Falling for Mr. Unexpected with Inge Saunders

From the beginning of December I`ve been working on the galley for my first novel with Decadent Publishing, Falling for Mr. Unexpected. Because I`ve worked through the story for a while now I asked a few people to help me read through for final proofing and I wasn`t surprised when one of my Beta Readers said the story reminded them of a movie, in this case specifically Notting Hill.

Here`s the blurb:

Can Emma fall for Mr. Unexpected when she doesn’t believe in Mr. Right or even Mr. Right Now…?

Primary school teacher Emma Cupido compares the notion of “The One,” with believing in the Tooth Fairy. When the school holidays starts, she heads for her brother-in-law`s beach house in Strand, South Africa and stumbles on more than she bargained for.

Hollywood heartthrob, Damian Davidson flees LA thinking his beach house in SA would be a safe hideout from his sex scandal. He’s had his fill of manipulative women and when he mistakes Emma for a crazy fan, all hell breaks loose.

Emma and Damian get off to a rocky start but first impressions can be deceiving. Is there more to Damian than the superficial taint of Hollywood? And what happens when she agrees to a trip to LA? Will Emma become a believer in “The One” or just another Hollywood scandal?

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As you can read, there`s a bit of role reversal going on in my story *wink*

But I didn`t get my inspiration for the book from this lovely romp of a movie, no. I got mine from an ENews report. Yep, you read right, an ENews report.

Pop Culture piques my interest. I could sit through the show and treat it like it was actual news *laughs* It`s mindless TV. Literally aimed at entertaining and offers an escape from real life, if only for an hour. I took a ‘scandalous’ headline from E-News and turned it into one of my main conflicts within the story. I took a straight laced small town teacher and threw her into the path of a Hollywood ‘bad boy’. I aimed for toe curling and a heroine that would make Jane Austin proud. Because in all her straight laced persona, Emma`s anything but perfect! And Damian though perceived as just another self-absorbed Hollywood hunk turned out to be anything but or did he? *cheeky grin*

And I have to be honest (don`t you just cringe when people say that!) I wrote Falling for Mr. Unexpected, for all my girlfriends. Every friend I`ve known throughout my life would find aspects of themselves in there if they looked closely. I catered to all their feminine hearts. I made the hero someone I knew they`d have a silly grin for. But most of all, I wrote it, at the time for myself.  It was my first stab at writing a ‘grown up’ romance and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

♥ ♥ ♥

Here`s an excerpt:

She didn’t put her clothes back on, only lumped them together, shoes and all, and hurried back into the house via the still-open patio. Emma released a loud, earsplitting scream.

Before her stood a half-naked man, dressed only in a white towel.

As this knowledge registered, so did the fact she wore little else but her underwear. Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and she still hadn’t stopped screaming.

“Would you stop that!” the half-naked stranger yelled in a deep baritone, causing her to clip her mouth shut.

“Who are you? What are you doing here? I’m calling the police!”

He didn’t flinch; instead, he turned his back on her and walked to the small side table next to a big white-and-blue sofa.

Before his huge frame obscured her vision, she made out a black cordless phone. Her chest heaved while she mutely watched him pick up the phone.

This must be an aberration brought on by the effects of frolicking in the ocean; there was no way she was having a confrontation with a half-naked man, in her sister’s house, on the first day of her stress-free beach holiday.

Her brain hiccupped at her illogical conclusion. Nope, what’s happening is, in fact, real.

“I’m sick and tired of this,” he said into the phone and gave her a glare over his shoulder. “If it’s not underwear in the mail, naked photos on my windshield, it’s an intruder running around naked in my home.” His fiery eyes burned holes into her.

“What?” she blurted. She clutched her dry clothes in front of herself. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

♥ ♥ ♥

About the Author:

First time author Inge Saunders fell in love with books when she started reading romance novels with her grandmother. Intrigued by the worlds books unlocked, it was inevitable she would take pen to paper.

At age fourteen she wrote her first novel which wasn`t such a roaring success according to her brother. Not discouraged, she realized something fundamental: as a writer you can only write about what interests you, a principle she still uphold in adulthood.

When she`s not writing about that ‘inexplicable attraction’ she`s reading almost every sub-genre in romance out there, spending time with friends and family and taking hikes in her hometown`s National Karoo Park.

Inge form part of Romance writers` Organization of South Africa (ROSA) and currently have two books contracted with Decadent Publishing, Falling for Mr. Unexpected (being released December 23^rd!) and Dance of Love ( also 2015).

Blog: Inge Saunders - Inside These Lines

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B: Inge – Thank you for coming on the blog today and telling us all about Falling for Mr. Unexpected! This is definitely a must-read.

Readers – Inge’s book is being released on December 23^rd – just in time for your holiday reading.