Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Sara E. Johnson | Exclusive Excerpt: THE BONES REMEMBER
Author Guest / September 7, 2020

Prologue Ocean Boy glided through the day in gradients of gray and green; occasional glittering light broke through the liquid world when his two-foot dorsal fin, notched and battle-scarred, cut the surface for a quarter hour, unaware he was a two-thousand pound apex predator marvel. At gloaming, he rode the liquid slopes to deeper, deepest depths, specialized blood vessels keeping Ocean Boy’s body temperature higher than the cold water pressing his organs. The hunt was on. Night vision was activated. His black eyes rolled back to fibrous muscle as his jaws snapped the meaty squid, clamped rows of sharp teeth, his torpedo body impervious to struggling arms and suckers, to spilled ink blacking the already black depths. Sated, he headed northwest. Forty-three miles a day he averaged, intent on a destination his brain had mapped at birth, a magnetic and magnificent tug toward innate hunger for fatty seal and sea lion, for adding weight, for adding years, for adding fear. At purple dawn, Ocean Boy’s dorsal fin broke the southern sea surface. The scent of blood increased his speed. *** Chapter One Safe from the tempest, Alexa Glock dripped across the cement floor to the ticket counter. She scanned the…

Caroline B. Cooney | Exclusive Excerpt: BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN
Author Guest / September 7, 2020

One Before she did anything else today, Clemmie had to check up on her next door neighbor, Dom. Why Dom had moved to Sun City was not clear. He had never joined anything, attended anything, nor shown interest in anything. He just sat in his villa watching TV, playing video games, and smoking cigarettes. He owned the tiniest of the three attached villas, the one in the middle with no side windows and little sun. Clemmie lived on the left, and a couple she hardly ever saw owned the right-hand villa, using it as a hotel when they visited grandchildren in the area. When they arrived, which was infrequently, they used their automatic garage door opener, drove in, closed the garage door behind them, and that was that. Nobody ever spotted them again. Clemmie wasn’t sure she’d even recognize them. It was agreed that Clemmie had the least rewarding neighbors in Sun City. Luckily, in her pod—the slightly creepy collective noun Sun City used instead of neighborhood–the little villas were tucked close together in heavily landscaped culs-de-sac, so Clemmie knew all her other neighbors–wonderful friendly people who hosted outdoor barbecues and took her bowling and carpooled when everybody went to…

Fall Recipe Potluck | SECOND CHANCE ON CYPRESS LANE by Reese Ryan
Author Guest / September 7, 2020

Welcome to the First Day of our Fall Recipe Potluck! We have an awesome lineup of authors telling about their new books coming out this fall and sharing delicious recipes–perfect for the cooler weather and cozy nights. Be sure to check back all week long for posts every morning. Also! Comment to enter to win a copy of the book featured each day. We hope you enjoy this potluck and find some new books and recipes to try. *** In my upcoming release, SECOND CHANCE ON CYPRESS LANE, rising star reporter Dakota Jones is inadvertently caught up in an international scandal that derails her promising career. She returns to the small town of Holly Grove Island to lick her wounds and regroup after spending the better part of two decades in New York City. The island town no longer feels like home, or so she thinks. But Dakota quickly begins to discover all of the things she’s been missing during the five years that she’d been actively avoiding the island since the death of her mother. Dakota discovers a new appreciation for her family and friends; the beach; the townsfolk who will always consider her one of their own. And…