Heidi Rice: RNA Romance Prize

Monday, 9 February 2009

Banging My Own Drum.... And Mickey Rourke's...

Just a quick note to say my latest Presents is now available online at eharlequin and already flying high in both the bestseller list and the ebooks bestseller list. How wonderfully thrilling!

Just what I needed to get me cracking the whip on my latest WIP. If you remember that's my 'be kind, rewind' epic which I had to start from scratch again a few weeks back. Am plugging away at it, and it's finally taking shape into something really fabulous (honest!). But boy this one is hard work. Remind me again why one should never make a bad boy Irish movie star your hero (thanks again Colin Farrell, this is all your fault, buddy).

Am sneaking a day off at the RNA lunch tomorrow (snow allowing) to cheer on my Mod Hot buddy Kate Hardy and fellow Presents author India Grey who are both up for the coveted Romance Prize. Well, done Ladies. And remember, as Jonathan Ross said at the BAFTAs last night, everyone who's nominated is a winner really.

By the way, you could hear the cheer across Islington when they announced Mickey Rourke as the Best Actor winner. If I've got one film recommendation so far this year, it's go see The Wrestler. Rourke is a genius and, as much as I love Sean Penn, I hope he wins the Oscar too.

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Get Ye to the Pink Heart Society...Or Movietalk

Just another quickie to say get thee to the Pink Heart Society on Friday or What's on TV's Movietalk blog where I will be waxing lyrical about the new Hugh Jackman/Nicole Kidman romantic epic Australia.

Is it the ultimate guilty pleasure movie? Quite possibly.

Also had some fab news from fellow Mod Hotter Kate Hardy to say she's up for the RNA Romance Prize again this year. Now, as she won it last year with Breakfast at Giovanni's I'm thinking Wow!! And my Modern mate India Grey is also up for the award, so hopefully they'll be lots of reasons to celebrate come February 10th when they announce the winner at the RNA luncheon. That's certainly shaping up to be a shindig and a half.

Am still plugging away at the current ms, which has turned into the stream-of-consciousness romance novel from Hell. Still sticking to my motto though, through gritted teeth: Write, write, write, edit crap at later date.

I'm starting to think though that slash and burn might be the best technique for the editing stage...

Oh and don't forget to vote for eharlequin as the best blog in the history of the known universe (or something like that) at the webblog awards.

My Book Recs!

Dirty Secret by Mira Lyn Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I know absolutely NADA about ice hockey, I'm a Brit after all. But when I saw my old writing mate Mira Lyn Kelly had written a series of HAWT hockey romances I hit the insta-buy button because I know what a fabulous writer she is – and I had a week-long holiday in Spain with lots of lounging-around-a-pool time to fill. I'm happy to say I was not disappointed. Because this book hit all my sweet spots hot hero, smart savvy heroine, snappy dialogue and deep deep emotion wise.... (Although I still know nada about hockey I feel I can now talk quite knowledgeably about how hot ice hockey players are at least!)

Dirty Secret is the first of the Slayers Hockey team stories (although Greg and Julia feature in Dirty Player, in another series, which I will sooo be checking out after I finish this series). Anyway Dirty Secret features team captain Greg Baxter's arch rival Vaughn Vasser and Greg's little sister Natalie, who is absolutely OFF LIMITS to the rest of the team. But most of all to Vaughn, who recently threw a punch at the cap, is not much liked by the Chicago press, the Slayers fans or nearly all of his teammates either, and has his sights set on a trade back to Oregon ASAP...

But what Vaughn does not know is that the "Allie" he had an uber hot one-night stand with eight months ago in Vancouver, and who ran out on him without leaving a number and who he cannot forget is none other than the guy he hates little sis. Natalie is so busted when Vaughn turns up at her door, after discovering who she is... And that she knew who he was all along, and that's why she was using an assumed name. To say he's pissed is putting it mildly, but the truth is he is also hurt. WTF was she thinking, leaving him in the lurch like that after pretty much the best night of his life? Ofc, it's only a matter of time before pissed gives way to provocative, because these two really cannot keep their hands off each other, or any other crucial parts of their anatomy tbf. But while the secret sex scenes are the perfect blend of explosively intense and toe-curlingly spicy, the real secret in this book is that the hard-nosed (and hard everything else) Vaughn, is actually a really sweet guy. But only Natalie ever gets to see that side of him...

Not all that surprisingly, given their explosive chemistry, it doesn't take long before their under-the-radar romance is impossible to keep under the radar (or anything else for that matter).

Once Greg finds out that his rival is secretly dating his kid sister, all hell breaks loose, leaving Vaughn's career in the crosshairs and Natalie having to deal with her big brother's ego explosion. So how is Vaughn not gonna blow up his career and get over the girl he can't have but still wants all the damn time? How is Natalie gonna get her big bro to back the hell off and give her space to figure out that Vaughn is the guy for her? Which is a big ask for her, because she spent her whole life living in the shadow of Greg's career. And she does not want to risk living in the shadow of another man's career - however right he seems....

I'll leave the answers to those crucial questions for you to find out, but I was rooting for them both throughout the fallout, even when they made mistakes. I loved the underlying theme,too, that love is never easy, that chemistry can be dangerous as well as delicious but that ultimately it's the compromises you make and the secrets you are brave enough to share about who you really are, and what you really want that give you the greatest rewards.

What a terrific start to this series, I'm already three books in and I am TOTALLY ADDICTED which is good because I'm now back in a cold and rainy London, and some Slayers Hockey heat is the perfect antedote. So thank you Mira Lyn for giving me my summer back, I appreciate it.

View all my reviews

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Monday, 9 February 2009

Banging My Own Drum.... And Mickey Rourke's...

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Get Ye to the Pink Heart Society...Or Movietalk