I want a report back on that wedding too- sounds fab! One of the sub-plots I wish I could include in my WiP (word count and tight focus mean no room for it!) is a new love for my heroine’s 79 year old widow friend.

Don’t know quite how it changed from best friends to more than friends, well, I turned eighteen which helped, and there was the involvement of this other girl whose eyes I suddenly found myself wanting to scratch out, but eventually our friendship changed to something more. A year after we started dating we got married and now, nearly five years and (almost) three kids later, he’s still my best friend and the most wonderful husband a woman could ask for. How’s that for gushing?

Have a great time at the wedding. That sounds really sweet and romantic. Hope the weather’s fine for the grand occasion. I’ve decided it’s been far too long since I went to a wedding.

Wanting a great smile isn’t shallow, is it? I hope not. I’ve always had ‘great shoulders’ on my wish list.

Wow, timely post. I’m attending a wedding this weekend — my 75 year old neighbour is marrying her 72 year old toy boy (her words). The wedding is shaping up to be HUGE fun. I guess the message there is that we’re never too old for love and romance!

Oh, and call me shallow, but right up there on my list with sense of humour and trust is a great smile… and long dark eyelashes don’t hurt either

Thanks for the great post!

I hope you enjoy BLACKMAILED BRIDE when you read it. I’m a little like you with my tbr pile. I tend to pick the sort of story I’m in the mood for and I’ve got so many to choose from that’s no problem.

Thanks for the holiday wishes. I hope you and yours have a fabulous time too.

Great checklist. I have always felt that a lasting relationship consists of love, trust, respect, loyalty and fidelity.

I have to go out an buy your book and add to my TBR pile. You need to know that I don’t read the books in order of publication. i got through my TBR pile and pick and choose the book I want to read next. An additional caveat is that sometimes I’ll pick up an “oldie” and re-read it before tackling my TBRs.

And yes, all of us are scrambling during this holiday season — it always manages to creep up on us! I hope that you have a fabulous holiday season!

Hm, I’m beginning to wonder if there have been any scientific studies on what goes into that sensation of love at first sight. They say we should learn to trust our instincts more. Perhaps that ‘lightning strike’ is a case in point.

I’m absolutely thrilled that you’re enjoying ‘Blackmailed Bride, Inexperienced Wife’ so much! Thanks for sharing. I want to sit and natter and ask if you’ve read this bit or that, (I have my fave scenes) but better not. Hope you enjoy the rest of it and get a huge sigh of satisfaction at the end.

I’m a total believer in love at first sight. Though it takes time and patience to build something really exciting from that first initial lightning strike, but if the lightning of love-at-first-sight strikes it should definitely be explored. And one quality I’d like to add to your list is honesty. It goes hand in hand with trust, and I think it even precedes it. Because to gain someone’s trust you first have to deal honestly with them. It’s why I love reading HM&B, and especially Presents. Because no matter how much of a mean bad boy the hero is or has been, it’s his eventual honest dealing with the heroine that wins her over, before long a grain of trust is established which enables her to fall in love.

Commisserations on the TBR pile! But we wouldn’t be without them, would we? I hope you enjoy Dario and Alissa’s story when you get to it.

You sound just like a Presents heroine, saying that you knew your husband to be was going to be A Problem for you! Sounds like a terrific start to a relationship!

This looks like another book I must add immediately to my to-be-read pile! (And here’s hoping that pile does not rise up and take over the house any time soon, as I’m half afraid it might.)

I knew the moment I met my husband that he was going to be A Problem for me, and so he was. I had no intention of ever getting married to anyone. That… didn’t work out so well for me. Luckily, he did.

Caitlin