I first got the idea to visit B.C.’s central coast when my aunt showed me photos of her visit with my cousin on Denny Island. He worked there for over twenty years.
The tiny island village serves as a sort of truck stop, offering groceries, fuel, and repairs for boat traffic moving between the north end of Vancouver Island and Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii.
Marina |
That part of Canada is temperate rainforest so we did see a lot of rain, but the pub with the terrace still became a central meeting spot for my characters:
Pub |
Pub |
The minute I saw her photos, I thought, “What a great place to set a book!” I had been noodling a story about trilogy about estranged half-brothers and decided to give them a half-sister. The logline became: Three Men and a Baby on an Island.
Photo: wharf
My husband and I visited in September of 2018 and it remains one of my most favorite trips ever. We often think of autumn colors only showing up in Eastern Canada, on the maple trees, but we spent a day hiking and saw tons of beautiful, subtle colors. I’m a sucker for moss and ferns so it was really the most magical, peaceful walk ever.
Photo: hike
I should have taken more photos, but I also wanted to be able to take a lot of artistic license with the layout and the people, so it’s probably better that I didn’t. My story is very much fiction!
It’s a difficult place to get to. For us, it was two flights, a shuttle, then a water taxi. You can also reach it by ferry, but you’ll be let off in the middle of the night.
I highly recommend visiting this part of Canada, but if you don’t have time, be sure to work your way through these books. You’ll not only spend time in the village where you run into bears and otters, I later take you into the wilderness to see sea wolves and onto the water for whale watching. It’s quite an adventure!
The first book, MARRYING THE NANNY, releases March 5, 2024.
When infant Storm is orphaned, nanny Emma Wright, on a work visa and still reeling from a painful divorce, yearns to adopt her but must relinquish Storm to her three adult half-brothers. They remind her of a pack of wolves–protective, but not prepared to care for a baby. Alpha male Reid is especially aloof and intimidating.
Like his younger brothers, Reid Fraser left the Westcoast village of Raven’s Cove at eighteen and never looked back. Now a successful corporate consultant who rescues failing businesses—which is what this fly-in fishing resort has become, Reid must rally his brothers to save Storm’s inheritance, but he and his estranged brothers barely get along. They can’t deal with an infant, too. They need the nanny.
As Emma coaches Reid through midnight feedings and teething, they try to ignore the sexual pull between them. Then they learn Storm may have family who could take her from them. Reid proposes a marriage of convenience, but will it be enough to keep this fractured family together?
Watch for:
Book 2: Forgiving Her First Love, Jul 16, 2024
Book 3: Oct 1, 2024
Dani Collins
Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. While she is best known for writing contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule Publishing, she also writes historical and erotic romance. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. Dani lives in Southern BC, Canada with her high school sweetheart husband.
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