Cynthia Harrison

It’s getting cold here in Michigan and after six months of reading almost exclusively historical romance, I turned to the last in Elin Hilderbrand’s trilogy set in contemporary St. John in the Virgin Islands, where the sun always shines (unless a hurricane blows in) and it’s hot, hot, hot.

EH writes two novels a year and has been doing so for many many years. She publishes her Nantucket books every Spring/Summer and then does another novel Fall/Winter. Her books (and this trilogy is no exception) are light, fun, romance novels with more than a pinch of drama.

One of my favorite tropes in these type of novels is the betrayed wife. Husband dies and wife finds out he has a secret life. In this case, a mistress and child in a fancy (9 bedroom) villa on St. John. That’s the start of it, so it’s not a spoiler to say it. I think it might even be part of the back cover blurb.

One thing EH does that I’d like to do someday is have four or five points of view. So she has the betrayed wife chapters, and then the grown two sons each have their own chapters, and the father of the mistress and the best friend of the mistress…they all have chapters. I like reading those kind of books and I’d like to write them.

I am just a few chapters into my next book, the second in a series, and I have been thinking about trying it. My publisher is very open to things like that. I’m lucky that way. Meanwhile, I await my November 2 release of the first in my new series “Jane in St. Pete.” Pre-order on Amazon here.