Spotlight & Giveaway: Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride by Michelle Douglas

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michelle Douglas to HJ!

Hi Michelle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride!

 
Hi, Sara, it’s wonderful to be here!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

This is an enemies-to-lovers marriage of convenience. Duty-driven Rose needs to marry to keep the family farm, and playboy Lincoln agrees to marry her. He lets her believe it’s for the piece of valuable land she offers him in return for a paper marriage. But for Lincoln, Rose has always been the one who got away. He wonders if this could be his one chance to win her heart? There’s a bitter feud between their families that goes back for generations, which Rose would dearly love to bring to an end. She’s hoping this marriage will eventually develop into friendship, countering all of their families’ bad history. Except the heat burning between her and Lincoln, and his teasing grin, sorely tests her resolve to keep this a marriage in name only.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

I love Lincoln’s reaction when Rose starts listing off all the reasons she’s proposes to him in particular.

She leaned towards him, a frown pleating her brow. ‘I know we’ve not spent a lot of time together, Lincoln, but I’ve known you all my life…’
He waited, his chest growing tighter with each passing second.
‘What I do know of you, I like.’
It was as if someone had cut the strings of a puppet—his insides sagged, his heart though took flight.
She stared back, half defiantly. ‘I’ve never seen you be mean to anyone.’
With every word she spoke he fell a little deeper for her. But was it real? Or had he built Rose up in his mind because she was the one that had got away?

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I’d been thinking for some time that it’d be fun to do an Aussie-set series with some other Aussie authors. So at the 2022 Romance Writers of Australia conference I sidled up to Ally Blake and broached the idea. She loved it. So did Kandy Shepherd when I asked her if she’d be interested in joining us. Luckily our editors loved the idea as well, and when they wanted a fourth person on board we asked Rachael Stewart. And that’s how the One Year to Wed series came into being.
• I grew up reading Australian Outback romances by authors like Lucy Walker, Margaret Way, Marion Lennox, Barbara Hannay and Bronwyn Jameson (just to name a few). I loved these stories so hard, and considered these authors goddesses. Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride is my homage to all of those outback romances that I loved so much.
• Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride is Book 4 in the One Year to Wed Series (never fear, the stories are standalones, but you’ll get an extra dose of sisterly gorgeousness if you read all of the books). Ally, Rachael, Kandy and I each took one of the sisters as our heroine. During the writing of our stories when we were passing scenes around to one another and thrashing out our world, we started to accidentally call each other by our sisters’ names, LOL. It was kind of sweet.
• In Australia, the book is called Marrying Her Outback Enemy

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Rose and Lincoln have always been attracted to one another, but first the family feud and then life have gotten in the way. And while they’ve also had a slightly mistaken view of each other—he’s thought her an ice queen and she’s thought him a playboy—he’s always admired her courage, and she’s always admired his kindness. That’s what lies at the heart of their attraction. They have no reason to trust each other, but they can’t help liking each other.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

There were several, LOL, though some might be a bit spoilery to share here. This scene, though, always makes me smile. Rose and Lincoln have arrived at the spectacular homestead at Garrison Downs after their wedding.

Linc swooped down, lifting Rose into his arms before they could step inside the homestead.
Startled blue eyes blinked into his. ‘What are you doing?’
Was it his imagination or was her voice a fraction high? He might want to take things slow, but it didn’t mean he didn’t want her aware of him. ‘I believe it’s traditional for the groom to carry the bride across the threshold, Mrs Waverly.’ He’d taken for granted that she’d keep her own name, but as to the title… ‘Do you want to be a Mrs, or would you rather remain a Ms?’
‘I think, perhaps, I’d rather you put me down before you dropped me.’
‘I’m not going to drop you.’ He grinned, loving the feel of her in his arms. ‘I’ll be happy to hold you all day until you decided the Ms or Mrs question.’ He manoeuvred through the doorway with care. And then just stood there, patiently waiting.
At least, he hoped he looked patient. An armful of warm delicious woman had everything starting to throb. ‘Don’t you worry about me, Rose.’ He widened his smile. ‘Like I said, I could do this all day and not break out in a sweat.’

Readers should read this book….

if they love an emotional story with high stakes, but also enjoy a chuckle when reading their romance.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Tempted by her Greek Island Bodyguard releases in July/August. It’s set on the Greek Island of Corfu on the set of a reality TV program where the heroine and hero have to turn a run-down villa into a luxury resort. I was channelling some serious renovation and location fantasies during this one, LOL.

And my latest book, Secret Fling with the Billionaire has just landed on my editor’s desk. Fingers crossed she loves it as much as I do. My heroine has stowed away on the hero’s narrowboat to hide from the paparazzi and he decides to let her stay. Of course, shenanigans ensue. It’s funny and emotional, and was a lot of fun to write.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: The winner will receive a signed print copy of Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride (open internationally)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you love a romance where the hero falls first? Or do you prefer to be kept in suspense about the hero’s feelings until the very end?

 
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Excerpt from Claiming His Billion-Dollar Bride:

Forty minutes later she landed the chopper in the home paddock of Kalku Hills, as Lincoln had directed her to in his email. An army of butterflies gathered beneath her breastbone.
And then he appeared on the homestead’s veranda. A giant of a man at six feet four, and all of it broad hard muscle. Folding his arms, he leaned against a veranda post and she let out a long, slow breath.
Lincoln’s movements were always unhurried, almost lazy, as if he had all the time in the world. As if it was too much of an effort to exert himself. Even when playing cricket he preferred to hit a boundary over pushing himself to run.
Today he wore suit trousers and a business shirt, and she thanked whatever God had prompted Evie to insist that she wear a little black skirt and a pale blue blouse. And black court shoes that were immediately covered in red dust when she leapt down to the ground.
She might not be at home in the fancy rags, but she was at home in the red dust. And while the business proposition she’d come to discuss might not be conventional, it was practical…and sound. And it was time.
‘It’s nice to see you, Rose.’
Lincoln held out his hand when she reached him and she shook it, her mouth going dry. It was always like this, the immediate physical impact, whenever she drew too close to him, as if time were simultaneously speeding up and slowing down. ‘Hello, Lincoln.’
He didn’t let her go immediately. Dark eyes travelled lazily across her face and something inside her trembled. No doubt he clocked the dark circles beneath her eyes and the fact she wore no make-up. Lincoln had dated some of the nation’s most beautiful women. Word on the street was that he was a man with a discerning eye and a short attention span.
For a moment she was tempted to wheel away and speed back to Garrison Downs. A woman like her could never tempt a man like him.
Going to play the craven little virgin now?
That had her pushing her shoulders back. She had plenty to tempt him—namely land. Lincoln Garrison might be a freewheeling playboy, but he wasn’t an idiot. He’d recognise a good deal when he saw one. And while he might be as hot as sin this was a business meeting.
‘It’s really nice to see you, Rose.’
She rolled her eyes. The man was also incapable of not flirting. And while she mightn’t be blonde and busty, whenever he saw her Lincoln never failed to give her one of those lingering glances of appreciation that he seemed to save just for her. As he was doing right now.
For a moment she was tempted to flirt back, let herself imagine his expression if she allowed her gaze to make an equally slow perusal of his body. Because one question had always plagued her. What had seemed like a lifetime ago, Lincoln had asked her on a date. She’d declined, but she’d always wondered…
What if she’d said yes?
Her gaze lowered to take in the big, broad lines of him, and the pulse in her throat pounded. Maybe…
With a start she pulled herself back into straight lines, cleared her throat. ‘So you already said.’
Those tempting lips tugged into a wider smile and it was all she could do not to groan. This would be so much easier if he looked like an ordinary man!
‘It was worth saying twice.’ With the smallest hitch of his head, he led her inside, glancing back over his shoulder. ‘You look great.’ His gaze drifted down to her legs. ‘You dressed up.’
‘So did you. Don’t walk into the wall, Lincoln.’
He was in no danger of walking into the wall, but she needed him to stop looking at her like that or she might just dissolve into a puddle at his feet.
‘This is a business meeting,’ she added as he gestured for her to take a seat in the office. ‘I wanted to look good.’
She waited, kind of fatalistically, for him to say something smooth like, You always look good.
‘Why?’
She was glad when he didn’t. ‘Because I want you to say yes to the proposition I’m going to put to you.’
With a grin, he took the seat behind the desk. ‘My reputation precedes me, huh? Show me a pair of pretty legs and I’m putty.’
He thought her legs were pretty?
Focus, Rose, focus.
When tea had been served, he lifted his mug and surveyed her over the rim. ‘I was intrigued when you requested a meeting. You said you had a proposal to put to me?’
‘Yes, quite literally.’
Dark blond brows shot up. ‘Literally?’
‘As in precisely or exactly or accurately.’ She sipped her tea. ‘I’ve come to ask you to marry me, Lincoln.’

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

“MARRY ME, LINCOLN.”

Rose has put everything into running her family’s farm, so she’s furious that her father’s will states she must marry to keep it! All she can do is propose—to anyone. She picks Lincoln—her neighbor, her enemy and the man she once shared a pulse-racing moment of passion with… She offers him a coveted plot of land in return—but she’s still surprised when he says yes to making her his billion-dollar bride!
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Meet the Author:

Michelle Douglas is a is an award-winning author who has been writing for iconic romance publisher Mills & Boon since 2007, and believes she has the best job in the world. In 2019 she completed a Creative Writing PhD in Popular Romance and Feminism. She’s a sucker for happy endings, heroines who have a secret stash of chocolate, and heroes who know how to laugh. She lives in a leafy suburb of Newcastle on Australia’s east coast with her own romantic hero, a house full of dust and books, and an eclectic collection of 60s and 70s vinyl.
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