Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | THE BRIDE WILL KEEP HER NAME by Jan Goldstein
Fresh Pick / June 10, 2010

June 2009 On Sale: June 16, 2009 Featuring: Madison Mandelbaum; Colin Darcy 272 pages ISBN: 0307345920 EAN: 9780307345929 Hardcover $24.00 Add to Wish List Suspense, Fiction Buy at Amazon.com The Bride Will Keep Her Name by Jan Goldstein Something borrowed. Something blue. Do you really know the man to whom you’re saying ‘I do?’ Madison Mandelbaum is on top of the world. She’s got a loving — though totally neurotic — family, two fabulous girlfriends, and best of all, she’s head-over-heels in love with Colin Darcy, an investigative reporter for NBC, a distant relation to the Queen, and–most importantly–Maddie’s fiancé. Be careful what you wish for her mother’s always fond of saying, but with Colin on her arm, Maddie is certain that everything will finally go right. With one week to go before the wedding, Maddie receives an anonymous email that suggests that her fiancé may not be the man she thinks he is. Is this someone’s idea of a pre-wedding joke? Yet as sinister phone calls, text messages, and disturbing clues turn up, all linking Colin to the murder of a sexy callgirl, Maddie realizes that she must get to the bottom of this. Fast. As the clock counts…

CHRISTIE RIDGWAY | How to Draw Readers to the Straight Contemporary Romances
Author Guest / June 10, 2010

No Shot was Fired, no Blood was Spilled (or even Sipped) in the Making of this Book That’s right, my dear friends. I write what we’re calling these days “straight contemporary romance.” There’s nothing supernatural, otherworldy, or paranormal going on here. No asses getting kicked. No highwaymen, no carriage accidents, no brotherhood of Regency spies. It’s life sort of like we know it. If we lived in California’s wine country. In the middle of a hundred-year-old vineyard. While struggling to keep the family winery afloat. And if we were nicknamed the “Nun of Napa” ever since a wedding-that-wasn’t five years ago. And finally, if we had to turn to the man-next-door, Penn Bennett, the star of Hollywood’s hottest home renovation show, to complete the work on the winery’s historic cottage in order to host a wedding there at the end of the month. It’s a hard job, this straight contemporary romance writing. Okay, so the research wasn’t so bad (reading about winemaking, drinking wine, spending a long weekend in Napa with my husband), but what do you do to get a reader’s pulse racing if there are no knives, no fangs, no men running around in the jungle with their…