April is blooming with exciting YA books. Paranormal books, like this months feature from Jennifer Archer, continue to run rampant, but I’m including a bonus interview with contemporary debut author Kirsten Hubbard. PARANORMAL Veteran woman’s fiction author Jennifer Archer makes her YA debut this month with THROUGH HER EYES, a paranormal story that’s both eerie and emotional. This book has a great voice and a distinct sense of place that make the events seem very real. The emotional tone, too, really resonated with me. I’ll let Jenny tell you what it’s about in her own words: Jennifer Archer: Tansy Piper, a sixteen-year-old high school student and amateur photographer, moves with her grandfather and her mother, a horror writer, to the setting of her mother’s next book–a secluded house outside of a tiny, desolate West Texas town called Cedar Canyon. Tansy is upset over the move and very lonely in her new home. When she finds an old pocket watch, a crystal, and a journal filled with dark poetry hidden in the cellar, she is lured through these items into the mind of a mysterious young man named Henry who died decades earlier. And through the lens of her camera, she…

June 2010 On Sale: June 1, 2010 Featuring: Marguerite de Fleurignac; William Doyle 400 pages ISBN: 0425235610 EAN: 9780425235614 Paperback $7.99  Add to Wish List Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com RT Book Reviews 2010 Reviewers’ Choice for Historical Romantic Adventure The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne A glittering French aristocrat is on the run, disguised as a British governess. England’s top spy has a score to settle with her family. But as they’re drawn inexorably into the intrigue and madness of Revolutionary Paris, they gamble on a love to which neither of them will admit. A magnificent, passionate, adventure romance set during the French Revolution. Excerpt Paris 1794 She was alone, suddenly, with Guillaume LeBreton. He stood, being inscrutable, which was one of his talents. In the stark white robe he became dark and exotic. The long folds and draped sleeves made a mandarin of him. How does he pass unnoticed through the streets of the city? It is as if a lion joined a pack of dogs and none of them remarked upon it. “Did you follow me from my house?” “Something like that. You didn’t make any secret where you were going.” “It was a perfectly useless thing…

A compelling and great writing draw us into a story—but what we stay for is the characters. Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy; Jane Eyre and Rochester—what’s a romance without great lovers who come alive on the page? Giving life to characters is the best part of writing. I love creating a small town of my own, peopled by characters who hopefully come alive for the reader. They’re certainly real to me! I spend a lot of time in my fictional universe, and my characters become like friends—or maybe more like family, because much as I love them, they sometimes drive me crazy. Demanding, difficult, and determined—they’re just like real people. Teague and Jodi have been with me a long time, waiting for their story to be told and gradually revealing who they are and what they want. By the time I actually sat down to write the book, they’d taken on so much personality that it was all I could do to keep them under control. It wasn’t easy to keep them out of bed, either. These two were definitely made for each other. The best part about having a new book released is knowing that my new characters are out…