Spotlight & Giveaway: Pregnant In The Italian’s Palazzo by Amanda Cinelli

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Amanda Cinelli to HJ!

Hi Amanda and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Pregnant In The Italian’s Palazzo!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Nysio Bacchetti dedicated his entire life to saving his family’s fortune, only to discover a terrible secret – he is not a Bacchetti by blood. Worse, he has two scandalous half-brothers who have included him in a race to the altar to claim an inheritance, when all he wants is to be left alone. He travels to Manhattan to set things straight, only to find his brothers have disappeared and a beautiful woman left abandoned in the rain.

Those who are familiar with this series know that the first book featured a bride stolen away on her wedding day, the second followed the jilted groom of that same wedding and now this book begins with the bridesmaid who got left behind in the chaos. Aria is essentially abandoned in Manhattan with no way home after her best friend disappears, so when a handsome stranger offers her a ride home on his private jet – she accepts!

What follows is a mile-high night of passion that rocks both of their worlds and leads to a nine-month surprise that neither of them expected!
 

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

‘It’s been a while for me,’ he warned. ‘I don’t know if I can be gentle.’
‘I won’t break,’ she promised, her skin sizzling with excitement at his words. But it was the truth. It was the one secret fantasy she’d always harboured but never managed to realise, to be taken fast and hard this way. No preamble, no time for her brain to overthink anything.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This series is an homage to my favourite greek myths. This one is a loose retelling of Ariadne and Dionysus. (mythology nerds will spot the love in the characters names Aria Dane and Nysio Bacchetti)
• Aria is a plus-sized woman who designs lingerie for plus-sized bodies. Fun fact – I did two years of fashion design college myself!
• Aria and Nysio are both neurodivergent
• The epilogue of this book is set at the same time and place as the epilogues of the first two books. I loved beginning and ending them all in the same place (even though it made things VERY tricky from a writers perspective!)

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

It is initially a purely physical attraction for them both and their chemistry is off the charts. But as they get to know one another they find that they are both fiercely attracted to how opposite they are to one another. Nysio is quiet, reclusive and a bit grumpy, but deeply passionate about the things he loves. Whereas Aria has quite a loud, creative personality and she loves adventure. They both bring a balance to one another.

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

This scene takes place the morning after Nysio demands Aria remain in his palazzo to discuss their impending parenthood. She is most definitely struggling with the enormity of their new situation while Nysio is very busy with his strategic presents hero plans to keep her there permanently. It makes me chuckle every time I reread it! I just love their back-and-forth.

Aria debated clearing her throat to announce her arrival, but what would she even say? He had made it quite clear that she was there so that they could take time to discuss the baby, but just barging into his office and demanding they get to it was possibly a little too much for day one? Then again, he had been so eager to get her here. Irritation warred with uncertainty as she hovered in the doorway, her bare feet getting cold on the stone.
‘My office has an open-door policy, Aria. There is no need to hover.’
His voice startled her; he hadn’t once looked up from his work but evidently she hadn’t been quite as stealthy as she thought. Slowly, he slid the glasses from his face and placed them down on the desk beside what she could now see was not a live screen of stock markets or accounts but a book with a pregnant woman on the cover. The title read, What To Expect… He quickly pushed it out of sight, clearing his throat.
‘You look well rested.’ His gaze slid down to take in her simple jeans and T-shirt.
She knew he had to be able to see her dark under-eye circles, her hair tied up in a messy bun, and her appearance was infinitely more casual than his sleek white shirt and tailored trousers. ‘I’m as well rested as a captive can be, I suppose. Who knew prison cells had four-poster beds?’
The corner of his mouth quirked. ‘Your sense of humour has recovered, I see.’ He stepped around the desk, lazily propping his lean lengthy frame against the front edge. ‘I had thought we might engage in some banal pleasantries before we jumped at one another’s throats today, but then I’m reminded that this is infinitely more entertaining.’

Readers should read this book….

for steamy love scenes, a swoonworthy hero, a confident heroine, italian cities and italian food!

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

My next release is A Ring To Claim Her Crown, a second chance royal romance that’s coming out in July. It features an Olympic gold medalist Princess who must follow her duty and exchange her beloved archery bow for a crown. She only has ONE WEEK to select a fiance, so they invite some eligible bachelors to the palace – as one does! But things get a little complicated when one of her suitors turns out to be the prince who disappeared and broke her teenaged heart! He’s spent the past fourteen years at sea, brooding like a gorgeous ginger-bearded pirate but now he’s BACK and he’s determined to stop her from choosing the wrong man.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Signed print copies of all three books in the Greeks Race To The Altar Series! Open internationally.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I’m half Italian and spent most of my summers with family in italy. If you could choose one city in Italy to visit, where would you go?

 
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Excerpt from Pregnant In The Italian’s Palazzo:

Aria could hardly believe how wonderful this trip to Florence had been. And Nysio…he was a dream. ‘So…you live in a palace, you write poetry in your spare time, when you’re not breaking the stock market, of course. What can’t you do?’
‘I’m just a man.’
‘That word seems so utterly banal to describe someone who does the things that you do. And yet you hide yourself away in your stone fortress. Hiding your talents from the world, keeping it all to yourself. Why do you do that?’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe I simply dislike people.’
‘No… That’s not it.’ She took a step towards him, analysing the furrow between his brows. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘These things… You don’t have to tell me about them if you’re not comfortable. I won’t dig, if you’re worried.’
‘Did I say I was worried?’
‘There it is, that fragile ego.’ She smiled good-naturedly. ‘I just feel like someone needed to remind you of what the world actually sees. What your talents are, your value,’ she said softly.”
His eyes met hers and she inhaled a breath at the sudden intensity she saw there. He took her hands, stepping closer so that they almost stood chest to chest.
‘Aria…I know that tonight is your last night here. But I brought you here…to this property to show you what might be if you reconsidered my offer from London.’
‘Isn’t that what we’ve been doing these past couple of days?’
‘Yes, but I was thinking of a more regular set-up.’
She felt her stomach drop instantly. ‘Please tell me you’re not about to suggest that I become some kind of kept mistress.’
‘That’s a very outdated phrase. I was thinking more of two consenting adults who live separate lives but regularly enjoy each other’s company.’
‘You want to…date me?’
‘I don’t date.’ He practically growled the word. ‘I want to continue getting to know you, but I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.’
‘Oh, heaven forbid.’ She laughed, moving away from him.
He held onto her wrist. ‘I don’t think this has run its course yet, do you?’
For a moment, Aria thought she’d heard him wrong. That she was simply grasping onto a wishful hope that he might actually want her, truly want her. But then she heard that word again: yet. Meaning that he thought this would run its course eventually. That even if she stayed for a while, it was inevitable that he would eventually tire of her.
‘Do you feel fully satisfied?’ he asked, his low rumble coming from just behind her right shoulder. Soft lips touched against the side of her neck and she felt her heart throb a little. She couldn’t tell him the true reason why she needed to leave…not without risking something far more delicate than just her pride, something she didn’t want to examine too closely.
She turned her head to find him standing directly behind her, his brow furrowed as he tried to read her face. He struggled with that sometimes, she realised. She recognised that often he needed to hear the exact words from her, plain and simple rather than relying on guessing games. She loved how plain and honest he was. She loved being here with him, talking with him.. If she gave more of herself to him on his terms, he had all but written down in ink that he would take it. Passion, sex… But nothing more. She knew with heartbreaking clarity that something more, a deeper connection, was what she truly wanted. Yes, the sex had been amazing, but the man she had come to know over the past forty-eight hours was infinitely more attractive to her. And infinitely more unattainable.
But was she really prepared to walk away from him completely? Would this be the single moment she looked back on in her old age and wished that she had done differently?
She had promised herself that she would never again be made to feel disposable by a man. Prolonging this affair was only prolonging the inevitable moment that he would break her heart, a heart that, if she was honest, was already falling headlong in love with him. The longer she stayed here, the more it would hurt when he walked away.
Her tortured thoughts seemed to be having an effect on the rest of her body as she felt another violent surge of“nausea sweep over her like a wave. Determined not to show how unsettled she was by his offer, she turned from him and leaned on the balustrade to try to compose herself. When she seemed to sway forward slightly, Nysio was right there beside her in a flash.
‘Be careful you don’t hurt yourself,’ he chided, placing his strong hands on her upper arms and drawing her towards him.
The world spun even more, and her sensitive stomach followed suit. ‘Nysio…I think I’m going to be sick.’
That was the only warning she managed to give him before she pitched forward and was violently ill all over his designer shoes.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The consequence of their sky-high encounter:
“I’m pregnant!”

Fashion designer Aria Dane needs to get from New York to London. The simple solution? Nysio Bacchetti’s private jet. Yet there’s nothing simple about the collision between free-spirited Aria and guarded Nysio. And for one flight, they yield to explosive desire…

Weeks later, the Italian billionaire can’t get Aria out of his head. To stop his perfectly ordered world from descending into chaos, Nysio’s sole option is to finish what they started… Only, once Aria arrives at his grand palazzo, they discover something truly life-changing—her unexpected pregnancy!
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Meet the Author:

Amanda was born into a large Irish-Italian family and raised in the leafy green suburbs of County Dublin, Ireland. After dabbling in a few different career paths, she finally found her calling as an author after winning an online writing competiton with her first finished novel. With three small daughters at home, her days are usually spent doing school runs, changing diapers and writing romance. She still considers herself unbelievably lucky to be able to call this her day-job.
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