Tropical Treasure (Romance By You)

Sophie’s first meeting with Gareth takes place in the bedroom.

Not like that. They fight over who’s going to sleep in the best room, but as soon as one of them actually wins the argument, Jade walks in and tells them she was here first. But Sophie and Gareth have sized each other up and decided they like what they see. And considering they’re spending the next few weeks on a tropical island without many clothes on, it’s fair to assume they’re going to see quite a lot of each other.

Tropical Treasure is about a group of people who take part in a reality TV programme. Unusually, the contestants are very intelligent people who can solve very difficult riddles. The riddles appear in the book and I couldn’t solve any of them, but I can probably speak French better than Sophie, so I wasn’t too depressed about not understanding the riddles, and the book always tells you the answer.

Writing about reality TV is great fun because it gives you a really varied cast of characters - it's like a modern version of all those 'stuck in a lift' plays that just about every creative writing teacher in the world seems to ask you to do at some stage. You can write about six people who wouldn’t usually have met, and it’s great watching them all fail to get along. Writer Kira Lerner has created some really strong characters, and although some seem stereotypical at first, there are a lot of surprises along the way. There are also some great twists, but even though I did see some of them coming, that made the story even more tense...I knew what was going on, but I couldn't tell Sophie and Gareth!

Sophie is intelligent and likeable, not the kind of person who usually does well in reality TV, but as there’s no public vote, it doesn’t matter. Gareth is hot with a vulnerable side. Just my type, in other words. Sophie and Gareth's relationship works really well - relationships formed on a reality TV show can often seem fake (though I'm sure they usually feel completely real at the time), but with Sophie and Gareth, it seems completely genuine.

As usual, the character of the heroine’s best friend was very well-written, arguably the most interesting and original character in the book. I named her after my friend Jade, and to start with, she didn’t seem much like her (which doesn't really matter, but I do feel a bit guilty when I name one of my friends after someone who isn't very nice) but the more I read about Tropical Treasure's Jade, the more I loved her.

The other female character, Sophie’s rival for Gareth’s attentions (not that Sophie is attracted to Gareth, oh no) is Erikka, a slut with brains. I love her as a character. Often, when a character in a book is supposed to be intelligent, the writer completely fails to convince you of this. But Erikka gives as strong an impression of her intelligence as she does of her desire to get Gareth into bed. I like the spelling of Erikka’s name, too (I didn’t choose it, I only chose Sophie, Gareth and Jade).

There’s also a Wallace and an Oscar (both great characters), so you don’t want to choose those names for the personalised characters, and it would also be better to avoid Clive (he's the slimey smarmy presenter). There’s also a presenter called Summer, but you could probably get away with having two Summers if you really had to (though, being in the UK, I would be happy with just one summer, we haven’t had any for at least two years).

But I would like to say, if I was stuck on a desert island with numerous cameras, I would not have sex with anyone. Not even Gareth. Maybe I’m weird, maybe I’m some sort of prude (though you’d never think that from the number of dirty jokes I make in the average hour), but I just couldn’t do it. But I’ve noticed that nearly all BookByYou’s adult romances include passionate sex scenes, and even if the characters are on a desert island with cameras everywhere, I suppose they’d have to squeeze it in somewhere.

This book is also available for f/f and m/m couples as Seduction Games and Treasure Trails.