What makes a compelling hero, someone who’s not just drool-worthy because of his killer smile and his bulging biceps, but a man who really deserves a strong heroine? For me, that answer can usually be summed up in what the hero is willing to sacrifice for others. And Cole Walker, the hero of my upcoming Harlequin Intrigue book, POLICE PROTECTOR, is the ultimate hero. Taken away from his birth family when he was just two years old because of severe neglect, Cole grew up in the system. Tossed from one foster home to the next, he learned early how to take care of himself and never to rely on anyone else. But in one of those homes, two younger boys – Andre Diaz and Marcos Costa, the heroes of the other books in my trilogy – looked up to him like a real older brother. And Cole formed his own family. When he was kicked out of the system at eighteen, with nothing – no adult support system, nowhere to live, no financial safety net – he vowed to build a home so his brothers wouldn’t face the same fate. And he did. Cole took on two jobs to support…

Today’s Boas & Tiaras fun facts will help you get to know our keynote author Julie Ann Walker’s New York Times bestselling Black Knights Inc. series! You can meet the fabulous Julie and 13 more authors when you join us for tea at the Adolphus on June 10. What is Black Knights Inc.? It’s a romantic suspense series about a Chicago-based covert government defense firm—and here’s the best part—disguised as a custom motorcycle shop. Enter a crew of sexy bikers/secret agents fighting for the women they love. The heroines can be every bit as tough as the alphas they fall for, so each book is a thrill ride of romance and danger. What’s the latest title? WILD RIDE, book nine, came out in April 2017, delighting droves of fans who have been waiting for our beloved Ozzie’s story. (Who can resist a former Navy SEAL in glasses who quotes THE PRINCESS BRIDE? Swoon.) Ozzie meets his match when tasked with distracting investigative reporter Samantha Tate from uncovering the secrets of Black Knights Inc. But as Samantha charms him with her wit, Ozzie is tempted to let his guard down and reveal all his own secrets… What’s the reading order? You…

Miranda Owen: When you have two successful and entertaining cozy mystery series, what made you decide to write romance? Do you read romance? If so, who are some of your favorite romance authors and books? Jenn McKinlay: The cozy mystery market seemed to be saturated and I had written five different mystery series over the past eight years, so I felt like I had gone as far as I could go in that genre, so I asked my editor what she thought I could write in addition to the mysteries. Immediately, she said, “Romantic comedy.” Well, okay, then. So I decided to give it a go. I do read romance and mystery and sci-fic/fantasy and YA – basically, I am a genre fiction fangirl. I love it all! Favorite romance writers and their books (at the moment) are Christina Lauren’s DARK WILD NIGHT, Tessa Dare’s A WEEK TO BE WICKED, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s NATURAL BORN CHARMER, and Kristan Higgins’s WAITING ON YOU. Miranda Owen: Do you know how many books will be in this Bluff Point series? Do you plan on writing another romance series after this one? Jenn McKinlay: At this point, I know there will be three. I…

The first romance novel I remember reading is DARK PRINCE by Christine Feehan. Christine Feehan’s world of vampires, Carpathians, and magic blew my mind and got me hooked on paranormal romance. Next up, Victoria Alexander, Lisa Kleypas, and Julia Quinn enticed me into reading historical romance with jaunty tales about dukes, rakes, balls, and bluestocking heroines. I had never really been interested in contemporary romances until discovering Jill Shalvis, and then later on Susan Mallery. Jill Shalvis’ Lucky Harbor series and Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold made me a fan of contemporary romance and, specifically, romances set in a small town. I suppose it’s not really a surprise that I would adore these types of romances, since the small-town factor is exactly one of the things I’ve always loved about cozy mysteries. There are a few fictional towns that I would love to live in: Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold, Kendra Leigh Castle’s Harbor Cove, Kate Angell’s beach town Barefoot William, Carolyn Brown’s Dry Creek, and LuAnn McLane’s Cricket Creek. After reading SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE by Jill Shalvis and ALL SUMMER LONG by Susan Mallery, I was charmed by small town life that includes hardworking citizens, longstanding friendships, and the hint of romance…

Fresh Fiction’s annual Boas & Tiaras tea is all about making you feel like a book-loving queen, and there’s no better place for a royal tea than Dallas’ original luxury hotel. As we continue our countdown to Boas 2017, this week’s Fun Facts are all about our beautiful venue: the historic Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas. In 1912, Adolphus Busch, founder of Anheuser Busch, built the Adolphus hotel as a show of Texas hospitality and world-class grandeur. The 22-floor hotel was the tallest building in Texas for a decade, and it has undergone several multi-million dollar expansions and renovations in the years since, keeping it at the peak of posh. Our beloved venue has been: Named one of the top ten hotels in the United States by Condé Nast Traveler Added to the National Register of Historic Places Declared an official landmark by the Dallas Landmark Commission Honored to host countless distinguished guests like George H.W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II Afternoon tea at the Adolphus is a rich tradition itself. The tea service’s custom china contains elements that evoke the hotel’s story, like the Anheuser Busch eagle and engravings of the hotel’s Beaux Arts style architecture. (And the tea…

Miranda Owen: For readers like me, who are unfamiliar with your books written as Madeline Baker, could you please describe what your historical romances are like? Amanda Ashley: They all have Indian or half-Indian heroes. A few of them are gunfighters because I love bad boys. Several of the books are time travel romances because they are such fun to write. Of course, they are all set in the Old West – Arizona, Montana, the Dakotas – places like that. I did a lot of research on the Lakota, the Cheyenne, and the Apache, as well as a few other tribes, in an effort to make the books as realistic as possible. Miranda Owen: I’ve always described most of your vampire romances as being “contemporary paranormal Gothic”. I love Gothic historical romance and I always felt like your writing style was tailor-made for that type of story. You’ve written a few books with many of those same elements that make historical Gothics so delicious. Would you ever consider writing a Gothic historical series? Amanda Ashley: I actually started one a few years ago, but it never got off the ground. I just couldn’t make it work. Miranda Owen: Although I…

By Kym Roberts You don’t need to plan a vacation or a staycation this week. Take the week off and relax from all the hubbub that has had you running around like a crazed mom of quintuplet five year olds in a toy store. Pick up a book or two, or three—the ones that have been stacking up in your to-be-read pile and just breathe. Escape into another world where ghosts are real, magic is everywhere, sewing is easy and a Book Barn is on Main Street. Trust me, the May releases are to die for—including one of my own 😉 GHOSTAL LIVING by Kathleen Bridge Hamptons Home & Garden In the latest mystery from the author of Better Homes and Corpses and Hearse and Gardens, Hamptons interior designer and antiques picker Meg Barrett uncovers a veil of spooky goings-on… The first Sag Harbor Antiquarian Book and Ephemera Fair is right around the corner, and interior designer Meg Barrett has her hands full decorating rooms at the Bibliophile Bed & Breakfast for wealthy rare book collector Franklin Hollingsworth. Rumor has it Hollingsworth is in possession of an unpublished manuscript written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. When the Fitzgerald manuscript’s authenticator is…

Let the countdown commence to Boas and Tiaras 2017! Fresh Fiction’s annual afternoon tea at the Adolphus is on Saturday, June 10, only one month away. From now until tea time, join us online every week for Fun Facts about all things Boas and Tiaras. Since this is our fanciest afternoon tea of the year (no offense to our lovely monthly afternoon teas ), our events committee decided the best place to start is with tea time trivia! We shall begin with a bit of history. Afternoon tea as we know it was first popularized by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in the 1840s, when breakfast and dinner were the only main meals of the day. The Duchess was known to enjoy hot tea and a light snack in the afternoon to lift her spirits. This practice progressed into a social event when the Duchess began inviting friends to enjoy afternoon tea with her, sparking a trend and tradition that carries on to this day. If you are an avid historical romance reader, then you are probably familiar with the do and do not guidelines of afternoon tea. But if this is your first experience with the time-honored tradition,…

Confession: I love antlers. I love claws and teeth. Growls that can be mistaken for either love growls or the kind that say, ‘I’m going to eat you.’ I love these elements all the more when they inhabit human-ish characters engaged in extreme acts of violence while falling in love. In fact, I think it’s the supernatural elements of the characters that make the danger and chemistry between characters work so well. Danger is hot. Antlers are kind of amazing. And falling in love is an extreme act. Isn’t it true that the first blushes of love can feel so very violent? (Remember what it felt like to screw up your courage and call up that boy for the first time?). Danger can lead to love. Danger is a form of chaos that breaks down the barriers people build to shield their hearts from one another. It razes the reasons we build up to keep us from acting on our desires. Think about THE HUNGER GAMES’ Peeta and Katniss. It takes a deadly game where their doom is all but assured to bring Peeta to act on his attraction to Katniss. It takes near death experiences to get Katniss to…

It happens in way too many books, movies, and television shows to count: guy walks into a room/down the hall/into a classroom. His gaze meets with the girl’s. Despite her thinking, “He looks like trouble,” she’s immediately drawn to something in that smolder. It’s love at first sight. Don’t get me wrong; media is full of tropes and I love so many of them. Love (or even just lust) at first sight is one that can be done really well and leave me as a reader going, “Oh, I totally feel you” because if I’m instantly in love with a character, I can get why their presumably soon-to-be love interest is, too. But, personally, I’ve long been a fan of the slow burn romance. Not just in my own writings, but in the media I consume, too. I love couples that don’t realize they would be amazing together until I’ve realized it. Until I want to shake the book and yell at them to kiss already. (Considering I’m bisexual and therefore want everything I read/watch to reflect a wide range of sexualities, I often end up disappointed because…well, heterosexual romances still top the charts. Everywhere. Always. But that’s another post…