I’ve seen your eyebrows quirk when I tell you I write fantasy. That little twitch of the brow is enough to alert me to your inner-realist. You want books that you can relate to, you think. Not a bunch of dragons and wizards and faeries. That stuff is for kids. You require grown up fiction. Happily, I’ve converted quite a few nonbelievers like yourself. From grandparents that have never picked up a fantasy book, to hard-core historical romance buffs, The Tethered World Chronicles have made some unexpected fans. Fantasy themes, you see, are not so different from our everyday issues. In fact, they often bring the bottom line into sharper focus due to the larger-than-life contrasts of the characters and setting. For your consideration, I’ve collected my top five reasons to read fantasy. I hope you’ll test my assertions for yourself! I’d love to know if you ever read fantasy (and if so, what’s your favorite book?). If you don’t read fantasy, what’s holding you back? One lucky commenter will receive an ebook of THE TETHERED WORLD to jump into right away. Fantasy reflects our own flawed humanity on a grander scale. Some fantasy books include humans, others have entirely…

I have been happily married to the same man for almost 21 years (I was a child bride…no really…well, I acted like a child) and I love him more than chocolate. We have three beautiful daughters and we still have fun just taking a drive together. That being said, if Johnny Rzeznik (lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls) showed up on my doorstep, all bets are off. In all fairness, my husband has a series of TV girlfriends who would make him forget he was married, so we’re even.  As kind of a joke we came up with the idea of a once in a lifetime freebie. What is a freebie you ask? Here is how we define it: A freebie cannot be anyone we actually know, like it can’t be my hot college roommate or the cute cop in town. This is only a one shot deal. You get one freebie and that’s it. If it is ever used, it will never be mentioned again—that was for me, I know myself and I’d throw it in his face every time I got mad at him. “Why don’t you ask (___insert hot chick of the month here___) to iron…

Eloisa’s publisher is happily sharing the first three chapters of Wilde in Love! But it’s only available for a limited time, until June 29. It’s super easy to claim—and Team Eloisa wants you to know that they think Eloisa’s written her most amazing hero yet! Read an excerpt before the reviewers get ahold of it! WILDE IN LOVE by Eloisa James Wildes of Lindow Castle Lord Alaric Wilde, son of the Duke of Lindow, is the most celebrated man in England, revered for his dangerous adventures and rakish good looks. Arriving home from years abroad, he has no idea of his own celebrity until his boat is met by mobs of screaming ladies. Alaric escapes to his father’s castle, but just as he grasps that he’s not only famous but notorious, he encounters the very private, very witty, Miss Willa Ffynche. Willa presents the façade of a serene young lady to the world. Her love of books and bawdy jokes is purely for the delight of her intimate friends. She wants nothing to do with a man whose private life is splashed over every newspaper. Alaric has never met a woman he wanted for his own . . . until…

It feels like yesterday that Samantha Chase released A SKY FULL OF STARS, but as we all know there is always another book on the horizon. Yes, we have to wait until February for her next Shaughnessy Brothers book, ONE MORE PROMISE (out February, 2018), but as a little treat, Samantha wants to share the cover with us today!   Ambitious Paige Walters is ecstatic when she’s hired to recruit musicians for a literacy campaign—it’s her chance to prove she’s got the chops to make it in the family business. She rolls up her sleeves and gets ready to make this the best campaign ever. Fallen idol Dylan Anders catches wind of the project and thinks it’d be the perfect way to redeem himself. Paige is less than thrilled that Dylan is using the cause for his personal gain—and she makes it clear. But as the campaign has them working side by side, their attraction grows. And so do their challenges… Pre-order ONE MORE PROMISE: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Ripped Bodice | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR

Who loves to travel and see new places? Even though I am a home body—I love nothing more than curling up on a cold afternoon in winter with a mug of coffee, and a book or my kindle in hand—losing myself in new worlds, we also do a lot of travelling around researching settings for my books.  Even in summertime down under, you will often find me (when I am not writing or researching) swinging in my hammock with an icy glass of something beside me. But always, always with a story in front of me. I love reading, and wish I had more time to indulge, but new stories and new places beckon. But even though I love being home—being a Cancerian, home and hearth is very important to me—we hit the road each winter, and head off exploring settings and doing research for my stories. I’ve written contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and I’ve dipped my toe into historical and paranormal stories as well over the past six years since I began writing. My writing world is a place I love to be and I hope you enjoy visiting and seeing what I’m currently researching and writing, as well…

In my mid-twenties, I had a group of friends that got together every Friday night for wine tasting.  Sounds like a fairly mundane thing to do, particularly week after week. However, what made this group different was every tasting was blind. The guy who organized these get-togethers would typically choose ten wines, and put them in paper bags. Some weeks we’d know the theme of the tasting—he might ask everyone to bring a bottle of syrah, for example. Other weeks it was a complete mystery. He’d give us tasting sheets, some would make notes, some didn’t care, and at the end of the evening, we’d see what we tasted, and talk about the wines. This was my introduction to wine tasting. Over the course of the years I became a certified executive sommelier, which is the second tier, similar in experience to an executive chef. My husband and I also owned a wine bar. As any writer who has attended any workshop, or even read a book on writing, has heard, write what you know. Thus, my newest series, Butler Ranch, is set on the central coast of California, one of my favorite wine regions—and was hugely inspired by those…

Coming to you from Down Under. The great southern land. The sunburnt country. The—actually, that’s plenty of that. Jess Anastasi here and today I’m talking about what Australia has done for the world of heroes. Like many authors, I love nothing more than “researching” for inspiration when working on my latest book and deciding what my hero is going to be like. Now, we all know the Hemsworth brothers have a made a big impact on Hollywood, but I’m a TV show addict, and today I’m listing my top five favorite Aussie heroes of the small screen. Bob Morely aka Bellamy Blake  Like many Aussie actors, Bob Morley got his start on the long running Australian soap, Home and Away. I’ve personally never watched the show, even though it’s been on TV as long as I can remember. Morely has certainly cemented his abilities as an actor in playing Bellamy Blake on The 100, which started out as a teen drama on the CW (though in its 4th season, I think it’s grown beyond that now). Bellamy has faced a lot, has had to make hard choices and tried to protect a sister who didn’t want protecting. Morely gives the…

Whether you like to sit on the porch with a hardback book in your hands, or with your Kindle or Nook on your lap, this week I’ve chosen four mystery must-reads to enjoy during your summer nights. Pour a glass of iced tea and join these great heroines and their quirky sidekicks in a cozy corner—each one is a treat not to be missed! ONLY SKEIN DEEP by Maggie Sefton Knitting Mystery In the latest novel from The New York Times bestselling author of Knit to Be Tied, Kelly Flynn and The Lambspun Knitters are eagerly awaiting a bundle of joy but find themselves heaped with trouble instead… Kelly Flynn and her boyfriend, Steve, couldn’t be happier as they await the birth of their bouncing baby boy. Kelly’s got a built-in group of fiber arts specialists, the Lambspun Knitters, who are working away on blankets and booties. As they sit around the table crafting their keepsakes, the story of Giselle Callahan is a popular topic of conversation. Giselle is the young wife of Henry Callahan, a Fort Connor banking scion, who traded in his previous wife of forty years for a newer model. Giselle’s prowess as a skilled country club…

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that American readers have long been fascinated with stories featuring their British cousins. We gathered together six inspirational authors who set their novels across the pond in all different historical eras to get the inside scoop on their latest releases. What drew you to choose the setting of this novel? What about it interests you? Roseanna M. White: I’d gotten to know the Edwardian era while writing my previous series and fell in love with the time period—the world was really in a unique place, where the old traditions were still lingering, but new technology was quickly gaining a place. We have both automobiles and horse-drawn carriages, electricity in some places but by no means all, and still a startling gap in England between the upper class and the average person. I love exploring this meeting of old and new, in those years when the world was on the cusp of a revolution of ideas as well. Sensibilities were changing, and the world was beginning to be what we’d term “modern,” but there was still that charming something of an era gone by. Julie Klassen: I chose to set the first book in the series…

Psst. If you ever run into her, don’t tell her that her old friend writes erotica. There’s probably zero chance the woman I’ll call C will connect the shy conservative she used to hang with with Vonna Harper of the ‘dirty’ books. C is more than a tad judgmental, and I don’t need to listen to her opinion of how I’ve turned out, but a part of me would love to see her expression. Back when her husband and mine were best friends, she knew I was a writer, but then I wrote romances and historicals, not the hot-hot-hot stuff. I’m certain it never occurred to her that I have a dark side. Because despite all the time we spent together, we really didn’t have that much in common, our friendship ran its course, but I think about her from time to time, particularly right now as my latest erotic Her Red Corset hits the electronic stands. Why, you ask and even if you didn’t, please play along because I have a bit of a tale to share about why I wrote Her Red Corset. To give you the short explanation, the story takes place on the second floor of…