1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Ruthless Pride 2–What is it about?  Ooh, it’s like Dynasty meets. . . well, what’s the hottest show you can think of? That. It’s Dynasty meets that. 🙂 Fifteen years ago, hedge fund owner Vernon Lowell disappeared with millions of his clients’ money, leaving his son, Joshua Lowell, to clean up the pieces of their family and the financially devastated clients. Joshua has done it, but now determined reporter Sophie Armstrong intends to dredge up his dark past with an article, along with rumors of a secret child. He will do anything to protect his family from pain and the possible ruin of the company he’s worked so hard to save. But he didn’t count on battling his fierce desire for her as well. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Determined and independent.  4–What makes your hero irresistible?  He’s incredibly loyal and self-sacrificing. And an artist. A repressed one, but still. Oh, and did I mention he’s hot? A friend of mine calls him Stern Daddy Blake Carrington. LOL! 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Joshua is the person his family and employees look to for…

What is a whispering dress? Venture inside the bridal boutique of my heroine, Fran Delaney, and you’ll find out. Fran finds vintage wedding dresses, gets to know their histories, then matches them to modern-day brides, helping them to transform their lives. In that sense, her dresses ‘whisper’ their secrets and wisdoms to whoever wears them next. I was inspired to write The Second Chance Boutique while working for the Victoria & Albert Museum, researching their extraordinary collection of historic wedding dresses. It wasn’t just the dresses that fascinated me, but the personal stories behind them. From demure to ultimate glamour, from the courtesan’s sack-back gown to the ever-changing Victorian silhouette, the thirties to the sixties to the nineties, these dresses were as varied in character as the women who wore them – and it struck me that the spirit of these women seemed very much present, embodied in the fabric and stitches. The idea of these dresses stayed with me until, not long after my own wedding, I decided I simply had to write a romance based around them. So here are some of the ones that inspired me: The Scandalous One This dramatic Norman Hartnell gown was worn by…

My newest YA fantasy novel, Storybound, is about a girl, Edie Keller, who moves to the city where her favorite books are set (in this case Austin, TX) and when she walks through the doors of BookPeople, she walks into the world of those books. It’s all real. The good guys, the bad guys, the book boyfriend she’s been in love with forever. The book boyfriend who dies at the end of the last book. .  . Except he isn’t dead. Not yet anyway. And if she plays her cards right, she just might be able to save his life. Before I get to the actual Title Challenge, I have a funny story to share. I misunderstood the rules for this challenge when I read them. I thought I needed to describe my book using only anagrams of my book title. Which—I’ve gotta say—is a lot harder than the actual challenge. So first, I want to share my anagram solution: Broody book boy toy snubs nutsy nobody! Okay, okay. . . I had to add in an extra s in ‘snubs’ … still, I think I did pretty good! Though, my teenage daughter rolled her eyes and said, “Mom! Please….

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Leslie and congrats on your debut! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, FRACTURED TIDE. Thanks for having me! FRACTURED TIDE is the story of an ill-fated scuba charter that lands the protagonist–master diver Sia–on a mysterious, time-bending island. The situation is complicated by one of the other survivors, her seven-year-old brother, a kid who needs a lot of hand-holding. Then there’s the hot guy who’s marooned there with her. . . and his ex-girlfriend. Yeah, it gets complicated. When they find a flooded sinkhole in the middle of the island, Sia realizes she has to go down into the darkness to help them discover the secrets of the island and find a way home. When I started this story, I was inspired by my diving trips, but I also dug into my experiences as a volunteer teacher at the Atlanta Women’s prison. On my first day in the classroom, I was holding onto a lot of stereotypes about prisoners (they’re pretty much all wrong). TV and movies paint the incarcerated parent as either totally evil or completely innocent. I wanted to tell a more realistic story, so I gave Sia a positive but…

CHAPTER FOUR EXCERPT OF SOPHIE JORDAN’S THE VIRGIN AND THE ROGUE Something was not right. All throughout dinner the sensation, the aching discomfort, only grew. Following dinner, Charlotte excused herself and managed to make it to her bedchamber, where she hastily shed her clothes as though they burned her skin and climbed into bed. It was bad. Terrible. The queasiness was unlike any other time. The symptoms were different. More . . . pronounced. She curled into a ball and dragged the pillow between her legs, hugging it tightly. Usually she endured the twinges of pain until they passed. The slight cramping that was improved by hot water bottles and Nora’s tonic. She would keep to bed for twelve hours until it passed. This was not like that. This did not feel in any way endurable. She was vaguely aware of her bedchamber door opening and closing and footsteps approaching her bed. She inhaled and exhaled in slow, even drags of air, her fingers digging into the soft linen pillowcase. Her sisters’ voices carried to her ears. Even in her current condition, there was no mistaking the agitation in Marian’s voice floating above her. “What did you do, Nora? She…

Living in Ireland, I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by history at almost every turn. Whether it’s the ruins of a keep or the bell towers of one of many, many churches (there are over 4,500 in the Republic of Ireland and we’re a very small island), there’s always something there. Right where I live, there’s a beautiful estate called Emo House & Parklands. It is a beautiful example of Georgian architecture built by the famous James Gandon in 1790, for the first Earl of Portarlington, although construction wasn’t finished until 1860 by the third Earl of Portarlington. Ireland has a rich and sometimes troubled history, and this house lived through it all, though it wasn’t lived in until it was bought by Major Cholmeley Harrison, who lived there until his death at aged 99 in July 2008. The Major gifted the house and its grounds to Ireland and it’s now run by the Office of Public Works and enjoyed by thousands of visitors. One of whom is usually me! Now, I read absolutely everything I could get my hands on from a very young age, but by the time I was in my late teens I had read my…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Secrets of a Fake Fiancee 2–What is it about?  Spunky personal assistant Morgan Stewart is eager to claim the family denied to her. She’s been living incognito as her brother Dane Stewart’s assistant while learning all she could about the Stewarts. Morgan reveals her true identity as Henry Stewart’s illegitimate daughter at Dane’s wedding reception and is rejected. Sexy playboy Jared Robinson witnesses the interaction and although he has his own family drama with his MIA brother, he’s intrigued by the fiery Morgan and offers her a deal she can’t refuse: pretend to be his fiancée to help him gain the respect of the board of Robinson Investments. Instead, the couple fall head over heels in love. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Spunky 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  She is irresistible because she’s just wants to be loved and I think readers can relate to that. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  At first, Morgan is fiercely independent, but when she needs advice, she turns to her half-sister Fallon, a character you’ll find in book #2 of The Stewart Heirs series, His Marriage Demand. 6–What…

Hi Bethany – welcome to Fresh Fiction! Please tell us about yourself and your new book: Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish.  Hi! I’m excited to be here! A little bit about me. . . I’m the wife of a radio broadcaster who I met in an online chat room in the late 90s, the mom of two boys who really are the best teenagers on the planet–even if they can’t keep their rooms clean to save their lives–and I’m the most three of all threes on the Enneagram. As for Hadley Beckett’s Next Dish. . . it’s the story of two polar-opposite celebrity chefs, Hadley Beckett and Max Cavanagh, who are forced to work together months after an on-air altercation between the two of them that brought Max’s career crashing down and helped shoot Hadley to stardom. Hadley Beckett is a successful TV chef who goes out on a limb to participate in a cooking competition show. The culinary world is notoriously male-dominated, but Hadley can hold her own against the best of the best! What inspired the character of Hadley? What does her chosen profession as a chef add to her story arch? When I first began thinking about this story,…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Sarah Morgenthaler! Writes: My debut is THE TOURIST ATTRACTION, the first in a series of sweet romantic comedies set in the small, quirky Alaskan town of Moose Springs. Where the moose run amuck and the locals are just trying to survive the tourist season. About: I’m a cheerful geologist turned romcom author seeking enthusiastic readers for an armchair vacation to the beautiful Alaskan mountains. Outdoor lovers a bonus! If you enjoy too many Instagram pics of my dog Sam and a Twitter-obsessed author who always forgets to post on Facebook, you’re the reader for me! I’ll provide the book, you provide the hot cocoa. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Must love adorkable heroines on the vacation of a lifetime Must love perpetually grumpy diner owners with cute dogs Must love blind border collies wearing pajamas Must love small-town characters with big personalities Must love sweet romances with lots of laughs Most of all, must love moose! What to expect if we’re compatible: Fun flirty dialogue…

Dear Reader, It is with bittersweetness that I write Gannon Steele’s story because he is the last brother of those “Bad News Steeles.” He is the last and the youngest, so you wonder what about his older brothers impressed him the most. Was it their player ways or their ability to recognize when they’d found that special woman who was destined to share their lives forever? Gannon is in a quandary. Now that he is the last of the “Bad News Steeles,” he wants to take it to the limit and enjoy life with women to the fullest. But on the other hand, he doesn’t want to miss the opportunity of recognizing that woman who might be his soul mate. Has he met such a woman? Is Delphine Ryland the one? There must be a reason he feels emotions around her that he’s never felt for another woman. Or is it a fluke? From the very beginning, I knew Gannon’s story would be special because it would also be the ending of a family of men and women who thought they never wanted to find love but found it anyway. Join me in giving Gannon his chance to find love….