Karina Bliss - romance writer

Now Available - A Prior Engagement

Released June in Australasia

The fourth and final of my SAS heroes series for SuperRomance. And yeah, it makes me sad because I love these guys.

I never meant to write a 'back from the dead' book in my military heroes' series but I became really intrigued by Lee Davis - outgoing, fearless and larger than life - whom I'd killed off in Here Comes The Groom. By the time I started writing Stand-In Wife I was playing with bringing him back and by book three - Bring Him Home - I'd evolved the set-up that allowed me to resurrect him. And I'd also fleshed out his fiancée Juliet Browne, whose story I always meant to tell. She was originally going to find a new guy through his army buddies' matchmaking but Lee proved impossible to replace. So I thought, why replace him? And I loved the concept of a man coming home to discover the woman who'd rejected his proposal wearing his ring and ensconced in the bosom of his family. What fun. Of course once I started thinking and reading about the effects of captivity I realized that the guy who returned wouldn't be the same man who'd left and the story became less comic and more complex...

While A Prior Engagement can be read as a standalone, readers who have been following the SAS heroes series will get updates on favourite characters. And in this book they have the delicate task of telling their back-from-the-dead buddy they set Jules up with a new man.

Early Reviews

"An emotionally moving story of two people torn apart by tragedy fighting their way back to each other...Gripping, psychologically captivating and so real, I can't help but be pulled into the lives of Karina Bliss's characters" - tometender.blogspot.co.nz

"In this heartwarming tale of learning to live again, Lee's PTSD seems quite realistic and the tension between the couple is wonderfully depicted." - 41/2 stars (top grade) from Romantic Times Magazine.

The story so far…

My SAS series is based around four Special Forces heroes from the same unit.

Here Comes The Groom - January 2011
Stand In Wife - August 2011
Bring Him Home - June 2012
Prior Engagement - May 2013

Go to my books page for excerpts and buying links.

What's next

Remember rocker Zander Freedman, reprobate brother of Devin Freedman who was the hero of What The Librarian Did? Zander also has cameos in Bring Him Home and my May release, A Prior Engagement. He's selfish, talented, vain, charismatic, brutally frank and a master of self-deception. Yet some readers actually like this alphahole which forced me to ask myself the fatal question. 'Can he be redeemed?'

'Absolutely not,' was my immediate reply.

'Great!' said my muse, 'let's do it!'

'Wait, just a sec," I said, because my muse likes to make me suffer. 'Let's bring Zander into A Prior Engagement and see if I can actually spend nine months with this alphahole.' And Zander came in, blustering and arrogant, with a smidgeon of humility and made me laugh. So I'm working on a Zander book. Faced with losing his golden voice, rock star Zander Freedman intends consolidating his musical legacy with an autobiography. For this master of hype, hiring a respected literary biographer is simply about creating more buzz.

All the damn woman has to do is write down what he tells her to. Not make him think. Or encourage the good guy struggling to get out. And certainly not fall in love for the first time in his life.

I'll update progress on my Facebook page and also on my Goodreads page.

Other places I'm at

I blog monthly on the Superromance Authors' blogspot. Drop by daily for great blogs and giveaways from the SuperRomance sorority.

Book draw winners

The March winner of my book draw competition was Diana in San Diego who chose Bring Him Home. Missed out? Try again here.

"For romance that is delicious and thrilling, welcome to the world of Karina Bliss."

- Robyn Carr, New York Times bestselling author of The Virgin River Series

"Karina Bliss is an excellent writer whose plots are so complex and her characters so realistic that readers are given much more than cookie cutter rehashes of classic stories. Also, her solutions to the problems are unique… Bliss has definitely become one of my auto-buys."

- Pat Henshaw, Likesbooks

"Karina Bliss is one of the best Harlequin authors I've read."

- SB Sarah, Smart Bitches Love Trashy Books

"If I had to summarize what I think the skill of a good romance author its, then it is this ability. To use what everyone loves about the romance genre, without letting those conventions take over. And you do this really well."

- Lazaraspaste, Dear Author