Today, we have Isla, the heroine from Mary Georgina de Grey’s new romance novel, in the hot seat. Okay, Isla. Let’s get started with the questions.
What’s your name, and who are you in your world?
Hello, I’m Isla Bruni, an interior designer who worked first in London, with some success, and then in Italy. I’m twenty-six, and as you can tell from my name, I’m part Italian. My Mum is a Londoner and that’s where I grew up. I am the central character in the story.
Give us a visual. What do you look like?
I’m quite short and slim with shoulder-length dark brown hair. I try to dress in a stylish way when working – and I’ve learned a lot about how to do that since living in Italy. I love Italian shoes.
What woman doesn’t love Italian shoes!? 🙂 What time period and location does your story take place?
It’s very recent, after the earthquakes in the Abruzzo region in 2016. There have been a few earthquakes since, and it was my misfortune to get caught up in one when I tried to help in a rescue.
Yikes. That must’ve been scary, getting caught in an earthquake. What’s your goal in this story?
Everyone tells me I’m a talented designer but to be really successful, you need something more, so when I got the opportunity, I accepted a placement in a highly regarded Italian design studio.
Ultimately, I wanted enough experience to set up my own studio – again a difficult thing to do successfully. There are so many things that can stand in your way – and in my case, one of those was meeting Edmondo. Many of my friends dropped out of work as soon as they married and had children, so I couldn’t believe that choosing love and family would allow me to pursue my ambitions, and I found those ambitions really hard to give up. But Edmondo gives me all the support and encouragement I need.
A supportive spouse is the best. What did you think the first time you saw Edmondo?
I didn’t think. I reacted, and it really shook me. I saw him once and then I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I didn’t think that was possible. I’m a cautious person, so forming relationships was always about getting to know the other person, appreciating the good and the bad, but it was as if all that happened in one second and I knew this was the right person for me, Then I was forced to interact with him professionally without admitting any other interest in him, and that was hard.
I bet is was hard. Do you see morality as black-and-white, or with shades of gray?
I’ve got better at this. My father’s behavior after the death of my brother just seemed wrong and it led me to see things and people, as you say, as black or white. Once I understood what happened, it did have an impact on my thinking, and I have grown much more tolerant.
I’m sorry to hear about your brother. Death affects us in many different ways. What is your viewpoint on wealth?
We’re lucky. Edmondo’s an engineer with his own business that he built from nothing. He deserves the money he makes but it mattered to me to find he has a social conscience, both in the way he runs the business and in the many things – both time and money – he contributes to the town. During the earthquakes of 2016, he designed earthquake bearings for people who were rebuilding their homes to that the new buildings could withstand another quake, and he sold them at cost. My own business is successful, although still very small. So we are what my mum in London would call ‘comfortably off’.
I utterly detest the word billionaire and all it implies.
Good for you. What do you normally wear when you leave home?
There’s no normal – it depends on what I’m doing. Generally, if I’m meeting a client, I wear simple, classic clothes, but if I’m going to measure up a property prior to doing a design, I’ll be in trousers and a top, trainers, maybe a casual jacket; there’s no choice if you might end up crawling along rafters or burrowing into dark abandoned corners of a building. I’ll always have with me my laptop and my old leather bag which contains the tools of my trade – basically pens, pencils and paper, because I’ll be making sketches as ideas occur to me.
When we go to Rome, I dress casually to suit the weather.
What do you sleep in at night?
In summer, nothing; it’s very warm. But in winter, up in the mountains where we live, I wear the sexiest pyjamas I can find – usually a long-sleeved top and shorts. I’m not into cute.
Why do you think your author chose to write about you?
Everything that happened to me occurred in Italy and Mary Georgina’s a huge fan of the people and the country. My story shows certain qualities, both good and bad, and I’ve heard her say that writers should create role models for readers and demonstrate ways in which dilemmas can be resolved. She also believes a good book can carry you away to another place and that everyone needs that from time to time, so she worked really hard on the setting to achieve that.
A good book, well-written and thought-out, can certainly carry a reader to another place. I agree completely. What other character from your book do you think your author should write a book about? Care to tell us why?
Eloisa who works in the design studio is now my great friend. I think the dramatic story of how she got together with her paramedic partner would make an excellent romantic novel. There’s also Edmondo’s sister, a nun. That might or might not turn out to be a romance, but it would be a great read.
Awesome! Thank you for visiting, Isla. It’s been a blast.
Blurb for Then the Earth Moved
Talented designer Isla Bruni is keen to widen her experience before setting up her own interiors business, so she accepts an exchange with a top studio located in an Italian hilltop town. She doesn’t trust Italian men – after all, hasn’t she had a good reason? But irresistible, sexy entrepreneur Edmondo Benedetti turns her carefully ordered life upside down. How can she realize her ambitions without sacrificing love? Only when she’s thrust into danger does she begin to understand what is important.
The past is the past. Yet if secrets buried there resurface, could they destroy her future?
| Book | Published | Main Settings | Link |
Then The Earth Moved | The Wild Rose Press, March 2023 | London and the mountainous Abruzzo region of Italy | https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=then+the+earth+moved+by+mary+georgina+de+grey https://wildrosepress.com/ Amazon Walmart Target BooksAMillion Indie Bound Barnes & Noble Kobo Google Books ITunes |
About the Author
Mary Georgina de Grey, Writer of Romance
Tel: 07766 758191
Email: mary@marygeorginadegreyauthor.com
Website: https://marygeorginadegreyauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086424198194
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marygeorginadegreyauthor
Newsletter: contact marygeorginadg@gmail.com
Learning several languages and using them at work has meant I have lived in different European countries, and I even spent a couple of years in South America. Though I live in the UK now, this rich experience has provided me with lots of material for my novels.
I’m not writing a series, but the novels each have a love story as central, featuring strong women determined to make something of their lives, despite setbacks – and there are quite a few. I now have three books published, have completed a fourth and am just beginning on a fifth to be set in France. In the meantime, I hope to produce a shorter Christmas novel set here in the UK. Both the type of book and the location are new experiences for me.
My home is in South Devon on the beautiful English Riviera with my husband, an artist and sculptor. When not writing a novel, I’m putting together talks about romance and why it should be given serious consideration as a genre. As you can imagine, I get booked up around Valentine’s Day, but I also speak at festivals when I get the opportunity