Welcome Guest Blogger Rachel Brimble

My Five Favorite Things about Templeton Cove

Templeton Cove is the fictional UK seaside town I created for my series with Harlequin Superromance – of course, when I started writing book one I didn’t dream that Harlequin would end up contracting five books in total…so far!

The first two books (Finding Justice and A Man Like Him) are romantic suspense, the next two (What Belongs To Her and my Christmas 2014 release) are more mainstream romance but do have a little menace in them…I find it very hard to resist a villain ;)

This town has become a very real and tangible place to me – it’s somewhere I would love to live and my reader feedback has been fabulous. Everyone loves Templeton and its residents – especially the matriarch, Marian Cohen.

So, my five favorite things about this wonderful town on the south west coast of England are:

1.   The beach – Cowden Beach is where a lot of the action takes place in Finding Justice but also features in a couple of the other books. I created the beach with mounds of rocks at one end and a posh restaurant on stilts, The Oceanside, too. Each of these things have served a good purpose! The beach is very much inspired by a beach in Egypt where I holidayed with my family in 2012.
2.   The fairground – Funland is really the entire backdrop for What Belongs To Her and was inspired by the fairground that used to come to my hometown every year while I was growing up. I ADORE a fairground with the noise, smells and excitement. I am thrilled that already readers are writing me saying how real it felt to them as they read the book. There is no bigger compliment!
3.   The bakery – Marian’s Bonniest Bakery features in all the books and is a central meeting point and place the residents come to relax and/or get advice from their beloved matriarch, Marian. I say “and/or” because you cannot relax when you’re talking to Marian, lol!
4.   The residents – I love each and every one of the characters I have created so far, both protagonists and secondary. They all mean the world to me and are incredibly real in my mind. I will be planning book five this week and want to write a story for a couple of the secondary characters who are waiting to be heard. It’s so great to have a job where I get to go back and read my own books to decide who will star in the next installment!
5.   Finally, the best thing about Templeton Cove – its potential! Right now, I feels as though I could continue to write about Templeton forever. I have so many more story ideas floating around in my imagination that I am yet to explore. I want to add a nightclub and an amusement arcade…I want to set something at the train station and revisit the caravan park that featured in A Man Like Him.

Fingers crossed, when I hand in the proposal for book 5 my editor will contract more books…watch this space! I hope you’ll try one (if not all!) of my Templeton Cove books and fall in love with the setting, people and what they get up to as much as me. :)

Rachel’s latest Harlequin Superromance release is book three in the Templeton Cove series – What Belongs To Her is available to buy in paperback and ebook. Here’s the blurb and buy links:

She's ready to take back what's hers

Since the moment a local crime boss claimed ownership of her family's fairground, Sasha Todd has dreamed of righting the wrong. Now it's time to act, and backing down from the man's estranged son is definitely not an option. After all, giving up her legacy to hot-blooded John Jordon means losing the chance to finally heal the wounds in her past. 

Stopping John in his tracks—and resisting the sizzle between them—is Sasha's best defense. But there's more to him than she thought, which changes everything. With what matters most at stake, she'll have to risk a brand-new future with John, or walk away from the man whose heart belongs to her.

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                      Buy Links:

                     Amazon US
                     Amazon UK
                 Barnes & Noble

Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK.  After having several novels published by small US presses, she secured agent representation in 2011. In 2012, she sold two books to Harlequin Superromance and a further three in 2013. She also writes Victorian romance for Kensington--her debut was released in April 2013 and she has since signed for three more.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family and beloved black Lab, Max. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.

She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!

Links:

Website
Blog
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