My latest adult contemporary romance, HEARTS ON HOLD, features a professor and a librarian who engage in a short affair while working together on a university project. Dr. Victoria Reese isn’t expecting to catch feelings during this three-week trist; she’s looking for a release from the stressors of teaching at a predominantly white university, nosy administrators, and an overbearing mother. Her secret lover, John Donovan, has his own share of stressors: Managing the children’s department of The Farmingdale Library and caring for a cheeky 12-year-old niece. Working with the tightly-wound, schedule-obsessed professor sounds like a challenge for a man who has ADD and tries to live a laidback life. But there’s something about Victoria and her overdue paperback romance that makes John intrigued. He’s always up for a sexy challenge. H is for Hot. These two have amazing chemistry. E is for Earnest. John is there to support A is for Attraction. It’s instant. R is for Rendezvous. They have few of those. T is for Time-management. Victoria loves to schedule S is for Sisterhood. Yay for female friendships!   O is for Overdue. Victoria’s paperback is crazy late N is for Nemisis. Victoria’s boss is a meany.   H…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Marie! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, THE KISSING GAME! Hi there! I’m a NYT and USA Today bestselling romance author of over 100 books. I write contemporary, paranormal, and romantic suspense, all with a bit of heat and humor. And I live in Central Oregon with two growing teens, a dog and a cat (who thinks he’s a dog). The Kissing Game is a standalone romance centered around Valentine’s Day. It’s also a book I’ve been dying to write for YEARS. The heroine is a romance book lover; the hero is a tall Viking-like hunk who has a big heart but isn’t great at showing it. They are perfect for each other! The story has the hero doing his best to win the heroine by Valentine’s Day with some. . . interesting. . . presents. Tell us more about the heroine of THE KISSING GAME, Rena Jackson. Fans of your books know that she was actually introduced a few years ago. . . what sparked her having a book of her own? Rena Jackson was first introduced as the romance book-loving cousin of the heroine from What to Do with a…

Amara scanned the long list of agencies who participated in the crash investigation. It’d be easier to name who wasn’t involved. The National Transportation Safety Board had coordinated the inquiry, but the FBI and virtually every state and local resource had been active as well. With fewer than ten thousand people in Cotulla’s county, their limited resources meant they needed all the help they could get. Because the bus driver was a veteran, even the Department of Defense had stepped into the fray. When everybody’d had their say, the crash boiled down to one finding: suicide-murder. No charges were filed since the lone culprit was already dead. The Feds promised to do more for PTSD victims. The railroad put up crossing gates at every intersection in the county. The elementary school students planted seventeen trees in memory of their friends. The community grieved. And the Reyeses still mourned. All the families probably did. Amara dragged her finger across the screen and leaned closer. Who’d done the body IDs? She jerked when Sergeant Norwood popped his bubble gum. “Whatcha working today, Alvarez?” “Paperwork on the Leon Valley burglaries mostly.” She shrunk her internet window and grabbed a pen. “Then I’ve got…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Sophie! Please tell us a little bit about yourself and new book, PERFECT LITTLE CHILDREN?  I’ve been writing psychological thrillers since 2006. This includes my Culver Valley police series and several standalone thrillers – Perfect Little Children is one of those. It’s about an ordinary woman, Beth, whose life takes a sudden, sinister turn when she witnesses a totally baffling scene involving her one-time friend, Flora. It’s been 12 years since their friendship ended. Then one day, unexpectedly, Beth sees Flora with her children, Thomas and Emily, who were five and three years old when Beth last knew them. Inexplicably, the children appear not to have aged at all. They are no taller, no older, and they’re even wearing the exact same clothes that Beth last saw them wearing. Why haven’t they grown? Beth, fearing something dangerous and terrible is going on, sets out to investigate… Beth painfully parted ways with her best friend Flora twelve years ago, but when she’s in Flora’s neighborhood, she can’t help but drive by Flora’s house, which leads to a whole host of other strange things. What inspired this setup?  It was inspired by a real-life situation I found myself…