When Kitty Grant returns to her hometown of Cailkirn, Alaska, after a painful divorce, Tack MacKinnon isn't exactly the first person she wants to see. But there's no way to avoid him for long, and soon they find themselves in a friends-with-benefits situation. True feelings start to surface, but can they overcome their fears and painful pasts in order to make it as a couple?
We caught up with Lucy Monroe and chatted about Alaska's natural beauty, the importance of imperfect characters and more in a 7 questions interview.
Describe your book in one sentence.
Wild Heat is a wild emotional ride about best friends who prove that second chances aren’t just worth taking, they’re worth fighting for and steamy sex isn’t just about two bodies coming together but two hearts colliding.
What inspired you to set your new Northern Fire series in a small Alaskan town?
I went to Alaska and I fell in love: with the small towns we visited, the often quirky people we met, the landscape, the whole experience. Stories started rolling through my head like movies from the first step onto Alaskan soil and they didn’t stop once I got home. Creating a series to tell those stories seemed like a natural step to take. Finding a publisher and the time to write the stories . . . now that was something else entirely.
Have you ever traveled to Alaska?
Yes. And I’m eager to go back. Our next trip will be longer and will probably be limited to the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage, but life is fluid, so I’m so not writing that in stone.
What do you love most about Kitty Grant and Tack MacKinnon?
They love each other in a way few people do and when you add the way they are in love with each other on top of that, they have such a special bond. And still they manage to screw it up. That gives us hope. Because, come on, if they can screw something so amazing up and then turn around and somehow fix it—even after all the pain, the rest of us have a chance to make life work too. I love that Tack is such a protector and Kitty is too. In their own ways, they care so very deeply about their families and the people that they love. It’s admitting they love each other that’s hard. And honestly, I find that that endearing. I like imperfect people because I am one.
What does your ideal date night look like?
My ideal date night starts with the ideal partner and that’s my husband. He’s amazing. [Happy sigh.] A gorgeous, romantic guy who is not perfect, but is absolutely the guy for me. The “ideal” date would be a warm evening. We’d start with dinner at an outdoor café—not too crowded, the food is good, the service friendly but not unctuous—and it’s followed by some form of live entertainment (a play in the park, music at the Schnitz, a ballet); we stop for dessert and decaf espressos at The Heathman’s Library bar and go home to make love. In fact, I think that sounds like a night that needs to happen sometime very soon.
Out of all the characters in your novels, who is your favorite character to write?
The easy answer would be one of the characters I’m working on right now, but would that be the truth? Honestly, I think my favorite character to ever write might well have been Kitty from Wild Heat because in so many ways, she reminds me of my baby sister and I adore her. But then so does Jillian from The Real Deal (for very different reasons), so honestly, I don’t know. Every character crawls inside my heart and digs their own little home there. Some make me laugh, some make me cry and some make me so mad I want to spank them.
What would you like to ask the next “7 Questions” Romance participant?
If you could go back and change something about one of your already published books, would you and what would it be?
