Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | TABLE MANNERS by Mia King
Fresh Pick / April 4, 2010

August 2009On Sale: August 4, 2009336 pages ISBN: 0425227898EAN: 9780425227893Paperback$14.00 Romance Buy at Amazon.com Table Mannersby Mia King Her simple life is more complicated than ever. Deidre McIntosh finally has all the ingredients for a perfect life. She has her own line of cakes and cookies, and the perfect boyfriend, Kevin Johnson, one of Seattle’s top bachelors. Creative, energetic, and loving, Deidre is the person friends go to when they need a helping hand. But when Kevin’s ex-fiancée, the sultry and successful magazine publisher Sabine Durant, suddenly appears in Seattle, it’s Deidre who needs help. Already intimidated by Kevin’s glamorous, moneyed world–and his sister, who wants Deidre out of Kevin’s life–she knows she’s no match for Sabine. Deidre turns to her friends for advice, but finds they’re having crises of their own. When her business begins to slip from her fingers, Deidre knows she must to do something to keep her career and her love life from imploding. Can everyone’s favorite go-to person save herself? The continuation of Deidre’s story from Good Things Previous Picks Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Sara Reyes | Do You Glom?
Saturdays with Sara / April 3, 2010

I’ve been thinking about the characteristics or traits of a bookaholic recently. Maybe it’s time for introspection or I’m bored, no matter, I’ve been thinking about “stuff” and one of those is why do I call myself “addicted to reading.” I am. I read every thing. I read the paper. In today’s world that might be old fashioned but I enjoy fighting with the paper to get to the next part of an article. And it’s always a battle for me. The paper NEVER cooperates and folds nicely on the creases. I also read abandoned brochures. Sure some day I might buy that lake property in Arkansas, it could happen. I read any magazine left around unless it’s too grimy or in a doctor’s office. I never read magazines at a doctor’s office because I’ve got the theory stuck in my head the previous readers were sick and I’m sick enough thank-you-very-much. But I do read magazines when I’m waiting at the stylist. Those handlers when I think about it have just as many sick germs as the doctor’s office. Hmm. Well, most days while I wait I read my phone because it has email and NPR on it, so…

Fresh Pick | MARTYR by Rory Clements
Fresh Pick / April 3, 2010

May 2009On Sale: May 19, 2009Featuring: John Shakespeare; Elizabeth I400 pages ISBN: 0385342829EAN: 9780385342827Hardcover$25.00 Thriller, Historical Buy at Amazon.com Martyrby Rory Clements In this ingenious debut, Rory Clements introduces John Shakespeare, Elizabethan England’s most remarkable investigator, and delivers a tale of murder and conspiracy that succeeds brilliantly as both historical fiction and a crime thriller. In a burnt-out house, one of Queen Elizabeth’s aristocratic cousins is found murdered, her flesh marked with profane symbols. At the same time a plot is discovered to assassinate England’s feared sea warrior Sir Francis Drake – a plot which, if successful, could leave the country open to Spanish invasion. The year is 1587. One man is charged with the desperate task of solving both cases: John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer in Sir Francis Walsingam’s spy network. With the Spanish Armada poised to strike, Mary Queen of Scots awaiting execution and the pikes above London Bridge decorated with the severed heads of traitors, the country is in peril of being overwhelmed by fear, chaos and religious strife. Following a trail of illicit passions and family secrets, Shakespeare travels through a teeming underworld of enemy agents, sorcerers, whores and poets, among whom is his own younger brother,…

Rosemary Clement-Moore | Exciting Reads for Your April Spring Fever Slack-Off…

Fresh Takes from the Teen Shelves All the news, updates and gossip for the Young Adult — books, authors, movies and more! Ah, spring fever. Every April, I have the hardest time making myself do work. I just want to lay around enjoying the gorgeous weather–not too hot, not too cold–goofing off. Which for me means reading books. Here are a few suggestions for your Spring Fever Slack Off, starting with interviews with Kelley Armstrong and Heather Davis, who were nice enough to tell me about their new releases. Kelley Armstrong has been delighting fans of contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance with her Women of the Otherworld series (Bitten, Dime Store Magic) for awhile, and in 2008, she added a series of YA books to her extensive list, the third of which comes out on April 6th. Kelley Armstrong: THE RECKONING is the final book in the Darkest Powers trilogy. In the first book, fifteen-year-old Chloe Saunders started seeing ghosts. After a breakdown at school, she was taken to a group home, which she quickly discovered was not what it seemed. After being on the run in THE AWAKENING, she’s taken shelter in a place that seems safe. But for…

Kathleen O’Reilly | Where Inspiration Strikes
Author Guest / April 2, 2010

As a writer, I get ideas from all sorts of things: movies, newspaper articles, stories from my friends, and yes, sometimes the calendar. The Blaze Encounters series are linked short stories that revolve around a common theme, which is sometimes a holiday. A couple of summers back, I was hanging with my editor at the RWA National Conference and chatting up what’s *hot* in the Blaze line, and we began talking about the Encounters, and at that point, we were one glass of wine away from the idea of a Blaze Encounters that revolves around April Fools Days. Yes, while others think of Valentine’s Day or Christmas, I, of course, think of April Fool’s, and because I felt the idea was so stupendous, I immediately drafted my talented critique partner, Julie Kenner, into coming along for the write. April Fool’s dates back a long, long time, easily as far back as the Middle Ages, and some experts pin its origin to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale. Others experts point to the French calendar, which is the most respected (or suspected, as the case may be) theory. In 1564, the first of the calendar year was moved from Easter to January 1, but…

Fresh Pick | GIRL MARY by Petru Popescu
Fresh Pick / April 2, 2010

September 2009On Sale: September 8, 2009Featuring: Pilate; Mary368 pages ISBN: 1416532633EAN: 9781416532637Paperback$15.00 Religious Fiction, Historical Buy at Amazon.com Girl Maryby Petru Popescu For nearly two millennia, Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, has been one of the most revered women in history, yet she remains one of the most mysterious. With his empire in crisis, Augustus orders a young Roman spy to find a sign of his divinely inspired power. Concealing his real name, Pontius Pilate enters the Judean desert seeking an unknown miracle. The moment he meets the striking adolescent Mary, he senses that he is in the presence of someone magical. Mary, vigorous, spiritual, and charming, is a girl like many other teenage girls: full of passions and weaknesses, surrounded by her loving family and her close friends, steeped in the mystic traditions of the Jews — territory that defies Roman comprehension. The young Pilate isn’t wrong in believing that Mary is remarkable. On the verge of blossoming womanhood, Mary’s world will soon open to love — and to the miraculous. Full of mystical realism and set against the lushly reimagined settings of the biblical world, Girl Mary is the love story of the beautiful girl, naïve…

Fresh Pick | REMARKABLE CREATURES by Tracy Chevalier
Guests / April 1, 2010

January 2010On Sale: January 5, 2010Featuring: Elizabeth Philpot; Mary Anning320 pages ISBN: 0525951458EAN: 9780525951452Hardcover$26.95 Fiction Buy at Amazon.com Remarkable Creaturesby Tracy Chevalier A voyage of discoveries, a meeting of two remarkable women, and extraordinary time and place enrich bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s enthralling new novel From the moment she’s struck by lightening as a baby, it is clear that Mary Anning is marked for greatness. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, she learns that she has “the eye”-and finds what no one else can see. When Mary uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious fathers on edge, the townspeople to vicious gossip, and the scientific world alight. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is barred from the academic community; as a young woman with unusual interests she is suspected of sinful behavior. Nature is a threat, throwing bitter, cold storms and landslips at her. And when she falls in love, it is with an impossible man. Luckily, Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a recent exile from London, who also loves scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual…