Caitlin Crews - Book of the Month Blog

Writing for Harlequin/Mills & Boon is a dream come true.... I discovered romance novels at an early age, and I fell inlove hard and fast.  I would spend long weekend afternoons in the used book stores in my hometown, tracking down the various authors I loved and trying out new ones.  I remember staring at all those bookshelves of series romance, trying to decide if I felt more like a Loveswept or a Silhouette Intimate Moments that week. Or perhaps a Medical?  A Desire ora Harlequin Presents?  There was a seemingly endless supply, and I couldn’t read fast enough to read them all!

But it never occurred to me that I could write these books,too.

I wrote other things, because I loved to write.  I wrote for school, I wrote poems and shortstories that will hopefully never see the light of day, and I eventually wrote different kinds of books that I was lucky enough to see published—but I always wondered if I could actually write the kind of book that had inspired me to write in the first place.

Romance novels soothed me, let me escape from my life—and,more to the point, taught me how to think about forgiveness and redemption,growth and change.  Romance novels taughtme to believe that love really could shed light on even the darkest ofhours.  They let me dream that no problem was too big, no disappointment too deep, and no space too wide for love toheal.  They taught me how to hope.

The truth was, I didn’t think I could do a romance noveljustice.  After all, I have very highexpectations when it comes to a good romance novel—especially a categoryromance novel, which must deliver on all cylinders in a set space!  How did they do it, I wondered?

But I had this idea in my head.  A perfect princess, bound by her sense ofduty to her country and her cold, disapproving father.  And  aruthless, dangerously delicious sort of alpha male, who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals—which in this case meant our princess’s hand in marriage.  And there was no way this story could be anything but an intense and passionate Presents/Modern!  So I had no choice but to write it.

You will have to let me know if you think I did my beloved romance novels justice with my first attempt. I certainly hope so—I have bookshelves stuffed full of books that I knoware, each and every one, tough acts to follow. Happy reading!

Caitlin Crews