Being a romantic at heart and a huge fan of the whole Took family, it’s surprising I didn’t write this story sooner. Basically, it’s set between two of my other stories – “Life is What Happens” and “Just to be With You”. Of course, it doesn’t matter at all if you haven’t read either of these, because this one is not a sequel or prequel, and any events from the other stories will have an explanation.

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” has played a fairly large part in the inspiration for the story – or, perhaps, I should say, the BBC production of that book. It’s not so much the plot, but several of the ideas and characters have a basis in “Pride and Prejudice”. And the appearance of Everard Took may be slightly based around Colin Firth (*sigh* he must be one of the world’s most handsome men)! I'm a big sucker for British romantic-comedies in general. Perhaps you should all be on the look-out for Hugh Grant-ish character, also.

I had best clear up one thing before I start. There is an OC that will play a large part in this story, being the love-interest for Pearl Took. His name is Orlando Burrows, but I have not named him after Orlando Bloom. I tend to find names for OCs in Tolkien’s “The History of Middle-Earth”. Usually, they’re rejected names, or names that have been changed. In Orlando’s case, he was originally the hobbit who rarely replied to letters and was given gold ink and a pen by Bilbo Baggins. This gift in Lord of the Rings went to Milo Burrows. I have resurrected Orlando as a cousin to Milo (and I was only slightly swayed to use the name because of Master Bloom!).