Guest Post with Author Zee Monodee and Giveaway

Today I would like to welcome to the blog Zee Monodee. Zee is currently on tour for her book Once Upon a Stormy Night and has stopped by the blog to chat. Before I give the floor over to Zee, lets get to know her some.

Zee is an author who grew up on a fence - on one side there was modernity and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she'd stand tall on her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing - her heroines all sit 'on a fence', whether cultural or societal, in today's world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is married, mum to a tween son, and stepmum to a teenage lad.

Places to find Zee:

| Site | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

Hey beautiful people!

A pleasure to be here with ye all today. Thanks for hosting my VBT, and thus allowing me to share some more about my 1NightStand release, Once Upon A Stormy Night.

This one is a story that is quite close to my heart, because it takes place on the island of Mauritius, which is my native land. Wherever I go all over the world, Mauritius is the place that always calls me back – it is home to me, the best place to be on this earth.

Imagine a sunny, tropical island with crystal-clear waters in the lagoon and sandy-white beaches, the scenery turning to lush greenery the further inland you go. Small fishermen villages dot the coastal line, while the most populated towns, in particular, the capital city, Port Louis, boast a modern and cosmopolitan skyline.

This is the backdrop I used as my setting, because this is my island – welcome to Mauritius!

Paradise on earth, yet the people who inhabit this tiny speck of volcanic land are just like everybody else in the world. They yearn for companionship, for love, for someone to share their days, and nights. Like Simmi, this book’s heroine. Born and bred on this island, it’s her dream to find Prince Charming, though she doesn’t bet on that too much.

But she hadn’t counted on Madame Eve of the 1NightStand agency working her magic. This is how she finds herself on this blind date, for one night, with a sexy and mysterious blond-haired Viking –an expat on her island, if she ever saw one!

Lars and Simmi will take you to some magical spots on the island of Mauritius. Some, tourist hotspots, like the architectural marvel of the Caudan Waterfront, a former landing docks area on the Port Louis harbor, turned into a shopping village complete with cinemas, hotels, offices, and a marina. Others are more private haunts, like the stony, craggy relief of the southern coast, to this secluded villa of a five-star hotel, where magic – that of the heart, body, and soul – will happen... once upon a stormy night.

Again, a big thanks for having me over today! I hope you’ll get to check out my book, and see all those spectacular places as if I’ve brought you over for a visit to my island.

From Mauritius with love,
Zee

British billionaire Lars Rutherford came to the tiny island of Mauritius to take over directorship of his best friend’s shipping company. He’s not here for anything but the job, or—to the chagrin of the many matchmaking society mamas in the country—to find the ‘right woman’ for him.

Corporate legal affairs specialist Simmi Moyer is rich, beautiful, successful, and climbing the executive ladder with tremendous speed. She’s got it all—or does she? Mauritian society shuns her for being single and childless, and nothing she accomplishes will ever be enough.

Lars isn’t looking for a woman; Simmi isn’t looking for a man. Both just want one night to forget their precarious position in this traditional, culture-driven society.

The tempest brewed by uncalled-for yearning in their hearts when they meet, and the desire for something more substantial than one night of pleasure, builds between them, while outside, a real-life cyclone storms on the island and ensconces them in a world where only the two of them exist.

Before the night is over, both Lars and Simmi will have to decide whether each will walk out the next morning alone, or if they can put themselves on the line to step out together.

Places to Purchase:

| Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Decadent Publisher | 

The door opened as if in slow motion.

Her mouth went dry, and she gulped. His big frame filled the doorway with barely an inch to spare on either side. Twilight threw shadows everywhere. A soft glow radiated from behind him. Against the light, his silhouette should’ve appeared imposing and threatening, but it didn’t. Maybe because of the casual rest of his broad shoulders, outlined in a well-fitted T-shirt, and the relaxed way he propped a jean-clad hip against the doorframe. He held a glass in his hand, which he brought to his lips to tip back the contents. She still couldn’t make out his features, or even the color of his hair.

I want to know what he looks like. Simmi ran the tip of her tongue along her lower lip, and in the distance, he straightened.

With a soft nod, he beckoned her to approach.

I can’t. Apprehension and anxiety warred inside her, but under his steady perusal, her steps, though slow and cautious, were regular. His mere presence held an unbreakable pull over her, and her feet seemed to hover over the chipped gravel.

Each step brought her closer to him, but none enabled her to see him any clearer. With the light behind him, shadows were his friends. They cloaked him and hinted at the real man.

At last, she stood on the porch, a few feet away from him. The minute she moved under the corrugated tin awning, the darkness around him melted, revealing his features.

Simmi hitched in a breath. He stood tall and broad, at least twice her size and weight. If the way his jeans and T-shirt hugged his body gave any indication, he packed nothing but solid muscle under the garments. Her gaze moved from his waistband, up his torso, to his face, and she bit her lip.

Beautiful. She had no other way to describe him. His tanned features were taut and chiseled, the square jaw emphasized by his close-trimmed, golden beard. His mouth begged kisses, sensual, but not girly. A patrician nose, eyes that, in the cloaked dimness of the porch, looked like deep pools of blue ink…. His dark-blond hair seemed mussed, as if he’d run his fingers through the strands a minute earlier.

“Hello.” His deep, male rumble sent tingles down her spine and along her arms.

He’s a foreigner—white, yes, but a local white man would’ve addressed her in French, not in English, and not with such a crisp accent in the word.

Now she knew how Madame Eve had been able to pair her with someone on the island. Simmi had mentioned her concerns about meeting someone she might know, so Madame Eve found the perfect solution—an expat.

A foreigner on her island—what were the chances she’d ever meet him again?

Tension drained from her shoulders, and a measure of calm and competence seeped through her. She could—and would—do this.

He gave a soft nod. “My name is—”

Simmi crossed the distance between them, and placed the tips of her fingers against his mouth, cutting his words.

“No. Don’t say it. I don’t want to know.”

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• Leave a comment answering the question: If you could go to any tropical island for a getaway where would you go? 
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