Heidi Rice's Blog, page 6

Why romance fiction isn't a naughty secret to anyone but the British media...

I'm so sick of reading lazy articles in the British press about romance fiction and romance readers.... And yesterday I read another one in The Economist titled Erotic and Romantic Fiction: Book-publishing's naughty secret. Here is my heartfelt (and ever so slightly ranty) reply. Be warned, though, it's long... And well, ranty.

Why romance fiction isn’t a naughty secret to anyone but the British media

Once again, a survey shows that romance is one of the most read, and most profitable genres in the fiction market today, but when The Economist decides to publish an article on the results of the survey, it uses the opportunity to wheel out many of those hoary old clichés about readers of the genre. What is it about romance fiction that brings out the same lazy arguments in so many British journalists?

As a longtime reader of romance fiction, and a published author of 24 novels, novellas and short stories (many of them for Harlequin UK aka Mills and Boon), I happen to know a lot of actual romance readers and writers, so I’d like to take this opportunity to dispute a few of the misconceptions about romance readers and the romance genre in this article.

Firstly, let's consider the headline: Erotic and Romantic Fiction: Book-publishing’s naughty secret

What exactly is the naughty secret here? That romance is hugely successful and widely read particularly among women? Is this really still a secret, given that romance has been one of the biggest selling genres in fiction for many years, long before the publication of a certain book which we shall mention later. And what’s naughty about this secret? That grown women read books about relationships that have actual sex in them? Seriously? What is so surprising or shocking about having adult sexual content in books which are primarily about adult relationships? Or maybe the naughty secret is that most people embarking on a relationship have sex? Now, there’s a shocker.

Let me digress here to explain for the uninitiated the significance of scenes of intimacy (whatever the heat level) in romance novels. They are essentially action scenes within the context of the story of that relationship and as such they are important. If that is hard to understand or makes you titter uncontrollably, let’s use a little analogy: when Jack Reacher walks into a bar and ends up bashing some guy over the head, there is always a purpose to his actions. Maybe we’re going to discover something new about Reacher, about the other characters in the scene, or something important about the case he is investigating (if he bashes that head hard enough). Yet, even though there may be violent action, or even, perish the thought, sex in a Reacher novel, it doesn’t make Lee Child’s excellent writing lose validity. And yet, because a lot of romance novels include scenes of a sexual nature while exploring a couple’s relationship, this is often used as an excuse to ridicule the reader, the writer, the characters, the genre or often all of the above, regardless of the quality of the writing.

Moving swiftly on, next let’s consider the decision to use vintage Mills and Boon covers to illustrate this article… The Jellybooks survey being quoted doesn’t appear to be about Mills and Boon, even though the company gets the obligatory name check near the end of the article. So now I have to ask, would an editor think it appropriate to illustrate an article about any other genre of fiction using covers from over half a century ago? Probably not, so what is the hidden agenda here? Could it be that using lurid Mills and Boon covers with unintentional double entendres in the titles is a great way to illustrate the perceived wisdom that this genre is melodramatic, regressive and perennially out of date? Something that couldn’t actually be further from the truth if you’re a regular romance reader like I am... But, oh well.

After giving us a rundown of the facts – that romance is one of the biggest selling genres in the US according to Romance Writers of America, has sold a staggering 38.9m physical books in the UK alone from 2010-2015 and is in the forefront of the indie publishing revolution – the article then comes to this staggering conclusion: [The romance publishing industry] was one of the first to capitalize on the anonymity of ebooks…

Okay, stop right there. I read romance, some of it erotic romance, primarily on an ereader. I have a lot of friends who do the same… Here are the reasons why, so listen up.

 • Digital books are cheaper (usually a lot cheaper).
 • You can get them instantly, and (as the Jellybooks survey points out) romance readers and women generally tend to read faster and more frequently than men so they get through a lot of books.
 • As romance is at the forefront of the self publishing and independent publishing revolution (something also mentioned in this article), a lot of romance stories are only available in digital format.
• Digital books also take up a lot less space and, given that I’m reading a lot of them and housing in London is becoming increasingly expensive… Well, you do the math.

Just to be clear, I do not read on an ereader because I’m ashamed of what I read and I crave anonymity. My reading choices are not a ‘guilty pleasure’ or a ‘naughty secret’. So here’s an alternative suggestion: is it at all possible that the romance publishing industry’s success with ebooks might actually be because the digital revolution has provided a more efficient way to get a wider variety of books to eager buyers, and the people who read romance are early adopters?

Now let’s deal with that old chestnut: the Fifty Shades of Grey defense for making broad, sweeping and frequently derogatory judgments about the whole romance genre – a defense which seems to have appeared in every article about romance fiction ever printed in the UK since EL James’s trilogy became a runaway bestseller in 2012. Yes, the FSOG trilogy was phenomenally successful. Yes, the books were erotic romances. Yes, not many people would argue they were the best books ever written, although some people who have actually read them might and a huge number of people obviously enjoyed reading them. After all, 125million people bought these books and with 58% five-star reviews on Amazon.com and only 15% one-star ones, it seems most of them were not unhappy with their purchase. Yes, FSOG probably introduced some new readers to romance, but equally it wasn’t doing anything that hadn’t already been done before in the erotic romance genre. Most importantly of all though, FSOG was published over four years ago, and in romance that’s a very long time because romance (contrary to the image suggested by those retro M&B covers) is a fresh, vibrant, constantly evolving genre. So perhaps journalists could please stop basing everything they know about romance on FSOG now, because those of us who work in the industry and enjoy reading romance stopped talking about it years ago…

The FSOG defence finishes with this comment: The public attitude has rarely been anything other than scathing.

Are we talking about FSOG here? I suppose we’ll just assume that doesn’t include the 125million members of the public who bought the books and the even greater number who read them then?

But wait, the next paragraph makes it clear we’re not talking about just FSOG anymore, we’ve leapfrogged right to the public’s scathing attitude to the whole genre.

The hostility towards romance, we are then told, is apparently mostly due to old-fashioned sexism because romance is read primarily by women. I’d like to suggest that this sort of sexism isn’t actually that old fashioned, in fact it’s bang up to date because the article then goes on to make some interesting assumptions about the title ‘mommy porn’. Hmm, was that phrase really coined as a result of the fact that 41% of romance is read by women between the ages of 30-54, because I can assure you they’re not all reading erotic romance, and what about the other 59%? Perhaps it has more to do with the media’s obsession with constantly expecting romance readers of a certain age to justify what they enjoy reading for pleasure, unlike readers of say, crime thrillers, for example. Given that 84% of romance readers are women, is this yet more evidence of that not-so-old-fashioned sexist double standard?

Next up, we are neatly led into that other old chestnut that appears in so many articles about romance fiction: the ‘some feminists’ hate it argument.

Here’s another shock for you, a lot of romance readers and writers are also feminists, I certainly consider myself to be one. And funnily enough, feminists not unlike romance readers, don’t all think and believe the same thing. Just as not all romance readers loved FSOG, not all feminists hated it. While one feminist might criticize romance as being retrograde and/or abusive on the basis of their reading of one book, there are equally a lot of feminists who find the genre’s overwhelmingly positive, diverse and empowering characterization of female protagonists surprisingly refreshing. Oddly though, feminists that enjoy reading and writing romance are rarely if ever quoted in magazine articles about the genre. Why is that? I wonder. Has it perhaps got very little to do with the actual feminist opinion of romance – which is far too broad and diverse to be explained in a single sentence – and more to do with what the media perceives a feminist to be? Namely someone who is marginalised and judgmental and who can be easily stereotyped as being anti-romance fiction and, more importantly, anti-women reading whatever the heck they want for their own pleasure.

Ultimately, the article in The Economist, like so many articles I have read about romance fiction before it – almost always written by journalists who have no understanding of the genre’s appeal because they do not read it themselves – has the whiff of articles dating right back to ones in Victorian England which suggested women’s brains would rot if they read romance, because their sensibilities were just too delicate to withstand all that raw emotion.

So let’s talk about that old-fashioned sexist elephant in the room which underlies a lot of the arguments about why romance as a genre should not be taken seriously by anyone, especially not the British media, and why the people who read it should be ashamed of doing so. The essence of this argument states that books about relationships with a positive outcome are damaging because they give their sad, lonely, deluded readers unrealistic or unhealthy expectations about relationships.

To explain how offensive that argument is – quite apart from the fact that all the romance readers I know are intelligent, well-adjusted, sociable women – I’m going to return to my trusty Jack Reacher analogy. Does anyone assume that male readers of Lee Child's novels plan to go to their nearest bar and start cracking heads? So why then would anyone assume that a woman who enjoys reading Fifty Shades of Grey would want to be whipped by an emotionally scarred billionaire in real life? These are fictional characters, doing fictional things and people reading these novels whatever their gender know the difference between fantasy and reality, they get vicarious pleasure from these stories precisely because they know they are fiction. I should add to that, that as a writer I don’t want to be bound by some arbitrary code of conduct when I create my characters. My male characters, just like my female characters, are flawed because they have to be, to be human and relateable and unique. I don’t write misogynist heroes because, surprisingly, they wouldn’t be all that appealing to me or my readers, but nor do I write male characters who view life and gender politics from a female perspective, because um, they’re not women. This can sometimes make them insensitive and arrogant – but similarly my female characters don’t view their life and relationships from a male perspective so they can be equally insensitive to the male point of view.

Way back in the Seventies, rape fantasies or ‘forced seduction’ scenes abounded in a lot of historical romances. Why did those books stop being published? The simple answer is, because readers stopped buying them. Tastes changed and evolved, as they continue to change and evolve today, and what had once seemed exciting and forbidden became distasteful and appalling. Readers moved on. But here’s the thing, does anyone actually believe that the preponderance of those books at that time meant the women reading them wanted to be raped? Anymore than someone enjoying a James Bond novel in the Fifties wanted to become an assassin? No, because even way back in the Seventies, most people figured out that romance readers knew the difference between fantasy and reality. It would be nice if those who don’t read romance today could extend modern romance readers the same courtesy.

Now let’s consider the argument about ‘literary snobbery’ against romance, which apparently has more weight because ‘the median reader spends a paltry three to six days devouring a romance book.’ This rises to three weeks for literary novels. I’m not entirely sure what the argument here is supposed to be. Is it that light reading is bad? Surely people read a variety of books (even romance readers often read across genres which might explain why romance fiction has so many rich and varied subgenres) and for all sorts of reasons. Escapist easy-to-read genre books, whether they be romance, horror or crime fiction, lift the spirits by allowing the reader to break away from the stresses and strains of their own life. In the case of romance novels, it often gives readers a positive outlook on life too. How can that possibly be a bad thing?That said,  surely the fact readers take less time to read a romance novel might be for a number of reasons other than that the reading is light and easy and, in the context of the literary snobbery argument, therefore has no value. Might romance novels be read quickly because their readers are more engrossed in the story? More invested in finishing it? Less bored than they are by that literary tome which has sat on the nightstand for three-to-six days while they ‘devour’ their latest romance book? Whatever the reasons, all of these arguments are ludicrously crass, because they assume that literary snobbery is not only widespread but defensible. Whatever people read and for whatever reason, their reading choices are personal and subjective, have nothing to do with anyone else and no one should be judged for those choices, or shamed for them, particularly by someone who has no idea what they find so compelling in their choice in the first place.

The article, not unsurprisingly, finishes with the same bankrupt assumption that it began on.

Although shame is perceived to be a significant factor for the romance genre’s success in ebook format, this could be changing.

The article then goes on to mention the opening of a bricks and mortar romance store in LA funded by Kickstarter. Okay, so shame is perceived as a significant factor in the success of romance in the ebook market by whom exactly? Romance readers? The people who are actually supposed to be ashamed of reading romance, or the lazy journalist who seized on this argument and all his colleagues who have been repeating it ever since? And how exactly does the opening of a store selling print books dispute that claim? Or is that just a convenient way to end the article after doing a Google search for ‘romance fiction’ and coming up with lots of recent stories about the opening of Bea and Leah Koch’s new store The Ripped Bodice?

Last but not least, I ask you this: if some romance readers – even though I’ve never met one of these romance readers and I’ve met a lot of romance readers – are actually ashamed of what they read, why might that be? Could it possibly be because whenever the genre they enjoy reading is mentioned in the media, they are almost invariably subjected to the same old romance-shaming clichés that have been recycled in one guise or another since Victorian times? Just a thought.

The London Book Fair... And An Exciting Announcement

Fiona and Heidi go mad at #LBF16When my very good writing mate and fellow Harlequin author Fiona Harper suggested heading to the London Book Fair I have to admit I was unsure... Wasn't this an event strictly for publishers and agents? Apparently not, as I discovered when Fi and I crashed the event this Tuesday.

Have to admit, if I had done this as an unpublished author I would have been totally intimidated, in fact even as a multi-published author I was a bit intimidated (oh, okay, a lot intimidated). Based in Kensington Olympia's imposing Victorian halls, the event is HUGE, with stands representing pretty much every publisher you've ever heard of vying for space on the ground floor and mezzanine level. After a shot of much needed coffee, Fiona and I headed for Author HQ (Fiona having downloaded the app and knowing how to use it!). This is a fairly new addition to the fair but is the perfect base for authors attending the event., providing career-orientated seminars in a cordoned off area tucked away behind the Children's Publishers section.

We nabbed a ringside seat for the first talk of the day... An Introduction to Publishing with agent Piers Blofeld of Shiel Land Associates and Macmillan Adult Books publisher Jeremy Trevathan... Which turned out to be illuminating. I have an agent and a publisher and even I was astonished at how little I knew not just about the relationship between the two, but also how massive this industry actually is... I particularly liked Piers advice to authors thinking of sidelining their agent to go straight to the source! 'Don't get a dog and bark yourself'.

Dinosaurs anyone??The next seminar was equally riveting but for different reasons: The Independent Authors Journey featured a panel of three top indie authors – Mark Dawson, Mel Sherratt and Keith Houghton – who each gave us an insight into how they became successful indie-published authors after a disappointing response from the traditional publishing industry to their work... I've always shied away from the prospect of indie publishing on the grounds that I know nothing about marketing or PR and have no real interest in it. How wrong was I, these three made the whole indie publishing route seem both accessible and exciting. The top benefits, apart from getting a larger share of the profits obviously, included the control they have over their own careers and the interaction they get with readers. I love interaction with readers so this totally intrigued me. I also liked Dawson's assertion that the writing still comes first but he finds the business side a good counterpoint to the writing... And a lot of what they do, traditionally published authors are also required to do in terms of social media, etc. I wish I'd had a chance to pop over to the Independent Authors Stand afterwards. While I'm still happy where I am, it's nice to know that the other options out there aren't as scary as you thought and I was hugely impressed with these three whose drive and ambition and talent was massively inspiring.

Jennifer, Tory and the
Super Fab Marian KeyesFiona and I were also impressed with the seminar given by Jennifer Krebs, marketing campaign manager for our own publisher Harlequin, and Tory Lyne Pirkis of Midas PR, about successful PR and marketing strategies... Again this was ostensibly for authors thinking of going it alone, but it had a lot of good advice for traditional and hybrid authors. Who knew that Nora Roberts had spent ten percent of her advance money on marketing her books to complement her publisher's input in the early stages of her career, for example... Made me realize I've been pretty naive about the business side of my own career... And there was a lovely intro from the fabulous Marian Keyes – the Author of the Day – who we'd listened to earlier chatting about her career, make-up obsessions, Mammy Keyes's storytelling abilities and a lot more besides...

My favorite quote of the day definitely came from Keyes: "Be honest, be authentic, work hard." A brilliant writer and a pretty sensational woman too IMHO!

Now for my exciting announcement....  Drum roll, pur-lease!

During the lunch break I met three wonderful women – Christina Bunce, Susannah Marriott and Helen Shipman – who are the founders and directors of The Professional Writing Academy – an innovative online platform dedicated to delivering top-notch creative writing courses, and who have even developed their own bespoke online classroom specifically for writers. After a fabulous meeting, I'm super excited to announce that I'm going to be working with them to develop an online course entitled An Introduction to Writing Hot Romance this Autumn... Hopefully with a view to doing longer more in-depth courses in the future... After nearly ten years as a published romance author, with 24 books under my belt, several major award nominations and a USA Today Bestseller tag, I feel I've got the expertise to give new writers the tools they need to help and support them on this fabulous journey...  And joining forces with experts in the field of teaching online creative writing courses will make it an amazing experience for all concerned (me included!).. So watch this space if you're an aspiring romance writer ... More details to come.

Marian Keyes: Author of the Day.. Any Day Frankly
Bringing wit, wisdom and wonderful nails to #LBF16!

Getting the RITA finalist call for Tempting the Knight (there will be exclamation marks)

So I was busy eating my lunch on Friday afternoon, contemplating whether to drive to our local multiplex in the Angel Islington to see Zootopia with my sons and my husband or be a good girl and walk when the phone rang.

'Hi, is that Heidi Rice?' Said a voice in a warm American accent.

'Yes, speaking,' I replied round a mouthful of cheese sandwich, thinking is this what I think it is? No it can't be? Surely they're not doing RITA calls on Good Friday? What's the date again? And anyway I got a RITA call last year I can't possibly have gotten another one!

'Hi Heidi, this is Alyssa Day...' At that point it all becomes a little fuzzy, because I was screaming OMG OMG OMG ALYSSA DAY!! inside my head while trying to swallow down my cheese sandwich and also remember to breathe ...

She mentioned my book Tempting the Knight, part of the Fairy Tales of New York quartet I wrote with Kelly Hunter, Amy Andrews and Lucy King, and said RITA finalist and Contemporary Romance Short at some point too, I'm almost certain... But I was hyperventilating far too hard to actually hear anything , except my babbling about how excited I was (as if she couldn't tell that from the hyperventilating) and how I was eating my lunch (like she needed to know that *facepalms*)... We then proceeded to have a half-way coherent chat (coherent on her end, anyway) about the conference in San Diego, would I be coming, how excited I was (again, sooo not necessary)... And then I put down the phone, and just stood in my kitchen waiting for the news to actually sink in – and hoping I'd remembered to thank her (still not sure about that).

Then I rushed out the door to tell my husband, who was busy cutting  the front hedge with his strimmer. He said something like 'Oh that's cool, maybe it'll be third time lucky... ' And then carried on cutting the hedge. So then I had to shout at him the full import of what had just happened over the sound of the strimmer to the whole  neighbourhood. For goodness sake this was a SUPER BIG DEAL. I'd just been nominated for an Oscar. He nodded, looking a bit puzzled, congratulated me again, said something about Leo DiCaprio and if it was his year, maybe it would be mine and carried on strimming....

I then ran into the front room to tell my two sons - who congratulated me without looking up from the TV then asked if we could take the car to the Angel!!

So far so NOT NEARLY EXCITED ENOUGH... Bloody men! They just didn't GET IT... So then I did what I should have done to start with and texted my best writing mate Abby Green - I cannot repeat the text here as it was a little profane (I swear when I'm excited, a lot, I'm a Londoner, this is how we roll). She congratulated me (properly) and then promised to break my legs if I ever moaned about my writing career again (fair enough). Then I hit Twitter and Facebook, as you do... In the middle of lots of lovely congrats from so many of my writing mates and readers, I got a call from my good mate Scarlet Wilson who sounded as flummoxed as me but more so, because she had just found out she had finaled TWICE in the same category!! .... Go Scarlet!!

By the time I'd calmed down enough to think coherently, we had to make a mad dash to the Angel, and nearly missed the start of the movie. (Zootopia's rather good btw, or at least I think it is, I wasn't exactly capable of being objective, I would probably have been entertained by having the phone book recited to me).

Needless to say, four days later, I am still on a high. And don't plan to come down any time soon. I'm all signed up for the conference in San Diego, I have my flights booked and I am quite simply thrilled to bits to be able to go to RWA16 sporting my RITA FINALIST ribbon and pin.

I have a huge debt of thanks to give romance-writing goddess Jane Porter and the fabulous team at Tule Publishing for letting us write these stories the way we wanted to (and giving me my best cover ever), but most of all I want to thank Kelly, Amy and Lucy.



Amy came up with the original idea of doing sexy modern makeovers of classic Fairy Tales (and then explained to me in words of one syllable what oblique meant when I instantly pooh-poohed the idea! Duh!),  Kelly edited my book brilliantly and Lucy helped me come up with a great family history for my heroine (who was the sister of her Beast of a hero)... But more than that, we wrote The Fairy Tales of New York together, after spending months and two thousand plus emails brain-storming the plots, the characters, their connections, their hopes and dreams and conflicts and their backstories, and liaising on everything from the floor plan of the Irish American pub in Brooklyn where our heroines connect to the design of the uniform they wore at the convent school in Upstate New York where they all met as teenagers... The standard of their stories was so high, they challenged me to make my story the best it could be, they let me use their remarkable characters in my book, and they gave my story added depth and complexity by helping to build a whole wonderful world around all four of our heroines and their heroes. But best of all, they made the whole process an absolute hoot! I wrote all about it on The Pink Heart Society if you want to know more...

TBH it almost feels a little bit greedy to get the pleasure of a RITA nod on top of all that Fairy Tale goodness... But hey, I'm all for being the princess in my own modern day fairy tale, especially if it means I can now go shop for a new posh frock to wear at the Awards do!

How a romantic trip to Sorrento... Can become important research!

Breakfast on the TerrazzoIt's no secret that I love to travel, but when you're an author, any trip can become a great way to research your next book... Or so I discovered on a romantic getaway this weekend to Sorrento with my DH! I love Italy, it's a place I've visited often (especially since meeting my DH who is of Italian descent), but I've never been to the Amalfi coast. What had I been thinking???

Turns out in March, with the sun not as scorching as the summer months, the air crisp and clear and the tourist traffic at a minimum, Sorrento is an absolute joy. The ornate palladian palaces clinging to the cliffs contrasting with the rabbit warren of cobblestoned streets in the town's historic quarter and the intimate little family run trattorias and pizzerias frequented by locals when you get away from the Piazza Tasso. We stayed in a little but luxurious BnB on the main drag with views of orange orchards and the scooters weaving out of traffic.

Pompeii selfie.. with my hero!A trip to Capri on the hydro foil introduced us to hilltop villas where a hero could definitely have an amazing pad... I could see him there, his estate opening out from the narrow alley way that winds through the houses and terraces carved into the mountain side. Italian American maybe? Trying to get back to his roots after a rootless childhood? And could my heroine be a tourist? Or a classics graduate doing guided walking tours of Pompeii, the ancient city's mysteries fascinating her...? Until she meets a man who fascinates her even more?? Have no idea for a story yet, or even an opening hook, but Spring on the Amalfi Coast is looking like a very promising location already!! Maybe I could even make this trip tax deductible.

FREE Book Alert for Tempting the Knight

Tempting the Knight, my book in the fabulous Fairy Tales of New York series – which I wrote for Tule Publishing with Kelly Hunter, Amy Andrews and Lucy King – is currently totally FREE!! Yup you heard that right. I'm sticking the Amazon link here:

http://www.amazon.com/Tempting-Knight...

But it should be free across all ebook platforms in the next few days. It's only free for a short time, so don't forget to download asap!

And check out the other books in the series. 

#1: Pursued by the Rogue by Kelly Hunter

#2: Tempting the Knight by Moi

#3: Taming the Beast by Lucy King

#4: Seduced by the Baron by Amy Andrews

Right back to trying to whip my latest Presents into shape... Wish me luck.

So Now You're Back Release Day!!!

I'm so excited I'm Snoopy Dancing all over the house - my first women's fiction book So Now You're Back is out today! At last! I finished the book almost a year ago, so it's absolutely AMAZING to finally see it come out...

Anyway, I've been pimping it so much lately I won't go on about it TOO much today.

The precious...
But FYI: it's the story of London celebrity baker Halle Best, her sexy ex - globe-trotting journalist Luke Best - and their enforced trip to an Xtreme couples retreat in The Great Smokey Mountains. ie: it's Sweet Home Alabama meets The Great British Bake-Off with added cupcakes... And white-water rafting!

Right back to my Snoopy Dancing... And maybe some Prosecco!!

Goodreads Giveaway of So Now You're Back...

Drum roll please... So Now You're Back, my first women's fiction novel for the UK market (hint: there's also a central romance, in fact there's two romances in it, just in case you were wondering) is out TOMORROW...

I'm so excited about this (can you tell), I've done a special Goodreads Giveaway for people Worldwide. So if you want a copy and you don't live in the UK or Ireland you might want to enter it...



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Goodreads Book Giveaway So Now You're Back by Heidi Rice Giveaway ends March 02, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway GOOD LUCK!

I'm also working on a special treat for anyone who is signed up to my newsletter... Which will hopefully be ready for tomorrow when I'm planning on sending the first one. So if you're not signed up already, you can sign up over there *points to the sidebar on the right*

And I have VERY exciting news about my book in the fabulous Fairy Tales of New York series, Tempting the Knight... Coming soon too...

So Now You're Back is ALMOST Here! Time for ANOTHER Goodreads Giveaway

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day... I ended up cleaning my study... That said, we did make up for it by going for a walk and sharing a Beetroot and Nut cake (this being trendy Hackney!) over lattes in the park - and watching Tottenham Hotspur beat Man City (an important result if you're married to a North Londoner) - and I now have a spotless study ready to start writing (and crapping it up) again. So not all bad.

Just popping in really though, to say I'm currently awaiting revisions on my first proper Presents novel (yikes!), getting stuck back into my second women's fiction novel, and preparing for the release of the first in NINE days time... As I'm so excited about that, I've just done a Goodreads Giveaway of So Now You're Back which is available Worldwide.

You've got to be in it to win it. So feel free to enter as soon as it goes live.


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Goodreads Book Giveaway So Now You're Back by Heidi Rice Giveaway ends March 02, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway

Right back to the grindstone.

Daring the Bad Boy is OUT!

After sadly neglecting this blog (because I have been busy writing - honest) I'm super excited to announce the release of not one but TWO new books this month...

First off, we have my Bad Boy Short from Tule Publishing just in time for Valentine's Night (which is the night it's set!!):

Daring the Bad Boy  Here's the smokin' hot cover ... I hope you all appreciate the hours and hours of research that went into finding that cover photo:




And here's the blurb!

What happens on Valentine’s Night, stays on Valentine’s Night... That’s the rule.

After a trip home to bury his father, US photographer in London Caleb Landry finds himself stranded in a Soho bar full of boozy women brooding his way through his least favourite night of the year. 

But when college art teacher Rosie Smith tries out the cheesiest pick-up line ever on him, Cal becomes captivated by this good girl with a filthy mind – especially when he discovers she has a V-Day allergy of her own. So he dares her to one smokin' hot Valentine’s night hook-up with no questions asked, satisfaction guaranteed...

But when Valentine’s Night turns into the morning after, suddenly Rosie's asking questions she shouldn’t, and putting Cal in danger of breaking his number one rule...

Hope you like the sound of that!

The OTHER new book which is out later this month is my first women's fiction book.

So Now You're Back is coming out with Harlequin MIRA UK on 25th February... And is already available for pre-order...

Will keep you posted with release news, but until then, if you're in the UK or Ireland, you might want to enter my Goodreads Giveaway of the book BEFORE 11th Feb.


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Goodreads Book Giveaway So Now You're Back by Heidi Rice Giveaway ends February 10, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway
You might also notice that my blog has had a little bit of a re-design.. That's because I've been hard at work with the lovely guys from The Website Shop in Dublin's Fair City to get my website re-designed... All will be revealed very soon.

All right, back to the grindstone!

Tempting the Knight Release Day and Important Blog Roll!!

YAY!! Doing little snoopy dance today with the release of Tempting the Knight.



Here's the blurb:

Once upon a time, poor little rich girl Zelda Madison wanted someone to love her, until she discovered being a badass was much more fun.
Ten years after getting kicked out of convent school and torn away from her three best friends, Zelda has worked hard to clean up her act, but after a midnight swim on Manhattan Beach, she’s suddenly in urgent need of a knight in shining armor…
Hard-working legal aid attorney Tyrone Sullivan is the last guy she should call. Not only does he hold a grudge when it comes to Zelda leading his little sister astray all those years ago, he’s also supremely pissed about having to rescue a runaway supermodel from a Brooklyn police station at two am. But when Ty reluctantly agrees to bust Zel out of her ivory tower and let her hide out on his house barge for a few days, she shows him the wild side he didn’t know he had.
Zel discovers there’s nothing hotter than tarnishing a good guy’s armor… Until he starts to steal her bad girl’s battered heart…

This is the second in our fabulous Fairy Tales of New York series, also featuring books by Kelly Hunter, Lucy King and Amy Andrews....

Four BFFs, four hot dudes and four badass new makeovers of classic fables.

This is the order in which the stories run, so I strongly recommend you reading them in sequence.



Book 1: Pursued by the Rogue by Kelly Hunter - Out on 19th June
Book 2: Tempting the Knight by Yours Truly - Out on 22nd June
Book 3: Taming the Beast by Lucy King - Out on 26th June
Book 4: Seduced by the Baron by Amy Andrews- Out on 29th June

Anyway, if you want to know all about how we brain-stormed this series read this Pink Heart Society blog.

If you want to know all about my inspiration for the books... Or rather how Jamie Dornan, Kiera Knightly and a housebarge in Brooklyn fired my imagination... Then check out my Pinterest page. There are hot pics of Jamie and sexy gifs galore on there... Just sayin'

Tempting the Knight... One hot picture at at time...

If you want  updates, comps, release info, etc for all the books, like our Facebook page.

And if you want to read some cracking excerpts from Tempting the Knight check out the book's page on my website, or Tule Publishing's excerpt... But be prepared they're HAWT!

If you're a reviewer and would like to request a free copy to review you can do so on Netgalley.

Or if you actually want to BUY a copy already.... It's currently available on Kindle only in the US and the UK... And will be out on all ebook platforms in October.

And here's a sexy little meme to get you in the mood...