Rachael
Stewart

Rachael Stewart adores conjuring up stories for the readers of Harlequin Mills & Boon and Deep Desires Press, with tales varying from the heartwarmingly romantic to the wildly erotic.

She’s been writing since she could put pen to paper as the stacks of scrawled on A4 sheets in her loft will attest to, and the lovingly bound short stories that her father would run off at work and proudly share out with his colleagues. Thinking it was a pipe dream to be published one day, she pursued a sensible career in business but she was really play-acting, achieving the appropriate degree and spending many years in the corporate world where she never truly belonged. Always happiest when she was sat at her laptop in the quiet hours tapping out a story or two. And so here she is, a published author, her full-time pleasure, a dream come true.

A Welsh lass at heart, she now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and three children, and if she’s not glued to her laptop, she’s wrapped up in them or enjoying the great outdoors seeking out inspiration.

How I found out about Rachael's books

When I first signed up with Rachel’s Random Tours, Rachael’s book Unshackled was one of the first ones she promote. I liked the sound of the blurb so signed up for the tour.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve missed a single tour!

Why you should read Rachael's books

Rachael has managed to fine tune, and perfect the art of talking about deep seated, taboo topics, while weaving an AMAZING romance story.

She doesn’t discriminate with her romantic partners, which from an inclusive perspective is amazing. As someone who’s straight, it’s done in such a natural way that it doesn’t feel in your face “I’m trying to plug this inclusivity” feel that you get from so many authors.

Instead, she makes sure all her romantic partners are well suited and match each other in such a way that you can’t turn away.

What Rachael writes about

While Rachael writes in the romance genre, anyone who reads it knows that there’s a HUGE array of sub-genres.

My first exploration into romance I got hit with the PAGES of sub-genres, and it can be overwhelming. What I’ve found with Rachael’s works is that while she can write anything from sweet, to erotic; the space I love the most is her erotica.

If you’re not a fan of erotica style, you will need to pick her books closely. Meanwhile, if you enjoy the mix of erotica and hard to hear realistic parts of life, then you can basically take your dip of which of her AWESOME books to pick up.

My top picks

Top pick

Unshackled is definitely my best pick.

No matter how many more of her books I read, there are certain scenes that my mind will go back to from this book.

Second pick

This one was HARD!

But I’m thinking Our Little Secret needs to come on second… But seriously… She’s such a good author it’s SO HARD to rate her books in order of what you should read when!

My chat with Rachael

1. What drew you to writing novels?

My absolute love of books! I’ve always been a reader and a dreamer. The classic line in the school report “could do better if she stopped daydreaming” — that was me!

It felt a natural progression to go from reading to making up my own tales and as my tastes changed so did the stories I wrote. From Enid Blyton style adventures to teen love stories, to murder mysteries, to historical and contemporary love stories. From super-hot to super-sweet. The power of the written word is magical!

I also struggle to find peace unless I have a story on the go somewhere. Being a writer is integral to who I am. Even if it is incredibly hard at times, I love it!

3. What drew you to writing about romance?

See above Q2.

The promise of HEA/HFN. The great big hug in a book.

The story can get dark, emotional, tumultuous and you hold the reader’s hand through it because you’re going to give them the greatest reward — a whopping momentous ending where the sun shines and their body warms and that elation, nothing beats it. Sometimes the darker, harder, more challenging, the greater the impact of that ending and believe me when I say, I go through the emotional wringer right along with them.

2. What is your aim with your writing?

Ultimately, joy. To bring happiness to the reader and give them a journey that is emotionally rewarding and satisfying. To show them that no matter how hard life can get, there’s still hope. To have them come away with that lightness in the heart and a smile on their face.

I’m a firm believer in the Happy For Now (HFN) or Happy Ever After (HEA), this is about the only formulaic thing to a category romance, and if I can weave in a life lesson while I’m at it, then all the better!

4. How do you decide what stays in your books when editing?

Does it move the plot forward? What is the purpose of that scene, that paragraph, that sentence even…?

That’s the question you have to ask yourself, and if it doesn’t, it’s bye bye! We don’t have the luxury of words for the sake of words in category romance, you have 50k to get from A to B and every word has to count. Then again 50k or not, every word should always count!

5. What is your greatest writing achievement?

Getting published by Mills & Boon. As a lover of their books for three decades, to get published by them and join the list of authors that you admired, loved, cherished is incredible. I still have to pinch myself occasionally to believe it. And I still fangirl all the time over the books and the authors.