One of the very neat things is writing and reading special projects. This summer, two Romance authors join Kate Hewitt in an anthology entitled AN ITALIAN SUMMER. Here are Jackie Braun and Rebecca Winters to tell you a bit about their stories!
Rebecca: My inclusion in this June anthology is a new novella called THE LUCCHESI BRIDE. It's the story of a darling redhead named Catherine Dalton who finds out her birthfather Mario Conti is alive and living in Italy. She's a western girl from the US and flies over to Italy to meet him. In the process she encounters the hero Alessandro Luchessi who is a business friend of her father's... and it's love at first sight for both of them.
Alessandro has a teenaged son who isn't too thrilled to discover his father has a love interest after all these years. And to add to the mix, Mario's daughter through another marriage is insanely jealous of her American half sister who has won Alessandro's heart. To make things even tougher, Catherine is feeling guilty to have left her stepfather (since her mother's passing). She loves him and doesn't want him to feel betrayed because she has gone to meet her birthfather. Lots and Lots and lots of angst!
Jackie: A VENETIAN AFFAIR originally appeared in Destination: Marriage, an anthology out last June that featured, as the main title implies, destination weddings. I had a ball writing this story, and I still have a bit of a crush on Maxwell Kinnick, the story's flirtatious, confirmed bachelor. I paired him with Dayle Alexander. She's his business partner and seemingly the only woman alive immune to his considerable charm. Dayle has good reason to be immune. She made the mistake of falling for one Lothario. She's vowed never to do so again, which is why it makes sense to accept the proposal of her long-time, uber-reliable beau. So what if she doesn't experience sparks when they're together? She had those once and only wound up burned.
When work takes Max to Venice and Dayle tags along to scout out wedding locations, the long-simmering attraction they've both denied can no longer be ignored. But is it more than attraction? And just what is Max hiding behind all of that charm? When Dayle learns the answers, she's left with an even bigger question: Venice is the perfect location for her wedding, but who is her perfect groom?
Don't they sound like LOVELY stories? You can find the book for sale at Mills and Boon, and at amazon.
