Clare Connelly grew up in a small country town in Australia. Surrounded by rainforests, and rickety old timber houses, magic was thick in the air, and stories and storytelling were a huge part of her childhood.
From early on in life, Clare realised her favourite books were romance stories, and read voraciously. Anything from Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer, to Mills & Boon and (more recently) the 50 Shades trilogy, Clare is a romance devotee.
She first turned her hand to penning a novel at fifteen (if memory serves, it was something about a glamorous fashion model who fell foul of a high-end designer. Sparks flew, clothes flew faster, and love was born.)
Long-held wishes for publication led to the release of her first book (but certainly not her first manuscript) THE ITALIAN BILLIONAIRE'S BETRAYAL in May 2014. Clare had very modest aspirations, so to have it selling - and selling well - from the first day it launched wildly exceeded any expectations. Since then, she's had multiple best-sellers on the Amazon charts and has seen more than a million digital downloads.
In 2016, Clare Connelly accepted a book deal with Harlequin and now fulfils a life-long dream by writing romance that sets your soul on fire for the brand that the world trusts with its heart. She also writes the Cape Hope series for Tule, sweet romances set against a home-spun, small town America backdrop.
If writing had not panned out for Clare she would be pursuing her second-greatest-career love: Food. Having grown up working in commercial kitchens and read cook books as though they were novels all her life, run cooking blogs and worked with one of the doyennes of Australian cookery, Clare still indulges her passion for French cuisine whenever she is able. Unfortunately, this passion is at odds with her type 1 diabetes and requires reining in from time to time.
Clare met her own real life hero at the tender age of seventeen. After travelling and living together for ten years, they were married in a fairytale ceremony amongst friends, family, birdlife, piskies, nephews, wisps of clouds and mountain magic. Clare has a small family and a bungalow near the sea in South Australia. When she isn't chasing after energetic little children, or wiping fingerprints off furniture, she's writing, thinking about writing, or wishing she were writing.
