hi, I'm Adam Wavell.

Liz is up to her eyes in what she describes as "stuff" at the moment. Putting her house on the market, packing for a delayed holiday, writing a book. Oh, and she has a cold. You get the picture.

She's rushed off her feet so she's asked me to drop by and tell you my story. Well, not just mine - it's May's story, too. May Coleridge.

May and I met at High School. I was the geeky kid living on a sink estate on the rough side of town with the family from hell and nothing but brains to commend me. She was the short, tubby girl from the big house who talked with a plum in her mouth and wore the school uniform in regulation style - you can imagine how that went down with the cool girls. Two outsiders living a world apart. Except she was always getting into trouble and I always seemed to be the one yanking her out of it - and getting yelled at for my pains.

Even so, I sort of liked her. She was a gutsy kid, and in the stables where she kept her waifs and strays she had her own kettle, a jar of instant coffee and a cake tin with the kind of cake that you couldn't buy in a supermarket. She was prepared to share in return for a hand with the animals, so we hung out there. Nothing heavy. She wasn't the kind of girl even a geek like me wanted to be seen out with.

I know what you're thinking. It was going to end in tears and you're right. It did. These days she crosses the street if she sees me coming and the only time we'd spoken in years was at town functions. May's family are big in the town. Charity, that sort of stuff. Of course these days, so am I, so that happens more often than she'd like. Tough. Suck it up, Miss Coleridge...

But, when my sister threw me for a loop by leaving her baby in my office, May Coleridge was the first person I thought of. Waifs and strays were right up her street. And true to form, I found her up a tree, rescuing one.

And also true to form, she fell out of it, right into my lap, so to speak. In more ways than one. (You can read how here)

It was one of those days when everything seems to be going wrong and then suddenly the sun breaks through and you have a chance to wipe out a memory of pain and humiliation that has haunted you for years.

Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. There was just one problem with that. I seem to have left the pilot light on.

SOS: CONVENIENT HUSBAND REQUIRED is on sale now in paper and eBook form at eHarlequin and will be available retail in July. UK readers will have to wait until August, Australia and New Zealand, September.

Well, that was fun.

Thanks to everyone who came up with names for the new gadgets.

The camera is going to be "Rosie" and the Sony eReader "Kitty". Thanks to Lois and Ginette for those - an advance copy of SOS: Convenient Husband Required (retail July in the States, August in the UK, September in Oz and New Zealand) will be in the post to them as soon as I have their snail mail addies.

I'm feeling pretty rosy about this book, actually, having just heard that Romantic Times have given it a stonking 4.5 star rating. Here's what they say: -

"The premise isn’t new, but Fielding’s deft handling of it is a triumph. The characters are fabulous, the relationship between them complex and nuanced…and keep a tissue handy at the end!"

I'm also going to be featured on the Romantic Times blog, talking about A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge (out now!) and my time in Botswana - I'll post a link when it goes live.

Right now I'm having a lovely time researching ice cream for the new book.

The history of ice cream. Vintage ice creams vans. And ice cream recipes - imagine me smiling here.

Talk amongst yourselves. I may be some time... :)