Heidi Rice: The Royal Pregnancy Test Launch Countdown: Casting Leo and Juno

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

The Royal Pregnancy Test Launch Countdown: Casting Leo and Juno

Hello to my 6-day Launch Party for The Royal Pregnancy Test, so excited you could join me in celebrating the print release of this book which is #1 in The Christmas Princess Swap.

I'm gonna spend the next 6 days doing short blogs about all sorts of things to do with Juno and Leo's story... The Inspiration, the setting, my partnership with the fabulous Natalie Anderson who wrote the 2nd book in the series, The Queen's Impossible Boss, the premiere of our book trailer, etc...

So onto Day 1 and the big question of...

Who Would Play Leo and Juno in a Movie?

Or in other words, a chance to give you all a little visual of my hero and heroine inspiration for the book - which is where Pinterest comes in...

Let me explain: Basically when writing a book for Harlequin, authors have to fill out an Art Fact Sheet. This is for the art department so they can decide on a cover design, but also for Harlequin's booksellers around the world - everywhere from Italy to Japan! - to decide if they want to translate the book for their markets... (Yes, please). Anyway, AFS are hard to do, it requires writing a very concise synopsis, working out your themes and listing key scenes, usually all before you've actually written the book. So to simplify things, I love to go on Pinterest and do a board for the book...

If you check out my Pinterest account you'll find all my books there (including the book I'm currently working on), but for this book I had two very specific celebs in mind for my hero and heroine...

Leo was definitely based on Henry Cavill, partly because he has a timeless gorgeousness, but also because he looks amazing in a suit and I could totally see him being a bossing King of a small European Country and that is sooo Leo. Because Leo's super smart, somewhat arrogant, a brilliant diplomat, but also someone who hasn't had nearly enough fun in his life and it shows, because he takes his job and his duty to the crown WAY TOO SERIOUSLY...

Enter Juno Monroyale to shake up Leo's life big time and show him that love doesn't have to be a threat it can actually be a joy. But that doesn't mean it's not also dangerous. For Juno I totally had Cara Delevingne in mind, because she's stunning but also has that edgy yet vulnerable beauty that fit with Juno's Rebel Princess style.

Join me tomorrow for Day 2 and a first showing of The Christmas Princess Swap book trailer.

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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.

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Wednesday, 21 October 2020

The Royal Pregnancy Test Launch Countdown: Casting Leo and Juno

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