PENNY JORDAN is one of Mills & Boonâs most popular authors. Sadly Penny died from cancer on 31st December 2011, aged sixty-five. She leaves an outstanding legacy, having sold over a hundred million books around the world. She wrote a total of a hundred and eighty-seven novels for Mills & Boon, including the phenomenally successful A Perfect Family, To Love, Honour & Betray, The Perfect Sinner and Power Play, which hit the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. Loved for her distinctive voice, her success was in part because she continually broke boundaries and evolved her writing to keep up with readersâ changing tastes. Publishers Weekly said about Jordan: âWomen everywhere will find pieces of themselves in Jordanâs charactersâ and this perhaps explains her enduring appeal.
Although Penny was born in Preston, Lancashire, and spent her childhood there, she moved to Cheshire as a teenager and continued to live there for the rest of her life. Following the death of her husband she moved to the small traditional Cheshire market town on which she based her much-loved Crighton books.
Penny was a member and supporter of the Romantic Novelistsâ Association and the Romance Writers of Americaâtwo organisations dedicated to providing support for both published and yet-to-be published authors. Her significant contribution to womenâs fiction was recognised in 2011, when the Romantic Novelistsâ Association presented Penny with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dear Reader,
Itâs a bittersweet honour for me to be asked to write a letter to go in the front of this beautiful new collection of Penny Jordanâs âBrideâs Bouquetâ books. On one hand itâs given me a brilliant excuse to drop everything else and lose myself in Claire, Poppy and Starâs stories, which has been a joy. On the other it is a fresh reminder of the great sadness that Penny is no longer here to introduce them herself.
The books are now fifteen and sixteen years old and yet they retain the freshness and sparkle that are the hallmarks of Pennyâs writing. The characters are sharply observed, and each of the three stories that spring from the initial confetti-strewn, champagne-sealed pact between the heroines is fabulously distinctive and sizzling with its own unique chemistry. Reading them, I was reminded firstly what a truly wonderful, natural storyteller Penny was (in fact I was so wrapped up in devouring them it was a job to remember anything else!) and also that, although I canât pick up the phone and speak to her or share a gossipy lunch, I can still hear her voice in her books. In them, she has left a legacy and a gift that will be enjoyed by generations to come.
Writing was Pennyâs passion, and she spoke very often of her gratitude to every one of her readers for enabling her to make her living doing the thing she loved. Sheâd be really cross with me if I didnât end this by saying thank you on her behalf for picking up this book, and I really hope you enjoy it.
India
THERE has been a long tradition at weddings that the one to catch the brideâs bouquet as she throws it will be the next to marry.
The bride emerged from the hotel bedroom, giving her skirts a final shake, turning round to check on the long, flowing satin length of her train before turning to smile lovingly into the eyes of her new husband.
Her two adult bridesmaidsâher best friend and her husbandâs young cousinâand her stepmother had been dismissed for this, her final appearance in her wedding gown. Chris could be her attendant on this occasion, she had told them.
âCome on; weâd better go down,â he warned her. âOtherwise everyone will be wondering what on earth weâre doing.â
Laughing, they walked to the top of the stairs and then paused to stand and watch the happy crowd in the room below them. The reception was in full swing.
The bride turned to her husband and whispered emotionally, âThis has been the happiest day of my life.â
âAnd mine too,â Chris returned, squeezing Sallyâs hand and bending his head to kiss her.
Arm in arm they started to walk down the stairs, and then, somehow or other, Sally missed her footing and slipped. The small group of people clustered at the foot of the stairs waiting for them, alerted to what was happening by Sallyâs frightened cry, rushed forward, James, the best man, Chrisâs elder brother and two of the ushers going to the aid of the bride, whilst the two bridesmaids and the brideâs stepmother reacted immediately and equally instinctively, quickly reaching out to protect the flowers that the bride had dropped as sheâd started to fall.
As three pairs of equally feminine but very different hands reached out to grasp the bouquet, the bride, back on her feet now, smiled mischievously down at them and warned, âThatâs it! Thereâll be three more weddings now.â