The twenty-five finalists of the first final section have been clipped down to the ten finalists that make up the penultimate final section. Bewildered Heart has barely had time to gloss over the first chapters, and now the public has been tasked with reading ten complete manuscripts in a week before the next deadline. Of those previously mentioned and immediately rejected, three women-in-peril have made the most recent cut. They are Fire and Iron, Violation of Innocence and Wanting the Detective. The other seven include the Christmas-themed (Eep!) Kimani Mistletoe Mischief, the crowd-pleasing American Love For Sale and the hard-to-believe-it-is-not-already-a-Harlequin Resisting the Sicilian Playboy. Either making up the numbers or likely to win are Belfast Belle by Karin Baine, Paradise Found by Katie Meyer and T.R. McClure's A Perfect Match. You may remember T.R. McClure from such romance novels as Never Too Late and A Silver Lining.
Each of the ten finalists belong to separate imprints, which is presumably a coincidence, and although the differences between subgenres are negilible at best, some of the novels have been written for genuine niche markets. Medical™, for example, is a far cry from the likes of Modern. In the latter, the heroines have careers through which they meet handsome, wealthy tycoons, CEOs and, on occasion, pirates. Medical Romances make their heroine's careers related to medicine, while the heroes are handsome, wealthy doctors or surgeons. So You Think You Can Write has one such offering, entitled Belfast Belle. What fate lies in store for its inexperienced heroine, Lola Roberts? As she begins work on the ward she comes into conflict with her sexy French registrar. He sees Lola as a pink princess, which may be a technical term, and does not want the hassle of his job or sex with a beautiful woman. Despite this, sex is inevitable, but like all Frenchman Henri believes himself undeserving of happiness. What is a night of passion without a happy ending? Perhaps Lola can answer that through a combination of sex and maybe some technical jargon about a stethoscope.
The pitch for Paradise Found is classic Mills & Boon, perhaps explaining Katie Meyer's decision to aim for the Special Edition imprint. An orphan wants to save the community of Paradise Isle from a ruthless property developer. Nic Caruso, of Caruso Hotels, drives his rented car, wearing his rented suit, on his way to his rented room in Paradise Isle. This is no vacation, however, but rather a working vacation, which sounds a lot like work. He is here to tear down this idyllic small-town community and replace every building with a corporate hotel, ski resort, sunbatheing lounge, business centre, retail district and sixteen banks. Driving towards a bridge he spots a badly injured dog, dying on the side of the highway. After a great deal of philosophising he saves the dog. Dropping her in at the veterinary clinic he meets technician Jillian Everett and what follows appears to be foreseeable.
Few aspiring entries sounded more like a Mills & Boon novel than Amanda Cinelli's Resisting the Sicilian Playboy. It is as if the title has been pulled from a marketing meeting of marketing experts intent of finding the most clichéd words possible in the least amount of time. There is implied exoticism, a playboy and a playboy's favourite trait in a woman, resistance. The pitch begins as a reader might assume, 'Dara Devlin needs Leo Valente’s help if she wants to keep her job and plan the wedding of the year.' Not her own wedding, of course, although by the end of the book it will be. Everything is in place for a classic tale of romance, with a woman blackmailed into bed by a foreigner. Their no-strings affair takes a turn for the problematic, however, as Leo falls in love. But wait! That's not the end? It sounds like the end. 'Dara cant have children and vowed never to marry,' Cinelli continues. There is more than just an apostrophe missing for this unhappy couple. Will Leo prove to Dara that her pledge is silly and cure her infertiity with his magic penis? Does Leo happen to own a small orphanage filled with his illegimate offspring? What kind of resistance involves sleeping with the Sicilian playboy? So many questions.
Love for Sale is a Harlequin American Romance by the patriotically named Chase Ewing. There are few things less Yankee Doodle Dandy than a retired rodeo champion and Love for Sale offers Luke Crawford as its hero, a retired rodeo champion turned single father and ranch-owner. Still, even the characters of Harlequin American have felt the pinch of the economic meltdown and Luke is faced with the ultimate decision. Does he cash-in on his child or his home? By choosing the latter he meets ambitious estate agent Katherine Hastings. A lifetime of love seems relatively straight-forward at this point, but first Kate must find a buyer. Will Luke want to sell now that he has found a new and improved wife and mother for himself and his kid? With a title that promises solicititilation and a pitch that fails to deliver it, the enticing combination of ranching and property management makes Love for Sale a strong candidate for victory, assuming the voting public are lovestruck estate agents with a penchant for Westerns.
Fighting the good fight for Heartwarming is A Perfect Match. 'When east coast event planner Lacey Hoffmann first lays eyes on the tall, dark and dusty cowboy standing between her and her morning coffee, sparks fly.' Presumably because he has got dust in her beverage, but as this writing competition has been keen to illustrate, cowboys are the ultimate female desire, especially when they couple their aesthetic with a well-paid career. In this case, Clay McDaniel is a horse clinician from Texas. Not one for east coast coffee houses, he and Lacey head for his ranch. Still, the course of true love really only runs smoothly on the pages of romance novels, and even these two must overcome some problems. She fears her parents will divorce. He owes a debt to his brother. These sound like external conflicts. Internally they are, in so many ways, opposites and they live in different parts of the country. Might she relocate, given her preoccupation with cowboys? After all, despite their numerous differences they appear to be a perfect match. We know this because A Perfect Match is the title of the book.
Kimani Romances feature the African-American and multicultural characters that are not allowed to appear in the other imprints due to old-fashioned values such as racism. Making up the numbers for reasons of political correctness this year is Mistletoe Mischief by Carolyn Hector. Threatening the status quo even further, Mistletoe Mischief adds a non-white Christmas and a possibly homosexual Santa Claus to the mix. When the aptly-monikered Duke Rodriguez reveals Santa to not be a real mythical fabrication he seeks to put things right with assistance from Macy Cuomo, an over-worked holiday decorator. The holidays are always busy for holiday decorators, but Duke and Macy find time to gaze at one another and speak. As their attraction becomes more palpable, so, the reader might hope, will some kind of plot. So You Think You Can Write has achieved its objective of finding ten passable novels. If history is anything to go by, every author will be contracted, but one must be rewarded as the champion, because Mills & Boon insist upon happy and predictable endings. That'll be Superromance Man Maid then.
Each of the ten finalists belong to separate imprints, which is presumably a coincidence, and although the differences between subgenres are negilible at best, some of the novels have been written for genuine niche markets. Medical™, for example, is a far cry from the likes of Modern. In the latter, the heroines have careers through which they meet handsome, wealthy tycoons, CEOs and, on occasion, pirates. Medical Romances make their heroine's careers related to medicine, while the heroes are handsome, wealthy doctors or surgeons. So You Think You Can Write has one such offering, entitled Belfast Belle. What fate lies in store for its inexperienced heroine, Lola Roberts? As she begins work on the ward she comes into conflict with her sexy French registrar. He sees Lola as a pink princess, which may be a technical term, and does not want the hassle of his job or sex with a beautiful woman. Despite this, sex is inevitable, but like all Frenchman Henri believes himself undeserving of happiness. What is a night of passion without a happy ending? Perhaps Lola can answer that through a combination of sex and maybe some technical jargon about a stethoscope.
The pitch for Paradise Found is classic Mills & Boon, perhaps explaining Katie Meyer's decision to aim for the Special Edition imprint. An orphan wants to save the community of Paradise Isle from a ruthless property developer. Nic Caruso, of Caruso Hotels, drives his rented car, wearing his rented suit, on his way to his rented room in Paradise Isle. This is no vacation, however, but rather a working vacation, which sounds a lot like work. He is here to tear down this idyllic small-town community and replace every building with a corporate hotel, ski resort, sunbatheing lounge, business centre, retail district and sixteen banks. Driving towards a bridge he spots a badly injured dog, dying on the side of the highway. After a great deal of philosophising he saves the dog. Dropping her in at the veterinary clinic he meets technician Jillian Everett and what follows appears to be foreseeable.
Few aspiring entries sounded more like a Mills & Boon novel than Amanda Cinelli's Resisting the Sicilian Playboy. It is as if the title has been pulled from a marketing meeting of marketing experts intent of finding the most clichéd words possible in the least amount of time. There is implied exoticism, a playboy and a playboy's favourite trait in a woman, resistance. The pitch begins as a reader might assume, 'Dara Devlin needs Leo Valente’s help if she wants to keep her job and plan the wedding of the year.' Not her own wedding, of course, although by the end of the book it will be. Everything is in place for a classic tale of romance, with a woman blackmailed into bed by a foreigner. Their no-strings affair takes a turn for the problematic, however, as Leo falls in love. But wait! That's not the end? It sounds like the end. 'Dara cant have children and vowed never to marry,' Cinelli continues. There is more than just an apostrophe missing for this unhappy couple. Will Leo prove to Dara that her pledge is silly and cure her infertiity with his magic penis? Does Leo happen to own a small orphanage filled with his illegimate offspring? What kind of resistance involves sleeping with the Sicilian playboy? So many questions.
Love for Sale is a Harlequin American Romance by the patriotically named Chase Ewing. There are few things less Yankee Doodle Dandy than a retired rodeo champion and Love for Sale offers Luke Crawford as its hero, a retired rodeo champion turned single father and ranch-owner. Still, even the characters of Harlequin American have felt the pinch of the economic meltdown and Luke is faced with the ultimate decision. Does he cash-in on his child or his home? By choosing the latter he meets ambitious estate agent Katherine Hastings. A lifetime of love seems relatively straight-forward at this point, but first Kate must find a buyer. Will Luke want to sell now that he has found a new and improved wife and mother for himself and his kid? With a title that promises solicititilation and a pitch that fails to deliver it, the enticing combination of ranching and property management makes Love for Sale a strong candidate for victory, assuming the voting public are lovestruck estate agents with a penchant for Westerns.
Fighting the good fight for Heartwarming is A Perfect Match. 'When east coast event planner Lacey Hoffmann first lays eyes on the tall, dark and dusty cowboy standing between her and her morning coffee, sparks fly.' Presumably because he has got dust in her beverage, but as this writing competition has been keen to illustrate, cowboys are the ultimate female desire, especially when they couple their aesthetic with a well-paid career. In this case, Clay McDaniel is a horse clinician from Texas. Not one for east coast coffee houses, he and Lacey head for his ranch. Still, the course of true love really only runs smoothly on the pages of romance novels, and even these two must overcome some problems. She fears her parents will divorce. He owes a debt to his brother. These sound like external conflicts. Internally they are, in so many ways, opposites and they live in different parts of the country. Might she relocate, given her preoccupation with cowboys? After all, despite their numerous differences they appear to be a perfect match. We know this because A Perfect Match is the title of the book.
Kimani Romances feature the African-American and multicultural characters that are not allowed to appear in the other imprints due to old-fashioned values such as racism. Making up the numbers for reasons of political correctness this year is Mistletoe Mischief by Carolyn Hector. Threatening the status quo even further, Mistletoe Mischief adds a non-white Christmas and a possibly homosexual Santa Claus to the mix. When the aptly-monikered Duke Rodriguez reveals Santa to not be a real mythical fabrication he seeks to put things right with assistance from Macy Cuomo, an over-worked holiday decorator. The holidays are always busy for holiday decorators, but Duke and Macy find time to gaze at one another and speak. As their attraction becomes more palpable, so, the reader might hope, will some kind of plot. So You Think You Can Write has achieved its objective of finding ten passable novels. If history is anything to go by, every author will be contracted, but one must be rewarded as the champion, because Mills & Boon insist upon happy and predictable endings. That'll be Superromance Man Maid then.
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