From the moment I learned to read, I was in love. Not necessarily with words, but with stories. I lived in the pages of the books that I read. I could be a thousand different versions of me all without leaving the comfort of my own bedroom. I was an addict from the very beginning. In fact, I once got in trouble for reading in class. Who gets in trouble for reading in class? If anyone could do it, eight-year-old me could. You see, the teacher was reading a different book to the class, one written specifically for eight-year-olds. But that’s not what I wanted. I craved action, adventure, excitement. The kind of thrilling ride that could only be found in the pages of adult thrillers pilfered from my mother’s well-stocked bookshelves. Once I became an adult, and started experimenting with writing my own novels, I realized there was entire world of adventure I had missed in my leap from young chapter books to adult fiction. Teen fiction. I’m a pre-Twilight-era millennial. In fact, by some scales, I’m almost Gen-X. And when I was growing up, YA/teen fiction wasn’t really a thing, at least not a well-known thing. So, the…

What makes us as readers gravitate to a particular genre when we start reading? What makes one child fall in love with cowboys and Indians, and another devour every fantasy or science fiction novel she can get her hands on? Then some of us realize that not only do we love to read, we want to create stories for others to read. And that same passion kicks in and we naturally write the same kinds of stories we’ve always loved to read. I was born and raised on a farm in Mississippi, and from an early age I loved horses and all things western. I was a bit of a tomboy and cut my teeth on Louis L’Amour westerns and John Wayne movies. My mother is at a loss to where I inherited this passion to create. Surely there was somebody in my family tree who made up stories in their heads. But so far we haven’t made a connection with anybody. But wherever it came from, I got it bad, and I got it early, as early as first grade. Our neighbor’s husband worked in the oil fields of Alaska and was gone months at a time. She’d invite…

I’m so excited to share the gorgeous cover of my upcoming release SHINING THROUGH, the fifth and final book in my Red Hot Russians sports romance series. It’s Dirty Dancing meets Olympic figure skating as Russian bad boy Daniil Andreev, and American ice princess Tabitha Turner try to keep their eyes on the gold in the midst of all kinds of sexy distractions. Helping out along the way are PAIRING OFF‘s Red Hot Russian hero Anton Belikov, who is now Daniil’s coach; and some other familiar faces from the series. But don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the previous books. Each story works as a standalone. My cover designer Dani Barclay created a beautiful scene of the book’s Winter Games host city, Grenoble France, and her depiction of the Olympic torch figures into one of my favorite scenes! With the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyongChang South Korea coming up in February, now is a great time for a romance that follows two top level figure skaters through the season that leads up to the Games! SHINING THROUGH by Elizabeth Harmon Red Hot Russians The Biggest Season of her Career… America’s sweetheart Tabitha Turner is on track to win figure-skating…