Continuing our series of posts by ARRA nominees: Kendall Talbot has been nominated for three ARRA Awards: Favourite Continuing Romance Series, Favourite Romantic Suspense and Strongest Heroine.

Being a finalist in three categories in the ARRA awards for my Treasured series of books is a dream come true. Treasured Secrets and Treasured Lies were a delight to write because they revolve around my three favourite passions: travel, food and romance. I’m just so grateful that my readers love my characters and this action-packed adventure as much as I do.

There were two instances that inspired my Treasured series. The first came from a friend of mine who was dating a guy who wore an unusual necklace. Whenever she asked him about its significance he refused to elaborate on it. And he never took it off…not even when she told him that it nearly knocked her teeth out when they had sex. Of course she became obsessed about it and eventually, after eight months, he told her it belonged to his previous girlfriend who had died. Not long afterwards they broke up. My character in Treasured Secrets, Archer, wears an unusual gold pendant around his neck that he too refuses to talk about or take off. The story behind the necklace is central to the entire treasure-hunt theme that drives this trilogy.

The second inspiration behind this trilogy came from my 20th-anniversary holiday to Tuscany with my husband. Florence is a treasure trove of history and architecture, bustling with tourists and little cafés eager to serve you bread and wine within seconds of you finding a table to sit at. My husband and I went on a couple of city tours and one such tour took us to the Church of St Apostoli, a small insignificant church compared to many other magnificent churches dotted throughout Florence. Inside the church, inlaid in the mosaic floor tiles, was an oval pattern. Our tour guide told us it was the trap door where they tossed the bodies during the 13th-century plague that killed 50 million people in Europe. My mind went crazy thinking about entire families being decimated by that horrible disease. Then I began to wonder what happened to all their precious things they left behind. On the plane flight home, I began plotting Treasured Secrets.

I have just put the finishing touches to book three in this series. Treasured Dreams will be released in April this year. These three books were a wonderful writing journey and it’s a delight to know that my readers are enjoying them too.

From Romantic Book of the Year winner Kendall Talbot comes an adrenaline-fuelled series with sexy characters, exotic locations, and action-packed adventure.