Spotlight & Giveaway: The Baby Whisperer by Fiona McArthur

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Fiona McArthur to HJ!

Hi Fiona and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Baby Whisperer!

To start off, can you please tell us a little bit about this book?:

This book is about healing and learning to trust your heart. Stephanie is my leading lady and she’s a midwife and mothercraft nurse. After losing her dad, her brother, and then her husband, fighting fires over in Western Australia, Stevie makes a new life across the continent in Wirralong. The last thing she needs is another hero. Of course, then she meets Eli, grandson to a Polynesian pirate, risk-taker and her gorgeous builder. Seriously, the guy is hot, awesome with babies and makes her a moon gate just because he can. But she is not losing anyone else. No. It’s such a struggle to stay focussed on not falling for Eli…
If you like the sound of that, and it is fun, with cranky babies and house renovations, and of course – a new baby born
 

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

Be still my heart, Stevie thought, as she looked at the towering, dark-skinned, hard-muscled man with the tiny baby. Fabulous gene pool. Maybe Pacific Islander in there somewhere. Man and child stared at each other with obvious delight. Ignoring everyone else. Their own world and loving it. Oh my.

What inspired this book?

Kelly Hunter wrote a gorgeous Christmas story about a builder, MUST LOVE CHRISTMAS, if you haven’t read it, you should, what’s not to love about the aroma of wood shavings and a man who’s good with his hands? But I digress, I loved Kelly’s book so much I wanted to write a builder hero, too. Though my story has a baby, as always. 🙂
This is my fourth book in the Wirralong series set in Oz, and in my head, the town needed a creche for all those young families from my previous books. Stevie could sink herself into that, but this woman has already lost so much, she deserved a man who loved her for herself. Then I was thinking that some babies are just plain hard work no matter how much you love them, and those mums needed help. I had fun giving the sleepless nights to my previous book’s heroine, Maeve. The story concepts appealed mightily to me – so I mixed them all together – and we have The Baby Whisperer.

How did you ‘get to know’ your main characters? Did they ever surprise you?

When I started the book, I didn’t know that Stevie had unresolved anger about the way her dad and brother died – or that she had lost part of her own identity as well. I knew about her husband’s loss, but the rest was unexpected. Or that Eli, “the player who never went serious” had such strength of character and capacity to love and sacrifice himself for that love. Or that he was so amazing with babies. Working through the “why” Stevie wouldn’t allow herself to love Eli opened so many unexpected doors into both characters.

What was your favorite scene to write?

Eli’s first thoughts of Stevie were all lust and amusement – but it didn’t take long for him to fall. That was fun because I knew she wouldn’t be keen when she found out what he did in his spare time.

‘What colours would you suggest for the hallway?’
Eli watched her mouth as she asked the question. Her fine-boned face tilted his way. Those dark honey eyes on his. Distracting. As if she’d decided she could trust him. She really shouldn’t. Not really. Not at all.
What colours? He’d like to see her in a slinky whisky-coloured nightgown or maybe just a long rust and sage scarf to go with her amber eyes.
But, he guessed she meant the house.

What was the most difficult scene to write?

The one when Stevie told him “no” – she couldn’t risk her heart to another man who rushed into danger. I wanted Eli to understand but not give up – even though he was worried their problems were insurmountable.

She leaned forward. ‘But I’m not ready for a relationship.’ With you.
He smiled at her and some of her tension floated away, like the water flowed from the hand of the dancer in her fountain he’d built for her. He could ease strain with a kind look.
‘I understand,’ he said. ‘I just want you to think about a time when you might be ready. When that time comes—I’ll be there. Waiting.’ He smiled again, lifting the pressure, ‘Saying … pick me. Out of all the other men.’
She had to smile back. ‘I don’t deserve you.’
‘I hope you do.’
Dark eyes rested on her face, gentle, not demanding, and with a hint of humour that she suspected was directed more at himself than at her. ‘I think we should eat. What do you fancy?’

Would you say this book showcases your writing style or is it a departure for you?

This book is how I write. Starting with an idea and just letting the characters have their head. Eli turned into one of my fave ever heroes. Happy times.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I want you, as reader, to put down this book after the last page and sigh too, with a smile because you feel good – and just know my characters will live Happily Ever After.
I write to share my belief about the kindness and all the good people out there. I love to see those people finding the love they deserve in my books.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’ve just finished my Twins in a Lift book – to be called A Father for the Midwife’s Twins – out next year and I found all kinds of fun with that concept. At the moment, I’m working on re-writing His Doctor at Sea – which comes out in six weeks. It’s a shipboard romance with medical drama and for me, has one of my all-time memory scenery scenes as the ship comes into Venice with the hot prince hero. This one is Book 5 in my Healing Hands – Doctors with Specialty series.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: An ebook copy of The Baby Whisperer & 3 Tule ebooks

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I wondered, dear Reader, if you could fall for a prince or a builder as your love – which one would you go for?

Thanks so much for having me, Harlequin Junkie, it’s always a pleasure chatting with you xx Fi

 
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Excerpt from The Baby Whisperer:

Chapter One
Outside in the star-speckled blackness that surrounded the small farmhouse out of Wirralong, the night was warm and alive with the sound of night creatures. Now they could hear them.
‘You’re a baby whisperer.’ Fervent relief tinged her words as Maeve Bronson crawled into her bed, surrounded by the serenity of soothing silence inside the house.
Across the room in the white baby cot, red-faced but asleep, Tobias Bronson puffed tiny, peaceful breaths in his dreams. An angel slumbering deeply for the first time in weeks.
Leaning against the doorframe of the bedroom, Stephanie Rose Lee, Stevie to her friends, smiled and thought again how much she loved being a mothercraft nurse. And how much it had spared her sanity to soothe others. She savoured and soaked it in silently.
This scene. This stillness of night. This ambience … settled her seared-by-loss soul and made her remember to breathe.
Maeve might not believe her, not surprising as her poor friend had had no more than a few minutes of consecutive sleep in a month, but tonight they’d had a breakthrough. Toby would be better from here on in.
She’d had clients who found themselves sleepless after five previous ‘normal sleeping’ babies. Occasionally, the parent contributed to the lack of routine, but mostly it was the determined child.
Barring medical issues – which were different – some eight-week-old babies, like Toby, were just too alert, too interested in the world to fall asleep and they passed the point of settling around the four- to six-week mark. Their little brains whirred with ideas, and they homed in on their mother as the person they most wanted to communicate with. Day and night. Every hour. Sometimes nearly every minute.
Some babies didn’t understand the messages they were catching from their bellies or bodies. Some gulped way too much air when they hastily fed, or not enough milk when they were slow to sip—and some just loved to suck. All the time. And look around. And cry.
‘Toby’s like a tiny, relentless wave on the shore. He needs an impartial rock to beat against. I’m the boring rock.’
‘Not boring.’ Maeve’s mumbled words were tired and miserable. ‘And not a rock. You’re his godmother.’ She sniffed. ‘I understand why. He can feel my emotions.’ Even her tone dripped with weary tears. ‘I’m a midwife, for goodness’ sake. My husband’s a paediatrician. We couldn’t settle our own baby.’
‘I know you’re a midwife, Maeve. A fabulous one.’ They’d done their midwifery degrees together in Perth. ‘Go to sleep. This is my job. All babies are different. And you have a brain-busy boy.’
Stevie spoke softly, slowing her voice, soothing the mother towards sleep now. ‘He’ll probably be a genius like his parents when he finds his passion. For now, you are his passion. But you’re both off the chart exhausted. We’ve turned the corner.’
She switched the lamp to dim. And thought about her own sleep.
In the last fortnight she’d driven from Perth across the vast continent of Australia via the Nullarbor Plain, following an older couple in their caravan for company. She’d taken her time, stopped at small towns once the big bare expanses of long, straight roads were past, and savoured the trip.
She’d driven into Wirralong two days ago on the Monday that Maeve’s husband, Jace, had flown out, and the women hadn’t left the house since. Not even to see Stevie’s new in-need-of-renovation home or business enterprise.
There’d been such a cacophony of crying to greet her.
Quiet now. Calmness reigned. Countdown to a new life.
‘What if he wakes?’ That tinge of prolonged-sleep-deprivation-panic rang clear in Maeve’s usually calm voice.
‘If he wakes, you’ll know he’s found something he wants to tell you. Say “In the morning, Toby,” calmly and quietly, don’t lift him and he’ll settle. I’ll be back if you need me.’
‘Like that’s going to work,’ Maeve mumbled, but Stevie could tell her friend had almost succumbed to sleep.
Stevie slid from the room, partially closing the door but leaving a crack she could slip through if needed. She tiptoed past the dimly lit family room of the ranch house and upstairs to her guest loft.
Maeve’s husband, Jace Bronson, had been booked for a conference in Darwin where he’d been asked to speak on paediatric rural medicine over a four-day period. With the flights and distance involved, he wouldn’t be back until Sunday night.
He’d wanted to cancel, since Toby had been growing more unsettled every day for the last four weeks, despite agreeing months ago to be keynote speaker. Maeve had been going with him, but Toby changed that.
Maeve had urged Jace to travel without her and he’d reluctantly agreed, but only because Stevie was moving into town. Stevie, a mothercraft nurse and Maeve’s good friend, would stay over to help Maeve find a more settled routine for Toby until Jace’s return.
Jace’s daughter from his previous marriage, four-year-old Jemima, had gone to Granny’s for ten days and the plan was for Stevie and Maeve to find the secret to Toby’s happy place while Daddy and Jem were away. Come Sunday, Jace would come home, Stevie would start moving into her own house and get ready to take over the town’s creche.
Stevie hoped this move meant she could find her own happy place. Her own happy future. Home and family.
Since her husband’s death a year ago, she’d been drifting between wanting to stay in Perth because that’s all she’d known or yearning to start fresh in a new world. She would never be a volunteer again herself or fall in love with one. She’d find a sensibly cautious man to settle down with and be safe.
She was truly over losing her heroes.
Over being part of a firefighting dynasty.
Over waiting for horrific news. First her dad and only brother had given their lives for others in a fire rescue and then her husband, Bryce, had done the same.
Hopefully Wirralong had sensible men who took the time to think before they left their own families devastated by loss—because the next time she chose a partner she wanted a cautious man to love.
The grandfather clock chimed two am in the hallway.
Tiny babies everywhere would be waking their parents as she settled more deeply into the pillows. She tried not to think that, if Bryce had not driven into the fire, they might have their own baby by now. Not kind. Not a useful thought. Mean to her heroic husband.
Tragic.
Wirralong would be the perfect place for new beginnings. It was still spring. A small pretty town with a growing number of young families.
Here there were friends from her university days—Maeve and Lacey—and affordable housing, low enough for Bryce’s life insurance and the sale of her dad’s small house to cover renovating her tiny ramshackle dwelling, plus buying the creche business.
Her new house stood in need of repairs, but Maeve said she knew a guy who could fix it—the thought made her smile in the dark—Maeve had always known a guy. Tomorrow—well, today now—Stevie would meet him.
When she, Maeve and Lacey had been at university studying towards their midwifery degrees they’d worked and partied hard. Maeve had always known enough guys for everyone because her friend, a die-hard matchmaker, couldn’t help suggesting possibilities.
All Stevie had wanted was a nice safe man to love and have a family with. Instead, she was a widow. Childless. Alone.

Chapter Two
Eli
Eli Grayson’s Polynesian grandfather had been a pirate. On his Scottish father’s side, his many-times-removed grandfather had swung his claymore with William Wallace. Eli also carried a dash of convict blood, a smidge of an Irish royal line, and connections to a screen heartthrob, or so Suz had told him this morning.
His younger sister, Suz, whom he adored, was a bossy single mother and the business brain of their restoration company, but she was a tad obsessed with genealogy. She’d been very excited about their distant relatives.
Anything that made her happy he’d listen to—even if he took it all with a grain of salt—because Suz deserved happiness. Her baby’s father had been a dick.
Eli liked to present to others that he was just a big, black-haired bruiser who loved touch footy, but behind the dark sleepy eyes a clever intelligence watched the world. Maybe it was from his time in the army—never show your full hand—or because he liked to keep things light with the ladies. Either way, he enjoyed helping out with the local fire brigade and being free to travel on a whim—though usually travel meant volunteer disaster relief in some island village rebuilding weather-ravaged housing—because he loved restoration work. Oh, and women—he enjoyed the company of women very much, as long as no commitment was involved.
But he wasn’t a dick.
He’d been a frontline army medic until his parents were killed in a pile-up on the freeway and left the forces when he’d completed his commitment to be there—for Suz. He’d worked as a builder’s labourer until the builder/carpenter had broken his arm and suggested Eli become his mature carpentry apprentice. Eli had found his passion. Working with wood and restoration. That had been five years ago.
Now Eli took ruined wooden buildings and turned them back into functional, and sometimes quirky, usefulness again. Apparently he was very, very good at it and their little company had thrived.
Which is how he found himself staring at the outside of the tired and broken shell of a house waiting for the new owner.
Midwife Maeve was bringing her. Maeve had been there for his sister when she’d had her baby. Maeve was good people. He’d help Maeve’s friend, no problem.
A steady grizzle of escalating noise made him turn and he saw Maeve pushing the pram and approaching. Toby was coming, too.
There was something about that kid that made Eli smile. Which was weird because babies didn’t have personalities. Did they? Anyway, Toby cracked him up.
The woman with Maeve who seemed to dance above the path like a yellow butterfly in a golden sundress must be the new owner. She topped her friend by a head, which meant she neared his own height.
His gaze caught and held as his breath jagged somewhere in his chest. Her body reed thin, except in the right places, dark auburn hair and brows. As she drew closer he became transfixed by her extraordinary amber eyes, like treacle in sunlight. Or a fine, aged whisky. There was something in the swirling depths that said she’d been hurt. Oddly, he felt protective and deeply sorry about her pain.
‘Hi, Eli.’ Maeve said, ‘This is Stephanie Lee, the owner of the house. Stevie, this is Eli Grayson. He runs Grayson’s Buildings and Renovations.’
‘Pleased to meet you.’ Her voice was soft, calm, with a light bell-like quality that made him want to hear her sing. Eli loved to listen to others sing. Good, amazing and even terrible singing always made him smile. Her voice would be pure delight.
Side-tracked. He blinked, saw her hand was out and took it in his big rough palm and slowly shook. He looked down at her fingers, fragile and feminine, her grasp light in his and felt the bottom fall out of his blissful, freewheeling world. What. A. Woman.
She gently tugged her hand free, and he stepped back, still off balance from feelings he didn’t recognise. ‘My sister runs the business. I’m just the brawn.’
‘Really?’ As if she didn’t believe him.
He lost himself in her eyes again. Smacked. Smitten. Smote by her. He was a goner.
Thankfully, Tobias began to cry. In fact, he roared, like Eli knew he could. Before Maeve could move, Eli leaned down and reached …
He stopped, looked up at Maeve and raised his brows for permission? She nodded.
As he scooped the noise-maker up and positioned him against his shoulder he heard Maeve say, ‘Toby likes Eli.’
That made him smile as he patted the wriggling bottom gently. Toby stopped crying and hiccupped. ‘Hey, little mate,’ he said and peered at the cranky-baby face. Tears smudged rosebud cheeks. Pink lips quivered in a rapid shudder. ‘You wanna chat with me?’
Toby opened his eyes, his cheeks bulged and his lips stopped pouting as they curved into a big, gummy smile. ‘Coo. Coooooo,’ Toby said.
Eli laughed.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The last man she needs is another hero…

After losing her father, brother, and now her husband to their work in the fire service, midwife and mothercraft nurse Stephanie Lee leaves Perth for Wirralong to move near a midwife friend from university. She buys her first house along with the Wirralong Creche, where she’ll be able to immerse herself in looking after new mothers. Stevie’s not looking for romance, but when she meets her home builder, who’s everything she doesn’t want, she can’t resist.

When he’s not remodeling homes with his young crew of at-risk young adults, Eli Grayson is a volunteer for the rural fire service and international disaster relief. Eli’s never tried to resist the lure of a beautiful woman until he meets Stephanie. It’s love at first sight and captivated Eli is determined to win her trust and heart, no matter how long it takes.

She’s afraid to love and lose, but he’s convinced they can both win. Stevie has to answer the question, is Eli—the most compelling man she’s ever met—worth the risk?

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Meet the Author:

Fiona McArthur has written more than forty books and shares her medical knowledge and her love of working with women, families and emergency services in her stories. In her compassionate, pacey fiction, her love of the Australian landscape meshes beautifully with warm, funny, multigenerational characters as she highlights challenges for rural and remote families, and the strength shared between women. She always champions the underdog, and the wonderful, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Then that bit of drama thrown in because who doesn’t love a few tears, a heartfelt sigh of relief and a big happy smile at the end? Make that gorgeous man earn the right to win his beautiful and strong-willed heroine’s heart because that’s something she believes in. And, absolutely, happy endings are a must.
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