Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Sarah! Can you tell us a little bit about your latest release, A WEDDING IN DECEMBER? Thank you for inviting me back! Great to be here. A Wedding in December is the story of the White family, who come together in beautiful snowy Aspen, Colorado, to celebrate the wedding of youngest daughter Rosie.  On the surface it’s about the wedding (although whether or not the wedding actually happens, I’m not saying! No spoilers here for people who haven’t read the book), but really, it’s a family drama and also three romances in one book because as well as the bride-to-be Rosie, we follow her sister Katie, and her mother, Maggie. Maggie is very much the anchor of this story, which explores how the relationship between the different family members changes over time. It’s a fun, festive holiday story with plenty of drama. What a wonderful family romp to read this time of year! What inspired the White family and their various predicaments? During the holidays, families are often thrown together in a confined space with individuals they might not see too much of for the rest of the year. That’s a recipe for drama! And…

My current release, Colton 911: Family Under Fire, is a Christmas romantic suspense story. And who doesn’t enjoy a little romance in their lives at Christmas? With that in mind, wanted to share my top 5 romantic Christmas films with you. Bridget Jones’s Diary Bridget Jones is an average woman struggling against her age, her weight, her job, her lack of a man, and her many imperfections. As a New Year’s Resolution, Bridget decides to take control of her life, starting by keeping a diary in which she will always tell the complete truth. The fireworks begin when her charming though disreputable boss takes an interest in the quirky Miss Jones. Thrown into the mix are Bridget’s band of slightly eccentric friends and a rather disagreeable acquaintance who Bridget cannot seem to stop running into or help finding quietly attractive. Love, Actually Love, Actually is often named as one of the best Christmas movies and, as its name suggests, it’s also one of the most romantic. The movie is a series of vignettes about several different people that seemingly have no connection to one another, although by the end the connections are finally all present and accounted for. There’s a…

Dear Reader, Red Carpet Redemption is the third book in The Stewart Heirs series. My inspiration came from watching the Jennifer Lopez movie The Backup Plan. What if the heroine used a sperm donor to get pregnant and falls in love with him years later? That notion gets turned on its ear when the donor turns out be A-list actor and America’s Sexiest Man Alive Dane Stewart. The lovable hunk has no idea he’s a father or that his son Jayden is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Navigating fatherhood and falling for his son’s mother, Iris Turner, was never part of the plan, but their first meeting has Dane seeing stars. I hope you enjoy this feel-good love story. Dane’s story was to be the last book, but the series felt unfinished. Expect the fourth and final book in 2020. Visit my website for more details, www.yahrahstjohn.com, or write me: [email protected]. Best Wishes, Yahrah St. John *** Iris was on cloud nine. Earlier today, Dr. Lee had called and informed her there was a match for Jayden. For months, she’d thought it was a pipe dream. She’d gone on television and begged people to register to donate, but…

By Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Teresa Cross *** First, I have to tell you how excited I am that I get to interview you. This is an amazing wish come true as you and Marc are my favorites of all authors. So, all questions can be answered by just one or both of you two! Your Coffeehouse Mysteries are my favorite cozy mysteries as I love coffee, I hang out at coffee shops and I have a daughter who is a barista. What inspired you to write this series with a coffee shop? Marc and I are honored to know how much you’ve enjoyed our work, Teresa, thank you! And please give your barista daughter a hug from us. One of the things we discovered while doing research for our Coffeehouse series was how passionate the people are who work in the coffee trade—from the farmers who grow it and the “coffee hunters” who source it, to the master roasters who create the blends and the baristas who serve it. They continually provide inspiration for our characters and storylines. As for the origin of our series, that reaches back to 1985, when I was working as a cub reporter for…

I absolutely love mysteries and thrillers—books, movies, TV shows—I binge them all. I am also inspired by them. In fact, my newest novel, In The Dark, is an homage to author Agatha Christie and one of her most iconic stories And Then There Were None. In my novel, Christie’s story actually becomes a plot device, a psychological tool, that the villain uses to instill fear in the victims that are trapped. The victims know what transpired in And Then There Were None, which has them anticipating that the same will happen to them. Some of my other favorite mystery writers include Daphne DuMaurier and Patricia Highsmith. Also, at the moment I’m loving Lisa Jewell’s voice and her domestic suspense—I’ve been on a Lisa Jewell glom. In this vein, I love Louise Doughty’s Apple Tree Yard and enjoyed Helen Fitzgerald’s The Cry, and Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us. Liane Moriarty, too. Off the top of my head, my favorite thriller movies include The Bone Collector, The Thomas Crowne Affair (for the romantic tension), and The Debt (pure tension plus love triangle!) And finally, let’s not forget great TV shows in this genre. I think that the television series adaptation of The Cry is just fabulous. I am hooked on Big Little Lies. I’m also a…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Nalini! Can you tell us a little bit about your latest novel, A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE?  A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE is my debut thriller. Set in an isolated town on New Zealand’s rugged and stunningly beautiful West Coast, it’s about all the different faces people wear, all the secrets we keep, and how well we ever know one another. The New Zealand landscape is an integral character in the book, a place that’ll take your breath away…and a place so wild and empty that bodies could disappear without a trace. A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE marks a change of genre for you! What inspired this change to write a thriller? Did you find anything surprisingly different than writing paranormal romance? I’ve always enjoyed mysteries and thrillers, and many of my paranormal romances have a mystery element or subplot. So it wasn’t a huge shift to write a pure mystery – it was more a case of having the right story and the right setting. Anahera Rawiri left her small New Zealand hometown of Golden Cove eight years ago, but returns to find things similar, but with some frustrating differences. What does her return home mean to Anahera?…