Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | PASSIONS OF A WICKED EARL by Lorraine Heath
Fresh Pick / January 31, 2011

London’s Greatest Lovers #1 October 2010 On Sale: October 1, 2010 Featuring: Claire Lyons; Morgan Lyons 384 pages ISBN: 006192296X EAN: 9780061922961 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com Too young first time? Passions Of A Wicked Earl by Lorraine Heath Known throughout the city for his prowess in the bedroom, Morgan Lyons, Eighth Earl of Westcliffe, cannot forgive an unpardonable affront to his honor. Discovering his young bride in the arms of his brother was a staggering blow — so he banished the beautiful deceiver to the country and devoted himself entirely to the pursuit of carnal pleasure. Claire Lyons was an innocent, frightened girl of 17 on her wedding day, seeking chaste comfort from a childhood friend. Now three years later, she has blossomed magnificently. Still innocent, she has returned to London with one goal in mind: the seduction of her notorious husband. Unskilled in the sensual arts, she burns nonetheless for the kisses too long denied her. And now she has but one Season to win back the heart of the rogue she betrayed. A witty, wily and sensuous Regency Romance! Previous Picks

Jaime Rush | Kill Me, Kiss Me
Author Guest / January 31, 2011

Fonda Raine lives for one thing: killing Eric Aruda for slaying her lover. But she’ll have to be careful–Eric can set fires with his mind. Seconds from plunging a knife into his heart, an assassin tries to take them both out. Now, she must choose: join forces with the man who’s burning through her defenses or go down in flames. I didn’t intend to write a story about two enemies who fall in love, but as my series evolved, I knew that there was no better heroine for my bad boy Eric Aruda than the feisty woman whom he wronged so badly. Not only do these two believe the other is the bad guy, Eric murdered her lover in a most horrendous manner. So how could I possibly, and realistically, bring these two together? It could not be love at first sight, even if their bodies betray them with their reactions to the other’s physicality. Once the idea of these two popped into my head, I loved it. Mostly, I loved the challenge from the writer’s point of view. Of course, it has to happen slowly. On the other hand, they can’t hate each other for a lot of the…

Fresh Pick | PERSUASION by Jane Austen
Fresh Pick / January 30, 2011

Modern Library Classics June 2001 On Sale: June 12, 2001 Featuring: Anne Elliot; Frederick Wentworth 224 pages ISBN: 0375757295 EAN: 9780375757297 Paperback $5.95 Add to Wish List Fiction Buy at Amazon.com Ultimate novel of second chance love Persuasion by Jane Austen Called a ‘perfect novel’ by Harold Bloom, Persuasion was written while Jane Austen was in failing health. She died soon after its completion, and it was published in an edition with Northanger Abbey in 1818. In the novel, Anne Elliot, the heroine Austen called ‘almost too good for me,’ has let herself be persuaded not to marry Frederick Wentworth, a fine and attractive man without means. Eight years later, Captain Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars with a triumphant naval career behind him, a substantial fortune to his name, and an eagerness to wed. Austen explores the complexities of human relationships as they change over time. ‘She is a prose Shakespeare,’ Thomas Macaulay wrote of Austen in 1842. ‘She has given us a multitude of characters, all, in a certain sense, commonplace. Yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most eccentric of human beings.’ Persuasion is the last work of one…

Anjali Banerjee | Where my ideas really come from…
Author Guest / January 30, 2011

People often ask writers, “Where do you get your ideas?” Neil Gaiman said, “I make them up… Out of my head.” Robertson Davies said, “I don’t get them; they get me.” Some authors say something visual – a news clip on TV or a magazine article—might spark an idea. Some say their ideas come from other people, other industries, the act of writing, or God. Confession: my ideas come from nowhere. Yup, they just appear. Out of nowhere. Well, okay. Maybe the idea rises from some misty spot in my subconscious mind—the unknown world where anything is possible, where I’m still a child bursting with wonder and a sense of possibility, asking “What if…?” or “I just want to see if there’s another world over that hill…” When I was a child growing up in Canada, we often visited a family friend, an eye surgeon who lived in a palatial mansion full of spiral staircases and hidden rooms. I loved getting lost in that old house—I often expected to tumble through a door into Narnia. But I didn’t need to explore a mansion to find magic. The forest trail right behind our house led me to a giant, spongy moss…

Fresh Pick | REVENGE OF THE GEEK by Piper Banks
Fresh Pick / January 30, 2011

Miranda Bloom #4 November 2010 On Sale: November 2, 2010 Featuring: Miranda; Nora Lee 256 pages ISBN: 0451231341 EAN: 9780451231345 Trade Size $9.99 Add to Wish List Young Adult Buy at Amazon.com What’s a nerd to do?? Revenge Of The Geek by Piper Banks Smart girls don’t get mad. They get even. Some people have to learn the hard way-don’t mess with a geek. Miranda Bloom, girl genius, is totally psyched to start her junior year at Geek High. Too bad her boyfriend, lacrosse player Dex McConnell, is off to boarding school in Maine. Miranda thought she could count on her best friends, Finn and Charlie, to cheer her up, but they’re caught up in their own issues… So Miranda decides to make friends with the shy new student Nora Lee. At first things with Nora are great, but soon it seems like Nora thinks that anything Miranda can do, she can do better. Surviving at Geek High is hard enough without a copycat on your tail, and Miranda’s not about to let some imitation artist take her place. Sometimes imitation has nothing to do with flattery. Previous Picks

Robyn Carr | Jack’s Blog #4
Author Guest / January 29, 2011

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t have interesting things happen here in Virgin River. Hi, I’m Jack Sheridan, owner of Jack’s Bar, and sooner or later I manage to find myself in the middle of what ever’s going on. Not so long ago Pastor Noah Kincaid had to hitch a ride into town after his truck slid off the road and down a hill. He was avoiding a deer, but we’ve had trouble with that stretch of road before—narrow, winding roads, no guardrails. So I rounded up a few people to help tow him up the hill and while we were working on that an interesting fellow stopped by to see what was up. He asked if we needed a hand, but we had it covered. Clay Tahoma was on his way to Nathaniel Jensen’s Large Animal Veterinary Clinic. Turns out the man is a Vet Tech and farrier and will be working with Nate. It also didn’t escape my notice that he’s Native American: bronze skin, high cheekbones, hair down past his waist. Nate dropped by the bar on his way home from a house call at a ranch nearby and gave me the skinny—turns out Clay…

Ashlyn Chase | Entertainment
Author Guest / January 28, 2011

Every year, the power goes out here in snowy, rainy, windy New England. Hundreds of thousands of homes lose electricity, ours being one of them. I learned something during the ice storm that crippled our area for over a week. My mother-in-law lives a couple of towns away…alone. So we had her come over right away. My daughter and her boyfriend called to say they were at his mother’s house, so they were safe! But as soon as they heard that we had ENTERTAINMENT, they came right over. It was fun to have everyone “camping” in our home. I have a gas stove, so I was able to cook. We have a gas fireplace, so there was ambiance and some heat to one room. The generator provided heat and hot water to the rest of the house. It’s funny what you decide you value when you have to pick and choose what to turn on and what to live without. We have an electricity cleaner. (The “dirty electricity” coming from the generator can’t power electronics which are too apt to be damaged by energy with surges.) So, we had to decide on one electronic item to use with the electricity…

Fresh Pick | MY NAME IS MEMORY by Ann Brashares
Fresh Pick / January 28, 2011

June 2010 On Sale: June 1, 2010 336 pages ISBN: 1594487588 EAN: 9781594487583 Hardcover $25.95 Add to Wish List Fiction Buy at Amazon.com Can love stay the same over multiple lifetimes? My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. Daniel has “the memory”, the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he’s previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short. Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel’s unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now “Lucy” in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their…

Spotlight on Carla Neggers
Author Spotlight / January 28, 2011

Dear Reader Friends: Living in Vermont, where lots of snow is a given every winter, I love to snowshoe and cross-country ski. It was during such a trek along picturesque snow-covered trails that I came up with the idea for KISS THE MOON, my very first stand-alone novel for MIRA Books. Thanks to reader demand, my publisher is reissuing KISS THE MOON this week with a haunting new cover. In KISS THE MOON, Penelope Chestnut ventures into the frozen woods of the lakes region of New Hampshire and discovers the wreckage of a small plane. An aviator herself, she sees clues to a conspiracy in the rusted-out remains. Rumors of her discovery bring Wyatt Sinclair to Cold Spring. He is determined to put to rest a family scandal and learn what really happened to his legendary uncle, who had disappeared with his adventuress lover years earlier in a private plane. As Wyatt and Penelope investigate, old motives are uncovered and new ones created, including a growing attraction between the two. But when an unknown enemy emerges with a violence rooted in desperation, uncovering the truth will be far less problematic than surviving it. If you’re looking for a good book…

Spotlight on Robyn Carr
Author Spotlight / January 27, 2011

Dear Reader Friends: I think you can tell from my ongoing Virgin River series, that I’m passionate about the men and women who serve in the armed forces for our country. Passionate about their honor, their bravery and the many sacrifices they and their families make for the rest of us. I know of what I write when I create these to-die-for heroes that have my readers wanting to move to Virgin River. My husband was an Air Force helicopter and jet pilot; my son is an active-duty Army orthopedic surgeon, who recently returned from Iraq. Of course, I didn’t model Jack or Preacher or Colin Riordan, the hero in my February Virgin River novel, WILD MAN CREEK, after my family’s military men (although they might like to think so!). But I do know what drives these men—what haunts them, and what makes them happy. As for Colin, he came to Virgin River to recuperate from a horrific helicopter crash, the scars of which he bears inside and out. His family is wonderfully supportive, but it’s his art that truly soothes his troubled soul. Stung personally and professionally by an ill-advised affair, PR guru Jillian Matlock has rented an old…