Three Chicks and Their Books: Blog Tour: Rare and Precious Things by Raine Miller

Title: RARE AND PRECIOUS THINGS

(The Blackstone Affair Book 4)

Author: RAINE MILLER

hosted by: The Book Avenue

The fourth part in the New York Times bestselling series, The Blackstone Affair: A bright beginning for two damaged souls fighting for their hard-won love, and the promise of a new hope to secure their happily ever after.

Fresh from an idyllic honeymoon along the Italian coast, the Blackstones prepare for the birth of their precious baby and the challenges of settling into a new home. But things get complicated when specters from the past reappear to threaten the very foundation of their relationship. Ethan and Brynne will have to fight harder than ever for each other. Rare and Precious Things is the story of two people who both need the other in order to be complete, but learn just how "rare" their brand of love is when they have to risk everything in order to hold onto it.

4 Star Review by Alison East

The book opens with Ethan and Brynne waiting to consummate their marriage. Seems like it has taken forever to get here- especially for me, because I have read all the other Blackstone Affair books. They are finally married! Ethan has won over his girl. I forget how short their time has
been together, but boy has it been a firecracker of a relationship.

Married and expecting her first child. Brynne Blackstone had no idea that in the coming months, she would go from being single, to married and expecting a child. She and Ethan are made for each other, they both have a great wit, and sense of humor about everything. Even when the hard times come.

The Blackstone's have come so far, but they still have things to get past in their lives together. Things that keep coming back and haunting them. The have to talk to one another, and not bury these issues deep down. That leads to bigger problems overall. Ethan found a way to move forward from the things that haunt him. Being able to open up and talk to anyone about his past is a big deal for him. He is such a great hero! He is one of my favorite book boyfriends, that remains that way through all four of these books. He is sweet and sentimental, but also dirty and filthy in all the right ways. And Brynne is still the only girl for him.

The connection these two share throughout the book is stunning, as always. Even with Brynne being pregnant, pretty much the majority of the book, you can still see the spark that they have always shared. They interact in perfect harmony.

Written from both points of view like the previous book, you get to see both Brynne and Ethan's thoughts unfold. Both of these characters have been broken in the past, and they need
each other to heal. I love it. The Blackstone series ends in perfection- as it began. I loved how book three ended, so I was more than a little worried this book would muck up all those feelings. But the readers will get an insight into the couple and how they operate. And some steamy hot sex scenes
as always from Raine. I always recommend these books, and this one just takes the cake. I love Ethan and Brynne and if she wrote of them forever, I would devour each one just as ravenously.

1. When you are in the process of writing, do you have your storyline mapped out and you do your research of people, places, buildings, scenery, etc. based on that or have you ever written a scene in any of the books based solely on an image or picture you've come across and that image/picture spoke to you so profoundly that you incorporated a storyline into a book based on it?

I’ve written whole scenes because of a picture I’ve seen. An example of this is when a fan sent me a picture of a man with angel wings tattooed on his back and his baby sleeping on top. I loved it, so you will see that scene in Rare in Precious Things with Ethan and his _______. I do it all the time. In fact, the whole inspiration for the first book, NAKED, was because I found the image on Shutterstock one night and the idea for the story came into my head. Images are huge in giving me inspiration to write. I make Pinterest boards now for books while I am writing.

2. How long from concept to publishing?

Ten Months. I knew as I was finishing Eyes Wide Open that I really needed to do a fourth book in order to give Ethan and Brynne the complete resolution to their life together.

3. When you first knew of David Gandy and have you ever met him?

I knew of him over three years ago, and no, I have never met him. He did chat me a little and send me a birthday wish last year though. He is my muse for Ethan, and was from the first page I wrote about Mr. Blackstone.

4. Out of all your books, which one has been the most challenging to write?

That would be Rare and Precious Things. It was a challenge because when you are at the end of a story arc, everything must be resolved and tied together. You have to have reasons for the character’s behaviors and actions, their motivations have to make sense. Another difficulty is to give page time to all of the side characters that have been introduced into the story and the tangled web gets very big.

5. Living in the UK myself, made this book easier to read, envisioning the places, characters, Olympics etc, Why choose this place at this time for the books to be set in?

I am a certifiable Anglophile and I always have been. I really liked the idea of having an American heroine and a British hero, so the idea of setting up the story in that way appealed to me. I found out it appealed to many other women readers too!!! LOL Talking dirty in an English accent is pretty smokin’ hot I guess.

6. If you could be a character in any fictional book, who would you want to be and why?

Jane Whitcomb. Because she is loved by Vishous. Read Lover Unbound, by JR Ward if you have no idea what I am talking about.

7. When you started writing the books, did you have the idea for the historicals first or Naked?

I wrote the historicals first and knew the world in which they were set. So when I began writing Naked and Brynne was an art conservationist, I just used my fictional artist I had already created in my historical novel The Muse, which has yet to be published. I had so much fun doing the connections I continued to do it in every book, and will probably do it for every book I write from here on.

Raine Miller has been reading romance novels since she picked up that first Barbara Cartland book at the tender age of thirteen. And it's a safe bet she'll never stop, because now she writes them too! Granted Raine's stories are edgy enough to turn Ms. Cartland in her grave, but to her way of thinking, a hot, sexy hero never goes out of fashion. A part-time teacher and writer of sexy romance stories every other chance she gets pretty much fills her days. She has a handsome prince of a husband, and two brilliant sons to pull her back into the real world if the writing takes her too far away. Her sons know she likes to write stories, but gratefully have never asked to read any, thank God! Raine loves to hear from readers and to chat about the characters in her books.