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We’re so excited that we got to sit down and chat with Nina Croft about her latest title, His Fantasy Girl. We’ll get right to what Nina had to say:
***INTERVIEW***
His Fantasy Girl is about a man coming face to face with death and realizing the one thing he really wants to do before he dies. And it was great fun to write.
I write all sorts of romance, including paranormal and sci-fi and I actually find contemporary the hardest. There usually comes a time, about half way through, when I think – nothing exiting is happening – I need an explosion or an alien invasion or a blood-drained body… But with His Fantasy Girl, Logan, the hero, kept me entertained the whole way through.
Hmm – I don’t actually know. It’s such a subjective topic—one person’s sexy is another person’s gross. In some ways, writing for an imprint like Brazen helps because there are expectations. But most of my books have the same level of sexiness, so I’ve probably just found my own comfort zone.
No. I do tend to niggle away at them before I begin writing, starting with general stuff, age, looks… and working my way down to the details. At some point in this process, they start chatting away in my head and that’s when I know I’ve done enough.
Abigail is a little…repressed. She grew up in a household where she was expected to behave. And she did, until her eighteenth birthday when…well, that would be telling. But she’s a nice person who has put aside her own wants and needs for those of her family. She’s just getting to a good place in her life, one where she can go after her own dreams, when a certain bad boy comes back and stirs things up.
I first met Logan in my book, Taking Control. He was the hero’s bad boy brother, and I knew straight away that I wanted to give him his own story. Logan was born to be bad, but he tempered his bad boy urges a little after a stint in prison when he was twenty-one (and he’s never going back!). He’s tall, dark, handsome and dangerous-looking—long hair, tattoos and a nipple ring (got on a dare!) He loves women and they love him, but he’s totally not into commitment.
Not in any great way—I’m a total plotter. I tend to get the story down to scene level before I begin writing (that’s not to say that I don’t change things up as I write.) But I love reading “How to Write” books and articles and tend to apply different methods to each of my book (I have a low boredom threshold so I like change). I think I used Larry Brook’s story engineering for His Fantasy Girl.
I’d love to introduce one of my contemporary characters to one from my sci-fi/paranormal characters. Maybe I’ll let Logan meet Rico; I think they’d get on. Rico is the hero from Break Out, book 1 in my Dark Desires series. He’s a 1600 year old vampire and the pilot of the space ship, the Blood Hunter. But he’s also got a mate into time travel, so it’s not inconceivable that he could end up on Logan’s doorstep one day.
Romantic, introverted, animal-lover.
I share my house with a three-legged Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
Jericho Barrons from Karen Marie Moning’s, Fever series. He is so totally bad-ass.
I’m currently working on book 3 in the Things to Do Before You Die series – His Fantasy Bride. Six months ago, Vito’s perfect bride ran away the night before their wedding. Now he’s going to find out why.
Would you like a glass of wine, Nina? This never seems to happen enough! I always have to get my own!
***About Nina Croft***
Nina Croft grew up in the north of England. After training as an accountant, she spent four years working as a volunteer in Zambia, which left her with a love of the sun and a dislike of nine-to-five work. She then spent a number of years mixing travel (whenever possible) with work (whenever necessary) but has now settled down to a life of writing and picking almonds on a remote farm in the mountains of southern Spain.
Nina writes all types of romance, often mixed with elements of the paranormal and science fiction.
***About the Book***
His Fantasy Girl by Nina Croft Also by this author: Her Fantasy Husband
Series: Things to do Before You Die… #1
Also in this series: Her Fantasy Husband
Published by Entangled: Brazen on October 19, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Opposites Attract, Player Falls in Love, Second Chance Romance, Secret Baby
Character(s): Bad Boys, Businessmen/Lawyers/Entrepreneurs, Criminals/Ex-Cons, Tattooed & Pierced Bad Boys
Pages: 239
Goodreads Buy the Book
When fantasy and reality collide...
There's nothing like a near death experience to make a guy reassess his life. And that's exactly what nightclub owner Logan McCabe decides to do, starting with looking up the girl he spent one wild night with eleven years ago, right before his life turned to crap. He spent a year fantasizing about her. Now he's ready to see how reality matches up.
Abigail Parker is a perfectionist. She's only strayed from the straight and narrow once in her life, on her eighteenth birthday. It was supposed to be one wild night with a totally unsuitable man before she settled into her sensible future. Instead it changed her life forever.
Logan might still be the sexiest man Abagail has ever seen, but a dirty-talking, tattooed, ex-con is the last thing she needs in her perfect life. He claims she's his fantasy girl, but what he doesn't know is she's also the mother of his ten-year old daughter...
***Our Thoughts***
Kassiah: After reading Before We Were Strangers, I might have said that I wasn’t a fan of secret babies. But since that’s one of my favorites, I thought I’d give this one a try.
After ex-con Logan faces death, he looks back on his life and realizes the one thing he would change is letting Abby, the girl he shared one amazing night with eleven years ago, get away. So imagine his surprise when he tracks her down only to find out he’s a dad. He’s devastated because he missed out on ten years of his daughter’s life, but the shock of his new role doesn’t really stop him from wanting Abby, so of course they can’t keep their hands off of each other.
Let me just say this story is blazing hot. Abby and Logan (is there another couple with these same names? I feel like there is.) have chemistry in spades. I thought Logan was a developed character and I liked him. I also really loved his interactions with his daughter and the fact that he was genuinely forlorn over becoming the exact type of father he never wanted to be (Even though he had no say in the matter). Abby was a little too navel-gazing for me and for someone who’s a totally kick-ass detective, it didn’t make sense. Also, I feel like Abby should have made an effort to find Logan. Yes, she looked for him when she found out she was pregnant and found out he was in jail. But I would think she would have looked for him at some point after that, given her career at the very least. They’re total opposites and their relationship–if you could call it that–moved way to fast to be believable. But I realize I don’t read very many secret baby stories, so that might be the norm. I love that Logan had Abby on his mind over the years, though.
If you’re looking for a super hot story with a dirty-talking tatted bad boy who finds out he has a secret daughter, then His Fantasy Girl is exactly the right book for you.
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- {Spotlight} The DNA of You and Me by Andrea Rothman - March 26, 2019
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| Overall: | 3 |
