Wonderful Medical romance writer Scarlet Wilson shares her inspiration behind her latest book Tempted By The Hot Highland Doc! From the Isle of Arran to the creation of a grumpy hero, Scarlet takes us on a creative journey. Read on for more!

Tempted by the Hot Highland Doc was inspired by a number of things. I don’t binge watch TV, but I do occasionally catch certain shows. I love the ones that show a shift for the air ambulance crew, or for staff in a busy hospital. I also love how the series captures different events in the year. Part of these shows spurred on my thinking for the book I first called A Year in the Life of the Hot Highland Doc.

I live in Scotland and the isle of Arran is only an hour’s boat ride away.  It’s a popular summer destination when the number on the island are known to swell.  One of the sadder inspirations of this story is that in Scotland we are currently having major problems recruiting GPs. It used to be everyone wanted to do that job and hundreds would apply.  Now?  It’s just not the case.

I also loved the idea of a heroine who was really, really desperate for success. And I also wanted a girl completely out of her comfort zone. Arran? For a girl who lives in LA, seemed perfect!  So my heroine Kristie was created, given a job she really doesn’t want to do, but needs it to succeed as it’s her last chance.

Then came my grumpy hero. Rhuaridh is of course a Hot Highland Doc, but he’s taken over the GP practice from his father as he couldn’t get anyone to cover once his father had died.  He grew up on Arran, so has a lot of loyalty to the people here, but didn’t really want to spend his career here.  Add to that his friend and colleague is pregnant and due on maternity leave when she drops the bombshell that she’d agreed to take part in this Year-in-the-Life TV series.  He’s furious and it’s the last thing he wants to do, but can’t find himself to tell his friend no – particularly when he finds it out the money will fund a desperately needed new x-ray machine for the community hospital.

But spending three days a month with this crazy American girl makes him think he needs his head examined.  Sparks fly between them, not least when he finds out his part of the series is called the Hot Highland Doc. Anyone who knows anything about Scottish geography, will know that Arran is nowhere near the Highlands and for Rhuaridh it’s just adding insult to annoyance.

But a year is a long time in anyone’s life. I can remember from watching some of the TV shows not liking a few of their characters in the beginning but warming to them over the course of the series. It also worked the other way too, with some characters who initially seemed charismatic and charming, being the person I knew I couldn’t tolerate in a work place environment without putting them entirely in their place. I kept this completely in mind as I wrote this book, each chapter only covering a few days out of each month and lasting an entire year. In the end, this book could have been so much longer, but it’s still one of the favourite books I’ve written.

I hope you like it!

Get your copy of Tempted by the Hot Highland Doc here!

By Sanjana Cunniah