2024 was a great year, but I don't feel the need to make lists or analyse achievements or even reflect much on high and low points. I'm mainly super content to sit behind my computer and make up fake people who fall in love and the fact that I brought characters into the world this year makes it a good year!
I've already written all three (and a half!) books coming out next year, so I can say this with confidence: it's going to be a great one!
My destination romances are heading in a slightly new direction this year! For four books, I'm going to introduce you to the staff of I Do Destinations, a destination wedding planning agency, as they navigate their merger with Great Heart Adventures, an adventure travel company.
The premise of this series has got me very excited! I get to combine my love of outdoor adventure sports with the heightened emotion and drama of weddings. I've written the first two books in the series and created all of the main characters for all four, so they will pop up in earlier and later books. I was ridiculously happy to see my main couple from the first book turning up again in the second! The only problem is, the female main character of book four keeps stealing the show! Can't wait to write that one.
The only downside to this has been fewer words to spend on the cultural exploration of the destination, which I am missing. When the series has wrapped up, I will be ready to take you all back to fascinating places where we meet the locals and immerse ourselves in the quirks and different perspectives of the culture. But there's still plenty of beautiful landscapes, great food and historic buildings, so hopefully you'll all enjoy the slight pivot too.
We don't have title for the first book, but that should be finalised soon. I've seen draft back cover copy though, so that's exciting. You can catch the updates by following my author page on Amazon.
The first book is the beginning of the merger and the first 'adventure wedding' at the top of a mountain, organised by wedding planner Sophie and her ex-boyfriend (awkward!), mountain guide Andreas. I love these two so much, I hope you will too! I've finished the first draft of the second book, where rock climbing instructor and mountain guide Kira is sent far out of her comfort zone, assisting with a snowy winter wedding at a posh chalet.
The other big event happening in June next year is the release of my first sports romance!! I absolutely adore writing destination romances and the travel element has become a big part of my writing (even sneaking into the sports romance...), but I have always felt that my books are pivoted slightly away from the romcom direction I always saw myself pursuing (and that I enjoy most as a reader). In fact, I wrote a series of sports romances back in 2008, before British publishing was ready for them (haha - I'm sure I wasn't ready to be a published author at that point either). So it's a return to my roots, really, that I'm now bringing out this first-person, dual-POV spicy sports romance.
There will be lots more about this after the official announcement (eyes peeled! Another few weeks), but I enjoyed really going for it and writing a big ol' romcom with all the chemistry and tension (and spice). There's win-or-lose jeopardy too and some interesting dives into the psychology of a particular endurance sport, which I found fascinating.
Ultimately, while I hope regular readers of sports romance will love it, of course it has my spin on the genre. I can't seem to write a book that fits perfectly with any others. Here, both the male AND female characters are professional sportspeople (I realise this isn't unique, but it's still not the norm) and I've chosen a sport rather out of left field, where the men are not hulking Travis Kelces (although they do still have some wild physical attributes) and the team/individual dynamics are a little bit different. It's the first of two books and I'm currently drafting the second, for release in 2026 (which is going to be amazing, because I get to redeem a slightly dodgy character from the first book and it is incredibly satisfying).
On top of those three, I've actually got one more release this year, which has also been bit of a fun ride. My sports romance is coming out under the Leonie Mack pen name, even though in style it's probably a little closer to my Lilo Moore books. I'm happy with this, as I believe the vast majority of my readers will enjoy both styles and I will try to get the word out for my low-spice peeps which chapters you need to skip! But to introduce a new market of romance readers to my books, the ones who read spicy romcoms and sports romance and might not have tried my destination romances, I've written a free novella!
More about the background to that later as well, but I took something I wrote four years ago and edited it and rewrote the ending and I'm actually really happy with the result. I'm going to release it as a reader magnet for this newsletter in late January (sign up now, if you aren’t already, to make sure you get it when it’s released!). It's a fun, spicy and rather silly grumpy-sunshine/forced proximity romcom that I've called Never Want to Sea You Again. I’ll do a dedicated shout-out next week, but if anyone is interested in helping to share the cover for the novella, do get in touch! Get in touch anyway. I love hearing from readers.
Phew! What a year and it's barely started! I hope you all had a lovely break over the holidays and celebrated the new year in a way that you enjoyed.
My friend and I had a play around making a logo for the upcoming series, so here’s a special sneak peek at the first draft of the logo for Great Heart Adventures, the travel company in the series.
