Today I'm welcoming fellow Wild Rose Press author J. Arlene Culiner to my blog. She likes to set her romance books in out-of-the-way places — the Nevada desert, a forgotten
cove on the California coast, or in backwoods towns no one has ever heard of. But she decided it was time she wrote about the country she knows best: France. After all, France is where she lives and works as an artist. So why not create a heroine — and hero — who are both artists? The result is the #NewRelease, The Unpredictable Colors of Love, a contemporary romance set in the French countryside. Welcome!
J. Arlene Culiner's Thoughts on The Unpredictable Colors of Love:
French artist Nicholas Trier is gorgeous. And successful. And sexy. He’s a golden god who
lights up any room. He’s also arrogant, although the cluster of women surrounding him don’t
seem to mind — aren’t all famous men vain and impossible?
Despite the competition, artist Callie Patterson has decided that Nicholas is the key to her
own fame and success, and she signs up for his two-week artists’ retreat in a French château. If she manages to charm Nicholas, who knows what will happen next?
From the moment she arrives in France, things don’t go according to plan. The château is
magnificent, the countryside is splendid, but it never stops raining, and daily life also means
battling with the French language.
Callie is grateful for a growing friendship with the château’s gardener, Michel Alexander, but
even if she finds him captivating — and far more interesting than Nicholas — she can’t consider him a potential lover. Michel is probably as poor as she is.
Set in rural France, this light-hearted romance touches on the contemporary art world and
French history.
Blurb:
Callie Patterson, an unsuccessful artist, hopes that a relationship with the irresistible and magnetic Nicholas Trier will pave the way to success. She follows him to France where, in a magnificent château, he holds his artists' retreats. But famous men surround themselves with hangers-on and demand complete loyalty.
Callie soon finds herself far more attracted to Michel Alexandre, the estate gardener, who loves and protects trees and every living creature. But if she wants to make a name for herself, she’ll have to choose Nicholas and his world.
Except nothing is quite the way it seems, and perhaps success isn’t the most important thing, after all.
Excerpt:
Callie dropped her backpack and, uninvited, sat down on the soggy ground not far from
where he was digging. She didn’t even own a houseplant, but a banal conversation about twigs and saplings, was what she craved at the moment. “Okay, tell me why isn’t there a hedge here now.”
“Because, years ago, the farmer ripped out all the hedges to have larger fields for his
agricultural machinery. Now we’re bringing back a balanced environment.”
“You’re not planning to replace every single hedge on your own, are you?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. Picking up a small spade, he loosened another patch of earth.
“There are thousands of trees and shrubs to replant, and that would be an impossible task for only one person.”
With gentle fingers, he spread the delicate roots of a tiny shrub, tucked it into place in the
little hole, then tamped down the moist soil with his palm. Reached for another, and then
another.
She watched silently as he planted, and strangely enough, it was almost a sensual sight. His
hands were broad, strong, and deeply tanned from working outdoors; his long fingers were
beautifully shaped. And under that denim shirt of his, there was the alluring suggestion of tight sinew and warm, fragrant skin. Bear like? No, not exactly. Something more, something…
“A penny for your thoughts.” Michel was watching her with those disconcerting eyes of his,
very dark, with heavy lids and thick lashes.
She felt the blush as it traveled upward, flooding her neck, her face. He hadn’t caught what
she had been thinking, had he? Perhaps he had. Surely, he’d seen how her gaze had slipped over his hands, his arms, his chest, and shoulders. How incredibly humiliating! What vaguely plausible answer could she give? “Oh…just remembering something.”
“Ah.” Eyebrows raised in overt amusement, he smirked—rather cockily—then went back to
working on the next hole, the next shrub.
Buy Links:
The Unpredictable Colors of Love published by the Wild Rose Press
Purchase Links: https://books2read.com/TheUnpredictableColorsOfLove
Trailer: https://youtu.be/27nE-cCHNqM
Author Bio:
Writer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, in a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and beside a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and weeds. Observing people everywhere, she eavesdrops on all private conversations and delights in hearing any nasty, funny, ridiculous, sad, romantic, or boastful story. And when she can't uncover any salacious gossip, she makes it up.
Social Links:
Author Websites http://www.j-arleneculiner.com
Author links: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner
Thank you for being my guest!