As the world endures once again the recurrent tragedy of war, this month’s stories remind us of those exceptional individuals who still manage to display courage and compassion despite cruelty, horror, destruction and loss.   We begin with one of the most unusual of these women – Mila Pavlichenko, heroine of Kate Quinn’s THE DIAMOND EYE, which is based on a true story.  Quiet Kiev history student Mila is completely absorbed by her library job and caring for her young son when Hitler’s invasion of Russia upends her world.  Called up like many women to join in the defense of the Motherland, she becomes one of the deadliest snipers on the Eastern front, named “Lady Death” by her Nazi foes.  But after her three hundredth kill, a government needing a rallying point turns her into a national heroine and sends her on a goodwill tour to the U.S. She’s feeling alone and lost in Washington, DC, until an unexpected friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt and a link born of shared experience with a fellow sniper brightens her world.  But wounds, loss, and a determined enemy from her past will show her that though she may have left the battlefield, the struggle…

1–What is the title of your latest release? I actually have two books releasing in the month of April. KEEPING THEM SAFE is contemporary for Love Inspired and the other is a single title western historical. I’ll focus on the historical, CLAIMING HER LEGACY. It releases everywhere April 26. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Desperate to earn the bounty that will save her land claim in 1890’s Oklahoma Territory, a tomboy with gumption to spare must convince a flawed guide battling past demons to track her father’s murderer into dangerous outlaw territory. But first she must get him sober. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The idea for the setting, as well as the entire book, came from a photo I saw at the Territorial Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma. A lone woman stood outside a make-shift tent, rifle in hand, to protect her land claim after the Land Rush of 1889. Even as the rest of the country became more genteel and civilized in the late 1800s, Oklahoma was still the wild west. With research opportunities all around me and such a varied and fascinating state history, AND with the many…

1–What is the title of your latest release? A SCOT OF HER OWN – Book One – Once Upon a Scot Series 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When mighty Thorburn MacDougall fells the canniest Norwegian he’s ever battled in close combat, he discovers the adept warrior isn’t a man at all. She’s a blue-eyed beauty with fire in her eyes, fury in her soul, and the determination to escape from her cruel brother no matter the cost—even if it means becoming the prisoner of the most notorious Scottish warlord the isles have ever known. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I didn’t. Adellis and Thorburn came to me and demanded their story be told. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Even though Adellis is a wounded warrior in her own right, her loyalty is steadfast—unless you cross her, of course. She loves as fiercely as she fights and never turns her back on those she cares about. You’d never get mean girl cattiness from Adellis. She might tell you what you don’t want to hear, but she would only do it because you needed to hear…

What made you decide to write series about governesses? JANE EYRE fan? Or just interest in the way women at the time struggled to earn a living? I can’t really recall the reason. The series was written nearly ten years ago, and they were all short stories and were only published for a year. I always knew that that there was much more to their stories and finally revisited them. The books changed so much that I gave them new titles, new covers, and a new series name.   It’s not totally clear to me from the description for TEMPTED BY A GOVERNESS, but how do Katrina and Timothy get thrown together? What’s the dynamic between them like? Katrina had inherited her father’s book shop, but the debts he also left her were too high. She had no choice but to finally sell all the contents and return to her previous vocation as a governess. Timothy tired of his position as a Fellow at Oxford and when he saw the advertisement selling the contents of a bookshop, he decided to quit his job to open a lending library. The romance began in the book shop and discussions over Timothy’s travels….