Valentine's Book Love: Guest Post by Nikki Moore and Giveaway!

To celebrate St Valentine's Day, I have joined forces with some lovely bloggers: Sky's Book Corner, A Book and Tea and Star Crossed Reviews. We have organised a day filled with guest posts, interviews, top fives or our favourite couples, dates, kisses and weddings and a lot of giveaways! Don't forget to check out their blogs to find out more!

And now welcolme the lovely author Nikki Moore, who has just published the third short story, Valentine's on Primrose Hill, of her #LoveLondon Series. She is going to talk about what St Valentine's means to her. Nikki, all yours!

When I agreed with my HarperImpulse editor Charlotte that one of the #LoveLondon short stories would be set on Primrose Hill on Valentine’s Day, I was really excited. I mean, where and when better to set a romance, than in a truly beautiful place with a breathtaking view, on the most romantic day of the year?

And then I started thinking about the story. I knew my two main characters, Leo and Georgiana really well. They’d been talking to me for months (I know that sounds odd, but it’s one of the quirks of being a writer J ). I knew their backgrounds, their hopes and dreams, their apprehensions and fears. Leo was a Londoner born and bred, dedicated to his career teaching children with special educational needs, with no real interest in love. A bit of a geek, wrapped up in a gorgeous exterior which he is mostly unaware of. Georgiana had just moved to London after a horrific accident that left her scarred emotionally and physically, and was trying to find a way to fit back into the world, with no confidence that anyone would ever love her romantically. 

I toyed with the idea of having them meet on Valentine’s Day and spending the day together but that didn’t feel right. I wanted them to have a back story; to have met and started falling in love before then, because for me, celebrating Valentine’s Day should be based on something more tangible than a random day together. That’s not to say you can’t start to fall in love with someone in a day... Hey, is that an idea for a story? 

Anyway, this story starts with Leo standing alone on Primrose Hill on Valentine’s Day, unsure if Georgiana will turn up or not, because of a bet he made with his friends. The story then flashes back to start with Georgiana a few weeks before... 

To get their story right, I had to think about what Valentine’s Day, love and romance would mean to them as individuals. So I started by thinking about what it means to me.

I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day, but over the course of my life it’s meant different things at different times. 

When I was very young, it meant my Mum dressing up and going out to dinner with my Stepdad, who would wear a suit for the occasion (yes, they would be all lovey-dovey too). I thought it was sweet. 

As I hit my teens, it meant nerves and anticipation; seeing if any cards would drop onto my front door mat, and who they were from – my current crush, or the boy I thought of only as a good friend? It made me sweat. 

In my twenties I adopted the more traditional ‘romantic meal and red roses’ approach. It was a chance to have a dinner out with adult conversation and no kids asking me for food or to pick up after them (come on, we all love our children but sometimes we need some freedom too, right?). It made me smile.

And now, with a marriage behind me and a lovely boyfriend to celebrate with, it means spending the day with someone who makes me laugh, someone who enjoys being with me as much as I enjoy being with him, someone I’m in a mutually supportive relationship with. I don’t know what we’re doing this year (he is being surprisingly coy about what we’re getting up to) but as long as I get to hang out with him, that’s fine by me. It makes me happy. 

For me personally nowadays, romance doesn’t necessarily mean hearts and flowers. And I didn’t think it would to mean those things to Leo and Georgiana either, so I took a slightly different course for them. If you want to find out what #romance and #love looks like in their world... well, I guess you’ll have to read their story (Only 99p on Amazon, Kobo and Nook).

Now it’s over to you to share. What does love, romance and Valentine’s Day mean to you?

With thanks to Alba for letting me guest on the blog and chatter on about love!

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Thank you so much Nikki for your lovely story! Your #LoveLondon stories are so cute, I can't wait to read Leo and Georgiana's one! 

You can get it from Amazon for only 99p!

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