50th party blog guest - Liz Fielding

Liz Fielding wrote my all-time favourite category romance, ‘Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes’ – I love her warm, witty voice, her brilliant dialogue, and her feather-light touch as she fills in details without you even realizing it. I have a Liz Fielding keeper shelf, and it’s got me through some seriously rough patches in my life. Liz is as lovely in person as she is in her books, and I’m really privileged to call her my friend.

Over to Liz:

It’s a real joy to be here to help Kate celebrate her 50th book. I’ve known her since she got “the call” from Mills and Boon Medical Romance and have seen her career take off as fans have discovered her warm, emotional and very sexy books.

Her work ethic is phenomenal. We celebrated her 25th book and my 50th at around the same time and now here she is with another 25 fabulous books under her belt to my ten. And that’s just her romances. She also writes non-fiction. She is, frankly, incredible and I’m delighted to be invited to the party she’s throwing — she deserves every drop of cyber champagne, every chocolate dipped strawberry, every mouthful of crème brulee, every rose. Congratulations, Kate. Here’s to the next 50!

To help her celebrate, and as my gift to her many fans, I’m offering an updated ebook edition of one of my earlier books, ELOPING WITH EMMY. It’s always been a huge favourite of mine – a classic romcom romp that was inspired by the great movie “It Happened One Night”.

Hot shot legal eagle, Tom Brodie, has been landed with an assignment to test any man to his limits - do whatever it takes to prevent headstrong heiress Emerald Carlisle from marrying a fortune-hunter. He is not happy about it, and when Emmy stows away in his car, his day goes from bad to worse, but since she's the only one who knows where to find the man in question he has no choice but take her along for the ride.

It's a bumpy one!

Emmy is not a woman to sit back and let things fall as they will. She has a plan and she keeps Brodie on his toes in a rollercoaster chase across the UK and France. He's more than up to the challenge, but falling in love with Emmy along the way is always going to end with his heart in pieces.


Emmy’s heart, already beating an adrenalin-charged tattoo as she eased herself down the drainpipe, had gone into overtime at the sudden appearance of her father. But the moment her gaze had collided with the dark-eyed stranger standing with him she had known instinctively that she had an ally. He hadn’t batted an eyelid at the sight she must have made, not given her away by so much as a twitch of an eyebrow. Instead he had quite coolly considered his options.


He could have informed her father that he appeared to have an incompetent cat burglar clinging to his drainpipe.


Or he could have ignored the situation, pretend he hadn’t seen her and hope she didn’t fall into the roses.


What the dark-eyed stranger had done was create a diversion.


That kind of swift thinking was so rare she thought. Poor Kit would have dithered and blushed and quite given the game away. He was sweet and wonderfully talented, but not in the least bit decisive which was why she had to get to him before her father’s henchman. As she searched amongst the lavender and roses for her shoes she felt a moment of regret that she wouldn’t be able to stay and thank Dark-eyes for his chivalry. Were they grey, she wondered. Or brown? Distance and the dusky light had made it impossible to tell.


Unfortunately she didn’t have time for politeness, but she was sure he would understand her need to put the maximum distance between herself and her father before he discovered her escape. If only she could find her other shoe!


She spotted it at last, half buried behind the tall lavender that edged the border, filling the air with sweet scent as she brushed against it. The roses were not so kind, snagging at her bare arms as she reached for her shoe, catching and tangling her hair with their thorns. She didn’t have time to worry about it, or take time to extricate herself carefully, and tugged herself free. The rose retaliated by whipping back and catching at her neck with its thorns. She scarcely noticed. All she knew was that it was taking far too long.


But there was no way she could make her escape barefooted. Her feet would be cut to ribbons on the gravel by the time she had sprinted around to the old coach house where her car had undoubtedly been stowed after her incarceration. She could just hear her father. “Miss Emerald has decided to stay for a few days. Put her car away will you, Saunders?” All perfectly natural. She made a rude noise as she tipped the dirt out of her shoes and slipped her feet into them.


‘Maybe you left your keys in the car, Brodie.’ Her father’s impatient voice carried through the open front door pinning her back against the wall.


‘I might have dropped them in the hall.’


Brodie. The name had a nice, solid ring to it and Brodie, bless the man, was giving her all the time he could, delaying her father, quite` unconcerned at the tetchiness in his voice. Not many men were that brave. Unfortunately his valour would be to little avail. There was no cover within a hundred feet of her exposed position and any second now she was going to be discovered and dragged ignominiously back to the nursery where she would probably be put on a diet of bread and water. Not that she cared about that. But poor Kit...


Of course, she could always throw herself on Brodie’s mercy. In fact the thought of flinging herself into his arms had a definite appeal. She hadn’t been mistaken about the shoulders, or his height. And his character spoke for itself.


But no. He had already done more than enough. To demand he choose between her and her father was more than could be expected of any knight errant. But she was hanged if she was going to give in without a fight. She had mere seconds in which to act before the two men appeared on the steps and she was discovered. She didn’t waste it, flinging herself at the BMW, praying that it wasn’t locked. Her guardian angel must have been listening because the rear door opened to her touch and she dived in, pulling it shut behind her with heartfelt thanks for the superb German engineering that ensured it closed with scarcely a sound.


She didn’t know where her knight errant was going, but at least he was going somewhere. Away from her father, away from Lower Honeybourne. She would throw herself on his mercy and borrow his mobile. It would only take a call to bring some gallant racing to her aid. Meanwhile, she tucked herself down behind the front seats and congratulated herself on her luck.

To have your name in the draw, tell me where you’d elope to if the world was your oyster and who you’d elope with. We’ll take your dh as read – this is fantasy so be as outrageous as you like!


You can catch up with Liz Fielding’s books on her website http://www.lizfielding.com/, follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/liz.fielding and Twitter at @lizfielding