What memories stay with you longest? Happy times or traumatic? Major events or tiny snippets of everyday life, made special for some reason? How much do we recall because an event happened that way or because we’ve been told it did?

When I started writing Carys and Alessandro’s story (Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child) these became vital questions. I was writing a ‘secret baby’ story, where the hero becomes aware that he’s a father. But, by the time I started writing I knew Alessandro so well: proud and driven, distrustful of love yet honorable enough never to abandon a child, I realised there must be an incredibly strong reason for him to have acted the way he did. In this case the answer was memory loss.

My challenge was to ensure Alessandro’s lost memory wasn’t just a convenient feature of the plot, but the most inconvenient thing that could have happened to everyone involved. This is where the author’s mean streak comes in. Soon I found Alessandro, far from lacking memory, was dogged by it, especially recollections of pain and abandonment. His coolly authoritative air cloaks not a man who doesn’t feel, but a man who felt too much and prefers not to be hurt again.

Yet no matter how hard Alessandro tries to recall what happened in the vital gap in his life, he can’t force the memories. They’re tantalisingly elusive. There’s the taste of ripe summer cherries, when he sees a stranger’s mouth and senses instantly that they’ve known each other, and kissed, before. There’s a sight memory of long, glossy hair spread across a snow-white pillow. And there are other memories that evoke emotions he can do without.

Meanwhile Carys has no trouble conjuring recollections of the past, but she’s spent years trying to forget. Her memories are mixed – of times she was so ecstatically happy she now believes them to be false, and of more recent pain.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about Carys and Alessandro was that they weren’t simply on a quest to remember or reconstruct the past. Their love story is about starting anew and discovering whether they can build a solid relationship no matter what the past contains or leaves blank. If you want to find out how they fare, Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child is an April Presents Extra release.

What memories do you treasure? Are your strongest recollections those you share with others, or are they of purely private moments? And what triggers them? Is it the sight of someone from you once knew, or a familiar scent or sound?

Annie is running a contest on her website until April 11. Prizes include a signed copy of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child and more! Click here for more information on how to enter.

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by Kate Hewitt, author of The Sheikh’s Love-Child

When I was asked to write one of the books in the new International Billionaires series, I was delighted. Unlike some of my illustrious counterparts, I don’t know the first thing about rugby–the sport featuring in some way in each book–so I did quite a bit of research, and have fellow authors India Grey and Abby Green to thank for helping me with many of the details!

The hero of The Sheikh’s Love-Child, Khaled, is the heir to a desert island kingdom, Biryal, and a star rugby player. Before the story starts, his career is ruined by a serious knee injury. He leaves rugby, England, and most importantly,  his lover, Lucy Banks.

Now four years later, Lucy, a sport physiotherapist, is coming to Biryal–and to Khaled–to tell him about the son he never knew he had.

This is the basic premise of the book, and it was given to me by my editor. While it certainly interested me, it also presented a challenge, and that was to make this story my own. The big question in my mind is why would Khaled leave his lover without  explaining or even saying goodbye? How could that kind of act not only be justified, but forgiven?

Presents’ heroes are often found doing what seems cruel or unforgivable, whether it’s an act of revenge, a forced marriage, or even a bit of blackmail.  These actions only work in a story if  they are justified and honorable in the heroes’ own minds–and of course, eventually, the readers’!

So in the case of Khaled I really had to think about what would make him feel leaving Lucy in such an abrupt manner was the right thing to do. I thought about what might have happened to a man to make him feel leaving his lover was the best thing not just for him, but also for her. Khaled’s history–especially living with his invalid mother–has a lot to do with why he chose to leave rather than burden Lucy with his injury, although he isn’t able to explain this to her until later in the story.

Of course, while thinking about why Khaled would walk away, I also had to consider how Lucy felt about him leaving-and why she would be willing to come back to tell him about their son. What could bring her to a point, four years after they last saw each other, to want to see Khaled again? And how she would react when he makes another decision for the two of them–that he is going to be involved in his son’s life?

Working with an already-developed premise feels a bit to me like working backwards; I’m given the characters’ actions and then have to develop personal histories to explain and support their behavior. Usually I work the other way round, developing characters and then breathing life into their story. Still, it’s a challenge I enjoyed, just as I hope you enjoy Khaled and Lucy’s story.

What would, in your opinion, ever justify walking away from someone you loved? And if you were the one being left behind, what would you be able to forgive?

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I’m very excited to have The Spaniard’s Marriage Bargain out on the shelves in the US this month. I can’t remember exactly where the idea sprang from originally, but I know that I was thinking something along the lines of: what would be one of the most unforgivable things a woman/mother could do? For me, it would definitely be to walk away from her baby, or child.

Men seem to get away with doing that a lot easier than women in many cases, but for a woman to turn her back on her baby? It’s extremely hard to forgive, after all, women are all hardwired to be the nurturers aren’t they?

Well, of course we all know it’s never as black and white as that.

In my story it’s a very grey area. My heroine did the unthinkable; she walked away from her newborn baby and left him with his father. But now, two years later she’s back and wants to get to know her son.

The reason she did this thing is revealed in the book, but in the beginning, it’s not something that she finds easy to talk about. Especially when she has to deal with her husband’s understandable mistrust, anger and antipathy.

I liked the idea of turning things around a bit. It seems to me that the Alpha male hero gets hard done by in many of the secret baby plots when he has no idea he’s fathered a child until much later. I love secret baby stories so I thought it might be interesting to have the hero be the one who has had to take care of his child, and then deal with his wife coming back on the scene, making him feel threatened that she’s going to try and take his child away from him.

Of course the hero, Isandro is furious when Rowan turns up again. He thinks she’s been off living a hedonistic life, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He doesn’t trust her an inch, and especially not with his son. But, he can’t deny her right to see their son, and so takes her back to his home in Spain where he can keep an eye on her, and try to figure out the best way forward.

Little by little he sees that she is genuine about wanting to get to know Zac, and things aren’t adding up. Why did she leave two years ago? Where was she all this time? And why, when their marriage was just a marriage of convenience, is Isandro finding it harder and harder to deny the passion he feels for her?

I hope I do justice to all these questions in the story, I know that not many can forgive a heroine for walking away from her baby, but when you read Rowan’s story and her reasons for leaving, you might be able to forgive her, as Isandro does…

I’d love to know from the other authors out there — what would be your favourite well loved theme that you’d like to mess around with and spin on its head? (Is it obvious I’m looking for ideas for my next book?!!)

Rowan had been Isandro Salazar’s bride of convenience. But knowing that the Spanish billionaire would never love her as she loved him, her choice was to make her unborn child her priority and then, once he was born, make her dark journey by herself….

But in Isandro’s eyes, Rowan’s decision rendered her a gold digger who had committed the worst possible crime. However, he couldn’t stop her seeing her baby son—or deny that the passion between them was as raw and intense as ever….

My kind of hero? The flawed, emotionally wounded kind. Who better able to snag a heroine’s tender heart and never let it go than a man whose career involves his confronting grave personal danger on a near-daily basis, but who is so emotionally scarred that he will not allow himself to love?  Niko Leonidas is exactly that kind of man, capable of deep passion, but driven by such pride that he’d rather die than admit to the empty loneliness he’s carried inside for more years than he cares to count. Instead, he turns his work into a weapon against those to whom he should be closest and whom he most wants to love. At the same time, he shows infinite compassion for strangers, often jeopardizing his own life to ensure their safety. What it costs him to lower his defenses and open his heart to my heroine, Emily Tyler, is one of two core themes in The Greek Millionaire’s Secret Child.

Emily has been disappointed in romance because she’s never come close to experiencing the grand passion that defined her parents’ marriage. Until Niko Leonidas enters the picture, that is. Only then does she fully understand how love can consume a person to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. But compromise is part of loving, and she knows her relationship with Niko will never last if she’s the one to do all the giving.  Realizing that he’s shaped by events in his past and, if there is to be change, it has to come from him, she gives him the freedom he believes he needs to live life on his terms. She leaves Greece and returns home to Canada. That she might never hear from him again is a risk she’s prepared to take. Better to walk away with a handful of precious memories, than wait until resentment and disillusionment sour all that is good between her and the man who’s stolen her heart.

Several years ago, I was invited to present the case for romance novels to a group of somewhat militant university students, all female, enrolled in a course entitled Modern Women’s Studies. After the usual round of questions, a particularly hostile student asked me if it bothered me to be writing – and even worse, selling! – ’stuff’ that demeaned women and glorified abusive men.  I assured her I did no such thing, and if that was what she thought romance novels were all about, she’d missed the whole point.

“Then what,” she more or less sneered, “are they all about?”

I don’t always think fast on my feet but this time inspiration struck, fueled by a healthy dose of annoyance. “Strong, brave women bringing strong, brave men to their knees,” I informed her.

That pretty much sums up the second major theme in The Greek Millionaire’s Secret Child. Emily, who is all about being strong enough to fight for what matters most, in this case love, and brave enough to risk everything to win it; and Niko, who’s man enough to face his demons and vanquish them, rather than lose the best thing that ever happened to him. My kind of heroine, my kind of hero.

How about you?  What makes the difference between a hero who is merely admirable, and one you’d sell your soul for?  Why do some heroines strike a chord with you, while others leave you cold?

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Nurse Emily Tyler has come to Greece with good intentions. But Nikolaos Leonidas sees only a gold digger, with eyes fixed on his family’s fortune. It’s his plan to expose the fragile beauty. A weekend of champagne and seduction on his opulent yacht ought to do the trick.

By the time Emily has proved her integrity, it’s too late. She’s fallen for the daredevil Greek. But his risk-taking lifestyle makes cautious Emily wary—especially now that she’s pregnant with the Leonidas heir!

The topic of secret babies had authors and readers offering fascinating and diverse opinions and theories about why the secret baby theme is so prevalent in romance novels. If there are any aspiring authors out there this commentary is like a masters class in your favourite genre! I’ve gone through all the commentary as of this Friday morning (March 23, EST) and am posting a selection. My apologies for the good stuff I left on the cutting room floor (but you can go back and read all the comments!)

Harlequin Presents author Julia James (Royally Bedded, Regally Wedded) began. “In a way, I think the Secret Baby theme is at the very heart of Presents. What Presents is essentially about is the miraculous transformation of sex, into love. A man that just wanted women for sex, comes to understand the transforming power of love, and sometimes he does so via the intermediary of a child. Opening his heart to the love he has for a child enables that same heart then to be open to loving the heroine as well. Moreover, as the heroine becomes a mother – whether by birth or adoption – she changes her ’siren’ role as ‘only’ a sexually defined being in the eyes of the hero, and becomes something much, much more. Motherhood changes the way the hero sees the heroine – she can now move beyond being merely a sexual being for him. The way to love is opened. Similarly, the presence of a child allows the heroine to see that the hero IS capable of more than just delivering great sex (!), and is worth a lot more as a person, because they’ve demonstrated they are capable of love. The fact he shows he loves a child makes him now worthy of the heroine’s love.

“So although a baby is by no means essential for a Presents plot, I do think they form a very very important means of moving the hero towards love, and validating himself for the heroine.

I think, too, that when a hero has to face up to the reasons that the mother of his child kept his baby secret from him, it can be a very sobering lesson for him. That’s something I tried to tackle in my contribution to the Mother’s to Be trilogy.”

Presentsfan is definitely not a fan of the secret baby storyline. “I for one read Harlequin Presents for the enjoyment and relaxation. The secret baby plot is too heavy for me. But what it comes down to is it’s not enjoyable because the theme has been done to death and it takes the dramaticness away from the story because the reader know what’s coming. Writers please let it rest for while and write about something else.” She also wondered if the publishing house made writers pen secret baby tales.

Writer Kate Walker (Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride) realised that in her 52 published novels, only one had a real secret baby plot. “I’ll admit that it’s not a storyline that appeals to me a lot. And obviously I’ve found plenty to write about without it. As you say, Presentsfan, the heroine needs very strong reasons for not telling the hero about his child, and personally I’ve find it hard to come up with justifiable and believable ones – ones that would convince me enough to make me write the book. The only book I wrote with this plot line (His Miracle Baby) she didn’t tell him because he had stated quite adamantly that he did not want children and so she believed he wouldn’t want the baby. “I’ve played with the ’secret baby’ plot though, taking a twist on it so that books like Their Secret Baby or Rafael’s Love-Child are more ‘whose baby is it’ plots rather than actual secret babies. But the times when my heroine has become pregnant by accident then the father knows before the baby is born. In my last book The Italian’s Forced Bride, the reason the story starts is because there heroine has contacted the hero to tell him that she’s pregnant. The times when he finds out later are because she tried to find him and couldn’t.

“Contraception and unprotected sex? Well, as Tessa says, we are writing about people at moments of intense and burning passion – and our characters are human. So just as in real life, for everyone who had the rational mind to think of contraception at the critical moment, then there will be others who will be too caught up in that passion to be totally rational. My characters have done both – because they are very human beings. It can be difficult to bring in the ‘have you any protection’ conversation at just that moment – but I’ve done it – when it fits with the characters and the story.

“Oh – and Presentsfan, no one’s ever asked me to write a secret baby story , or any other type of story. I was once asked to write a book to fit in with the ‘His Baby’ mini series – and that’s when I wrote Rafael’s- Love-Child – which as I’ve already said wasn’t a secret baby plot at all.”

A huge thanks to Michelle S who told us a real life secret baby story! “Actually I love secret baby stories, and I also know they do happen. A woman I knew…met a man on holiday, whirlwind romance , came home pregnant, could not get in touch with him. He came and found her. Turned out he owned a large ranch in Australia. Last I heard from them, they were happily married. It was a wonderful happy ending for a woman who showed a lot of courage. I thought at the time — how very Mills and Boon. She returned the (baby) cot she borrowed from me but kept my battered copy of Penolope Leach. Truth can be stranger than fiction.”

Evanne added, “I have to admit secret babies are fine with me… . But the truth is a talented author can make me love just about any story line. The proud and feral male (as Ms. Shapcott put it so eloquently) who meets his match and becomes the true mate and father – very romantic.

“The conflict between duty and passion, which often applies to the mother of the secret baby is particularly compelling. Michelle Reid’s The Ranieri Bride is a wonderful example of an engaging secret baby plot executed brilliantly.”Author Anne McAllister joined in. “This is my first time on the blog and I haven’t had a chance to go back and read much as I’ve got a deadline looming and I need to get back to the “work-in-progress” (waves at impatient editor). But as I am currently working on a “secret baby” story of sorts, I felt this might be a good time to chime in.

“What I think is interesting is that there are so many ways you can go with the “secret baby” story as, indeed, there are different ways a writer can deal with a “marriage of convenience” or an “amnesia” story or a “mistress” story or any one of a number of “tried and true” plot lines.

“The delight in them isn’t that they are the same, it’s how, given the convention, each author approaches the story quite differently.”

Anne then goes through many of the above examples discussing what motivations, fantasies resonate with her as a writer and what don’t (please do go read, it’s fascinating!). Anne concludes: “I think what you said, presentsfan, about how your favorite authors can make you enjoy a book with a theme you don’t usually like is a great tribute to their talent. It isn’t the conventions like ’secret babies’ or ‘mistress’ books or ‘marriages of convenience’ that readers come back for. It’s finding writers in whose books they find expression of the fantasies about enduring love and commitment that resonate with theirs.”

Thank you all!

What do you think of secret baby stories?

Secret Babies. On the outside, this looks like a nonsensical phrase! For most of the time that they spend in the womb, babies are quite visible as bumps. And once a baby is born, you try keeping him or her quiet!

But, in a Harlequin Presents novel, the secret baby makes a significant promise to the reader that she will be offered a story that guarantees a sizzling conception, followed by an intense emotional conflict and dramatic revelations, more sizzling sensuality and the throat-tightening capitulation of a proud, feral male as he accepts responsibility for his child and admits his feelings.

I once received a letter from a lady who demanded why Presents heroines don’t use contraception? Of course, many do. But our stories are primarily about human emotion and those times (which have happened to us all) when passion is greater. As for this lady’s subsequent charge that we encourage young women to be reckless and feckless, I think not. Our stories speak to mother love and independence, of vulnerable heroines determined to have their babies and raise them alone, thinking that the father (the hero) does not care for them, beyond a sexual attraction. The fantasy spin that we offer is that he always comes back to claim his first-born and in the process discovers true love.

Personally, I think our secret baby stories should be required reading for all teenage boys! What do you think of Secret Baby stories?