Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Kathleen Ayers | 20 Questions: FORGETTING THE EARL
Author Guest / April 13, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? FORGETTING THE EARL. It is the first book in a 3-book series of novellas about three very arrogant earls and the women who tame them. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Honora Drevenport is a young, awkward, young lady who falls in love with the dashing Earl of Southwell and is humiliated in the process. Years later as a beautiful, sought-after widow, Honora vows to make Southwell fall in love with her and extract her revenge. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I write early Victorian (1837-1845) and love lords and ladies, so England was the obvious choice 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Honora has a great sense of humor, loves history, and wants to set off and explore the world. And she’s a hopeful romantic, which I can appreciate. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Intelligent. Ruggedly handsome. Daring. He’s Indiana Jones if Indiana Jones was an earl who liked to make maps and travel the Amazon. What I like most is that Southwell liked Honora when she was chubby and awkward. He values her…

Marguerite Kaye Interview – Heroines With Age and Experience
Author Guest , Interviews / April 13, 2022

LADY ARMSTRONG’S SCANDALOUS AWAKENING is set in the Victorian era. What appeals to you about that time period as a setting? Is that your favorite period to set a story in? The Victorian period was a time of huge change in every way. The Industrial Revolution was really taking hold, railways and telegrams transformed communication and travel, and there was a move away from the countryside to city living. What fascinates me are the contrasts that all this change emphasized – between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, and in particular, in the position of women, who were being forced by a society which was in many ways liberating men, into a much more domestic and constrained role. Ideals of femininity were disseminated through photography, and image took on a new importance. Women who did not conform had to be real rebels, incredibly strong and radical thinkers, and it’s coming up with this type of woman as a heroine that really appeals to me. As to whether this is my favorite period to write about – I’d say yes, at the moment, because it’s the period I’ve been immersed in for the last couple of years,…

Mary Jo Putney Interview – Lords, Lairds, and other Curiosities
Author Guest , Interviews / April 13, 2022

Fresh Fiction: If you could only recommend one of your books to romance readers who are unfamiliar with your work, which would you recommend? And why? Mary Jo Putney: Hmm, tough question!  Maybe LOVING A LOST LORD. It’s the first book in my Lost Lords series, and it sets up the framework for the rest of the series. The heroes of all seven books attended the Westerfield Academy for boys of “good birth and bad behavior.”  The founder, Lady Agnes Westerfield, helps boys who are having trouble fitting into the niches they were born to.  She teaches them how to be themselves without losing their souls. The hero of this first book, Adam Lawford, the Duke of Ashton, is half Hindu and has to deal with resentment and prejudice.  Then a steamboat explosion leaves him half drowned and amnesiac in northern England, where he is found by a desperate young woman who needs a pretend husband for protection…. FF: Scotland is the setting for your regency romance ONCE A LAIRD. What do you like about this setting? And what is so captivating about a hot Scottish hero? MJP: This story was inspired by a wonderful visit to Orkney, one of the island groups north of mainland Scotland.  Both…