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 Renee Dahlia! Writes: Renee writes romances featuring women who seek personal success and stumble across love. Some of her books are historical, some are contemporary, and nearly all of them feature LGBTIQ+ characters. In Her Lady’s Honor, WWI veterinarian Nell agrees to deliver her boss’s horse to his home in Wales because she doesn’t know what else to do with her life now the war is over. When her boss’s wife dies in mysterious circumstances, she stays to help her boss’s daughter, Beatrice, figure out what happened. Beatrice has a big heart and reminds Nell about what is important. Love, family, and that money can’t solve all your problems, although it certainly helps. About: Book loving author, who is really just a reader who writes to satisfy her creativity, seeks other readers who want to squeal about their favourite authors, argue over why secret baby is the worst trope (or is it misunderstandings/miscommunication?), and who love a little mystery with their…

All right, let’s talk first loves. No, I don’t mean that sexy bad boy from school. I’m talking about the paper kind. Those first, unforgettable books that were your introduction–your gateway drug, if you will–into the wonderful world of Romance. Was it that illicit stash of Harlequins you discovered at your grandma’s house? The dog-eared bodice-ripper you reluctantly started because it was the only book in the vacation rental that wasn’t by Stephen King? Whatever it was, it changed your life for the better. I was, I admit, a latecomer to romance. I’d studied ‘Serious, Proper Literature’ at University–which generally meant books written by men. I’d read everything from Chaucer to James Joyce, Shakespeare to Kafka. And I’d noticed how few of the women in those ‘classics’ ever achieved success or received any pleasure. If they did, they were usually punished, or ended up dead. I clung, ever hopeful, to the sparsest of romantic threads, but ended up shouting at my paperbacks instead; “Forget the train station, Anna Karenina! Run off with Vronsky and bloody well live happily ever after.” “Step away from the poison, Madame Bovary, he’s not worth it!” Don’t even get me started on Tess of the…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch 2–What is it about? The heroine, Pansy, is on a quest to become Chief of Police to honor her father’s memory, but her attraction to the new bad boy in town complicates things… 3–What word best describes your heroine? Pansy is very good. It’s important to her to honor her father’s memory and to do right by the town of Gold Valley. She’s also afraid of her own wild impulses, which West brings out in her.  4–What makes your hero irresistible? He’s a bad boy who is also a good man.  5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? West is learning the concept of family and connecting with half-brothers he only recently met, and he’s starting to turn to them for advice. Pansy is very close to her siblings. When their parents died, they took care of each other. She confides in her sisters, and in her older brother.  6–What do you love about the setting of your book? I always love returning to Gold Valley. I love the old west feel of the town and the mountainous terrain that surrounds…

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 VIV ROYCE!  Writes: heartwarming, super sweet smalltown romance about shopkeepers finding love when they least expect it. About: Dog lover – Stationery fan – Chocolate in one hand, cheese in the other – Pride and Prejudice adaptation with Colin Firth is the best ever made (the long look scene!!) What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: A reader who loves: that smalltown vibe where everyone cares for each other (and little old ladies are in matchmaking mode!) swoon-worthy heroes, relatable heroines, real relationship obstacles and a happy ending shop settings you wish you could visit in real life to sample chocolates, browse books or find an antique treasure yummy food (my characters often discuss things over delicious pie, ice cream or pancakes) books that can be read as standalone, but are even better read as series, with previous main characters making appearances and recurring side characters forming a community you’d love to be a part of! What to expect if…

Writing this book was especially fun for me because I pretty much grew up on the back of the sweetest little barrel racer, a quarter horse mare named Duchess. So I really identified with my heroine, Amanda, and her love for her barrel racers. And just like Amanda, I found myself eating dirt a time or two. Before I fully comprehended that most barrel racers have two speeds–full stop and eye-watering gallop–I once found myself hanging upside down and fully stuck on a barbed wire fence after flying over my horse’s head. Thankfully, I wasn’t hurt at all, but I also learned the perils of wearing a puffy coat while riding a barrel racer that day, because I hung stuck there until a neighbor happened by and peeled me off. While competing at the level Amanda does in Wrangling the Cowboy’s Heart is pure fantasy for me, as is the dream ranch and the hunky cowboy, I do enjoy watching rodeo events such as barrel racing–and bull riding, of course–whenever I can. I am also excited to have the chance to give away a copy of my first book in the Rodeo Romeos series, The Bull Rider’s Second Chance, as…

I think it’s safe to say that a swoon-worthy hero, the ever-elusive book boyfriend, is what makes a good book great.  As a reader, I’m always chasing this man. To me, he’s like the unicorn of the contemporary romance world. They come in many forms. We have the nice guys, alpaholes, daddies, and Dominants, mob bosses, to name just a few. What’s swoon-worthy for one reader might not cut it for another. For example, I tend to prefer the nice guy to the alphahole, but nice guys and alphaholes can share many things in common. I’ve written a three-book series. The heroes are all different, but they each possessive some of the same attributes that make me swoon. I’ve been reading romance way before I started writing, and it’s all about the hero for me. Yes, I love a strong, feisty heroine, but I read to find a book boyfriend, and now that I’m a writer, I can mold and shape my hero to meet my book boyfriend criteria. Here are the five things that make me fall in love with a fictional character, whether a nice guy or not. POSSESSIVENESS – A hero who knows what he wants and…

Summer is here, and what better way to celebrate but with a new eye-catching series in a completely different format than what we in the cozy genre are used to. Is there romance? Of course. Is there mystery? Absolutely, and the combination in bestselling author Diane Kelly’s new series is as fresh as sipping ice tea by the pool. Diane has taken the cozy genre and added a bold new twist that I adore. Check out her brilliant new angle to a feel-good genre. *** Kym: Welcome to the Cozy Corner, Diane! Diane: Thanks so much for inviting me! It’s always fun to connect with other book people, and especially to talk about the mysteries we love. I love the premise for your new Busted series featuring female motorcycle cops in various small towns across the country. What inspired the transamerican format instead of one small town? Will we see any female Canadian Mounties or a British Bobbies from across the pond? When I wrote Busted, I envisioned it as a stand-alone. I considered it equal parts romance/women’s fiction and mystery, and hadn’t really thought about making it a series since most romances/women’s fiction are stand-alone books. But after publishing it and getting…

Hi, Julie! Thanks for stopping by Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, THE LAST FLIGHT. Thanks for having me! THE LAST FLIGHT is the story of two women, both desperate to escape their lives. A chance encounter in an airport bar presents the two women with a crazy solution: switch plane tickets, then drop off the grid when they land. But one woman will never reach her destination. On the surface, both Claire and Eva have led inspired lives. Claire is a socialite and married into a powerful pollical family, but there are painful secrets she’s tired of hiding. Eva was raised in the foster system, and had a pretty good life going until she met the wrong guy. Even though their lives are different, they are quite similar in many aspects. . . How did you develop these two women while writing THE LAST FLIGHT? It took a lot of brainstorming, drafting, and revising to fully flesh these two women out. I wanted to make sure they were fundamentally different, and yet I wanted the core of them to be the same–two women, each fighting to get the life she wants. It took me about two years…

My new release Wrong Bed, Right Brother is a sexy rom-com about a gamer girl who falls into bed not with the co-worker she’s been crushing on for years—but with his twin brother. It’s fun, heartfelt, trope-tastic, and I hope it leaves you smiling! W is for Wrong bed mixup. That’s where it all goes wrong (or so right!) R is for Running. Noah is a running coach who works his heart out. O is for Orgasms. So many of them. Yes! N is for Never giving up. These two work hard for each other and for their HEA. G is for Gamer. Amanda is a video game designer full of creativity. * B is for Best friends. Amanda is BFFs with Noah’s brother and has a strong group of women friends to rely on. Everyone needs a community, not just their one significant other. E is for Electric. Noah and Amanda have so much chemistry, as soon as they touch, the sparks start flying! D is for Dreams. These two have big dreams, in their careers and in life, and they help each other achieve them. * R is for Risks. Love is a risk. Noah and Amanda take…

Wow, what an incredible week of fabulous books by wonderful authors, awesome giveaways, and great giveaways! Our Summer BBQ Recipe Roundup wraps up today with DESSERT! We’ll also learn more about Michelle Hazen’s BREATHE THE SKY, set in the Mojave Desert. Don’t forget—you can catch up on this week’s recipe roundup at the links below, and have chances to win books by commenting on those posts, too. Thank you for following along all week! We’ll be back with another recipe roundup in the Fall! Day 1, an appetizer with Lynn Austin: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10708 Day 2, a main course with Dylann Crush: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10709 Day 3, a side dish with Elise Hooper: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10710 Day 4, a bread recipe with Vanessa Riley: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10711 Day 5, a dessert with Michelle Hazen: https://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10712 *** In BREATHE THE SKY, Mari is a wildlife biologist, taking jobs deep in the Mohave Desert to hide from an ex-husband who won’t take divorce for an answer. She keeps to herself, scooping endangered species out of harm’s way on construction sites. Until she gets assigned to Jack Wyatt, the grouchy construction foreman who is the terror of all the other biologists. But he meets his match in Mari–the soft-spoken biologist won’t…