Amour et Florand: My first Laura Florand book (or how Laura Florand ate my weekend)

Nalini Singh is a bestselling author of numerous paranormal romance novels. Can I just say how awesome it was that Nalini agreed to do a guest post for Amour et Florand? I was ecstatic when I received her reply.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Nalini to Amour et Florand!

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My first Laura Florand book (or how Laura Florand ate my weekend) by Nalini Singh

I’m not sure who first mentioned Laura’s books to me—I just know that I received multiple recommendations all at once. Twitter peeps started saying I needed to read Laura’s books, then I went to brunch with my writing buds and one of them basically ordered me to read the books.

I usually don’t read too much while I’m deep into writing a story. Instead, I keep a running list of what I want to read, and then once I hand in my manuscript, I have a “reading vacation” for two or three days, in which I happily inhale books.

Generally, my auto-buy authors top the list, as I catch up on their newest releases. New-to-me authors tend to be lower down on the list. But that day, I decided to pick up a Laura Florand book – mostly so I could tell my friend I’d read it!

Three hours and many contorted body positions on my couch later, I turned the final page and immediately fired up my e-reader to buy the next. And so it continued. Two and a half days later, I’d read everything Laura had written to that point (and it was a fair few books, since I only discovered her last year), and was haunting her website trying to find the release date of my next fix. (I also bought all the books in print, because one copy wasn’t enough ;-)).

What do I love about Laura’s books? Everything.

I love that these are unashamed love stories, raw with emotion and hot with passion. I love that the characters are imperfect and yet perfect for one another. I love that we get to see Paris and other parts of France through their eyes.

And of course, I love the chocolate… and the macarons… and the roses.

I visited Paris for the first time earlier this year, and though it was an unfamiliar city, it felt familiar to me because of Laura’s books. Late on our first night in Paris, I suddenly dragged my sister out to the balcony and into the freezing wind. She thought I’d lost it… but that room had a view of the Eiffel Tower, and a minute after I dragged her out, it ticked over to eleven at night and the Eiffel Tower began to sparkle in a shower of light.

I knew it would because of Laura’s books, and now that moment on that windy balcony is one of my favorite memories of Paris.

Not long after that first visit to Paris, I was lucky enough to have lunch with Laura. Her warmth and sweetness just put the final seal on my love for her work. (And she brought chocolate!!)

I can’t wait to read the next Laura Florand story and the next and the next. So write like the wind, Laura!

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Merci, Nalini! I visited Paris for the first time this year too and I kept talking about Laura’s books while I was there.