Many big name authors started out writing for the Harlequin and Silhouette category lines, including Nora Roberts, Suzanne Brockmann, Cherry Adair and Susan Mallory. Do you aspire to join their ranks? The Presents line features ruthless billionaires, greek tycoons and many secret babies. Alpha males at their brawniest and the women who tame them. I have often thought this would be a fun line to write for.

Harlequin Presents/Modern Heat guidelines
Length: 50,000 words

Upmarket, glossy and sharply contemporary, these stories sparkle with lively dialogue and sizzling sensuality! They offer all the international glamour, passion and alpha-male heroes you expect from Modern/Presents, with a flirty young voice and a whole load of sass! These entertaining romances reflect the life experiences of today’s young women, within a chic, glamorous and usually urban setting. The heroines are often your twenty-something girl-about-town but there’s no compromising on the hero: he must be very alpha and absolutely to die for! There’ll be sparks flying when these two meet—and nothing short of fireworks once they get to the bedroom!

I Heart Presents Contest details:

1. The competition entry must consist of either the first chapter and synopsis of a Harlequin Presents or Modern Heat novel
2. Please email your entry to writingcompetition@hmb.co.uk
3. The WINNER receives an editor for a year
4. TWO RUNNERS-UP will be given critiques of their first chapter entries and an editorial consultation
5. The competition will close on November 2nd 2009 and the winner will be announced in December 2009 on I Heart Presents
6. More detailed rules will be added to I Heart Presents on July 9

PS: I’m passing this information on, but I have no involvement in the contest. Please visit the I Heart Presents blog for all your contest needs.

Title: Marriage at the Millionaire’s Command
Author: Anne Oliver
Publication Info: Harlequin Presents, June 2008 (US)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

This story overflows with heart and soul. Tender and passionate, moving and inspiring, I can’t understand why Harlequin insisted undercutting the book with that generic, boring title. None of the Presents line titles are unique, made as they are of marketing buzz words that apparently appeal to the reading public. But, really, how can they stick any old mix of millionaire/billionaire, secret baby, virgin mistress, forced bride and claim to do justice to the magic between the pages? This story is a must read for romance fans. It will leave you with that heart-bursting feeling of love, true love, and the conviction that happily ever after really can come true. Isn’t that why we read romance?

To be fair, I suppose I should disclose that I heart secret baby plots and am having a severe bout of babylust at the moment. It most likely is affecting my judgement, and causing this overpowering urge to make Mr. Wonderful read this book, in hopes he will catch my baby fever. Also, I downloaded a bunch of ebooks onto my computer and didn’t remember any of the back cover blurbs, so I was pleasantly surprised by the “secret” baby in this book. The unknown aspect made unwrapping the story that much more delicious.

PLOT: (This book debuted with slightly different character names in the Aussie/UK and US versions, as one can read in the varying synopses and notes on Ms. Oliver’s website.)

Carissa Mary is a struggling pianist who waits tables on the side to make ends meet. When her fiance breaks up with her, her stepsister convinces her to live a little and find a hot man to “tune her piano.” Carissa, still a card carrying Virgin at 26, screws up her courage and agrees. Cue hero, haunted songwriter Ben Jamieson who struggles with the recent death of his best friend. Jamieson is tall, dark and handsome and thoroughly sexy, as all good heroes should be. After one night of heart-stopping passion, Carissa runs home.

To pay the bills on the antique house her grandmother left her, Carissa puts out an ad for a boarder. Ben, seeking a place to crash for a few months for some solitude and soul-searching, where no one knows him, sees the ad and knocks on her front door. Mortified, Carissa only accepts him as a boarder grudgingly under one condition – hands-off. Neither can help the burgeoning attraction.

Seven weeks later something else is burgeoning. Carissa is terrified of caring for Ben because he’s said from the first he isn’t the sticking around type, so she throws him out without telling him her little secret. Ben, angry but willing to comply, intercepts a message from the OBGYN’s office and realizes he’s being duped. True to the title, the millionaire commands marriage. Both are too afraid of rejection and of love to admit to themselves, let alone each other, that there is more to the marriage than duty. Can their rocky relationship survive when tragedy strikes?

Every story has already been told. The difference is in the telling of it. Secret-baby plots are standard fare for the Harlequin Presents line (and we readers gobble them up like chocolate), but this book stands out in the beautifully descriptive storytelling. This is my first sampling of Ms. Oliver’s outstanding gift, but it has earned her a place as one of my favorite Harlequin authors.

This book took 2nd in Romance Writers of New Zealand’s Clendon Award in 2004.