Our reviewer retrospective continues with Miranda Owen‘s favorite books of this year!  I love making lists. At the end of a year, friends and fellow readers will post about their top favorite five or ten books of the year. I’m not configured that way. Trying to pick only five or ten favorite books out of the hundred or so I’ve read over the course of a year is unfathomable to me. Instead, I’ve picked about five or so titles in four different categories. Many of these selections fit a few of different categories listed here. I mostly read and review romances, but cozy mysteries are my jam too. Christmas-themed Romance Picks THE MATCHMAKER’S MISTLETOE MISSION by Jaci Burton A COWBOY UNDER THE MISTLETOE by Jessica Clare ONE HOT HOLIDAY by Cynthia Eden MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE by Stacey Kennedy ONE CHRISTMAS EVE by Shannon Stacey There was a ridiculous amount of amazing Christmas-themed romances that came out this year, many of which came out at the end of October. The ones I’m discussing were my absolute favorites, but there were a bunch more that put a smile on my face. THE MATCHMAKER’S MISTLETOE MISSION by Jaci Burton and A…

THE BEST IS YET TO BE by Kathryn Le Veque de Wolfe Pack #15 The story every Le Veque reader has been waiting for… Paris de Norville (The Wolfe) and Jemma Scott Hage (The Wolfe) find love in their sunset years… with each other?! It seems like an impossible suggestion. Paris and Jemma first met in The Wolfe, in a fiery explosion of temper and taunting – her temper mostly because he was taunting. Handsome and arrogant in his youth, Paris was a powerful knight, second in command to the great William de Wolfe, and found great sport in taunting a Scots captive named Jemma Scott. Pretty, green-eyed Jemma was the oil to his water. The fire to his ice. Perhaps the sparks that flew between them at first were those of attraction, but soon another knight had Jemma’s attention and Paris was relegated to a role of both friend and tormenter. He affectionately called her ‘banshee’ and what she called him is not fit for delicate ears. It was a like/hate relationship for the ages. The years passed and Paris married Jemma’s cousin, Caladora. They had a wonderful marriage but sickness took Caladora from him and Jemma lost her…

Our Year in Review continues with one of our newest reviewers, Jessica Grogan, sharing her top historical romance reads of 2019! 2019 was a fantastic year for books, especially in my preferred genre of historical romance. There were so many great titles that it was often difficult to choose what to read next! With that in mind, here is a quick rundown of 4 of my favorite reads for 2019. My most anticipated read of this year was easily Vivienne Lorret’s THE ROGUE TO RUIN. The third in the Misadventures in Matchmaking series, this title features Ainsley Bourne and Reed Sterling. Ainsley determines that Reed’s gaming hell is keeping her family’s matchmaking business from being respectable and therefore profitable and begins a war with Reed in an attempt to close him down. This was a fantastic enemies-to-lovers tale where the hero and heroine take their time getting to know each other rather than falling into insta-lust. The villain plot added just enough action to the story without being cheesy or ridiculous. This title helped solidify Vivienne Lorret as one of my favorite authors!! A close second for my most anticipated title this year was Eva Leigh’s MY FAKE RAKE. The…

When I sat down to write my first book as an adult, I had no idea what I was doing or where it would lead. I ended up with a hot mess of a young adult romance mixed with a dash of dystopian. Since then I’ve gone on to write roughly twenty books, ten of them published, and none of them YA. My first series (The Broadway Series) follows a group of thirty-somethings as they fall in love and start families. My second series (The Shores) is a pair of best friends, starting their lives after college and falling for the last men they’d ever expect.  I love to read stories like this, but there is still something that pulls me back to the young adult genre every time.  There is something nostalgic about young love that I just can’t get enough of. Recipe for Disaster has it all when it comes to a YA romance. Whether I’m reading or writing, there are so many reasons to love a good YA romance: All the firsts. YA romance often features first loves, first kisses, first dates, and all the other first that come with being a teen. In Recipe for Disaster,…

Christmas—the time for exchanging gifts with those we love.  But sometimes, the greatest gift we can give is to ourselves, sorting through the clutter of everyday life and conventional expectations to discover who we really are—and having the courage to pursue that.  In this month’s selections, we look at four women who manage just that. We begin chronologically with ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Ada Byron Lovelace was the famed Romantic poet’s only legitimate child, who grew up estranged from the father her bitter mother thought deranged.  Because of her mother’s fears that she might inherit her father’s “insanity,” Ada was from childhood kept away from tales of fantasy and make-believe and led to pursue mathematical and scientific studies, subjects in which she excelled.  Though she debuts and makes the expected society marriage, she never gives up her intellectual pursuits, maintaining contacts with a number of leading scientists and philosophers. Through one of her former tutors, she meets inventor Charles Babbage and becomes fascinated by his “Difference Engine,” one of the earliest versions of a computer.  She will eventually write for Burbage’s machine an algorithm that some consider the first true computer program.  Before her tragic early death, she…

As a fantasy writer, people often ask me where I find my inspiration. So, here is a list of my Top 5 influences. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I am hardly the first author to be inspired by these amazing novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. I first read The Hobbit when I was a child, and I can still remember getting lost in the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and company. I quickly moved onto The Lord of the Rings trilogy and was completely hooked. To this day, I am amazed by the artistry and breadth of this series. And, of course, I feel challenged by it, to write something that might measure up to its greatness. Star Wars. I was seven years old when the first movie (A New Hope) first arrived in theaters. I saw it seventeen times with my father that year. It was truly a magical experience; unlike anything I had seen before. The adventure, the heroism, the battles, and the dynamic conflict between good and evil for the fate of the galaxy. Years later, when I began to experiment with writing my own stories, Star Wars was never far from my mind. Not the…

A Must for Christmas is a short holiday read about newlyweds Greg and Faith Mallory, who first appeared in Must Have Faith, Darling Cove, Book 2. Greg and Faith are thirty days away from having twins but days away from an explosive argument. Greg, who’s very old-fashioned wants Faith to be a stay-at-home mom. Faith wants to keep doing the job she loves and knows she can be an effective working mother. No one’s budging. Have you ever been in a situation where you know you have to have a difficult conversation, but it’s the holiday season and you have to put up a brave face and get through it? Don’t get me wrong, Greg and Faith are passionately in love. They’re childhood sweethearts and crawled over broken glass to be together, after a wild, out-of-nowhere break up days before their wedding ten years earlier. This couple got to me while writing Must Have Faith. I could feel their longing for each other and while not much of it ended up on the page, they had a rich history. They really deserved a happy-ever-after. When I tried to insert many flashbacks into this book, my critique coach had said I’d…

1–How much my series would change because of readers. A lot of authors will tell you not to read reviews. Dental surgery and spinal taps are more preferable than risking the maelstrom of reader opinions on Amazon or Goodreads. And that makes sense, to a degree. Nothing has ever been published that everyone loves. You’re going to get negative reviews, and some of those negative reviewers are going to tell you what they hated with zest & passion. Me? I’ve read every word people wrote about THE LAST SUN. And the thing that amazes me? How much insight there was in those reviews. How many fair criticism were filled with support, but also guidance for immediate course correction. For instance: many readers who really, really liked my book also faulted it for having few positive female characters. (I’ve written about this before – it’s part of my Journey as a writer, learning that having a book filled with gay white men isn’t as diverse as I’d once imagined it to be.) And so in THE HANGED MAN, you have Lady Death. And Anna Dawncreek. I am so excited where these new characters will take me. I am half in love…

Some of our reviewers will be sharing their top reads of 2019 from now through the end of the year! Today’s list is from Fresh Fiction Editorial Manager Danielle Dresser. 2019 was an awesome year for books. I’m grateful I have the opportunity to work with books every single day. In additional to being the editorial manager of Fresh Fiction, I’ve also started working closely with Love’s Sweet Arrow, the romance independent bookstore outside of Chicago. I’ve taken my love of books and cultivated a fulfilling career within the world of literature, and I’m so pleased to be able to share with you some of my favorite reads of the year.  I did my best to read widely and outside of my comfort zone – for me, that meant reading nonfiction and graphic novels (which I did do! Check out my Good Reads page here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/35789908-danielle-dresser). But I couldn’t stray too far away from my love of romance and literary fiction, which is what makes up the majority of my Top Reads of 2019.  Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert – This has to be, hands-down, the book I’ve recommended the most this year. Featuring a uniquely grumpy…

Jen: What inspired you to write Meg & Jo, a contemporary retelling of Little Women? Virginia: I think we need stories about strong women and families pulling together in tough times. There’s so much warmth and joy in Little Women! When I first read the book—my grandmother gave a copy to my sister and me when I was about ten—I wanted to go live with the March family and act in plays and write a newspaper and all the rest of it. But as I grew up, things I’d sort of skipped over in the story struck me for the first time or in a different way. And I wanted to tell Meg and Jo (and Beth and Amy) in a way that reflected that perspective. As the author of over thirty novels, how did writing your first women’s fiction book differ from your previous works? I’m still writing about families and relationships. I’m still drawing on classic stories of my childhood for inspiration (I always imagined Sea Witch as a sexy, feminist version of The Little Mermaid). But the emphasis in this story is very different. Meg and Jo isn’t so much about if or who the sisters will…