1–What is the title of your latest release? HOW NOT TO MESS WITH A MILLIONAIRE 2–What is it about? A sassy American interior designer and a brooding Italian restauranteur engage in a battle of wills over who gets to stay in a villa on the Amalfi Coast that should be big enough for two—but not these two. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s Italy. What’s not to love? The food. The wine. The Mediterranean. I wish I was there right now. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  All of my heroines tend to be spunky, but Zoe might be the feistiest one yet. And she’s super creative when it comes to dreaming up ways to get Dante to vacate the villa. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  He’s a classic alpha wounded hero. He knows how to love deeply but is afraid to go there again. It doesn’t hurt that he’s smoking hot, as Zoe quickly learns when she arrives at the villa and finds him buck naked. Plus there’s that Italian accent. Swoon. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  Honestly, it was Dante. I’ve never written…

PROLOGUE Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God. PSALM 68:31 AD 31 He took one last aching look outside the crumbling window; the Nile was molten gold in the light of the rising sun, a sparkling coil winding its way into the horizon. Forcing himself to turn away, he came to kneel by the pallet where his bride lay sleeping. To have this woman, he would have to give up the lush beauty of his land, give up his family and heritage. He smiled. She was worth all the loss. For his sake, she had given up as much and more. “Time to wake up, love.” She groaned something incoherent, more asleep than awake. “Come now, lazy. Open those enchanting sea-green eyes. We can’t linger here. They will have discovered our absence by now.” He spoke in a light tone, making sure none of his mounting anxiety leaked into his voice. Still, the reminder of their vulnerability was enough to banish the last vestiges of her sleep. She snapped her eyes open and sat up in one smooth motion, holding the sheet to her throat. “How long have we been here?” “Too long.” He motioned to the…

Half an hour later, Letty opened the front double doors, dropping her keys and kicking off her heels at the front entrance of her temporary apartment. Emphasis on temporary. Her passive-aggressive, spineless cretin of a landlord had decided to jack up prices in an effort to evict tenants like Letty and those on lower incomes. Mitchell’s paid well, but her family made it impossible for Letty to save because every other month they seemed to need something. She truly believed there was a special place in hell reserved for people like her ex-landlord, preferably where they waxed his balls again and again with no pause in between. Waxing was a bitch and a half, no contest. Letty had bemoaned her homeless fate to Reagan, who had immediately called her older brother Callum. And voila, he’d let her stay in this upscale apartment free of rent, in a gorgeous part of Scarlet, while Callum lived on the sunny East Coast, in a city called Galena, on the other side of the country for the baseball season. Did she mention free rent? And six bedrooms? And bathrooms for days? Letty had grown up a child of divorce and hadn’t had her own…

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 Tim Rayborn! Writes: QWRYK is the first of four books set in and around modern Northern England, though it’s a world that’s a bit different than we think we know. Shadows, wondrous creatures, and magic abound, even if most people can’t see them. Oh, and there are the Nighttime Nasties, though the less said about them at the moment, the better. One of these Shadows, Qwyrk, is tasked with checking in on the vulnerable among humanity, and while trying to take a brief holiday in Yorkshire, things go very wrong, very quickly. Bloody hell… About: Professional writer and musician in Northern California. Obedient servant to a cat. Passionate about history, music, good food, good wine, and good humor. After years as a non-fiction writer, I’m now beginning to get all of these silly stories out of my head and onto the page, where they belong. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Enjoys quirky humor, sarcasm, and banter, especially…

1–What is the title of your latest release? Dead Dead Girls 2–What is it about? Dead Dead Girls is a prohibition-era about a tiny, tired Black lesbian who is forced into solving crime. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love the vibrancy and how alive the 1920s were. Even when the world was reeling, postwar, there is a generation that still grew and thrived on their own terms. 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  My main character, Louise Lloyd, surprised me by being so confident and determined. She is put into many different situations and still manages to come through as herself and stronger. 5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  I think readers will relate to my characters because they’re human. They get to make mistakes and have fun and be wrong and right. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  One of the biggest challenges while writing this book was getting the vibes exactly right. I was trying to get myself in the headspace of a woman who was born nearly a century before me, and has lived a completely different life. It’s impossible to…

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 Jody Hedlund! Writes: Come Back to Me: Research scientist Marian Creighton, thinks her father’s quest to find the ultimate cure is crazy, even if it stems from a desire to save her sister Ellen from the genetic disease that stole their mother from them. When her father finds and drinks a vial of ancient holy water and falls into a coma, Marian discovers clues that suggest he’s crossed back in time. At first she thinks he’s insane, until she tests his theories and finds herself in the Middle Ages smack dab in the middle of the bloody Peasant Revolt of 1381. William Durham, a valiant knight comes to Marian’s rescue and offers her protection . . . as his wife. The longer Marian stays in the past, the more she cares about William. Can she ever find her father and make it back to the present to heal her sister? And when the time comes to leave, will she want to? About: Award-winning and best-selling author Jody…

My new novella, COME MIDNIGHT, is one of my personal favorites, though I have no idea where the story idea came from.  Breanna Winters, seated on an airliner next to a good-looking man in an expensive suit, finds herself kidnapped by Honduran terrorists.  She doesn’t expect Derek Stiles, a corporate executive, to put his life at risk by volunteering to go along when Bree is dragged from the plane and marched into the jungle. Fortunately, Derek is a former Navy fighter pilot with extensive survival training and has spent time in the jungle before.  Still, it’s soon clear they’ll need to depend on each other if they’re going to survive. I loved writing this high-action adventure, and I particularly liked the interaction between the two main characters.  Though at first Bree and Derek seem to have nothing in common, in the end they discover they are the perfect fit. I hope you enjoy COME MIDNIGHT and that you’ll watch for Derek again in THE PERFECT MURDER, Reese Garrett’s story, the final book in my Maximum Security series. Till then, all best and happy reading, Kat *** Read on for an exclusive excerpt from COME MIDNIGHT by Kat Martin:  The sound…

Danielle: Hi, Katee! Welcome back to Fresh Fiction and congrats on the release of NEON GODS! This is a Hades/Persephone retelling. What appealed to you about this classic Greek Myth?   Katee: Thank you so much for having me! I was really excited to write a Hades and Persephone story because it’s the framework for so many of the stories we tell today. You can see echoes of the dynamics in a good portion of dark romances, and I was really excited to intentionally retell the myth through that lens as a contemporary dark romance. One of the things I love about your novels is how unabashedly sexy they are! NEON GODS is no different, and there are some really poignant and frank discussions about consent, birth control, and boundaries—which I think many readers will appreciate and enjoy. How do you balance the fun sexytimes and the important conversations that go along with them?  Honestly, this might sound a little strange, but I view those conversations as a different sort of foreplay. To me, there’s nothing sexier than a partner (or several partners) discussing how to make the experience enjoyable and safe for everyone involved. There’s a level of caring there, even before…

Seemed everybody was talking about Aunt Perdie today. Truth was, plenty of Aunt Perdie stories floated around the mountains. She hadn’t ever married. Said nobody ever came calling to ask her, but if they had, she might just have said no. Leastways once she got past normal marrying age. By then she couldn’t see the purpose in sharing a cabin that wasn’t all that big with some man who’d want her to do things his way. Not when she was happy doing things her way. Would that be how Tansy ended up? An old lady in a lonesome cabin after spurning whatever marriage prospects might have come knocking on her door? Youngsters then might be sharing Aunt Tansy stories. Could be they already were talking about that crazy book woman, even if they were glad to see her coming. The thought made her laugh out loud. At Aunt Perdie’s, Tansy tied Shadrach to a handy tree, then climbed up the steps to bang on the cabin door. Aunt Perdie didn’t have a porch, just a little slab of roof over the top step. She was ready to knock again when the door creaked open. “Well, if it ain’t the book woman….

Hi There! I’m Rachel Fordham, author of A LADY IN ATTENDANCE, a story that has been in my heart a long time and will be in readers’ hands June 1st. It’s rich with historical details and a romance that made me sigh while writing it. I’m excited to give you story teasers using the title! Here goes: A-  A is for Attending. The first dental assistants were referred to as either attending women or ladies in attendance. Hazel accepts a job working for the local dentist. * L- L is for Love After spending five years in a New York State reformatory, Hazel has a blemish on her name. Can someone with a past like hers ever find love? A- A is for Authentic Hazel grew up in high society, spent five years behind iron gates, and is now working as a dental assistant (using a fictitious name). Discovering who she really is, is a journey. D- D is for Daring The past is forever haunting Hazel, keeping her from believing in the future. It takes courage and friendship for her to dare face the things she tried to leave behind. Y-Y is for Youth If Hazel could change anything,…