Friday, Friday tra-la-la-la-la!

It really is the best day of the week, isn’t it? Not least because I get to introduce my next Friday Feast guest. This week Harlequin Desire author Paula Roe makes a very welcome return to the blog and with good reason, too. Paula, along with five fellow Australasian authors, Yvonne Lindsay, Jan Colley, Bronwyn Jameson, Tessa Radley and Maxine Sullivan, are celebrating the re-release of Harlequin’s hugely successful Diamonds Down Under series.

Paula’s story in the series is the deliciously sexy sounding Boardrooms & a Billionaire Heir which, on its initial release, was a Borders bestseller and a 2009 Romance Writers of Australia Romance Book of the Year finalist. Understandable when a book receives reviews like this:

“Oh. Wow! This fifth title in the Diamonds Down Under series does not disappoint! …a rugged and emotional ride…  James’s return to the family is an emotional story too good to miss.” Robyn Lee, Romance Reviews Today

Check it out.

BOARDROOMS & A BILLIONAIRE HEIR

“I’m a man you sleep with, not fall in love with.”

Jake Vance was danger in a designer suit, a charming corporate raider. When he set his sights on Blackstone’s, Australia’s richest diamond dealers, Holly McLeod’s primary assignment was as his assistant; her secondary was as a spy. To her amazement, she learned her dangerously sexy boss was the long-lost Blackstone heir. And then Jake did the unthinkable: To save his new company, he proposed marriage…an intimate one…to her!

Ooh la la! How’s that to get your reader juices flowing? And of course you want to buy it right now, so get a clickety-clicking.

Done? Excellent. Now here’s Paula…

Birthday Treats

One of the most awesome things about being a kid (apart from Christmas morning and having no financial debt) is the excitement of your birthday.  And seeing as mine was this past Tuesday, I thought I’d take a trip down memory lane and share what was on the menu when I was young.

The first party I remember throwing was in Kindy when, to my mother’s horror, I invited every child in my class.  All thirty of them.  To our tiny three-bedroom home.  Thirty screaming, sugar-hyped kids running amok.  (And yes, my mother vowed ‘never again.’)

Aside from being the lucky recipient of 30 separate presents (yessss!) the food was your typical early 70s fare.  No kids birthday party would be complete without one – or more! – of the following:

Fairy bread

Twisties

Plumrose cocktail frankfurts (on toothpicks)

cubed Coon (on toothpicks)

Salt and vinegar chips

coconut ice

Minties

Smarties

red frogs

Chocolate Crackles

A themed birthday cake

After about 10, I migrated to McDonalds for a few years, then when I hit 18 I requested proper dinner at a restaurant.  Chinese, Thai, Indian, even Sizzler.  This went on for quite some time, way into my twenties and thirties.  Nowadays, give me a good Thai takeaway or my favourite Crust pizza and I’m happy!  There’s only one stipulation – NO store-bought cake: it has to be made from scratch every time.

So what food do you remember from your childhood birthdays?  What did you love?  Or hate?  Make a comment and you could win a copy my latest release, book 2 in the Diamonds Down Under rerelease from Mills & Boon Australia.

Ahh, over-sugared kids’ parties. Now that brings back memories. Definitely honey joys and chocolate crackles, and bags of lollies to take home afterwards. They weren’t sweet, but I used to also love that pizza bread type stuff. Not sure how they were made but they were a kind of grilled cheesy-toasty thing, cut into soldiers. Oh, and themed birthday cakes! They were the best. My absolute favourite was the one I had which had a Cindy-type doll plonked in the centre of a beautifully decorated cake skirt. Sigh. Loved that.

Anyway Feasters, you heard Ms Paula, start sharing your favourite childhood birthday party memories – good and bad – and you could win a copy of book 2 in the Diamonds Down Under re-release series.

But you’d better get those comments in quick because this giveaway closes midnight Tuesday, 12^th June 2012 AEST. Australian addresses only, sorry.

If you’d like to know more about Paula and her books please visit her website. You can also connect via her blog, on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Goodreads.