Scrummy! New novels put the romance into rugby
By Jill Lawless
(Associated Press Writer - January 27, 2009)
Publisher Mills & Boon is betting that nothing goes with champagne and diamonds
like the bone-crunching, mud-churning wallop of a rugby match. The romance
imprint has teamed up with rugby's British governing body for a series of
novels in which gorgeous women fall for athletic alpha males adept at making
passes.
There's even sex at Twickenham, the home of
English rugby.
"It's good, clean fun," said Jenny Hutton, editor of the
eight-book series, which was launched Tuesday. "Women go to sport and
watch it for the technical qualities of the game - but there's no denying there
are quite attractive men running around on the pitch."
The deal offers something for both sides. The publisher gets a ready-made
milieu of sweat-soaked men and glamorous settings, from
For Rugby Football Union marketing manager Jane Barron, the books -
emblazoned with the red rose symbol of the
Publishing and professional sports have dallied before. In 2005, Mills &
Boon's parent company Harlequin Enterprises launched a NASCAR auto-racing
themed series of romances with titles like "In the Groove" and
"Peak Performance." Its success inspired the rugby series, which will
be published around the world.
Hutton says readers will find the "passion and glamour" they
expect from a Mills & Boon novel. But the books also are packaged with a
"girl's guide to rugby" offering definitions of scrum, ruck, maul and other rugby terms.
The series' first book is "The Prince's Waitress Wife," published
Feb. 1: "When virgin waitress Holly is thrown into the playboy prince's
arms he lives up to his wicked reputation by bedding her - then casting her
aside," the jacket reads.
Future novels include "The French Tycoon's Pregnant Mistress,"
"The Ruthless Billionaire's Virgin" and "The Italian Count's
Defiant Bride."
As the titles suggest, these guys are no ordinary athletes. One is a Middle
Eastern sheik, another a Greek hotel magnate.
Full-time athletes, Hutton admits, tend to be too single-minded to make ideal
lovers.
"We didn't want all the heroes to be rugby players - we needed heroes
who could devote their time to the heroines," she said.
The heroes - described by the publisher as "red-hot and ruthless" -
initially need taming. The reader's heart goes out to Holly, heroine of
"The Prince's Waitress Wife," for the letdown after her passionate
encounter with brooding Prince Caspar:
"To Holly it was the single most intimate
moment of her life, and when he opened his mouth to speak, her heart softened.
"'The match has started,' he drawled flatly. 'Thanks to you, I've missed kickoff.'"
The series offers something of an image-makeover for rugby players, often
regarded as hulking, beer-quaffing behemoths.
"When you say rugby players to people, they fall into two camps - the
kind who picture really beefy prop forwards with 40-inch necks, and those who
imagine wingers, agile and built for speed. That's where my imagination
lies," said Mills & Boon novelist India Grey - the pen name of a
38-year-old mother of three from central
Grey's novel for the series, "At the Argentinean Billionaire's Bidding," gave her a chance to combine her passions for
rugby and romance writing. Her book sees rugby-mad Tasmin
fall for "ex-Argentine rugby player and self-made billionaire"
Alejandro, who is - naturally - a "brooding diamond in the rough."
"I grew up in a rugby family, so all my early crushes were on rugby
players," said Grey. "I wanted to write a novel from the age of 13, and
the first book I wrote on my school exercise book had a rugby-playing hero.
"For me they are a real hero archetype. It's such a hard game, a
modern-day equivalent of arm-to-arm combat. It has genuine physical risk. And
the team aspect is quite heroic - there's that sort of integrity and
spirit."
While
The sport has recently threatened to become more glamorous, thanks to
players like Danny Cipriani, boyfriend of TV
personality Kelly Brook, and Mike Tindall, who is
dating Zara Phillips, granddaughter of Queen
Elizabeth II.
But there's no rugby equivalent of metrosexual
fashion-plate David Beckham - and that's just the way writers like Grey like
it.
"I don't think it would work with football (soccer) because of the
image football (soccer) has," she said. "Anything where the heroes
are made into celebrities in their own right, where it has that gloss - that
won't work."
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On the Net:
Felicia Field-Hall, TV presenter center, Rugby Football Union's Rugby Development Officer, Phil Duffy, left, and London Scottish rugby player Rory Greenslade-Jones pose for the media during a launch of romance publisher Mills & Boon's International Billionaires series of eight books, featuring romance of rugby, in London, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009. The first book in the series entitled 'The Prince's Waitress Wife' by Sarah Morgan is to be published on Feb. 1 prior to the start of the 2009 RBS Six Nations Championship and with one title published each month until September. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)