Read an Excerpt from Lynne Graham’s “A Rich Man’s Whim”

Bestselling author Lynne Graham starts a new miniseries this month, A Bride for a Billionaire! Book #1, A Rich Man’s Whim, goes on sale this week in North America and has  a ruthless Russian hero, virgin heroine and a scandalous, sexy offer….

Keep reading for an excerpt!
About A Rich Man’s Whim:

A month with the ruthless Russian…

Kat Marshall has sacrificed everything for her younger sisters. And with money tighter than ever, she’s in desperate need of help. Innocent Kat has hidden her dreams away until she meets enigmatic Russian, Mikhail Kusnirovich, whose outrageous offer could make them all come true….

Billionaire Mikhail doesn’t have dreams. He has money, lots of it, and he always gets what he wants. Bedding Kat should be easy, but the tempting redhead is impossible to seduce! So Mikhail offers to pay off her debts—in exchange for a month on his yacht, and in his cabin, virginity included!

Excerpt:

Mikhail Kusnirovich, Russian oil oligarch and much feared business magnate, relaxed his big body back into his leather office chair and surveyed his best friend, Luka Volkov, with astonishment. ‘Hiking…seriously? That’s truly how you want to spend your stag weekend away?’

‘Well, we’ve already had the party and that was a little high octane for me,’ Luka confided, his good-natured face tightening with distaste at the memory. Of medium height and stocky build, he was a university lecturer and the much admired author of a recent book on quantum physics.

‘You can blame your future brother-in-law for that,’ Mikhail reminded him drily, thinking of the lap and pole dancers hired by Peter Gregory for the occasion, women so far removed from his shy academic friend’s experience that the arrival of a group of terrorists at the festivities would have been more welcome.

‘Peter meant it for the best,’ Luka proclaimed, instantly springing to the defence of his bride’s obnoxious banker brother.

Mikhail’s brow raised, his lean, darkly handsome face grim. ‘Even though I warned him that you wouldn’t like it?’

Luka reddened. ‘He does try; he just doesn’t always get it right.’

Mikhail said nothing because he was thinking with regret of how much Luka had changed since he had got engaged to Suzie Gregory. Although the two men had little in common except their Russian heritage, they had been friends since they met at Cambridge University. In those days, Luka would have had no problem declaring that a man as crude, boring and boastful as Peter Gregory was a waste of space. But now Luka could no longer call a spade a spade and always paid subservient regard to his fiancée’s feelings. An alpha male to the core, Mikhail gritted his even white teeth in disgust. He would never marry. He was never going to change who and what he was to please some woman. The very idea was a challenge for a male raised by a man whose favourite saying had been, ‘a chicken is not a bird and a woman is not a person’. The late Leonid Kusnirovich had been fond of reeling that off to inflame the sensibilities of the refined English nanny he had hired to take care of his only son. Sexist, brutal and always insensitive, Leonid had been outraged by the nanny’s gentle approach to child rearing and had been afraid that she might turn his son into a wimp. But at the age of thirty there was nothing remotely wimpy about Mikhail’s six-foot-five-inch powerfully built frame, his ruthless drive to succeed or his famous appetite for a large and varied diet of women.

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Giveaway: Win “Heir to a Desert Legacy” by Maisey Yates!

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Yesterday, author Maisey Yates blogged about Heir to a Dark Inheritance, the second book in her Secret Heirs of Powerful Men duet — but did you know book 1 Heir to a Desert Legacy was the Harlequin Recommended Read book for April? If you missed it, here’s your chance to get your hot little hands on it — we have 5 print copies up for grabs!

About Heir to a Desert Legacy:

Sayid al Kadar was trained from childhood to be a warrior. He’s fought, he’s conquered—but was never meant to rule…

Thrust reluctantly to the throne, Sheikh Sayid is shocked to discover a child who is his country’s true heir, and he’ll do anything to protect him, even if it means taking on the child’s aunt!

Chloe James might behave like a tigress protecting her cub, but this trained soldier can see her weak spot. Taking Chloe as his bride would appease the people of his kingdom, and provide the perfect outlet for the blistering chemistry between them….

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling us what you would say if a sheikh proposed to you! Contest closes on April 29  at 11:59pm. 5 winners will be drawn from all eligible comments and announced here on April 30. Open to US/Canada residents only. For full official rules, click here.

Update: the giveaway is now closed. Please check the comments to see who won!

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Dark Pasts, Bright Futures by Maisey Yates

by Maisey Yates, author of Heir to a Dark Inheritance (Harlequin Presents, May 2013)

I’m fascinated by the idea of heroes (and heroines) with very difficult pasts. After naval gazing about it for a while I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason those are the stories I like to write comes down to one simple word: Redemption.

The worse the sinner, the greater the need. The darker the past, the more astonishing and beautiful a bright future will seem.

Now getting these characters (particularly heroes!) to the point where they can say they need to change, that they need to have that moment where they question everything they believe, everything they’ve been doing, so that they can truly move on with their lives…it’s not an easy thing to do. Trust me. Stubborn fictional alpha males. ;)

But, these are the stories I like to write. Because who needs healing more than a man who’s dying? Which sort of a grand metaphor, but sometimes I look at a lot dark heroes in romance and try to imagine what their lives would be like if they’d gone on without the heroine in it.

Alik, from Heir to a Dark Inheritance? His future doesn’t look very bright without Jada, the love of his life. Without Leena, the daughter he never knew he had. On the surface, Alik seems like a fun guy. He does a lot of cool things involving fast cars, women, alcohol, tattoos…Alik likes a party.

But Alik is completely cut off from emotion, thanks to a childhood of loneliness, abandonment and general abuse. He doesn’t care about his life. He lives because it’s what people do, and he dares life to pull the rug out from under him at any opportunity (you know, by going on deadly missions into enemy encampments to save captures sheikhs…normal stuff) until the moment his life changes.

Until a little bit of light, the promise of redemption, if you will, comes into his life in the form of his daughter, and the woman who’s been raising her.

Before Jada and Leena, Alik didn’t know any kind of real emotion. (he has one friend, but since Sayid from Heir to a Desert Legacy was as messed up as Alik is, who knows if that did any good! ;) ) But of course, they bring an explosion of emotion with them. A crying baby that looks far too delicate for Alik’s comfort, and then there’s Jada…who makes him feel things he never believed possible.

The journey to being able to come out of the darkness is a long one for Alik. But the light on the other side is so sweet, and it means everything to a man who never thought he could have it.

Of course, there’s a heroine in this book too, and she has her own set of issues. She’s known love, and also the loss of it. To Alik, love looks like redemption, and to Jada it just looks like pain. How will they get together?

;) You’ll have to find out.

Now, I leave you with a haiku and an excerpt:

Oh, Bad Boy Russian

Bad attitude and tattoos

You just need a hug

 

“Last song,” Alik said, in response to the announcement from the lead singer. “Want to dance to it?”

“I’m going to fall over, Alik. You’ve exhausted me,” she said, wandering back to the table and bracing her hand on the surface, tugging her shoes out from beneath it and putting them back on. “That was…fun.” The most fun she could remember having in years. “Thank you. I didn’t know I would like dancing so much.” It was on the tip of her tongue to say they should go again. That she wanted to make it a regular thing. But there was no point to that. None at all.

“I didn’t either,” he said. He took her hand and led her out of the club, back into the crisp night air. It felt cool and dry on her skin after the moist heat of the dance floor. “I didn’t know a lot of things about life until you, Jada,” he said, pulling her close, kissing her lips. It was tender, sweet. Frightening.

“I want you to teach me,” he said, his voice rough.

“Teach you what?” she asked.

People were leaving clubs all along the street, weaving around where she and Alik were standing. But she didn’t want to move, didn’t want to break the spell of the moment.

“Teach me what it means to make love.”

No. Her heart screamed in denial. The request, so simple, was scarier than anything else she’d faced wit him. And now she wondered if she should have simply been content with their encounter on the couch. If she should never have told him she needed more. Because this was too much. Too close to her deepest fear.

She’d been with him so many times, and yet, this was the time she feared might break her. Because he wasn’t asking for her body. He was asking for her soul. Asking her to go deeper than she felt she could.

The further she went with Alik, the more distant her past became. The less her image of the past appealed, because the woman she was turning into wouldn’t fit into it.

She was terrified of losing it, of dishonoring it. Of what it would mean if she took another step away from it, another step toward becoming this person who seemed almost entirely different than the one she’d been with her husband.

All she had were her memories, and the way she saw those were changing too.

She was trembling inside, but as she looked up into Alik’s eyes, she knew she could deny him nothing. “Yes. I’ll teach you, Alik.”

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Presents Pitch Round Up: Come as Your Character? Easy, Right?

by Harlequin Presents Editorial Assistant Pippa Roscoe

We had a tremendous response to our recent on-line pitch competition, and some of the broadest, most exciting submissions we’ve seen. Although we could only take five of our favourite entries into the pitch, we were astounded by the quality and originality of the ‘first meets’. It’s certainly motivated me to get myself out there and find my own alpha hero that I can stand toe to toe with!

Each and every one of our online pitch entrants not only rose to the task of coming as one of their characters, but exceeded our expectations! We met a lot of feisty heroines and even a desert Sheikh!

It was wonderful to see everyone so excited to come as their characters, even despite the few technical difficulties we had at the start (!) So with baited breath, the Presents team got ready to interrogate, I mean question, our pitch entrants, armed with jelly babies and queries designed to unearth what makes these characters tick…with some hilarious results!

There was the Desert Sheikh who’s pet peeve is people who can’t use their turn signal: When I drive my own cars, it makes me crazy. It’s a small lever! It’s not rocket science! Ashley, a dancer whose greatest fear is stage fright, literally puking on a judge once!  Kat Gardener who appreciated her hero’s honesty – figuring that there must have been an ulterior motive behind the biggest playboy proposing marriage to a woman he just met! Livvy, whose favourite drink is a beer, but loves a zinfandel with lobster (at least we’d know what to order if we took her out for dinner!) And Cari, who prefers staying out of the limelight and behind the computer screen, but promised to see us on twitter sometime soon.

So the Presents team may have started a new craze! Characters will be popping up all over Twitter. Can you imagine alpha males and scandalous heroines flooding the tweets?!

The first submission is already in and we can’t wait to read it. But while we get stuck into that, here are some of the questions we asked our entrants… Would you know the answer to these for your characters? If so, do tell!

  • What’s your character’s pet peeve?
  • Where would your character take your hero/heroine for a first date?
  • What’s your character’s favourite drink?
  • What is your character’s greatest fear?

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Twitter Chat with Sicily's Corretti Dynasty Authors on April 23!

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

On Tuesday, April 23, we’ll be celebrating the launch of Harlequin Presents’s new 8 book continuity series Sicily’s Corretti Dynasty with a live Twitter chat! If you love scandals, epic family tales, passionate romance and Italian heroes

(who doesn’t? ;) ), this is the series for you. All 8 authors will be joining us live to talk about the series and their books, plus answer your questions!

The chat will begin at 10am EST (see the image below for more time zones). Be sure to follow the hashtag #HarlequinPresents and @HarlequinBooks so you don’t miss a single tweet. Hope to see you there! :)

Twitter-Chat-April-23rd---HQ-Presents-Corretti-Dynasty

About the Sicily’s Corretti Dynasty series:

The more powerful the family…the darker the secrets!

Harlequin Presents® introduces the Correttis; Sicily’s most scandalous family!

The Empire
Young, rich and notoriously handsome, the Correttis’ legendary exploits regularly feature in Sicily’s tabloid pages!

The Scandal
But how long can their reputations withstand the glaring heat of the spotlight before their family’s secrets are exposed?

The Legacy
Once nearly destroyed by the secrets cloaking their thirst for power, the new generation of Correttis are riding high again—and no disgrace or scandal will stand in their way…

Books in order:

UNCOVERING THE CORRETTIS by Carol Marinelli (FREE ebook prequel, available now)
A LEGACY OF SECRETS by Carol Marinelli (May)
AN INVITATION TO SIN by Sarah Morgan (June)
A SHADOW OF GUILT by Abby Green (July)
AN INHERITANCE OF SHAME by Kate Hewitt (August)
A WHISPER OF DISGRACE by Sharon Kendrick (September)
A FACADE TO SHATTER by Lynn Raye Harris (October)
A SCANDAL IN THE HEADLINES by Caitlin Crews (November)
A HUNGER FOR THE FORBIDDEN by Maisey Yates (December)

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