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🌟 Please join me in welcoming author Lily Morton to Stories That Make You Smile. Lily is here today celebrating the release of her fabulous new novel, Milo! She generously sat down to answer a few burning questions…like we’re all dying to know what she does when she’s alone in her car, right? 🌟
Milo by Lily Morton
For the first time ever Niall seems to be returning his interest. But it can never work. How can it when Milo always needs rescuing?
Series: Finding Home (book 2)
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow Designs
Release Date: December 15, 2019
Pairing / Genre(s) / Keyword(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Blurb
Once upon a time a brave knight rescued a young man. Unfortunately, he then spent the next few years bossing the young man around and treating him like a child.
Milo has been burying himself at Chi an Mor, hiding from the wreckage of his once promising career and running from a bad relationship that destroyed what little confidence he had. Niall, his big brother’s best friend, has been there for him that entire time. An arrogant and funny man, Niall couldn’t be any more different from the shy and occasionally stuttering Milo, which has never stopped Milo from crushing wildly on the man who saved him.
However, just as Milo makes the decision to move on from his hopeless crush, he and Niall are thrown into close contact, and for the first time ever Niall seems to be returning his interest. But it can never work. How can it when Milo always needs rescuing?
From the bestselling author of the Mixed Messages series comes a story about a man who needs to write his own happily ever after.
This is the second book in the Finding Home series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Content warning: There are descriptions of domestic abuse in this book.
Excerpt
“Bloody hell, is that a relation of my husband or a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case?”
I laugh and Cora startles slightly. I shush her and kiss the tiny fingers she holds up to my face. Moving next to him, I stare down at the picture. “He is a bit grim, isn’t he?”
“Grim? Caligula was grim. This is a new and previously undiscovered level of malevolence.” He cocks his head to one side. “Is it my imagination or do his eyes follow you when you move?”
I shake my head. “My remit isn’t to judge. Instead, I reveal what has been previously hidden.”
“While I’m sure that sounds romantic in your head, let’s be realistic. You’ve actually just wiped dirt off a grumpy old git’s face.”
I laugh. “I’m so glad my time at art college wasn’t wasted.”
He looks searchingly at me and opens his mouth but then closes it again. I stare at him. “Oh my God, what were you going to say? It must be bad if it’s made Oz Gallagher shut up.”
He laughs, and I look affectionately at him. I know he’s going to tell me the truth. Oz doesn’t ever shy away from that. He’s my best friend in the world and it comes as a shock to realise that I’ve only known him for a couple of years. He came here to Chi an Mor in all his wisecracking, sassy glory and proceeded to turn everyone’s lives upside down. Footloose and fancy-free, he only intended to stay for a few months and ease the old house into opening to the general public. The best-laid plans always go wrong – or right – and now he’s settled with his husband Silas, the current earl, and they have a beautiful seven-month-old daughter.
He clears his throat and looks at me, and I straighten from kissing Cora’s forehead. “What?”
“I just think that you’re actually a bit wasted here, Milo.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re so bloody talented. People from all over the country are starting to come here to consult with you, and rather than enjoying it you’re stuck in a small, cold room wearing ugly gloves and hunched over a hideous painting. It’s like something from a Dickens novel.”
He pauses for breath and I try to relax my instinctive defensive shield. I don’t need it with him.
He rubs my arm affectionately. “You’re so clever and talented and no one sees it here apart from us, and you need more than that. You should be living it up and going to exotic parties. Mixing with artists and the bohemian crowd.”
I swallow hard at the thought of the people that used to surround Thomas. “I don’t think I’m cut out for a bohemian crowd. They sound quite noisy and tiring,” I manage to say.
“Well, maybe look for a sub-branch. The whispering bohemians or something.”
☆ Interview ☆
Congratulations on your new release. Please tell us a little bit about it. What’s your favorite aspect or part of the story? Do you have a favorite character? Who/Why?
It’s the story of Milo who has always had a crush on his big brother’s best friend, Niall. However, Niall has never reciprocated this and after he rescues Milo from an abusive relationship it seems unlikely that he will ever return his feelings. The story picks up five years after the rescue when it looks like Niall’s feelings are starting to change.
My favourite part of the story is watching Milo grow and flourish. He’s been through a lot and his confidence suffered as a result, so it’s lovely to watch his confidence grow.
Are you a planner or a pantser? How much do you know about your story before you start writing? How often does your plan change? Why does this work best for you?
I’m a bit of a mixture – I’m a plantser! I know roughly what the story will be and I know a fair amount about my characters, but I’ve found that if I do too much planning, I grow bored of the story. Once I’m writing the story can and does change, but I keep a close check on it and do a lot of plotting then.
Tell us a little bit about your work(s) in progress!
It’s the third book in the Finding Home series and it’s about Milo’s older brother who is gloriously grumpy.
How do you select the names of your characters?
I use a baby names book which nearly gave my husband a heart attack when he first saw it!
What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
I actually talk out loud in the car. It’s the best place to do it. I talk about the characters and the plot. Something about saying it out loud makes my brain work. I’ve had some of my best ideas in the car. It does lead to people giving you funny looks in traffic jams though!
If you could time-travel, where/when would you go?
Tudor England. I know that Henry VIII will look nothing like Jonathan Rhys Meyers in The Tudors, but I’d still love to see the events of Henry’s reign unfold.
Tell us about the best vacation you’ve ever taken?
It was actually a research trip to Cornwall for a book I was intending to write at the time. It was in the middle of a heatwave and my husband and I crisscrossed across Cornwall doing research and enjoying ourselves. On the last day I picked up a leaflet for an Elizabethan manor house that was nearby and suggested we visit it. It was the most beautiful place and we were sitting in the lavender garden when I had an idea for a completely different story. It was about a feisty Londoner who comes to Cornwall to manage a country estate and falls for the owner. That book became ‘Oz’ which is the first in the Finding Home series, and I still haven’t written the book I went to Cornwall for.
Ask permission or beg forgiveness?
Beg forgiveness. I hate being told what to do.
Meet the Author
Lily writes contemporary romance novels, and specialises in hot love stories with a good dose of humour.
Lily lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all of whom claim that they haven’t had a proper conversation with her since she bought her first Kindle. She has spent her life with her head full of daydreams and decided one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else could she get to spend her time with hot, funny men!
She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations – chocolate Baileys! Her lifetime’s ambition is to have a bath in peace without being shouted by one of her family.
