Ally Blake’s Close-to-Home Harlequin Presents Setting
17 Comments November 13th, 2008 in author, books Posted by Amyby Ally Blake, author of A Night with the Society Playboy
One of the things I loooove about Harlequin Presents novels is that you can always count on the stories being set against the backdrop of some exotic location.
Now you have to remember that for a gal living in suburban Melbourne, Australia, the place you live and work and play can seem extremely exotic. An office overlooking the Thames in London – how fun! A secluded island in the Caribbean – oh yes. A grand house on a hilltop overlooking the hills of Tuscany – sigh…
So, being that I am a contrary sort, when writing my latest Harlequin Presents, A Night with the Society Playboy, I decided it simply had to be set… in suburban Melbourne, Australia 
.
Okay, so it’s not as much of a stretch as I am making out. Of all the big cities in sunny Australia, Melbourne is the true jewel. Elegant, cosmopolitan, with beautiful architecture and situated near both snow and beach. There is nowhere better for shopping, for art, for culture, or for food. For instance, the row of French pastry shops lining Acland Street in St Kilda have appeared in at least half my books. This of course needed much research to get the locale right!
Head to the inner eastern suburbs and you’ll find yourself driving through the cool shadows of established trees creating broad canopies across wide elegant avenues. You’ll cruise past graceful old mansions secreted away behind fences through which you glean hints of the most beautifully kept gardens and sweeping driveways.
So in finding somewhere exotic and new for my Caleb and Ava to play out their romance, I had no intention of them having to avoid doggie do on their evening walks, or being able to hear the TV next door . Move over picket fences – I wanted to know what went on behind the 20 foot tall, rendered brick, trailing in decades worth of ivy, intercom by the mailbox fences behind which the rich and powerful people of a city really live!
I let them live in fictional – though in my head I know exactly where it is – Stonnington Drive. The elder generation of Stonnington Drive the men wear suits long after they’d retired from high powered jobs in the city. While Stonnington Drive women are ten percent plastic, ninety percent self-absorbed, and they believe in gin, tennis, and boarding school for the kids.
Can you imagine the fun I had with gorgeous but emotionally stilted Caleb and spirited, runaway Ava who grew up with parents such as these? How could they possibly hope to have any kind of normal, meaningful relationship? Especially with one another?
Aaaah, see now that’s where you’ll have to read the book to find out!
Now, I’d love to know: do you enjoy reading books set in your home town, or do you prefer reading a book set far far away?
Happy reading!
Ally
Tagged with: A Night with the Society Playboy • Ally Blake • Australia • Melbourne • setting
I adore reading books set in my home town…which just happens to be Melbourne too!
My ‘Mistress to the Tycoon’ was set in Melbourne (Brunswick Street, the boho cultural centre of Melbourne) and my upcoming Feb Presents, ‘The Boss’s Bedroom Agenda’ takes place in Melbourne museum.
And like you, Ally, I do loads of first hand research trips (especially if it involves food!)
That said, I do love being whisked away to exotic locations too…London, New York, Greek Islands, any island actually, love them all. One of the huge appeals of Presents!
Hello Ally,
I’m in the middle of reading The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal, which is the first book of yours that I have read and I am enjoying it very much. It must be one of the “Modern Heat” books that is published as a Presents here in the States? The tone is a little different than most Presents books, which is an enjoyable change. I really like the humor and the dialogue between the hero and heroine, it sounds more natural than some of the Presents books which sometimes skews to the melodramatic (which I also like when I’m in the mood).
To get to your question: because I live in a little podunk town in upstate New York I don’t think a Harlequin Presents set in my town would be very exciting, so I like my books set far from here! I enjoy reading books set in Australia and New Zealand because I have never been to either one and like reading about such far-away places.
But, I also like to read books set in places that I have visited to remind me of my trips. I went to Italy last year and really loved Venice, so I’ve enjoyed some recent Presents books set there. I’ve also been to England, Scotland, Germany, France, some Caribbean islands and the Nordic countries, so enjoy reading about those places too.
We have so many Greek and Italian heros, so I’d like to see the Presents books mix it up a little bit. I remember waiting to get through customs in the Copenhagen airport and looking over at the line of Danes waiting to get back into their country. Everyone in line, both men and women, was beautiful! All seemed to be tall, fair with high cheekbones and beautiful blue eyes. Why not a Danish hero who is a shipping millionaire? And, he could look like Viggo Mortensen back when he was in that goofy Navy Seal movie with Demi Moore! Copenhagen would be a great city to set a romance in, I wanted to move there only a couple of hours after landing.
I also loved Stockholm, what a beautiful city. Maybe the hero could rent out the entire Ice Hotel for just he and the heroine for a night, that would be a romantic thing to do (I never got to the Ice Hotel, had to settle for the Ice Bar in Stockholm, which was a fun thing to do).
I’d also like to read some Presents books set in the US. There are very few Presents books set in the States recently. Usually if there is any setting in the US, the couple might spend a few nights in New York City. They always stay near Central Park and shop on Fifth Avenue, I guess that’s all you can do in NYC!
It also might be nice to have a (US) West coast hero. Maybe a software millionaire based in Seattle, who has an apartment in the city and a beautiful, huge home on his private San Juan island? Maybe he whisks the heroine off to Aspen for a ski weekend? Perhaps down to San Francisco or the Baja Peninsula? Or up to Vancouver Island? I’ve been to all these places (except Baja, but have that on my list) and can picture a Presents couple in all of them.
Well, enough rambling, nice to meet you,
Cheryl
Hiya
I’m British but my grandfather was from Melbourne so I love reading about the city, especially since I’ve never been.
Cheryl, your suggestions are fabulous and are giving me itchy feet!!
Lucy
Oooh, Ally, you’ve totally intrigued me now, Caleb and Ava sound fabulous. Will have to check out your latest now (like I don’t already have a huge TBR pile!).
And Cheryl, you might want to try my story The Tycoon’s Very Personal Assistant. My hero and heroine start off in Vegas and then end up in a luxury resort in Big Sur on the Californian coast. I enjoyed the research for that one so much I then had to go out and visit the place for myself – and boy, did it live up to all my expectations. I’m planning to check out the Pacific Northwest next, though, cos that sounds gorgeous too.
Heidi
(whose currently sitting in an office in London looking out over the Thames and the Tate Modern!)
Heidi,
Thanks for the tip about The Tycoon’s Very Personal Assistant, I will definitely find a copy and check it out. I’ve been to Vegas and Big Sur also (although not in any luxury resorts!) so it will be fun for me to read. I really loved driving up the California coastline, it’s really beautiful, reading about it will bring back lots of good memories.
Cheryl
Hey Nic!
I’m reading your latest Harlequin Romance ‘Executive: Mother to Be’ right now and I too get those little goosebump moments when a landmark or suburb I know is mentioned.
Keep it up, for my sake
.
Ally
Hiya Cheryl!
I’m so glad you are enjoying ‘The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal’. Damien’s best friend Caleb is the hero in my current book ‘A Night with the Society Playboy’. I coulnd’t help msyelf. He just felt the least likely hero so I had to find out why!
And I’m with Lucy. Your post was just delicious. I’m sure every author popping in here could get abook idea from your travelogue without even trying! I too love reading books set in places I’ve been to overseas. It makes me get that holdiay buzz while sitting at home in my PJs
.
Happy reading!
Ally
http://www.allyblake.com
Hey Heidi
Big waves across the pond!
And so glad I managed to intrigue you. Caleb intrigued me too when I first met him in ‘The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal’ and I’m so glad I gave him his own story so the bad boy could get a good girl of his own.
Ally
http://www.allyblake.com
Waving to Heidi across the pond!!!
So glad I’ve intrigued you
. Hope the book lives up to it!!!
Ally
Cheryl,
my ‘Purchased for Pleasure’, out earlier this year (Navy SEAL hero) was set in LA so there’s another West coast book
And I’ve read both ‘Caleb and Ava’ and ‘The Tycoon’s Personal Assistant’ and both books are fabulous. Fun, entertaining reads with loads of emotion.
Ally, I fully intend to keep setting books in Melbourne…just for you
One thing I like about Harlequin books is the way diversity is allowed with regard to location. We all have different experiences/likes/dislikes so I think its imp to have a variety of styles/locations & so on to account for various readers. I personally perfer outdoors so I look forward to the hero/heroine going on a walk by the sea, or the forest, or the island sun, as long as its outside. I feel stuffed by the inside as I grew up from a small tot, outside nearly all day & even night. My dad was an organic farmer long before it was the stylish thing to ask for & I spent tons of hours watching animal/plant kingdom develop & I love it.
But I do like to read about different experences than mine , so I enjoy reading about what Sidney is like or any place New Zealand or any place in Europe since I’ve never visited there. I think there are beautiful people as well as unattractive ones in any society so I can imagine a good looking or interesting couple anywhere. I also just love island settings so I read all of those no matter what. I loved Robyn Donalds october book His Majestys mistress as it not only took place on a pacific island but also New Zealand as well the heroine was involved in farming which I loved, so it was meant for me to read. I loved it. New Zealand was well described & I felt as if I had been to several exotic locations from reading this book.
To : Nicola Marsh. even tho your books have been set in la which wasnt my favorite , I read your book & enjoyed it very much. I like your personality, also which goes a long way, you seem very spirited & that is reflected in some of your books.
anyway, I appreciate the diversity in the books to give us all some favorite reads. thanks for writing them.
Redlighting,
I also enjoy the settings of Robyn Donald’s books. I don’t know if you have been reading her books for long, but she usually sets them on large farms or plantations in New Zealand (many of her heroes are “gentleman farmers” who own really huge spreads with beautiful homesteads) or in the Pacific Islands (her island is fictional, but I imagine Bali or somewhere like that when I am reading those books).
She also must be quite a gardener, because many of her heroines are also and the descriptions of plants and gardens in her books are always interesting to me, as I (try) to garden my little plot. You can pick up her older books pretty cheap on Amazon or half.com, happy reading!
Cheryl
Hi Ally,
Looking forward to reading A Night With the Society Playboy–Hey, isn’t that a fantastic title?–I’m sure it will be as delightful as your other fab books.
I don’t mind that your story’s set in Melbourne one little bit, Ally. I recently visited that fascinating city for the Romance Writers of Australia Conference, and it certainly has a charm all its own. Those amazing narrow alleyways in the heart of the city centre crammed with exotic little quirky restaurants–Like you and Nic, I could certainly enjoy plunging into some major Melbourne research!
And like you, Cheryl and Redlighting, I absolutely adore books that evoke the flavour of a place.
And since we’re all giving our books a subtle plug, I might just mention that at the moment the city of my dreams is Sydney. All of my books so far have been set there, in fact my favourite is about to hit the stands in the UK. Untamed Billionaire, Undressed Virgin. (How’s that for a title?)
I think you’ll find it’s pretty romantic! And rather reeking of Sydney town. You’ll have to wait till May for it to come out in the USA, I think.
cheers…
anna
Ack! It logged me out and I couldn’t remember my password. But, finally, I’m here.
Since I’ve never been to Australia, I love to read the books set there. And I’m really looking forward to Caleb’s story, Ally. (It’s my reward for later
)
But that’s one of the things I love about the line — so many great places to “see”! (Far more than my VISA Card will let me see, alas.)
(CT–My upcoming books are set in the US. The Secret Mistress Arrangement is set in Chicago (with a side trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast of all places!). The Millionaire’s Misbehaving Mistress is set in Dallas. Okay, plug over…)
Cheryl, Thank you so much for the info re: Robyn Donald as its the 1st time I read her books. I also read her november presents. So I will ck out the used book store. I have a 30 dollar credit there .They have about 3 yrs back but the presents books go so fast I have a time getting any of them. I may order some of her books from amazon.com, another good idea. Thank you.
I read nearly all november presents, just finished emma darcys book last night, But the one by susan napier simply was gone from the store here so dont know what happened. I usually get the new ones at the grocery store when I shop. I get my top 2 or 3 must reads first & then decide if I want to get the rest & usually do , but missed a few this time. thanks for the ideas.
Eve (my real name)
Ally, just finished the book and what makes it even more special is to read this post “behind the book”.
Anna and Heidi, the book is wonderful!
Redlighting,
I’m so glad you enjoy my spirited books.
Plenty more to come, hopefully