1–What is the title of your latest release? Not Seeking Mr. Right 2–What is it about? It’s an older woman/younger man romance where 40 year old Ginny finds herself accidentally pregnant from a one-night stand with cute 25-year-old Josh. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I fell in love with Lakeside NY, and the people who live there, when I was writing the Men of Lakeside series. It’s similar to the area I live in, so I’m very familiar with a small town on a lake, where tourists flock every summer. When that trilogy was done, I didn’t want to leave the village and the people behind. The villagers love spreading gossip, but most rally around their neighbors, and show up often in the pages. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  How easily she accepted the idea of a one-night stand. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Not only is he hot as hell, with sun-kissed curls and a seductive smile, but he’s a responsible guy who wants to do what’s right. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  Getting the premise nailed down. I had a few different…

I’m Marlene Perez and I’m here to give you a little hint of my new book, I’M WITH THE BANNED, the second book in my teen vampire trilogy with Entangled Teen.  I love a good title challenge! I is for intense. Tansy and Vaughn have always been friends, but there’s some intense relationship stuff Tansy has to figure out when Vaughn disappears for a month. M is for Mariotti. Tansy’s Granny Mariotti is a librarian-witch you don’t want to mess with. She’ll find you the perfect book and put a spell on you. * W is for werewolves. Tansy and her friends have to figure out who is killing werewolves before a vampire-werewolf war breaks out. I is for intimidating. T is for Tansy. The main character in I’m with the Banned is Tansy, a high school senior and the newly crowned queen of the vampires. She’s got a lot on her plate: a new boyfriend, a new title, and a new enemy. Or maybe it’s an old enemy. H is for Hecate, Tansy’s new and unusual pet. Hecate smells like burned marshmallows and brimstone. * T is for Travis, the lead singer of The Drainers and the vampire everyone…

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 KD Casey! Writes: Steamy, poignant queer romance usually set in the world of sports. In my debut, UNWRITTEN RULES, professional baseball player Zach Glasser reunites with Eugenio Morales, his ex-teammate—who’s also his ex-boyfriend—for a second chance. About: Nice Jewish author from Washington, DC, seeks readers. Likes: spending time with family (often), sports (when it’s going well), and reading (constantly). Convinced her fourth-grade teacher to let the class watch A League Of Their Own because, quote, it was women’s history month. Reply if you also enjoy thunderstorms, cat-herding, improvisational cooking, baseball on the radio, and tea. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: My ideal reader: Is looking for high heat romance with a slow emotional burn Likes stories about family, including families of choice Enjoys flawed characters who (I hope!) you want to root for Loving sports is a plus but not required What to expect if we’re compatible: #OwnVoices Jewish characters of a variety of observance levels Second…

FROM CHAPTER EIGHT: Real or Surreal Nicolas grabbed a glass of sparkling wine off one of the servers’ trays, the movement bringing me back to the present. At over six feet tall, he towered over me, intimidating. His perfectly disheveled chestnut hair blew in the breeze, as if he’d just rolled out of the sack with the blond. His eyes bored into mine, dark blue with a devilish twinkle. His trimmed beard highlighted a chiseled jawline. By the way his chin lifted, he knew he was good-looking and he appreciated being looked at. But I didn’t like the way he was looking at me—like a meal he wanted to devour. He raised his glass and said, “I’m thoroughly enchanted to meet the world’s most beautiful cooking face.” Wrong thing to say. My spine went rigid. “Believe me, I can carry my own pots and pans. Merci beaucoup.” “But you look so sweet and delicate,” he said, eyeing me up and down. I don’t know if it was my imagination working in overdrive, but his eyes seemed to hold a certain lascivious quality. Whether it was rude or not, I turned on my heel to walk away. “It was lovely to…

By Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen I’m a romance reader but I like when genres mix together in films and in books. Among other things, I think that’s just truer to life. My taste in horror films runs toward cheesy slasher films with exaggerated, fake violence and classic ghost stories. One of my absolute favorite horror films is Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. I like the snappy dialogue, the homages to classic horror actors and directors, but I adore the unexpected romance between the beleaguered Tommy Jarvis and Megan, the sassy daughter of the sheriff. If this wasn’t a horror film, this would make a good “meet-cute.” Megan meets Tommy for the first time while he’s locked up in her father’s jail. Despite the odds, things look hopeful at the end that this couple might have a future together – hooray! That’s the kind of horror/romance mix I love. There are several books that are perfect examples of when romance and horror meet in fiction with stellar results. To Gabriel, the cemetery symbolized the fact that he could never die, that much better people than him left this mortal realm, some far too soon, and he was…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write THE MOTHER NEXT DOOR? Tara Laskowski: I’ve been in several mom groups on Facebook or other places, and I’ve seen so much inner sniping and judging in those groups—along with a fierce protectiveness and defending as well. That, coupled with the strong community that forms with the parents in various schools, really got me thinking about how competitive and cliquish parents can be, especially when it comes to their kids. I think that was maybe the kernel of the story, and the rest of it fell out from there. Let’s talk about Theresa Pressley. How does she feel about moving to the idyllic suburban cul-de-sac Ivy Woods Drive? She thinks it’s a dream come true for her. I used to love driving by people’s houses at night and catching glimpses of families inside and wondering what their lives were like. When I was in grad school, I used to drive past this one house in my apartment’s neighborhood, and I loved that house. I always thought it would be a great house to live in. This is how Theresa feels. She used to look at Ivy Woods as the place that she’d live…

In this scene, Flavia, a senator’s daughter, has been enslaved in a Corinthian brothel. Her friend, Rex, a barbarian warrior who has joined the Roman army, has helped Flavia escape by pretending to take her into custody. A handcuff chain joins them at the wrist. Now the guards have discovered the ruse and are chasing the fugitives. Rex and Flavia flee through the streets of Upper Corinth upon a hilltop, looking for a way down to the safety of the surrounding countryside. *** United at the wrist, the two fugitives hurried through the streets, looking for a building in which to hide. But Upper Corinthus was still asleep, so its doors weren’t open yet. Footsteps and shouts in the distance told Rex that the guards had escaped the latrine. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the pursuers—and they spotted him too. “This way!” he urged Flavia. “We can still lose them!” After switching directions three or four times in the tight alleys, they rounded a corner and found themselves staring at the Temple of Aphro- dite on the citadel’s summit. Unlike the other buildings, its entrance was wide open. Religious awe, not wooden doors, kept intruders out of this particular…

I would be willing to bet that everything you think you know about queer history is wrong. Actually, I would be willing to bet that you were never taught queer history to begin with, especially not in school. So how is it possible that there is an entire, emerging and thriving sub-genre of Historical Romance about a part of History that never existed? Because love has always been love, no matter what a small handful of historians writing in the mid-20th-century might have wanted people to believe. What’s this? Historians are biased in the way they interpret and report History? They’ve swept a bunch of details under the carpet to advance a particular narrative that denigrates an entire demographic? No! Say it ain’t so! In fact, it’s true. The notion that, prior to the Stonewall Riots of 1969, all gay men were closeted, ashamed of themselves, isolated, and that they would be instantly put to death if they came out is a deliberate distortion, sold to the public by people with an agenda. The truth is that homosexuality in all its forms has been much more widely accepted throughout history than most of us were taught. Actual, academic historians like…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A SEASON ON THE WIND 2–What is it about? A rare bird ends up on an Amish farm and creates all kinds of interest…and trouble. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set in Stoney Ridge, a fictitious town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Rolling green hills, horses and sheep grazing in the pastures, bright blue sky with puffy white clouds, large white farmhouses. What’s not to love? 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  Ben Zook left his Amish home to search the world for rare birds. He never expected or wanted to return to Stoney Ridge. But his nemesis bird, the one bird that kept eluding him, led him home again. 5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  They’re so flawed! One example is Ben Zook’s cousin Natalie, who keeps making the same poor choice and wonders why the outcome never changes. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  I’m an enthusiastic but amateur birder. Getting information correct about rare birds, those actually found in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, took careful research. And then…writing about a bird in such a way that…

Danielle Jackson: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Roshani! We are happy to have you here! Can you give us your elevator pitch for ONCE MORE UPON A TIME?  Roshani Chokshi: ONCE MORE UPON A TIME is, perhaps, a very long epilogue to what I imagine must really happen after a happily ever after. ONCE MORE UPON A TIME was originally released as an Audible Original last summer and is now in print! Did you do anything different in your writing process when you knew it was going to be an audiobook first? What was the process like taking it into print?  Writing for something to be heard was fascinating. It makes you rethink the cadence of every sentence, the time spent on settings, the propulsion of the story, and the function of dialogue. A major thing I had to do was watch the verbs and adverbs surrounding the dialogue. Since someone would be narrating, they didn’t need me to provide tonal context…they would supply it via direction. When we got the news the story would go to print, what had been a process of subtraction meant quickly adding back in some of the tonal cues for readers. One of my favorite parts…