Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Jennifer Probst | 20 Questions: OUR ITALIAN SUMMER
Author Guest / January 12, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release?  OUR ITALIAN SUMMER 2–What is it about?  Three generations of women in the Ferrari family must heal the broken pieces of their lives on a trip of a lifetime through picturesque Italy. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The book literally takes you through a tour of Italy, from Rome all the way to Tuscany. It’s full of amazing food, wine, and experiences that Italy is beloved for. 4–How did your heroine(s) surprise you?  There are actually three heroines in this book. Francesca is 49, Allegra is 18, and Sophia is 75! I love diving into the various points of view for each age. I think what surprised me the most about all of them is the inner strength each of them have to keep them pushing through challenges. 5–Why will readers love your hero(es)?  There are two main heroes in this book! Enzo is the Italian tour guide, and Ian is one of the tour members from Ireland. Enzo falls for Francesca, and Ian falls for Allegra. These love stories are both very different but extremely emotional and poignant. I know these two men will make my…

Brooke Burroughs | Author-Reader Match: THE MARRIAGE CODE
Author Guest / January 11, 2021

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 BROOKE BURROUGHS! Writes: I write rom-coms starring women who have a heart for adventure, even if they don’t know it yet! THE MARRIAGE CODE, which takes place in Seattle and Bangalore, India, is my debut novel which comes out on January 1st, 2021. About: THE MARRIAGE CODE is inspired by my experience working in the tech industry, and moving to India, where I met my husband. When I’m not writing, I conduct experiments in vegetarian cooking, perform with a Bollywood dance troupe, travel whenever I can, and am frequently seen at the dog park with my Great Dane which is often mistaken for a horse. I now live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two dogs, and often miss my mother-in-law’s delicious South Indian cooking. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: You’re always rooting for the romance in any TV show, movie, or book—even if it’s not actually a romance. I mean, Godzilla and Mothra—couldn’t you see…

Danielle J. Dresser | New Beginnings
Author Guest / January 11, 2021

I have a love-hate relationship with the New Year. On the one hand, it’s a brand-new time—full of possibility, a fresh start, and a time to plan and think about all the things that could happen in the coming months. On the other, we live in a society where the New Year signifies a time of intense diet culture (which is really just body shaming and misogyny), insecurity, and whatever else deemed wrong and in need of change. And let’s not forget we’re still in the middle of a world-wide pandemic and political turmoil. Thanks, 2021! In spite of all of that, however, good things have been happening (more on that later), and by good things, I do very much mean GOOD BOOKS. Here are a few of my favorite opening lines from some of my fave books of 2020, as well as a few from the 2021 books I’m looking forward to coming out! The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa (2020) My phone’s text tone chirps like a robin—which fails to prepare me for the clusterfuck on the screen. ANDREW: Everything you said last night made sense, M. Thanks to you, I can see the truth now. I…

Kat Martin | Setting the Stage
Author Guest / January 11, 2021

I love to read novels set in interesting places.  Currently, I’m reading a historical romance that takes place in Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII.  I’ve always loved Paris, which makes the book even more fun to read.  Being able to recognize the settings where the action takes place, as well as the names of restaurants and streets I have visited. As a writer, going to the place your book is set, or choosing a place you have actually been, is the best way to make your book seem real. In THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL, the novel takes place in Colorado, a state I love to visit.  After I’d concluded my second Maximum Security novel, THE DECEPTION, which was set in Texas, I was looking for someplace different for book number three.  Colorado, with its wide variety of landscapes and extreme climate conditions, seemed perfect. Having been to Denver a number of times, street names were familiar, parks and airports, locations of smaller towns, and rural mountain communities. Since this was a Maximum Security novel, a romantic thriller, I began by researching crime in the state.  I had digging and digging and finally stumbled onto an article about the U.S. Army chemical weapons…

Lynn Rush & Kelly Anne Blount | At the Movies with Willow and Brodie + Giveaway!
Author Guest / January 8, 2021

Thanks so much for featuring us on Fresh Fiction! We love your blog and are so excited to have the opportunity to talk about our sweet YA romance, IN THE PENALTY BOX! Before we get started on our post, don’t forget to enter the giveaway! Details are at the bottom of the post. Below we’ve shared our top five movies for Brodie and Willow’s characters. Do you have a favorite movie? If so, leave it in a comment below! Brodie’s got quite a list, and as he and Willow get to know each other, he realizes they have a few in common! Which makes her all that more irresistible. 1–Fast and Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious. I mean a sub crashing through the ice? That’s just plain rad. 2–Young Blood: Best hockey movie ever…even if it’s from a hundred years ago. 3–The Avengers – all of them. No way can I choose just one. 4–The Terminator Series: Yep, even the non-Arnold ones. 5–Elf: Who wouldn’t like a movie that has the longest belch ever recorded? Willow loves streaming movies! After tearing her Achilles tendon while figure skating, Willow had loads of rehab time, which meant hours on end…

Jennifer Vido | Jen’s Jewels Interview: OUR DARKEST NIGHT by Jennifer Robson
Author Guest / January 8, 2021

Jen: What inspired you to write OUR DARKEST NIGHT? Jennifer: After finishing work on THE GOWN, I jumped into work on a book set in…well, I don’t really want to say, since I may return to it some day! I spent months researching and plotting it, but when it was time to buckle down and write the thing, I just couldn’t do it. I was trying to figure out what to do next when my son came to me and asked if it was true that his great-grandparents, my husband’s maternal grandparents, helped to hide Jewish families from the Nazis during the war. And I had to admit that I wasn’t sure – but I told him I would try to find out. It didn’t take a lot of digging for me to discover that San Zenone degli Ezzelini, the small town in northern Italy where my mother-in-law grew up, was a focus of resistance against the Nazi occupation in World War Two, and specifically that the local priest had organized shelter for dozens of Italian Jews. Father Oddo Stocco was named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2010, and while I wasn’t able to prove conclusively that…

Lynette Eason | 20 Questions: ACTIVE DEFENSE
Author Guest / January 8, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? ACTIVE DEFENSE 2–What is it about? As a former field surgeon in Afghanistan, Heather Fontaine is used to life-or-death situations. She just didn’t expect them to follow her home. When she returns from a party to find that someone has broken into her house–and threatened her friends–she assumes it is the stalker who has been following her and creeping her out. She hopes to find safety and peace of mind by leaving the city and hiding out in a small town. But trouble has followed her even there. Luckily, a stalker isn’t the only one watching Heather. Travis Walker has been secretly watching out for her for weeks. As owner of his own security agency, it’s what he does. Together, Travis and Heather must figure out who wants her dead–and why–before it’s too late. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love that it’s set in the city where I grew up–which is great because I know the “lay of the land” so to speak. 🙂  4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  Heather was a complete surprise, to be honest. When she appeared in the other two…

Cathy Bonidan | Exclusive Excerpt: THE LOST MANUSCRIPT
Author Guest / January 8, 2021

from Anne-Lise Briard RUE DES MORILLONS, PARIS, APRIL 25TH, 2016 Dear Madam or Sir, I am sending you this package very late, please forgive me. After discovering it in room 128, someone else would have immediately handed it over to the reception of the Beau Rivage Hotel; nevertheless, if you were to ask those who know me, they’d tell you just how lazy I can be in my daily life. So don’t take this postponement to mean that I don’t like your book. Not at all. I will even admit to you: I read it. I had just opened the nightstand to the right of the double bed, which as it happens was quite comfortable, when I was delighted to find the distraction you provided me. You see, I had forgotten to bring a novel to keep me company this weekend on the shore of the Iroise Sea . . . Since I can’t fall asleep without first reading a few pages, I become very annoying when I’m deprived of the pleasure. Thanks to you, my husband didn’t have to deal with my rotten mood. Anyway, it was on page 156 that I found—between two chapters—the address to where I’m…

A.K. Wilder | Title Challenge: CROWN OF BONES
Author Guest / January 7, 2021

I set CROWN OF BONES in a fantasy world where Bone Throwers decide every child’s fate, determining if they are savant, those who can raise their phantom, non-savant, those who cannot, or marred, those who are sacrificed to the sea. It’s epic in scope yet written with a contemporary YA voice and feel. In the pages, you will quickly meet the three main characters: Marcus, the troubled Heir to the throne, Ash, his best friend, the non-savant wordsmith, and Kaylin, an enigma I cannot say more of yet. What I can reveal is that I am, in truth, a Bone Thrower, and those fight scenes are authentic as well, choreographed from my experience in Iaido and the insights from my martial arts trained son. I hope you enjoy the danger, romance and adventure! * C is for Contrast, the play of opposites attracting each other, night and day, land and sea, sun and moon, right and wrong… Ash and Kaylin. R is for Rapture. The passion and intensity the characters feel, whether for each other, their goals or a long-awaited first kiss, forms a powerful current the readers will ride from beginning to end. O is for Outspokenness, a quality…

A.C. Arthur | Exclusive Excerpt: TEMPT THE DRAGON
Author Guest / January 7, 2021

“It’s been a long time, Melody.” He was giving her that look. The one that used to have her tearing her clothes off in seconds. “Don’t call me that and don’t look at me that way.” She took a step closer to him only because she needed to get control of this situation. It was imperative that she prove she could handle being in this space with him at this moment. “You made me lose him. You, of all people, know that time is money.” “What’s the bounty?” His calm demeanor still infuriated her. They’d just killed seven vampires and who knows how many more downstairs and he was standing there talking like they’d just met up by chance on the street. She had no idea why he was here, nor did she care. He obviously had his job and she had hers. More impor­tantly, at this moment, she had to get a grip, to still that incessant churning in the pit of her stomach that hadn’t stopped since the last time she’d seen him. “I knew my target was here and then you barged in and I lost him.” “How much, Mel? What’s the price for you to bring…