Anne Marsh's Blog

My next Harlequin release is July 2023! It’s a grumpy/sunshine, best-friends-to-lovers, fake date romance with a very cranky, extremely logical scientist hero and a cheerful literature professor heroine. I know STEM heroines are super popular right now, but some of us were English majors.

Well over a year ago, I pitched an amazing title for this book: The True Love Experiment. I loved it. My editors loved it. I did my usual Amazon check to make sure no one else had used it. Whew. All clear! Let’s do it! Cue the Titanic theme song…

The True Love Experiment was such an amazing title idea that Christina Lauren, one of my all-time favorite authors also came up with it. This is worse than showing up to an event wearing the same dress as someone else; it’s more in the league of accidentally swimsuit-twinning with my gorgeous twenty-something daughter. Worse, Christina and Lauren are actually super lovely people and were very nice to me when I fan-girled all over them at a book signing once and they just kept smiling and signing. Who knew we would meet again?

My next Harlequin release is July 2023! It’s a grumpy/sunshine, best-friends-to-lovers, fake date romance with a very cranky, extremely logical scientist hero and a cheerful literature professor heroine. I know STEM heroines are super popular right now, but some of us were English majors.

Well over a year ago, I pitched an amazing title for this book: The True Love Experiment. I loved it. My editors loved it. I did my usual Amazon check to make sure no one else had used it. Whew. All clear! Let’s do it! Cue the Titanic theme song…

The True Love Experiment was such an amazing title idea that Christina Lauren, one of my all-time favorite authors also came up with it. This is worse than showing up to an event wearing the same dress as someone else; it’s more in the league of accidentally swimsuit-twinning with my gorgeous twenty-something daughter. Worse, Christina and Lauren are actually super lovely people and were very nice to me when I fan-girled all over them at a book signing once and they just kept smiling and signing. Who knew we would meet again?

As today is Saint Patrick’s day, it’s time to read books with green covers, right? Since I’m not a green beer kind of person and when I was at the store I forgot I had an excuse to buy pistachio ice cream and I can’t even find green socks… green book covers it is! I’m still trying to decide if I like orc romance or not, although that’s the obvious mother lode for green. Feels like Shrek for adults and I kinda loved the original. Are you Team Orc or not?

From left to right and then shuttling back faster than a squirrel eating a corn cob:

Ilona Andrews – Emerald Blaze
Ruby Dixon – Wed to the Wild God
Anne Marsh (that’s me!) — Lone Wolf
Gail Carriger — Defy or Defend: A Delightfully Deadly Novel
Tessonja Odette — Taste of Poison: A Snow White Retelling
Jasmine Guillory — Royal Holiday
Daisy Prescott — Stranger Ranger
Zoe Ashwood — Her Orc King

 

 

So there I was reading Amazon reviews of THE INHERITANCE TEST and some lovely person commented that she bought my book because it had a boat on the cover. My first reaction was: whut??!!

My second reaction was art-focused. And nit-picky: But… you can only see part of the boat and it’s not the kind of boat my characters sailed because that’s what happens when the art department uses stock art!

My third reaction: Who looks for boat books?! And then I realized… I do, hahahaha. This is not my first boat book. Eons ago, I wrote a billionaire Russian mafia romance that takes place during a yacht race (XANDER) and a heroine who jumps (cruise) ship and is stranded on an island with her former hookup (WICKED SECRETS). This is where I had my Sam-I-Am moment. I do like green eggs and ham! I do like boats! I will take boats absolutely everywhere! When I look at my Goodreads, I’ve grabbed a whole bunch of boat romances in the last year. FLOAT PLAN is the one I haven’t read yet and it’s in Kindle Unlimited, so there’s my weekend reading plan. Starting your life over on a sailboat with a sailor you hired? Yes, please! Ask me Monday what I really liked…

Jill Shalvis’s IT’S IN HIS KISS has a sexy boatbuilder hero who falls off his boat and is rescued by the heroine meet-cute! Sadly, a really great pair of boots is ruined, but probably worth the true-love trade off.

My most recent contribution to the boat races is THE INHERITANCE TEST: movie star hero, charity boat race, stranded on Martha’s Vineyard after a boat wreck and so must cuddle for warmth! (I only wish I could say no boats were harmed in the making of this book)

Colleen Oakley’s THE INVISIBLE HUSBAND OF FRICK ISLAND… Spoiler: Starts out super sad, then adds the remote and beautiful Frick Island, then ends spectacularly, wonderfully happily-ever-after. Best time to start on Friday and finish on Sunday so you head into the week with the feel-goods.

Have you read and loved any of these? What boat books can you recommend to me?

 

 

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In 2011 my first book was released with Kensington Brava. Burning Up was my first contemporary romance, but actually the third book I sold to a New York publisher. It has a smoke jumper hero and a lavender farm! (Spoiler: there would be more smoke jumpers and lavender farms to come)

MONTHS before the book released, Time Magazine wanted to do a story about the making of romance novel covers. They featured the cover shoot for Burning Up. There was video. The cover model was in med school and hero-worthy all on his own. I learned that Walmart would only let us show so much ab–and that when you talk to a reporter, all bets are off as to what they quote you on.

But in case you wonder why sometimes the cover cuts off the head of the guy… in the case of my second Kensington book, Slow Burn, it’s because they used the same photoshoot and same model for both book covers. Admittedly, Dr. Hotshot is absolutely worth looking at twice.

Bane flops down on the bed beside me. A tsunami of white, polyester sheets frames his ridiculous, amazing face. My brain skips. Or possibly that’s my heart and I’m having a stroke because he’s just so unbelievably, unfairly gorgeous. He’s a Michelangelo masterpiece in a dollar-store frame.

“I dare you,” he mouths. “Do whatever you want. Let’s do this.”

Something shifts between us. This is now a game with no rules. It’s permission. He watches me, waiting to see what my next move will be, if I’m truly going to do this thing. Do I want to get naked with this man and do this for real?

My hand is on his stomach, palm pressed against his delicious muscles and the soft, golden dusting of hair that leads down to a very, very happy spot indeed. My fingers twitch, my brain sending subliminal messages. Go lower. Go ALL IN. I look at that hand-stomach combo where we’re connected. The air is so charged, I half-expect to see sparks, but nope. There’s just that enormous ridge punching at the front of Bane’s low-slung pajama pants. The tip of him pushes at the elastic waistband of his Calvins. He’s all cotton-trapped and pent up, his sexiness too much for his clothes.

He raises his own hand, pressing his fingertips against my belly, tracing the soft curves. I forget how to breathe. In or out. It’s go time.

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UK: https://amzn.to/3pKbZ6y

CA: https://amzn.to/3GtqDpB

AU: https://amzn.to/3DEje59

Audible: https://amzn.to/3EdgwE8

Free in Kindle Unlimited!

 

 

Transcendence by Shay Savage. Girl literally time travels back to prehistoric times. A total rescue/forced proximity book with amazing historical details.Madness of the Horde King by Zoey Draven. Hello! Alpha barbarian kings on a faraway planet, human heroines, and a super-rich fantasy world. Also: don’t break their laws…Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. The classic cave man book!Tracked on Predator Planet by Vicky L. Holt. A (very, very) slow burn romance with a super-protective alien hero, forced proximity, a desperate need for rescue, and Dr. Doolittle-worthy alien vegetation.The Midwinter Mail-Order Bride by Kati Wilde. The mail-order is more chainmail but this is a fun barbarian king meets strong heroine in a lovely fantasy world.Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon. All hail, Ruby! She’s the queen of alien barbarians with heart and I’d almost be willing to live on that ice planet with its face-eating fish…

Book Titles

Some authors are really, really clever at the whole book-naming thing. There are geniuses like Penelope Bloom–her Objects of Attraction series has me wishing I was smart enough to come up with those genius, funny, oh-so-dirty puns (and hey–they’re all free in Kindle Unlimited if you’re curious). Spoiler alert: not only is banana a fabulous euphemism, but the hero has an actual banana that he’s very possessive of. And that the heroine eats. You’re welcome for that mental image

And believe me… you really REALLY want to go check out Her Bush.

I am not that kind of evil genius. For Have Me, I originally proposed Two Little Words. The hero has a problem with saying I’m Sorry. As in: he never, ever says it–he just makes it up to you with cash and actions because those are just two little words, right? My editor argued it sounded too sweet.

So then we kicked around some title suggestions by email because this is how publishing works. Plus we had to do it quickly because Harlequin was gearing up to make the cover and the art department seriously prefers to know the title before they do that for obvious reasons. It’s a duet of bad boy billionaires, so I loved Bad Boy and Bad Boss–but welcome to publishing… Jackie Ashenden had already snagged the second title. She’s a lovely author, but I’d seriously fight her for the guy taking off his shirt on that cover. I liked Off Limits and No Limits but I couldn’t figure out the hyphenation there (I wish I was joking but I consulted Merriam-Webster and gave up).

This duet follows two bad boy billionaires who accidentally get married at a California sex party (and yes, those parties are actually a thing, although the getting-married part not so much). So why not make a play on the wedding vows to have and to hold and tie it into the emotional journey of the heroes? And thus, Have Me and Hold Me were born.

Harlequin’s art department has gifted me with a new cover for Have Me, my February 2021 release. I really like the stubble, but the hair seems a little… sleek? At any rate, he’s a pretty man and seeing him on the front of the book is no hardship. Below is a little snippet of how Hana sees Liam. What do you think? Does the cover match the contents?

Liam in Hana’s words…

When the bedroom door opens behind me, I glue myself to the closest window, under the guise of admiring the view. Play it cool. You do not show fear to Liam—he’ll walk all over you, issuing well-intentioned orders.

So I give him side eye in the reflection and wait for him to make a move.

God, he’s gorgeous.

Bossy, arrogant, far too domineering—and so, so drop-dead gorgeous.

The window reflects a big bear of a man wearing a pair of misbuttoned, faded Levis and nothing else. The jeans hug an impressive bulge and a pair of wickedly muscled thighs. His sun-bronzed chest is all chiseled abs and, a faint trail of golden hair leading down to a very, very happy place. I stare shamelessly. He props one broad, muscled shoulder against the doorframe, jamming a hand into his pocket. Warm, amused eyes watch me watch him. He’s barefoot, and despite his huge size, he looks downright cuddly. He also looks like he’s once again very much in control. That first part is an illusion. Liam didn’t claw his way to the throne of the kingdom of Silicon Valley by being nice. Or sweet. Or anything other than whip-smart, ruthless, and willing to do whatever it takes.

Part of me finds said ruthless intelligence sexy.

The same part that likes to tease him.