I’m not going to lie… I didn’t actually plan on a book 4 in the Bachelor Auction series. But after writing Morgan Lett as the best friend of Khloe Richardson in The Millionaire Makeover, I knew she had to have her own book. Okay, so my editor might have known it before me, but still, I wasn’t far behind! Morgan is one of those characters that was just plain fun to write because of the things that came out of her mouth. From snarky to outrageous, she had me laughing even as I typed. As I started planning her book, I knew I had to come up with just the right story—and hero—to do her justice.
All the books in the Bachelor Auction are loosely based on fairy tales. Beauty and the Beast for Beauty and the Bachelor. The Ugly Duckling for The Millionaire Makeover. The Frog Prince for The Bachelor’s Promise. For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with a fairy tale though. Not until a fortuitous drive to pick up my son from wrestling practice…
And Wicked.
More specifically, the soundtrack to Wicked. If anyone knows me, they could tell you I adore musicals. Grease. Annie. The Sound of Music. Disney cartoons. Grease 2. J My husband took me to see the play Wicked a couple of years ago, and I have been in love with it since. So much I immediately bought the soundtrack. I luuurrrvs me this soundtrack! Sigh. So is it any wonder that while listening to it, the idea that would become A Millionaire at Midnight germinated? (Hah! I told my father I would use his vocab word sooner or later! Germinated! Take that, Daddy!)
Wicked is the Wizard of Oz but told from Elphaba’s point of view—or as we have historically known her, the Wicked Witch of the West. We discover her story, how she ended up with green skin, became friends with Glinda, fell in love, and eventually came to be known as the infamous and evil Wicked Witch. As I sang Defying Gravity along with Idina Menzel—beautifully, I might add—it came to me… What about Cinderella? But from the wicked stepsister’s point of view?
Like Elphaba, Morgan aka the stepsister, had a story to tell. Events that shaped her, hurts that strengthened her, beliefs that made her unpopular and misunderstood. A hard shell of sarcasm and sardonic humor that masked her vulnerability. At that moment, I knew I had to write that book, share her side of history. And give her the unlikeliest of Prince Charmings that was still utterly perfect for her. Morgan, like Elphaba, deserved her happily ever after. And A Millionaire at Midnight gives her just that! :-)
About the book:
Boston socialite Morgan Lett is having a run of bad luck. Her fiancé just dumped her for her stepsister, the charity foundation she’s given her life to is in danger of folding, and now, the gorgeous man she bid on and won at a masquerade bachelor auction turns out to be a cold-hearted jerk…and her new employer.
Millionaire Alexander Bishop needs the best wife money can buy. In order to inherit his family business, he must get engaged—fast. And Morgan, with her beauty and pedigree, is the perfect candidate. Her sharp tongue may drive him crazy, but she needs money to save the foundation she loves, and he needs a fiancée. It’s a flawless arrangement—no strings, no love. But soon she has him craving more, and cursing the platonic terms of their agreement.
Still, he won’t allow need—no matter how hot it burns—to threaten everything he’s built.
Find it online:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo
About the author:
Naima Simone’s love of romance was first stirred by Johanna Lindsey, Sandra Brown and Linda Howard many years ago. Well not that many. She is only eighteen…ish. Though her first attempt at a romance novel starring Ralph Tresvant from New Edition never saw the light of day, her love of romance, reading and writing has endured. Published since 2009, she spends her days—and nights— creating stories of unique men and women who experience the first bites of desire, the dizzying heights of passion, and the tender, healing heat of love.
She is wife to Superman, or his non-Kryptonian, less bullet proof equivalent, and mother to the most awesome kids ever. They all live in perfect, sometimes domestically-challenged bliss in the southern United States.
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