Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Fresh Pick | FOLLOWING POLLY by Karen Bergreen
Fresh Pick / November 16, 2011

August 2011 On Sale: August 16, 2011 320 pages ISBN: 0312573588 EAN: 9780312573584 Paperback $14.99  Add to Wish List Women’s Fiction Contemporary Buy at Amazon.com A joy to read is our consensus Following Polly by Karen Bergreen Would you call Alice Teakle a stalker? Or just someone with an, um, healthy obsession with golden girl Polly Linley Dawson? No one much notices Alice: not her boss, not the neighbors, not even her mother. Besides, everyone follows Polly: her business selling high-end lingerie you can only imagine her wearing, her all-over-the-social- pages marriage to movie director Humphrey Dawson, her chic looks, her wardrobe. Alice just follows her a little more….closely. Yet one Manhattan autumn afternoon, when Alice loses her job and starts to follow Polly, she stumbles on the object of her attention sprawled dead on the floor of a boutique and is forced to become truly invisible. Because she’s accused of murder. But can another obsession help save Alice? Charlie is Alice’s longtime unattainable crush. He might be able to help her out of the mess she’s in…in return for a favor or two, that is. But how will Alice find out if Charlie is really the man she thinks…

Amanda Forester | The Tortured Hero vs. Torturing Your Hero
Author Guest / November 16, 2011

I do love the tortured hero in romance novels.  My first book, THE HIGHLANDER’S SWORD, had a great tortured hero.  He had been raised in war and held lots of deep secrets, guilt, and anguish.  As a result  he was distrusting, moody, and did a lot of glowering and such. In contrast, the hero of my latest release, THE HIGHLANDER’S HEART, is not particularly tortured.  Laird David Campbell  actually had a loving childhood and is surrounded by family who adore him.  His clan is prosperous, and although he does have to negotiate with the surrounding clans to avoid war, I wouldn’t say he has anything in particular to be tortured about. Despite this, poor David Campbell is still a tortured hero.  No, he’s not being tortured by his own internal demons, he is being tortured by me, the author.  He had his life all worked out, controlled, organized, and predictable, until I threw Lady Isabelle into his path.   Within fifteen minutes of meeting her, he is attacked by ruffians, gored by a wild pig, and his horse is stolen.  And it pretty much goes downhill from there. David also has a secret fear, one that he doesn’t want anyone to…