Spotlight & Giveaway: Wedding Date in Malaysia 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, Wedding Date in Malaysia!

 
Many thanks for having me. It’s lovely to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

In Wedding Date In Malaysia, the best man and bridesmaid have to work together to ensure that this destination wedding is a success rather than the flop it’s threatening to become.

Eighteen months ago, bridesmaid Ella lost her fiancée in a tragic accident. When his sister asks her to be her bridesmaid, she can’t refuse. The entire family, however, are all still grief-stricken, and while Ella is ready to move on with her life, they’re not ready to let her do that. Enter best man Harry with his playboy reputation—nobody can throw a party like him. Harry, though, needs an image makeover to seal a deal on a huge project. Harry and Ella join forces to help each other break free of the restraints imposed on them by others, while at the same time ensuring that this wedding is the most wonderful celebration imaginable. They’re confident they can achieve all of that, as long as they can ignore the attraction flaring between them. But when they find themselves in tropical Malaysia, surrounded by white sand, warm seas and moonlit nights, that becomes harder and harder.
 

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

I have a few…but this scene always makes me smile. Harry has just explained to Ella how the media have been hounding him, while she’s told him that her fiancé who recently died had been her best friend and childhood sweetheart.

‘Martin’s wedding is a godsend. It’s pulled me out of the limelight and is giving me the chance to prove myself.’
She tapped a finger against her lips. ‘And if we’re to drag this wedding out of the doldrums, you’re going to be too busy to be snapped doing much else.’ She straightened. ‘Well, Harry, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.’
He blinked. ‘That’s nice of you.’
Guys can be friends too.
She moistened her lips. ‘Well, as I said… I need a few new friends.’
His eyes throbbed. ‘If you believe what the papers say, I can’t just be friends with a woman.’
‘I don’t care what the papers say. I care what you say. Can you just be friends with a woman?’
He leaned in close and she saw he had lighter flecks in his irises, the colour of gold. ‘Yes.’
‘Then maybe we can be friends.’ In the short term. It wouldn’t last. She wouldn’t see him once the wedding was over, but he could be…a transitional friend maybe.
One side of his mouth hooked up. ‘I’d like that, Ella, but I’m not going to be your new BFF. You have priors for falling in love with those.’
Her jaw dropped. And then she choked back a splutter of laughter. ‘Once!’ She held up a single finger. ‘Once does not make me a serial faller-in-love with my BFFs. It’s not a pattern.’
He grinned and held out his hand.
She grinned back and shook it.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• A couple of years ago a friend of mine spent her honeymoon in Malaysia. When she showed me photos of the island and resort, I knew I wanted to set a book there.
• In the last two years, sewing has become my new favourite hobby. I’m still a rank beginner, but I did have a chance to live vicariously through Ella while I was writing this book, because she’s an amazing sewer! This also meant I could watch YouTube videos about sewing techniques and justify it as necessary book research.
• Lots of authors talk about scouring the net to find the perfect picture of what their heroine and hero look like. I’ve never done this before, until this book. I had photos on my desktop of Ella and Harry and I consulted them often. I don’t know why I found it particular helpful for this story (or why I haven’t done it since), only that I did.
• I normally have a theme song for a book (and sometimes one each for the heroine and hero too), but for a long time I didn’t for this book. I’d listen to different songs, and my ears would prick up whenever the radio was on, but nothing stuck. It was only when I was writing Chapter Ten that I suddenly realised what that theme song was—Summer Nights by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. But you’ll have to read the book to find out why, LOL.

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

Ella is initially drawn to Harry because he didn’t know her fiancée and doesn’t know her background. He judges her as she really is, uncoloured by her past. Here is someone she can finally be herself with, and she finds that immediately refreshing and freeing. Harry is drawn to Ella because she’s the kind of woman who immediately puts him in the friend’s zone and has no romantic interest in him. He feels safe with her. Of course, if they could just ignore all of that pesky attraction and their raging hormones, then things between them would be perfect.

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

Well, their first kiss scene had me blushing a little. I didn’t realise that it was going to get quite so steamy so quickly:

‘Can I kiss you, Elle?’
She swallowed. ‘God, when you call me that…’ Desire-drenched eyes met his. ‘I want you to kiss me so badly, I think I might die if you don’t.’
As they spoke, they turned more fully to each other. He cupped her face, revelling in the softness of her skin and the fine bones beneath his fingertips. Her fingers closed about his lapels and they pulled each other closer as if they each had a magnet drawing the other nearer and nearer. Millimetres from each other’s lips, they paused—as if to breathe each other in, as if fixing the moment in their minds—and then their mouths came together and there was nothing tentative about that.
For a brief moment he felt unbalanced, as if he’d hit ice on his skis and was in danger of crashing down a mountain, but at the last moment Ella’s mouth opened beneath his and everything suddenly righted itself.
He couldn’t put together a single coherent thought after that. Sensation pounded through him—glorious, exhilarating and better than any damn race he’d ever run. Ella’s mouthed moved against his, just as hungry, just as demanding, driving him to new heights, filling him with a wild, desperate need.
Lips, teeth, tongue—all teasing inevitable rhythm. Her hands on his jaw, fingernails scraping lightly across the designer stubble he swore he wore for just this purpose. But it had never felt this good before. Small strong hands that moved from the sides of his neck to splay across his chest, pushing aside his waistcoat, to glory in his heat and the muscled strength of his torso.
Dear God, it wasn’t nearly enough. He needed more. Where the hell was the zip on her dress?
He found it—a side zip—and lowered it, before bringing his fingers back up, knuckles brushing against the side of her breast. He caught her shocked cry in his mouth, and the electric ripple of her body flowed through him too. Pressing kisses to her throat, he lowered the bodice of her dress until her breasts were proudly exposed in the sheerest of white lace bras.
He brushed his knuckles down the sides of both breasts and again that shocked gasp and electric shudder ripped through her. Leaning forward, he drew one erect nipple into his mouth and laved it with his tongue. She arched into him, her hands partially lifted as if to tunnel into his hair, but her arms stopped short, pinned to her sides by the bodice of her dress, and a primal roar of satisfaction filled him.
When she was lying half reclined like that, lips kiss-swollen, hair mussed and her breasts exposed for his delectation as she gazed up at him, eyes drunk with arousal, he felt like a king or sultan. And every time he ran the backs of his fingers along the sides of her breast, another electric jolt shook her.

Readers should read this book….

If they love emotional stories with characters who leap off the page and into your heart. Both Ella and Harry are such good people, but so are their families and friends. This isn’t a story that has a villain. It’s about a family trying to come to terms with their grief and turning their faces towards the future. Ella and Harry want to help everyone do that, and along the way they find a happy-ever-after for themselves too.

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

I’m currently working on a duet—two linked books set in Italy. The series title is One Italian Summer. Could you imagine getting to spend a whole summer in Italy? Happy sighs. So, yes, I’m getting to indulge my wanderlust again. I’ve just started Book #1, which has a title already: Unbuttoning The Tuscan Tycoon. The duet will release sometime in the first half of 2023 (the dates aren’t set yet).

And in Oct/Nov this year I have a Christmas release called Reclusive Millionaire’s Mistletoe Miracle. I love this story so much! My Australian heroine travels to Devon, England, to make over the hero’s walled garden (it’s a bit of a Secret Garden and Beauty and the Beast mash up). Did I mention how much I love this story?
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: International giveaway! Michelle has a signed copy of ESCAPE WITH HER GREEK TYCOON to give away to one lucky reader.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Destination weddings seem to be such a thing these days (sadly I’ve never been to one). But if you could attend a destination wedding, where would want it to be?

 
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Excerpt from Wedding Date in Malaysia:

‘Ellie, I’d like you to meet my best man, Harrison Gillespie. Harrison, this is Ellie Hawthorne.’
He found himself staring down into the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen. They smiled into his as she held out her hand. ‘It’s lovely to meet you, Harrison. I’ve heard a lot about you.’ She rolled her eyes at Martin. ‘And I’m Ella.’ She stressed the second syllable.
He took her hand and found himself encompassed in warmth and…welcome. He frowned. She made him feel welcome. He couldn’t work out how. Or why he wanted to rest in that welcome, put up his feet and just…be.
He shook himself. Jet lag, he must have it bad this time around. ‘I’m pleased to meet you too, Ella.’ He stressed the second syllable in the same fashion she did, which made her eyes dance.
‘You don’t have a drink. Let’s remedy that.’
She smiled and he immediately relaxed. Ella’s entire demeanour calmed any concerns he might’ve had. Her expression was the same as the one that the women who always avoided him wore—the ones who dismissed him as frivolous and not to be trusted with their hearts—determinedly friendly but determinedly distant too.
Ella couldn’t currently avoid him so she was doing the next best thing—putting him firmly in the friend zone. He loved the friend zone.
‘Susie is trying to get your attention, Martin. Leave Harrison with me.’ Ella took Harry’s arm. ‘He’s in safe hands.’ She turned to the assorted throng around her. ‘You’ll have to excuse us,’ she said. ‘We have important bridesmaid and best man business to discuss.’
Her hand on his arm tightened and he went on immediate high alert. Whenever Lily seized his arm like that, it meant she needed rescuing. Who the hell was hassling Ella?
He hated men who preyed on vulnerable women. He’d be more than happy to set the guilty party straight.
He searched the vicinity as she led him towards the bar, but couldn’t find a likely suspect. He frowned. Perhaps her covert urgency had another cause. ‘Do we have important bridesmaid and best man business to discuss?’ Was there something he needed to do, a problem he needed to solve or—?
‘Oh, I don’t know. Probably.’
She shrugged without looking at him and continued towards the bar. She had short dark curls that danced as she walked—glossy, shiny and the colour of the icing on a chocolate éclair.
The thought made him blink. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten anything sweet and sticky. He wasn’t much into desserts, but if someone set a chocolate éclair in front of him now, he’d wolf it down and relish every bite.
He frowned. She was nothing like he’d expected. After Martin’s description, he’d pictured a pale waif with tragic eyes brimming with tears, and a general air of inertia. Not this lively woman who moved with brisk purpose.
She sent him a smile as she slid up onto a stool. ‘If the truth be told, I just needed a little break from the gathering horde.’
Her smile removed any sting from the words and he suddenly realised that she no longer held his arm, although the imprint of her fingers continued to burn on his flesh. It occurred to him then that her former touch had been mercifully brief.
Or do you mean mercilessly?
The thought made him swallow.
‘I mean, I love them dearly, don’t get me wrong, but they can be a bit much en masse.’
Hold on, she’d been desperate to get away from…
He glanced back the way they’d come and found a large proportion of the room sending covert glances Ella’s way—biting lips, shaking heads and heaving sighs.
He turned back to Ella, who wasn’t looking at him but studying the wine list. She’d been desperate to get away from all of that commiseration and pity? Pursing his lips, he nodded. He supposed it must get a bit suffocating after a while.
She clapped the wine list shut. ‘What’ll you have?’
‘A beer.’
‘Would you like to try one of these new-fangled craft beers?’
He really didn’t care and she interpreted his shrug as such because she didn’t ask any other questions, merely pointed to one of the beers on tap and ordered a glass of white wine for herself.
‘So…you prefer Ella?’
‘I do. Not that anyone pays the slightest bit of attention.’ There was the tiniest edge to her words, but before he could attempt to decipher what that meant, she sent him another of those discombobulating smiles. ‘And you prefer Harrison?’
Actually, he didn’t. ‘I like Harry, but my parents insisted on calling me Harrison and, therefore, so did the teachers at school. And therefore so did all the kids at school.’
Their glasses were set in front of them and she raised hers to clink it with his. ‘Harry it is, then.’
And something inside him unwound. Just like that. Something that felt as if it had been wound tight his whole life.
‘So…’
She leaned towards him and he wondered if he’d read her incorrectly and that maybe she was about to start flirting with him.
‘Do you know what Martin and—?’
A middle-aged man clamped a hand to Ella’s arm, and her words stuttered to a halt. ‘How are you doing, Ellie dear?’
‘I’m well, Uncle Aubrey, and you?’
‘It’s nice to see you making such an effort for our dear Susie’s sake.’
‘Well, I’m very happy for Susie, and this is a night of celebration.’
‘Och, you’re a good lass.’
Uncle Aubrey patted Ella’s hand as if… Harry blinked. As if she were a sad puppy!
‘You’re doing your parents proud.’
And then he left, and Ella turned back to the bar and gulped wine, avoiding Harry’s gaze. ‘That was Uncle Aubrey, who’s actually Susie’s dad’s second cousin, so not really an uncle at all, but you know how these things are. I’d have introduced you, but…’
‘He didn’t really give you the chance.’
She straightened. ‘So what I was going to ask was, has Martin let anything slip about…?’
Her gaze moved to a point behind his right shoulder and her words trailed off again. He swung around to find a slender woman standing there, staring at Ella with tears in her eyes.
‘Hello, Adele, how are you?’
Tears fell. ‘Oh, Ellie, I don’t know how you can stand it. When you should be here with…well, you know.’
He found himself wanting to shout, Her name is Ella, not Ellie!
‘No, no, don’t mind me.’ Adele dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. ‘I’ll just—’
‘Oh, no you don’t.’ Ella slid off her stool, wrapped an arm around the other woman’s shoulders and steered her to a seat between both of them. ‘You’re not crying on Susie’s shoulder. Not tonight. Tonight is a happy night. Have you met Harry yet? He’s Martin’s best man.’
The tears dried up. ‘Best man? Oh! So he’s not your date?’
For a moment he wished he were so he could wipe the relief from this woman’s face.
‘We were just having a best man and bridesmaid confab.’
‘Oh, then I won’t interrupt.’
With that she leapt up and disappeared back into the crowd. The nosy so-and-so. She’d just wanted to find out who the hell he was.
Ella stared into her glass with pursed lips. She had pretty lips, but it was the curl resting against one dusky cheek that caught his attention. No matter how much he might want to, he couldn’t reach out and wind it around his finger, and—
Stop it!
He rolled his shoulders. Old habits and all that. He just hadn’t realised how ingrained they were. He was not going to flirt with Ella Hawthorne. He wasn’t flirting with any woman.
Ella pulled in a big breath that made her chest rise. He averted his gaze and refused to notice anything. He especially wasn’t going to notice the sweet curve of her chest.
‘Okay, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way.’ Resentment lurked in the back of those blue eyes, but he didn’t think it was directed at him. ‘Have you heard about James yet?’
With someone else he might’ve hemmed and hawed, treaded softly, but he sensed she’d prefer straight talk. He went with his gut and nodded. ‘Susie’s brother who died over a year ago.’
Her lips twisted. ‘Eighteen months.’
That was a year and a half. ‘And you were engaged to him.’
‘That’s right.’
He stared at her for a long moment. ‘So how are you really doing?’
She stared back, her eyes not wavering from his. ‘Actually, I’m doing really well.’
He believed her.
And then he frowned. From where he was sitting, Ella was doing a fine job of putting on a brave face. What was Martin’s problem?
‘Ellie, dear.’ An elderly woman came bustling up on his other side.
Ella pasted on a bright smile. ‘Have you met Harry yet, Aunt Edith?’
She introduced him as Harry rather than Harrison and he found himself absurdly touched.
‘Susie’s grandmother on her mum’s side is one of five sisters and Edith here is the eldest.’ Her smile widened. ‘You can imagine what Christmas dinner is like, can’t you?’
He recognised her pre-empt attempt at diversion—trying to get in before she became an object of pity and subjected to yet more platitudes. He sensed her quiet desperation returning. It didn’t show in her face, but he saw the way her fingers tightened around her wine glass in the same way they’d tightened on his arm earlier.
It occurred to him then that Ella was close to her breaking point. If someone didn’t do something soon, she could go off like a firecracker. If she did, Martin and Susie’s celebrations would be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
And Ella would hate herself forever.
He didn’t know how he knew that, only that he did. And he couldn’t let it happen. He leapt into the breach. ‘Five sisters? I’m guessing Christmas is rowdy. Really rowdy. And fun.’ He thrust his hand out towards the older woman. ‘It’s nice to meet you.’
Edith frowned. ‘I…’
‘Are you ladies on the blue lagoons already? Way to go!’ Ella leaned closer as she held up a hand to high-five the other woman and her scent—all peachy freshness—dredged his senses. ‘It’s clearly going to be a good night.’
She had the kind of smile that could fell a man. Not to mention gumption. She was digging deep to keep up this front. He was determined to do whatever he could to help her.
Edith heaved a gusty sigh. ‘You don’t need to put a brave face on for us, Ellie. We understand what you’re going through. Dinner is about to be served and we’ve saved you a seat at our table. We don’t want you feeling lonely. We widows need to stick together.’
He felt Ella flinch and in that moment he saw it all. It wasn’t that Ella was so sad—it was that everyone else still was. And they were projecting it all onto her.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Distracted by the bridesmaid… Impossible to resist!

Bridesmaid Ella wants to prove she’s moved on from the grief of the last eighteen months and is ready for a fresh start. So meeting playboy and best man Harry at the wedding party in Malaysia is excitingly refreshing! With an image to redeem, Harry’s solely focused on making the wedding perfect and he needs Ella’s help. But when their best-laid plans are derailed by their unstoppable chemistry, keeping focused becomes almost impossible!
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Meet the Author:

Michelle is an award-winning author who has been writing for romance publisher Harlequin Mills & Boon since 2007. “Truly funny and moving”, “Poignant and absolutely impossible to put down,” and “Sparkling with warmth, humour and charm” is just a small sample of what the critics have had to say about her romances. In 2019 she graduated with her PhD (her topic area was Contemporary 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 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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