The first wave on the beach in my new series of guest posts is Monica Donnelly. I approached Monica to launch “In Love with Coastal Romance” because her books capture the magic of living by the sea and finding the courage to change your life.
Monica also writes women’s fiction under the name Monique McDonell which was how I encountered her work. Mr Right and Other Mongrels lured me in with its spot-on evocation of Manly, in Sydney.
Now writing as Monica Donnelly, she’s working the same magic with her coastal town of Henley’s Bluff, beginning with A Fresh Start.
Thanks, Monica, for launching “In Love with Coastal Romance”.
Coastal Romance –
An Escape to the Beach
The pounding waves, the sand between your toes, the sun setting over the horizon as you stroll along – what could be lovelier?
That’s easy – doing the exact same thing while you fall in love.
Is there anywhere more romantic than the beach? That might be why so many of us spend eleven months of the year dreaming of those few beautiful weeks at the beach? We love the sea-breezes, cocktails with umbrellas, cute sun-tanned life savers and maybe, just maybe, the chance to meet someone special.
Coastal Romance brings all these things together. Maybe it’s the thought of moving to a seaside hamlet and having a sea-change or just that sense of freedom you get on vacation in a sleepy coastal town that attracts people to these books. Throw in the possibility of meeting someone new and bam, it’s like magic.
Reading a coastal romance is like wandering off on a vacation within the pages of the book. They say that romance is escapist reading well I would suggest that coastal romance is the ultimate escape.
Most of us are lucky enough to have wonderful memories of languid days at the beach these books evoke those feelings in us again.
There are so many wonderful coastal romances out there now it’s a great time to catch this literary wave and read a few.
A Fresh Start
Susannah Morrison is searching for a new life with her young daughter, Maisy, when a car accident, hospitalisation and a chance encounter with Declan Doherty puts her plans on hold.
Declan is only in the annoyingly tiny seaside village of Henley’s Bluff for a quick visit to support his father. Agreeing to help Susannah by pretending they’re old friends and giving her and Maisy somewhere to stay was a huge mistake. He has no intention of letting his attraction to Susannah derail his plans to return to life as a magazine editor in London. It took him years to escape the town and his family and no convenient affair is going to change that now.
Except desire has a will of its own. And soon Declan and Susannah are wondering if Henley’s Bluff is the new start they both need.
Buylinks: Amazon & Smashwords
Monica Donnelly has always been a hopeless romantic who believes in love at first sight and happily ever afters. She does however, also know that the path to true love is not always smooth.
Her Henley Bluff romance series charts the romantic entanglements of the Doherty family and their friends in the sea-side town of Henley’s Bluff.
Monica lives in Sydney, Australia where she divides her spare time between writing, reading, walking on the beach. One of other hobbies is discovering how people met!*
You can catch up with Monica:
at her website
on Twitter
and on Facebook
*Monica’s comment made me think about Escape Publishing’s recent blog post series of “Real Life Romance“. What do you think makes the perfect real life Coastal Romance?