This year, Paddy’s Day will be doubly great; as well as celebrating my Irish heritage through drinking a copious amount of alcohol, I shall also be attending the annual RNA Awards.

My favourite award is the RoNA ROSE Award. This “recognises the best in category or series and shorter romance – novels that focus on the developing love affair between the hero and heroine” and this year all six nominations are Mills & Boon books.

All of the nominations are romances with a twist. There’s something in the past or the heart of each of couple that the love that develops helps them to overcome…

In Anything But Vanilla, Sorrel Amery is the sensible one. No matter what happens, she won’t run off and be impetuous – leaving people behind to sort things out.

But then she meets Alexander West, and all of a sudden she’s tempted to be spontaneous. But he’s used to jetting off round the world whenever he wants, will she be left behind again?

Note: She also makes the most delicious-sounding champagne sorbet. I would be all over that. Liz, I want a recipe if you please!

I’m always a sucker for an outsider – and Anusha Laurens in Forbidden Jewel of India is just that. The illegitimate daughter of an English peer, and descended from Indian royalty, she still hasn’t forgiven her father for sending her and her mother away when she was twelve. Enter Major Nick Herriard and a flight across India to deliver Anusha safely to Calcutta. Both the English Major and the Indian Princess have their own reasons for never wanting to fall in love, and yet on the fast-flowing waters of the Ganger they find themselves becoming closer and closer.

Everyone deserves a second chance at love, and none more so than Stephanie Scott and Daniel Connor. Daniel hasn’t dated anyone since his wife died four years ago, and Stephanie literally fled to London to get away from her ex-husband and his family.

When Daniel’s daughter Mia is rushed into hospital, the two doctors meet for the first time and their attraction to each other is immediately obvious. But can they work it out? And will Stephanie ever get Her Real Family Christmas?

In Snowed in with the Billionaire, a freak snowstorm reunites old flames Georgia and Sebastian – and Georgia’s son Josh.

Sebastian never told Georgia what had happened to turn him into a workaholic, shunning her in favour of business, but he still hadn’t forgiven her from walking away and ending up marrying another man. But when snowed in over Christmas, what else is there to do but talk and perhaps share a kiss or two?

Secret betrothals are always rife with the promise of romance and His Lady of Castlemora is no different. Recently widowed and thrown out after her horrifically violent husband dies, Lady Isabelle finds herself at the mercy of the infamous Lord Ban.

He must produce an heir, but she believes herself to be barren. These two – desperate and with nowhere to turn – find each other and, as the narrative develops, eventually find love…

Dylan Harper and Emmy Jacobs always detested each other – the only thing that stopped them from outright fighting was the fact that their two best friends were married. But when Pete and Ally die, they are left Bound By A Baby – their godson Tyler.

Moving into Ally and Pete’s house together, in order to provide Tyler with the stability he needs, they soon realise that they have far more in common than they thought…

So there we have the nominees for this year’s RoNA ROSE award. Congratulations to all the authors that have been nominated, there’s only one question left to ask – which book gets your vote?

 

 

 

By The Mills & Boon team