DEAR READER LETTER
By Sharon Kendrick
Dear Reader,
One hundred. Doesnât matter how many times I say it, I still canât believe thatâs how many books Iâve written. Itâs a fabulous feeling but more fabulous still is the news that Mills & Boon are issuing every single one of my backlist as digital titles. Wow. I canât wait to share all my stories with you - which are as vivid to me now as when I wrote them.
Thereâs BOUGHT FOR HER HUSBAND, with its outrageously macho Greek hero and A SCANDAL, A SECRET AND A BABY featuring a very sexy Tuscan. THE SHEIKHâS HEIR proved so popular with readers that it spent two weeks on the USA Today charts and well, I could go on, but Iâll leave you to discover them for yourselves.
I remember the first line of my very first book: âSo youâve come to Australia looking for a husband?â Actually, the heroine had gone to Australia escape men, but guess what? She found a husband all the same! The man who inspired that book rang me up recently and when I told him I was beginning my 100th story and couldnât decide what to write, he said, âWhy donât you go back to where it all started?â
So I did. And thatâs how A ROYAL VOW OF CONVENIENCE was born. It opens in beautiful Queensland and moves to England and New York. Itâs about a runaway princess and the enigmatic billionaire who is infuriated by her, yet who winds up rescuing her. But then, she goes and rescues him Wouldnât you know it?
Iâll end by saying how very grateful I am to have a career I love, and to thank each and every one of you who has supported me along the way. You really are very dear readers. Love,
Sharon xxx
GIANFERRO had always chosen his mistresses well.
He looked for beauty and intelligence, but above all for discretionâfor obvious reasons. Since the age of seventeen there had never been any shortage of willing candidates for this unofficial and unacknowledged place in his life, but that would have surprised no one. For even if you discounted the restless black eyes in the coldly handsome face, and his hard, lean body, there was not a woman alive who would not long to become a mistress to the Prince.
Especially a prince who would one day be King of Mardivinoâthe heavenly Mediterranean island over which his family had ruled since the thirteenth century. A prince who owned palaces and planes and fast cars, as well as a string of world-class racehorses. Untold wealth was at Gianferroâs fingertipsâand who could blame women if all they wished was for him to stroke those fingertips over their bodies?
But now his quest was different, and dauntingâeven for him. Before him lay possibly the most important decision he would ever make. He could put off the inevitable no longer. It was not a mistress he sought, but a bride.
And his choice must be the right choice.
His two brothers were now married and had produced children of their ownâand therein lay the danger. There was one way and one way only to ensure that his bloodline inherited the crown of Mardivino.
He must marry.
His heart was heavy as he glanced around the bedroom he had been given when heâd arrived yesterday. It was very different from the architecture of his own Rainbow Palace, but it was still a very beautiful room indeed. He looked around him. Yes, a very English room.
The huge windows were composed of mullions and transoms and diamond panes which caught and reflected the light from many different angles, so that it resembled an interior as airy as a birdcage. Butâhis mouth twisted into an ironic smileâa cage from which he was unlikely to break free.
Caius Hall, an exquisite sixteenth-century house, was home to the de Vere sistersâthe elder of whom he was intending to marry. Lady Lucinda de Vereâaffectionately known as Luluâwas everything that he could want in a woman. Her blood was as pure as his, and she added blonde and beautiful into the bargain.
Their families had known each other for yearsâboth fathers had studied together at university and had stayed in touch, though meetings had inevitably become fleeting and infrequent over time. Gianferro had even spent a holiday here once, but the two girls had been young thenâindeed, one had been just a baby.