The Christmas Bride
Mary Jo here to interview our own Anne Gracie about her brand new, just released novella, The Christmas Bride! Part of Anne's much loved Chance Sisters Series, it's a delightful holiday story that is pure Anne Gracie. So… 
MJP: What inspired you to write The Christmas Bride?
AG: When I first envisaged the Chance Sister series, I thought I’d like to play with the notion of four “sister” brides for four “brother/friend” grooms, but the early stages of a series or a book are always pretty fluid for me, and by the time I got to Jane’s story (The Spring Bride), I knew her much better, and I realized that she needed a different kind of hero, and that Ash wouldn’t suit. So he got left behind. Which kind of suited him at the time. But I got lots of emails from readers asking about Blake Ashton, who was one of the original four partners (in The Autumn Bride), and I agreed — he needed a story.
MJP: Tell us about the hero, Blake Ashton.
AG: Blake Ashton, or Ash as his friends call him, is brilliant with figures, which is why he's been able to become a partner in the Far East trading company Flynn & Co.. However Ash has a secret shame, and that's what keeps him from returning to England—it's been ten years. When he's more or less forced by his partners to come to England for a business meeting he intends to show his face and then return immediately to the Far East. But the best laid plans . . .