We’re in for a real treat today, because Zee Monodee has dropped by today to talk about her inspiration for her latest release, Light My World. This post couldn’t have come at a better time, because I woke up to snow on my car yesterday. In the middle of April. Let’s all go on an island vacation, shall we?
WORLD?
comedies. Be it in books or movies, romcoms are my staple of comfort food for
the soul. Love the funny, the over the top, the quirky, and the romance, of
course…which more often than not in romcoms, happens when and with who you
least expect.
World, came to me like a rocket-propelled grenade of enthusiasm and good cheer.
She suddenly made her appearance known, with a huge bang, in her sister Lara’s
story, The Other Side (book 1 in the trilogy).
draining, and so bright she could induce a migraine in anyone….
probably be the case for any sensible man she meets. We all know we’re on our
best behavior when on a date, but those other times in real life? You are who
you are, no pretenses and no facades. So the man who met her in real life would
be treated to that overwhelming personality.
comedy, but then, too – how to make it funny? Right then, it looked like the
premise for a chick lit with a ditzy heroine at the center. So not what I
wanted for this book – it should be balanced, comic on both sides.
the hero and heroine meet, and both go, “You!?”
person they want to see/meet/encounter again, and that usually includes intense
mutual dislike between them.
story, as having that kind of second meeting. Simply a question now of making
that first meeting totally off the charts in all manner of awful yet funny
happenings. And what’s worse than a (thank goodness harmless!) car accident
where neither will accept to take the blame?
“what else other aggravation can I shoot onto them?”. Tons of fun, lots of
laughs…that I hope my readers will feel and enjoy, too.
is a truth universally acknowledged that to find a prince, a girl has to kiss a
few frogs along the way. But what happens when a modern-day princess comes
across…an ogre?
kiss a few frogs to find her prince?
of her Indian-origin mother’s relentless matchmaking, Diya Hemant is determined
to find her Prince Charming on her terms. Armed with a definitive list of
requirements, she is sure she’ll know her man when she meets him…
two different things, especially on the tiny island of Mauritius…
her path crosses surly British widower Trent Garrison’s, it’s hate at first
sight. And though fate keeps pitting her against him, she’s certain he can’t be
turned into a frog let alone a prince.
this modern-day princess overcome her own expectations and see beyond the ogre
to the man beneath?
a first glance of him.
her neck to take in his tall body and broad chest. He’d rolled the sleeves of
his cream-coloured shirt to his elbows, revealing big, powerful-looking hands
and strong forearms dusted in dark hairs. A tense, corded neck lay visible
beneath the open collar of the shirt, with a slightly pointed chin above it.
Strong jaw, and chiselled, taut, handsome features. Deep-set grey eyes, very
much like the elder boy’s, squinted at her beneath thick eyebrows the same hue
as the neatly trimmed dark hair on his head.
boot, whispered a little voice.
taken. What is it with this weekend from
hell?
accent and disbelieving tone dripping with spite jolted her like an electric
current.
were the same person.
hand up to cover her mouth.
arse to lay flat on her back. Pain from hitting the hard marble erupted all
along her spine, and she caught herself before the back of her head smashed
into the floor. Quick save, and thank goodness most of the broken glass lay in
her flat, and not in the lobby. She’d have been in for some major injury,
otherwise.
undignified heap, and there went all the leverage she could bring to this
meeting. Humiliation piled onto her anger at being caught in such a stupid
position, in front of him, no less.
of you, you beast.”
something, anything, go right for her?
world….”
her feelings of self-pity, and hurt like a stab, in the same go.
Either way, she wouldn’t let him off the hook.
never meet again.”
and his cavemen-like ways won the battle. “Same here, mate.”
forth at them.
Island Girls trilogy follows the 3 Hemant sisters – Lara, Neha, Diya – over the
span of the 2000-2010 decade, chronicling the changing face of the Mauritian
society over that crucial period. Book 2, Light My World, is Diya’s
hilarious quest to find Prince Charming in the sea of frogs that is Mauritius
(well, what it is according to her
perception!). Follow her on this desperate mission!
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.
on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the
world were on their own fence.
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.
Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is a head-over-heels wife,
in-over-her-head mum to a tween son, best-buddy-stepmum to a teenage lad, an
incompetent domestic goddess, eternal dreamer, and an absolute, shameless
bookholic. When she isn’t penning more stories and/or managing the Ubuntu line
at Decadent Publishing, you can bet you’ll find her with her nose in her
tablet, ‘drinking in’ a good book.