Spotlight & Giveaway: Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal by Dani Collins

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Dani Collins to HJ!

Hi Dani and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal!

 
Hi HJ Readers! Thanks for visiting with me today.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Rozalia goes to Hungary in search of her grandmother’s lost earring. Viktor has recovered it himself and won’t give it up because he thinks her grandmother stole the pair from their family. He winds up showing it to her, they kiss, and she winds up giving him her virginity only to wake to the news that the earring has been stolen. Viktor springs her from jail, but they didn’t use protection so now there’s a baby on the way…
 

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

Rozi is overwhelmed by Viktor’s mansion and imagines what it must have been like a hundred years ago.
“Can you imagine what it must have been like?” She laughed at herself. “Maybe you know exactly what it’s like. Do you have many balls?”
They were speaking English and he heard the double entendre.
“The usual amount,” he replied dryly.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

My son called while I was writing this one and I was stuck. I’m always touched and delighted at how willing my children are to brainstorm. They’re both early twenties, have busy lives. At the time, my son was in a particularly intensive computer programming course. You would think mom’s romance plots would be the furthest thing from his scope of interest.
But I was stuck and I explained what was going on and he said, “Why don’t they go to a nearby village and maybe there’s a wedding there, with lights in the trees and music.”
It was perfect for a Harlequin Presents and I wrote a scene that actually fell flat, but it got me writing again and so I’m eternally grateful to him.

Fun Fact #2 – Watch harlequin.com for a free online read that goes along with this duet. It’s called Innocent’s Pregnancy Revelation and it tells Benny’s story (the cousin who causes all the trouble for Rozi and Gisella in this duet.)

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

Viktor is feeling pressure to marry. He sees Rozi as a free-spirited sort of last hurrah. Rozi has always lived in her beautiful cousin’s shadow and even has men approach her to get to Gisella, but Gisella isn’t here. For once, she knows that a man is attracted to *her* so she sleeps with Viktor and everything goes to heck in a handcart from there.

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

I quite enjoyed this scene where Rozi proves to Viktor that she’s not a mercenary sort. He buys her a gorgeous diamond necklace, but she’s not impressed, but not for the reason he expected. (keep in mind, she makes jewelry for a living!)

“I genuinely thought it would look lovely on you.”
“Something this generic looks good on anyone. It looks good on a mannequin. But it’s designed to moves stones, not hearts.” She pulled her loupe from her clutch and bent her head.
“You carry that with you?”
“Cell phone, credit card, loupe, lip balm, bus pass,” she listed off her essentials on her fingers and thumb. “The cut and clarity are nice. Even so, they can do better. And should.” She lifted her head. “Can I talk to them?”
“Are you going to make a scene?” He took a hit off the scotch he’d poured for himself, truly confounded by her reaction.
“I’m always very nice when I dress someone down.” She blinked her lengthened lashes. “You barely felt it at all.”

Readers should read this book….

If you enjoy family secrets and earnest virgins who get accidentally pregnant by a billionaire alpha who is both overprotective, suspicious and utterly humbled in the end. You’ll also get a tour of a Budapest mansion, a visit to Venice, a cruise down the Rhine, and a trip to New York.

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

I’m writing this blog post in February so by now I hope I’m working on my next duet. I have some ideas for it, but I haven’t yet properly started so I won’t jinx it by talking about it.
As for my next releases, please looking for Untouched Until her Ultra-Rich Husband in June. My hero is the world’s first *trillionaire* and I had a lot of fun with the over-the-top wealth in that one.
The Maid’s Spanish Secret comes out in August and that’s a fun one, too. I finally wrote Rico’s story! He’s the brother of Cesar from The Consequence He Must Claim. So lots coming to you from my attic office this year! Enjoy!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One signed set of this duet (A Virgin to Redeem the Billionaire and Innocent’s Secret Scandal) to one lucky winner in the U.S. or Canada.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: One of the best things about my job is that I armchair travel to gorgeous places like Budapest and Venice. I want to visit in real life! Have you been? What are some of your favourite places that you’ve gone?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Innocent’s Nine-Month Scandal:

She was fascinating to watch, making the mundane corners of his world new and interesting to him again. It made the idea of kissing her, of seeing how she would take in that experience, a compulsion he couldn’t resist.
He touched her chin, urging her to lift her mouth. The tip of her tongue appeared to wet them. His skin tightened. He lowered his head, not usually one to hesitate, but this was a one-time thing. He would never see her again after tonight. He would never kiss her for the first time ever again. It made him want to play and tease and draw this out.
He grazed his lips against hers until his own burned with anticipation. A small gasp parted her lips and she opened her eyes. Her pupils were massive, and the light changed around him, telling him his own were reacting. All of him was expanding in an urge to overwhelm but he only kept that one finger crooked under her chin, wanting the full impact to be this, just this. A kiss.
He settled his mouth more firmly over hers, felt the tremble of her soft, soft lips. The timid response as he took his time rocking to find the perfect fit. She lifted on her toes to increase the pressure and her lips clung to his.
A noise he didn’t consciously make growled in his throat. He moved his hand to the side of her neck so her pulse pounded against the heel of his palm, and gave himself more freedom. He explored the silky shape of her lips from the pillowy softness of her bottom lip to the luscious curve of her top lip.
Then he tasted her. Deeply.
And she moaned. Deeply.
He was dimly aware of her hands splaying against his ribs, nails like kitten claws as she searched for balance while rising higher on her toes, wanting more.
Sliding his arm around her slender waist to support her, he pulled her in. Her one arm came up around his neck and the warm swells of her breasts mashed into his chest. She softened in surrender, unleashing the barbarian in him.
He dug his hand into the thick silk of her hair and plundered. Made love to her mouth and filled his hand with the lush cheek of her behind. Pulled her up so she could feel his growing arousal straining against her mound.
She dove her fingers into his hair and encouraged him. Sucked delicately on his tongue while shyly dallying her own across it. It was both carnal and sweet. He forgot everything except that this woman ought to be his. He wanted to take her to the gravel at their feet and make it happen. He also wanted to stand here and savor the most flagrantly passionate kiss he’d ever experienced. The most purely sensual woman he’d ever met.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

“If you’re pregnant…

…you’ll marry me.”

Control is everything to billionaire Viktor Rohan. Then Rozalia Toth appears on his mansion’s doorstep, looking for a family heirloom, and throws his world into chaos! Her sweetness intrigues him beyond measure…and as their inescapable chemistry explodes, Viktor realizes Rozi’s innocence isn’t an act! But their passion has consequences, and Viktor refuses to let scandal ruin his family again. Their baby will be legitimate! And Rozi? She will be his…
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with some laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of forty books also includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. She lives in Christina Lake, BC with her high school sweetheart husband who occasionally coaxes her out of her attic office to visit their grown children.
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