Women of the Otherworld #11 August 2010 On Sale: July 27, 2010 Featuring: Savannah Levine 320 pages ISBN: 0525951784 EAN: 9780525951780 Hardcover $25.95 Add to Wish List Fantasy Urban Buy at Amazon.com Completing our “road trip” week, this one includes adventures closer to home Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favour to one of the agency’s associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes. Soon Savannah is in over her head. She’s run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime….
December 2004 On Sale: April 8, 2011 Featuring: Elliot Ross; Alys Seagraves 368 pages ISBN: 0804119848 EAN: 9780804119849 Paperback (reprint) $6.99 Add to Wish List Romance Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com A Route 66 classic romance re-issued in e-format California Girl by Patricia Rice released as eBook for Kindle and nook 1/11 Free spirit Alys Seagraves and her elderly, eccentric friend Mame are about to embark upon an epic road trip along historic Route 66 when Mame suffers a medical setback that throws a wrench into their plans. Never the willing patient, Mame sneaks out of the hospital, determined to go it alone as she relives the memories of her honeymoon along the famous highway. Now Alys has to trail the spunky senior westward and bring her back to reality. Yet Alys isn’t alone. Mame’s nephew Elliot Ross, a very sexy but very serious doctor, is sharing the driving duties. Elliot has a voice like velvet and eyes to match. The impromptu couple will be spending many hours together in an aging pink Cadillac-and the sparks are destined to fly. After retracing the romantic path that Mame and her late husband followed long ago, Alys and Elliot will discover on the…
I grew up loving science fiction. My earliest sci-fi memory is of my dad coming home one rainy day and, with all the furtiveness of a spy, closing the shutters and hunkering down in front of the television to present my brother and me with his valuable prize: a bootlegged videocassette of Star Wars. This was way back in the late ‘70s, when Star Wars mania gripped the world. I don’t remember ever seeing the first film in the theater, but I do remember watching that video tape over and over again. I think my brother and I saw it almost fifty times—maybe more. We knew every line, and quoted them back to each other endlessly, much to our parents’ dismay. That bootlegged copy of Star Wars began a lifelong love of sci-fi that’s with me to this day. Of course, Star Wars was always my first love.* I remember lining up around the block to see The Empire Strikes Back, and how the audience clapped when C3-PO and R2-D2 appeared at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. I thought Luke was a dork, and Han Solo indescribably cool. And Princess Leia was not only a take-charge woman, but…
Chet and Bernie #3 October 2010 On Sale: September 28, 2010 320 pages ISBN: 1439157073 EAN: 9781439157077 Hardcover $25.00 Add to Wish List Mystery Pet Lovers Buy at Amazon.com Who says all road trips involve only humans? Chet’s journey home is remarkable. To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn In the third book in the brilliant New York Times bestselling series featuring a lovable and wise dog narrator, Chet and Bernie go under the big top to solve the most unlikely missing persons (and animals!) case ever. “We were outnumbered, some big number against two. When it comes to numbers, two is as far as I go, but it’s enough, in my opinion…. ‘Sit,’ Bernie said. I sat. Bernie would think of something—he always did. That was one of the things that made the Little Detective Agency such a success, except for the finances part…” Chet has smelled a lot of unusual things in his years as trusted companion and partner to P.I. Bernie Little, but nothing has prepared him for the exotic scents he encounters when an old fashioned traveling circus comes to town. Bernie scores tickets to this less-than-greatest- show-on-earth because his son Charlie is crazy about elephants….
I was listening recently to writers wailing on a historical mystery discussion list about readers who say they find historical fiction boring. Among the theories proposed was these readers are themselves boring, which I guess might be true, but I think it’s more like…just as some readers can’t get into fantasy, some readers can’t relate to historical fiction. In fact, for some readers, historical fiction might as well be fantasy! I’m not sure what sales are like for regular historical fiction, but I write mystery and romance, and to my way of thinking there are two schools of thought, and possibly two sets of readers for that kind of historical genre fiction. One set favors the romantic historical — the kind of thing where history is altered as needed to make for a “better” story — and the other set favors historical romance — where the writer works as hard to get every detail accurate as would a writer of non-fiction. Of the two schools, the romantic historical typically sells better. That probably doesn’t come as a shock to anyone. Dessert is generally more popular than broccoli. In my opinion, the very best historical fiction combines all the elements we…
Black Cobra #4 November 2010 On Sale: October 26, 2010 Featuring: Rafe Carstairs; Loretta Michelmarsh 464 pages ISBN: 0061795194 EAN: 9780061795190 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com The conclusion of the ultimate road trip: India to England. The Reckless Bride by Stephanie Laurens The final book in the Black Cobra Quartet He races to complete their mission against escalating odds–his task made more perilous when he loses his heart. She’s determined to defy convention and live a solitary life–until she tastes the reckless pleasure found only in his arms. Drawn together by fate, united by fiery passion, they pursue their shared destiny…one they’ll live to see only if they unmask the Black Cobra. Another exciting, sexually alluring and suspenseful novel in the Black Cobra Quartet series. Excerpt CHAPTER 1 November 24, 1822 Danube Embankment, Buda Rafe walked out of the office of the Excelsior Shipping Company, tickets for two passenger cabins on the Uray Princep, a riverboat due to start up the Danube two days hence, in his pocket. He glanced up and down the street, then strolled to where Hassan waited outside a nearby shop. Rafe tapped the pocket of the well-tailored,…
Celtic legends often speak of warriors so overcome by bloodlust in battle that they are changed. The fury and killing, the peril of certain death, and the instinct to survive merge into something that overcomes the warrior’s humanity, leaving him a savage beast bent on destroying his enemy. Men who have lived through war recount the moments up to the first strike but often have no memory of what came after until it is all over and they wake, as if from a nightmare, to find themselves blood drenched and exhausted beyond belief. The Celts had a name for this phenomenon: Riastradh. Tiarnan, the hero of HAUNTING DESIRE, is no stranger to the frenzy of battle. His entire life has been spent defending his way of life, his family, his lands. If the memories of the bloody battles he’s fought had stayed with him, he would likely go mad. It is not until he meets Shealy O’Leary, HAUNTING DESIRE’s heroine who has traveled through time, that he learns why he is such a formidable warrior. When his enemies take Shealy from him, he will stop at nothing to get her back and that means embracing the beast within him and…
Route 66 – book 3 December 2004 Featuring: Jake Ramero; Mary Lee Clawson 416 pages ISBN: 0446611700 EAN: 9780446611701 Paperback (reprint) $6.99 Add to Wish List Women’s Fiction, Romance Historical Buy at Amazon.com Because the Fresh Fiction team is traveling the “Mother Road” from Texas to California, this is a perfect book for us and one of our favorites. Available in nook and Kindle. Song of the Road by Dorothy Garlock More than a motor court on Route 66, a story of second chances By 1935, countless vehicles had traversed Route 66, their hum creating a uniquely American song. Most were heading west-but roads go in two directions, and in Dorothy Garlock’s riveting third novel featuring Route 66, the fabled highway is one that leads home. SONG OF THE ROAD It’s just a string of rundown cabins on a stretch of New Mexico highway. But returning to Cross Roads widowed, broke, and pregnant, Mary Lee Clawson knows her dad’s motor court is a godsend. With steely resolve, she sets out to rebuild the failing business and discovers she has to fight more than foreclosure. There’s her mother, Dolly–disinherited, angry, and whiskey-soaked–not to mention her disreputable friends. Still, Mary Lee wins…
Readers always ask me what my book’s hero looks like. I’m lucky enough to almost always have an answer for them, even if I don’t know how I got it. Sometimes I “see” the hero’s face and sometimes I know how he moves. But sometimes he reveals himself piecemeal – and only after I’ve started working on his story. (The rat!) That’s the way Jake Hammond, the hero of THE SHADOW GUARD, told me about himself. Astrid and his story rumbled around in my head for years before I could write it. I knew all sorts of personal stuff about him – his blind dedication to being a cop, his love for his family and hometown, his fumbling inability to form a long-term relationship with women, you name it. But could I have recognized him on the street? Not a chance. That’s very painful for a romance author who has to write scenes from her heroine’s point of view. What kind of guy makes her swoon? Tall and dark, with six-pack abs the envy of everybody else in the gym? Blond and handsome, chased by women of all ages? I had no idea because neither of them would tell me….
A lust/hate relationship. Ever have one of those? He infuriates you, but turns you on. You can’t decide if you want to strangle him or have your way with him. You really don’t understand each other and don’t seem to have much in common, but can’t keep your hands off each other. Find angry sex satisfying? It’s all angry sex. Mercy, lust/hate relationships are hot. When you’re involved in this type of romance, you find you’ve never felt more alive. Or infuriated. Or confused. Or passionate. I highly recommend you give it a try. For about a month. After that, you’d better find something more substantial to build your relationship upon than burning lust and righteous anger. The problem with passion that rages like an inferno is that it burns hot and quickly consumes its fuel. Oh, but it’s so great while it’s last. And if you can make that kind of passion last a lifetime, without killing each other… Well, you’d better stock up on your energy drinks. In my most recent novel, ROCK HARD, the heroine and hero start with a lust/hate relationship. That hot, I-want-you, I-hate-you, go-away, don’t-leave-me, take-me, don’t-touch-me-you-jerk, I-can’t-get-enough-of-you kind of relationship. Well, the heroine,…