Gus Billy didn’t throw up. He swallowed the pills I gave him and drank the tea, and when he was sufficiently buzzed, seemed to remember he hadn’t eaten since the mini doughnuts I’d forced on him that morning. How does he even live? I’d put away at least six sandwiches since then. “What do you want?” I asked, trying to ignore how much I was enjoying seeing him stretched out on my bed. “I can order something?” Billy shook his head, eyes hooded and heavy. “No. I don’t want you spending money on me, and I don’t have any. There must be something in the cupboards. I just remembered I bought other stuff that’s not in the fridge.” “What did you buy?” “Can’t remember.” “Okay…do you remember where you put it?” “Nope.” Truth be told, he could’ve bought a hundred different things and stashed them in my kitchen cupboards before I noticed. It wasn’t like I ever looked. Curious, I rolled off the bed and sloped downstairs. The fridge was as bare as I’d left it, but a scout of the corner cabinet revealed a squirrel store of baked beans, Super Noodles, and tins of tuna. I couldn’t imagine how…

Enemies to lovers… opposites attract! How can these two possibly fall in love? We trust Lorraine Heath to take us on a wonderful journey in SCOUNDREL OF MY HEART. And this recipe for Strawberry Delight is the perfect treat for them to share together… And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another wonderful recipe!  SCOUNDREL OF MY HEART is an enemies to lovers story. He finds her irritating. She considers him a scapegrace. He dreams of owning a club. She dreams of inheriting her grandmother’s cottage by the sea. He needs funds to see his dream to fruition. She needs to marry a duke to gain her inheritance. He wants to ignore her. She needs his help to gain the duke’s attention. He betrays her. She wants her revenge. But when his father is found guilty of treason, and Lord Griffith Stanwick’s family loses everything, including their place in Society, he takes a detour through the darker corners of London and emerges a changed man, a man to be reckoned with. A man Lady Kathryn Lambert desires. Soon she must decide if giving up her inheritance is worth a chance at love. While it’s not a historical recipe and…

from Chapter 7 Helen, Wendy, Pearl, and Opal, our beloved Mahjong Matrons, filed into the restaurant at nine o’clock sharp. The four widows didn’t bother to pause at the hostess station for a seating assignment. They had their own table they occupied every morning, always sitting in the same spots. When I’d first started working full time at the restaurant, I’d bring them menus as a formality. They really didn’t need them as they ordered the same thing without fail, day in and day out. After a while I gave up on bringing the menus and just headed straight for the kitchen to place their order with Peter and prep their tea. When I returned to the dining room and approached their table, the elderly women turned to greet me with pleasant smiles and twinkles in their eyes. “Good morning, Lana,” Helen sang in a cheerful voice. “Good morning, ladies,” I returned, giving them all a smile as I set the teakettle down in the center of the table. Helen, who often acted as mother hen, reached for the kettle, and as the women flipped over their teacups, she filled each one to the brim. “Have you heard the latest…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER WITH A VIEW 2–What is it about? Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck have bought an old roadside motel at a tax auction, and they’re planning to turn the place into condominiums. But during demolition, Whitney’s cat Sawdust uncovers a body in one of the rooms. The murder victim is none other than Beckett Morgan, an up-and-coming country singing sensation whose song “Party in the Pasture” is a mega hit. Detective Collin Flynn–who Whitney has begun dating–is faced with a long list of suspects, ranging from female groupies, to jealous musicians, to the star’s manager and a record label exec, among others. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  Not only is Nashville a beautiful city with its rolling hills and the Cumberland River running through it, but the mid-century motel is a fun, kitschy touch. As a child on family vacations, I stayed at motels just like the one featured in the book, with pink porcelain in the bathrooms and massaging beds that would vibrate for three minutes if you stuck a quarter in a bedside machine. I have many happy memories swimming in the pools…

We are so excited to bring you the 2021 Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup! We have a fun week of great authors, awesome books, and delicious recipes to share to get you ready for Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re celebrating Galentine’s Day with friends or making a special meal with your significant other, these recipes are yummy and fun.  Today, Marina Adair is here to tell us more about her new book, HOPELESS ROMANTIC, and a great recipe for chili. . . While I love a good summer barbeque, nothing beats a warm bowl of soup and fresh baked bread on a brisk winter night. With the days getting shorter and the night longer, we tend to stay indoors. A good way to beat the cold-day chill is a home cooked meal of comfort food. For three generations, my family’s favorite winter meal is a pot of my grandmothers chili and warm cornbread—and I can’t forget the honey butter. I may have been corn in California, but with my family hailing from Arkansas and a live in grandparents, my upbringing was more the Clampetts than the Cleavers. I grew up on chicken fried steak, scratch biscuits smothered in white gravy. And that…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LOVE SPELLS AND OTHER DISASTERS 2–What is it about? This is an ooey-gooey romance about a girl who writes some love spells for a class project then discovers they actually work! 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love the Marshall mansion with all of its ghostly appeal. I love the candle store, Scents and Things, where Rowan and Abby get one of their spells from –it’s modeled after some of the stores I’ve visited in Salem, Massachusetts. I love the Grady Farm and the renovated barn that Luca takes Rowan for a romantic evening. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  I created Rowan to be the embodiment of so many of my past students that she has all of the parts that I loved the most. While it didn’t surprise me, I love that she finds the strength to reconnect with her mom and through their bond, find a solution to her love spell dilemma. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Luca is caring and respectful. He understands consent and doesn’t push Rowan into doing anything she isn’t comfortable with. He knows what he wants to do…

As the dawn breaks, she turns her thoughts to the future, imagining the map of France dotted with stops on her circuit. The main region of her new network is located throughout the Massif Central—the highlands of central and southern France. It is remote and mountainous, and only the locals have a clear understanding of the geography. She had argued with Vera about stationing her in a mountain region. “Send me back to Lyon,” Virginia had said. “If you want to be a kamikaze, enlist with the Japanese.” “Then anywhere else, but not mountains. I can’t face that again.” “Then that’s precisely why you must.” Mountains. It’s impossible to articulate what they represent to her. The terror of the crossing in winter—with a prosthetic leg—was bad enough, but add the guilt over abandoning her people, the Gestapo breathing down her neck, and the knowledge the betrayer was still at large, and it crushed her. She had never experienced a terror like she felt on every level during that crossing, but even then, she hadn’t seen with her own eyes the murder of her people. Until today. The air feels as thin as it did in the Pyrenees. It takes her…

1–What is the title of your latest release? WINTER’S ORBIT 2–What is it about? In an intergalactic empire, charismatic social butterfly Prince Kiem is commanded to marry Count Jainan, a serious and duty-conscious diplomat from a vassal planet. But Jainan’s last husband died unexpectedly, and Jainan himself is under suspicion of murder. The pair must work together to solve the mystery of his last husband’s death, while they find themselves unexpectedly falling for each other. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I had fun writing a royal family under a media spotlight and what that meant for the public perception of the main relationship. And while I was working on it, I enjoyed living in a world where queer relationships are so normalized they’re totally unremarkable. 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  Prince Kiem is one of those people who reacts to every situation by opening his mouth and starting to talk—some of the time I had no idea what he was going to say, but it always took the scene to fun places. 5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  I found it very easy to write Jainan, a habitual overthinker completely baffled by…

Have you ever wanted more from a series? Wanted to know more about the characters and how their world came into being or maybe you wanted to visit the setting and walk around a bit, enjoying the literary places you’d visited before. Those thoughts are what lead me to write STAR-CROSSED DRAGONS. It’s a love story about two Dragons from different social classes and clans that fall in love. These Dragons, Sara and Ian, are the main character’s parents from the Going Down In Flames series. In the Going Down In Flames series, I mentioned that Bryn’s parents ran away from a secret society of shape-shifting Dragons to escape arranged marriages. Honestly, I didn’t give much thought to how that happened. When I sat down to write her parents’ story, I realized I needed to reread the whole series to make sure I kept my facts straight. You’d think as the author I’d remember all the details, and I do remember most of what happened to the main character and her friends but remembering the information about the side characters was a bit more difficult. Once I had my ducks or dragons in a row, I wrote characters I really liked…

1–What is the title of your latest release? The Afterlife of the Party, out Feb. 2 with Entangled Teen 2–What is it about? The Afterlife of the Party is the first book in a teen vampire trilogy. Tansy’s life changes  when Tansy goes to a party with her crush/friend Vaughn and her best friend Skyler. Shed ends up on the road with Vaughn, chasing after a vampire band called The Drainers to save Skyler from the lead singer. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set in sunny Southern California, which is where I live, and I love the idea of vampires having to deal with all that sunshine. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Tansy surprised me by the lengths she would go to save her friend. And when I started writing the book, I didn’t know that she had a crush on Vaughn, but then again, how could she resist him? 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Vaughn’s a cinnamon roll with a hot bod and musical talent. He’s a good friend, loyal and funny. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  You know that phrase, kill…