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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present ! Writes: Hi, I’m USA Today bestselling author Dylann Crush, and I write steamy, small-town contemporary and cowboy romance with sizzle, sass, heart, and humor. A true romantic, I love strong-willed heroines who don’t need a man, but want one, and super sexy heroes who will do anything for the woman they love.   About: When I’m not dreaming up steamy storylines, you might find me sipping a margarita and searching for the best Tex-Mex food in the Upper Midwest. I co-host Romance Happy Hour (https://www.romancehappyhour.com/) with live episodes every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month, and I’m a founding member of the Romance Chicks Facebook group where authors and romance readers can connect. Although I grew up in Texas, I currently live in a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul with my unflappable husband, three energetic kids, and four fur babies: a clumsy Great Dane, a lovable rescue mutt, a very chill cat, and a skittish kitty. I absolutely love to connect with readers,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? TEMPTING THE SENSIBLE LADY VIOLET 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? It’s a new twist on Shakespeare’s Taming the Shrew, where the so-called shrew is the one to do the taming, and the rake who sets out to change her, falls under her spell and discovers she is perfect just as she is. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I love English stately homes, so that’s where most of this book is set, with its elegant drawing rooms, a river for the rowing scene, acres of woodlands and gardens for the couple to get lost in, plus a quaint nearby village where Violet and Jake first meet, and their love-hate battle begins. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Violet is my feistiest heroine so far and I loved writing her. She’s also loyal to her skittish little sister, kind to her absent-minded father, and her sensible, somewhat serious exterior has been developed to hide a vulnerable core. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Sexy, fun-loving and good-hearted – I know that technically that’s five words but I’m…

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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Heather McCollum! Writes: Heather McCollum is a USA Today bestselling author of 16th and 17th-century Scottish romances full of adventure and intrigue, sprinkled with humor, history, and spice. Brawny Highlanders and feisty heroines are her favorite characters! Wrap yourself in fun adventures that take you from sea to misty forests to castles and across moors covered in Scottish thistle. Live the romance that flares between her mighty warriors and their heroines, knowing you will always be given the happily-ever-after you deserve. About: Hello Romance Lover! On top of writing romantic adventures set in 16th century Britain, I’m also a mom of three kids (ages 15, 21, and 23), dog-mom of one rescued geriatric golden retriever, and wife of one 6-foot 4-inch Highlander. When I’m not trying to help my kids make it through the day, baking things I see on The Great British Baking Show, or writing, I’m usually educating women on ovarian cancer (I’m an 11-year survivor). I love kilted heroes, dragonflies, watching birds, chai tea lattes,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? KIT MCBRIDE GETS A WIFE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Without telling him, Junebug McBride decides to order up a mail order wife for her backwoodsman of an older brother. But she’s not going to sell some poor woman a false bill of goods – in her ad, she’s going to tell the TRUTH (poor Kit!) 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? KIT MCBRIDE is set in the Elkhorn Mountains of Montana in 1886. I knew I wanted somewhere remote and somewhere starkly beautiful. Bucks Creek is a town consisting entirely of McBrides. It’s a small and extremely isolated place. When the heroine, Maddy, arrives, she’s the only woman for miles around. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? I wouldn’t just hang out with her; I’d drag her off to have some fun! She’s been a housemaid since she was twelve and hasn’t had enough fun in her life! 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Big. Brawny. Sweet. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned a lot of new words – not least of…

One of my favorite parts of writing fiction is dreaming up the world my characters inhabit. I’ll often send them on adventures far and wide, whether it’s a bachelorette party in Las Vegas or a solo trip to Hong Kong. This gives them an opportunity to explore new terrain, take bold risks, and in so doing, learn a little (or a lot) about themselves. It also gives me an opportunity to do one of my favorite activities: research travel destinations. Sometimes I think if I wasn’t a writer, then I’d be a travel agent. I love learning about new-to-me locales and planning itineraries down to the hour. (I’m particularly fond of cruise travel, so much so that I recently started my own blog about it, Cruise Obsessed.) So naturally, it thrills me to act as a travel agent for my characters. My new book, Smart Girl Summer, features the most exciting virtual trip I’ve ever planned: a cruise across the Mediterranean. But not just any cruise. The main character, Abby Atkinson, sets sail on the superyacht of her billionaire boss, Richard Vale. She spends her summer as a traveling math tutor for Richard’s tween daughter, Bijou, but she also uses…

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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Bianca Marais!   Writes: In Bianca Marais’ THE WITCHES OF MOONSHYNE MANOR, picture Practical Magic meets a witchy ‘The Golden Girls’ in this rollicking story of six witches who are in their eighties, taking names, kicking butt. and bringing down the patriarchy (along with the help of a 15-year-old TikToker, Persephone) as they fight to save their beloved Moonshyne Manor and Distillery.   About: Bianca Marais likes long walks on the beach (while thinking about her next book), curling up next to a roaring fire that she has made (because she might have been an arsonist in a previous life), sipping crisp Chenin Blanc from South Africa (the country of her birth) and savoring romantic dinners (while wiping Muggle’s drool off her leg as her golden retriever mooches for food under the table). Bianca used to be much more adventurous in her younger years (throwing herself from airplanes, bungee jumping from cliffs, and white-water rafting on the Zambezi). But now she’s quite likely 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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Megan Bannen! Writes: I enjoy crafting fantasy fiction with a love story at its center. My young adult tragedies have earned me a reputation as an author who is happy to rip out a reader’s heart and stomp all over it, but my adult debut, THE UNDERTAKING OF HART AND MERCY, is a fantastical, joke-filled romantic comedy (that will also rip out readers’ hearts, but in a has-a-happy-ending kind of way). About: ​I’m a former children’s librarian with the ukulele chops to show for it (thanks, story time). I’ve taught college and secondary English at home and abroad, but my true love for storytelling comes from my theater nerd roots; I once won the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, endowed by the actress who played Granny Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. When I’m not writing RomComs with zombies in them (ZomRomComs?) I’m hanging out with my husband and our two teenage sons in the Kansas City area.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:…

Whenever an author names a piece of art in a novel, I must look it up. I have to know if it’s just a fictitious name from the author’s imagination, or if this piece truly inspired the author. I know better with Deanna Raybourn. She shows her inspiration in the written word as if you were looking at the piece yourself. So when she described, The Shepherdess of the Sphinxes by Lenor Fini from 1941 in her latest release KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE as having:   “Lavish ’80s hair, rising up tawny and tousled. She was wearing a sort of  armored piece over her genitals, a metallic bathing suit if you squinted while you studied it…Their expressions were serene as they surveyed their gentle  pasture dotted with flowers and the bones of the dead men they’d eaten. It  was ghoulish and beautiful, a perfect representation of the terrible feminine  power of life and death.”   I had to see it. Because I left out the best part of her description, and seriously I was picturing a Def Leppard album cover. It turns out, that the real painting is a little over 18×15 inches, not much bigger than an album…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FIRESTORM 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A DEA agent is called to action when his CIA officer friend is kidnapped by a ruthless band of Russian mercenaries. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? FIRESTORM is the second in a series, all of which take place on the Texas High Plains, near the ranch where my protagonist lives. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! My protagonist is a composite character of friends I’ve had throughout my life while growing up on a ranch, working in the CIA, and doing contract assignments with the military. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Resourceful, Easygoing, and Deadly 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned that you never want to get caught in the middle of a raging wildfire. There are few deaths more terrifying or gruesome. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I guess it’s somewhere in between. I typically divide up my novels into four parts and edit by section. Sometimes I forget what I’ve already written, so this…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LINE OF DARKNESS 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? San Francisco, 1979 When ex-con PI Colleen Hayes is hired to find a missing person, she discovers a World War II banknote and a 1942 SS ID of a German officer long thought dead. An international vigilante group hunting down ex-Nazis unleashes a wave in violence that leads her to Italy where she uncovers a secret project hatched in a WWII concentration camp. Colleen has no choice but to push ahead if the killing is to stop and justice prevail. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Ex-con Colleen Hayes resides in 1970s San Francisco where she is attempting to reunite with her daughter. The European locations reflet historical events to WWII. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Of course – although I’d keep my eyes peeled! Colleen is known to cross paths with people who are dangerous—she’s a little damaged due to her time in prison for killing her husband 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Cool, brave, and relentless. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? The…