the best bookstore on the whole island ($1 books ftw)

Happy Sunday!

I wanted to tell you guys about my first pywrit project! And I’ll get to that. But first I wanted to talk about how my future husband tested my love yesterday.

The day started well, a trip to the barn. Hands down THE best place to get pre-loved Mills & Boon, Harlequin and Silhouette stories. I’ve had a deep love of old school romance books since I was probably too young, which has made me the hopeless romantic I am today. So of course I got three more to add to my vast and growing collection :)

It was meant to be a restful afternoon, maybe a trip to St. Georges for a leisurely walk down Water Street West. But no - my fiance decided to invite the Premier to our house. At 1:13 on a random Saturday. For readers that are not familiar with my little home, the Premier is like our Prime Minister. Apparently they are friends - my fiance and him (island life, so it goes) - enough so to invite him over for a random weekend chat because he’s ‘in the area’.

To be clear, like most working folk that are not complete neat freaks, we designate one day of the week for a proper house clean. Saturday is not that day. It is Sunday. One day too early in fact. So the house is a mausoleum of our lives of the last week - random paper napkins, various bit of outerwear and other embarrassing artifacts. We also have a dog that erupts with fur on an hourly basis. In summary, not a complete burn job but still - you can’t put a dignitary on a couch covered in dog hair.

I HATE having company in an untidy house. My fiance knows this. So for precisely 17 and a half minutes I hated my fiance. Because why would you do this to me?? As I frantically scrubbed, swept and sprayed our house into something serviceable for company, I was plotting his demise. (I should say he did help lol. If he hadn’t this would be a confession to murder).

Water Street, Towne of St. Georges

Where I was meant to be, instead of angrily cleaning.

Ultimately it was fine. He didn’t even sit on the couch. He’s a pretty chill dude - even if he did arrive with a driver in a luxury sedan. Which is the only reason the love of my life was forgiven. And the fact he still took me a for a walk in St. Georges and out to dinner later. The man knows me what can I say.

Unfortunately the tests of my love didn’t end there though.

Somehow, and I’m still not sure how he did this - some kind of witchcraft or confusion spell surely - but he convinced me to go out. Not out on a walk in the park. Or out for a spot of lunch. Out out.

To a club. With people. Lots of people. And music. Loud music, REALLY loud music.

If you didn’t see my previous post where I introduced myself, for clarity, I am a certified homebody. A house gremlin if you will. House gremlins do not belong in reggae dance clubs at 2am. They go all deaf and grouchy and their faces pickle up into forlorn frowns of deep despair. Hours in that environment feels like days to the poor dears.

This particular house gremlin did not get to bed until 4am with her ears still buzzing. Straight up gremlin cruelty at this point. He should be jailed.

And yet, when I awoke this morning, I still spoke to him. AND got him tea and breakfast in bed for his hangover. Incredible. Honestly, love is a miraculous thing.

Which brings me to the real reason for this post. My first addition to my personal Pywrit Library.

Drum roll please….

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert!

A very steamy contemporary romance novel about confronting your fears and embracing what you wish for.

I LOVE this book. It is one of my go to comfort reads when I’m in a reading slump. I read it at the very least, twice a year. Talia Hibbert has a fantastic quality of infusing her dry, eloquent humor into all her work, and in my humble opinion it is best done in her 2nd Brown Sisters novel.

Danika Brown, the middle sister, is a PHD student for a very impressive sounding area of study, university professor and unwavering romance skeptic. Things are looking bleak in the orgasm department so in her quest for the perfect non-committal bed partner she calls on the goddess Oshun to send her a suitable candidate. While she waits for her ‘divine intervention’, her only bright spark is her morning interactions with a certain scowling, and very handsome, security guard Zafir Ansari. After a slightly embarrassing fire drill and unintended fame, Dani and Zafir are thrown into an awkward fake dating scheme that turns into real dating, and eventually real love.

What I love the most about this book, and this particular author really, is how mental health is explored and handled. Both characters have anxiety manifest in different ways and they both cope in different ways. When confronted with their anxieties Dani becomes more obsessive while Zaf avoids and ultimately panics or shuts down. As someone who is guilty of the latter, its refreshing to see a tough guy like Zaf go through and healthily deal with his anxiety troubles. I also love how they’re each others support, how they observed each other and correctly fed each other’s needs without being directly told - fulfilling the ultimate fantasy in any romance novel. Finding someone that knows you better than yourself.

The third act break up is a little annoying, but not in an entirely bad way. Its only frustrating because the characters are so incredibly well suited for one another so it feels like a tiresome obstacle. Like, can you please just get over it and be together, blissfully happy with orgasms aplenty! But its a trope for a reason and it wasn’t without its lessons for both characters, so it served its purpose and paved the way for my all time favorite epilogue in a romance EVER. So a win as far as I’m concerned.

I’m a big lover of the fake dating trope and Talia Hibbert honestly does it the best. It’s both funny and heart wrenching and will make you fall in love with the two main leads. It also brought me a quote to add to my collection, so there’s also that. Dani and Zaf will go down as one of my favorite romance couples of all time. #DrRugbae4life

Cover Design WIP | Original Artwork by Ashley Caswell - Cover Design by Diahann Sturge

As the first addition to the Pywrit Library, I’ve obviously given the cover design a lot of thought. Probably too much in fairness :)

There is a great load of imagery in this book, like the fire drill rescue scene the original artist took inspiration from in the 2020 Avon Books publishing run. And while I understand copywriting value of the ‘cartoonified’ illustrations that are popular with contemporary romance book covers (an easy signifier to potential readers of the books genre), I think, for what this book means to me, it needs something more…unique.

So I’ve gone very VERY unique. To the point it may not even suit the genre or story anymore but I’m kind of in love with it so I don’t really care. It’s supposed to be my library anyway so…you know. Bite me.

I became very obsessed with Dani’s relationship with the goddess Oshun and therefore very inspired by the depiction of goddesses. Originally, I wanted to use the iconography of Dani’s statuette from her altar but then I thought it be even more fun to just have the goddess of love and sensuality bless our two lovers herself. They are pretty hard headed after all, this is likely a union she had to confirm in person.

She’ll blow a kiss, her blessing, that erupts into petals that will swirl around the rugby goal posts to illustrate the lover’s ultimate reunion.

And look I know this is not what rugby goal posts look like - after actually googling it - Rugby die hards, don’t come for me. I will fix it for the real thing I promise. I have to admit, I’ve watched a fair bit of rugby, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the goal posts. There’s better things to look at on that field if you know what I mean. Just saying.

Anyways, I’ve been very inspired by art nouveau poster illustration for this project, and the goddess symbology and the ethereal natural elements within it. I’m a long time lover of Art Nouveau design and it’s varied artists such as Edmund Dulac and Alphonse Mucha. The decorative framing design will keep the illustration sectioned into a cover and give an opportunity to add a bit more symbology like their shared drink order, protein bars and orange slices from Dani’s altar.

Like I said. Probably a bit much. A little over the top but what the heck. Go all out for the first one right? #DrRugbae deserves a little extra drama.

I’ll be working on this design over the next week so stay tuned for the progress and final reveal! Fingers crossed it turns out like how I’m hoping.

ttfn,

sunday | project one

sunday | book review

let’s get started…