Boardrooms & a Billionaire Heir / Jealousy & a Jewelled Proposition: Boardrooms & a Billionaire Heir

Jealousy & a Jewelled Proposition by Yvonne Lindsay

SYDNEY SCENE

To the Blackstones and Hammonds, secrets are a part of life. But none as profound as the one that rocked Australia when the firstborn Blackstone, kidnapped three decades ago and assumed dead, was resurrected and assumed the throne of the Blackstone diamond empire. Rival family leader Matt Hammond was apparently none too pleased at the gala reception, and vowed revenge.

Mysterious stock trading and clandestine deals have led the Pitt Street moguls to declare Blackstone’s ripe for takeover. All eyes are on Matt Hammond. New Zealand paparazzi have caught the Hammond billionaire wheeling and dealing – and romancing none other than his son’s sweet-as-spun-sugar nanny, identified as Rachel Kincaid. Looks like the caregiver is giving Hammond more than some child-rearing advice in the back of that limo!

Despite whatever’s going on in the Hammond household, those in the know are predicting a blowup to the decades-old feud between the Hammonds and the Blackstones. When it does combust, there’s no telling who’ll remain standing as the first family of fine jewels.

Dear Reader,

I’m very excited about this, my second book. It germinated back in 2006 while I was still floating on my first sale high. My favourite kiwi, Yvonne Lindsay, e-mailed me to ask if I’d like to join an author-led Down Under continuity. “You can say no if you want to,” she added. Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with a bunch of my favourite writers! Since then we’ve burned up the internet waves, with e-mails flying back and forth over the Pacific, brainstorming, plot-storming, character-storming, making sure our themes didn’t clash, ensuring the timelines and backstory meshed. What a job!

I was particularly thrilled everyone loved my idea for the missing heir, and the mystery of the missing Blackstone baby is accompanied by a favourite theme of mine – office romance. There’s something extremely forbidden about the whole scenario, don’t you think? Throw into that the politics, sexual tension and inevitable gossip, and you have the makings of a potential disaster.

Again, I’ve set the story in a place familiar to me, the heart of Sydney’s central business district, where I worked for many years. You may even recognise some places! The one artistic licence I did take was removing the Sydney Hilton on George Street to make way for the Blackstone’s Head Office. Ahh, the things we can do with fiction! If you want to read more about this book and the DIAMONDS DOWN UNDER series, go to www.diamonds-downunder.com. And as always, I’d love to hear from you at www. paularoe.com.

Love, Paula