Personal Assistance

Today we are pleased to welcome, Louise Rose-Innes to the blog.

It's hot, really hot. The sky is cobalt blue, and the sun shines down relentlessly. The streets are barren and a fine layer of dust coats everything in sight. The buildings are mere shells of their former selves. Wiring and electronics hang out of broken windows like disgorged entrails. In the distance is the sound of rifle fire. A sound that is as common in this city now, as the sound of children playing in the streets once was.

This could be Damascus, or Libya, or any other city on the front line of conflict in the Middle East. Scenes like this flitter across our TV screens regularly these days. The powerful images stay with us. We can imagine how awful it is for the people living there, for those who have been forced to flee their homes, taking their children and scarce belongings with them.

Such is the setting for my latest romantic suspense, Personal Assistance.

Stark and unromantic, you may argue, but I chose this setting for a reason. Firstly it’s very topical right now, and we can’t ignore what is going on in the world around us, but also because even in an environment like this, love can flourish.

Hannah Evans is a British employee, working in the royal compound of Prince Hakeem, ruler of a Middle Eastern Arab kingdom. She stumbles upon a state secret so powerful that it could alter the course of the war. On the run for her life, she joins forces with disgraced SAS commander, Tom Wilde, the only man capable of getting her out of the war-torn country. But Tom has a hidden agenda and Hannah can’t be sure he’ll stick to his end of the bargain.

“Fast-paced”, “great action” and “suspenseful” are some of the comments from reviews of Personal Assistance. I like to think that this in some way is attributed to the volatile setting where nothing stays still. How can it in a war zone? But also the stark heat, the characters under duress, a country in turmoil and a military desperate to get its hands on the secret that Hannah has taken all contribute to the pace of the story.

One can never underestimate the power of setting in a novel, romance or otherwise.

Personal Assistance is available from Amazon.

Louise Rose-Innes writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Born in sunny South Africa, Louise is a lover of sunshine and the sea, and this is often reflected in her novels. After completing a post graduate in Marketing Management, Louise headed off to the United Kingdom to gain work experience and travel. She now lives in leafy Surrey with her family, and when she’s not writing, is traipsing through the beautiful countryside, or kayaking on the river Thames.

Her debut romantic suspense novel, Personal Assistance, has recently been published through Entangled Publishing. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) in the UK, and the Romance Writers Organization of South Africa (ROSA)

Thank you, Louise.

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Visit Louise at http://louiseroseinnes.com/