1–What is the title of your latest release? THE TWILIGHT GARDEN 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Two neighbors – who happen to really dislike each other – unite to bring their shared garden back to life, as a place for community, friendship and hope to grow. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? It is set in Stoke Newington, London, where I used to live in a top floor flat, dreaming of a garden. The garden that belonged to our neighbors below was overgrown and it got me thinking about two neighbors who shared a garden and how they might have different ideas of what to do, and everything (the good and the frustrating) that could arise as a result. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Yes! I love Winston in particular – I think we’d get on really well, but I’d also love to spend time with Alma in the garden and get all her wisdom on how to grow vegetables. Maya would be someone to have a long chat and a chai with, and Bernice and I would probably sit and watch Bargain Hunt or Homes…

Hey bookworms, welcome back to Jen’s Jewels, your treasure map to the literary world! Today, we’re diving into the vibrant realm of storytelling with the incredibly talented Melissa Ferguson, the creative force behind the captivating novel, HOW TO PLOT A PAYBACK. Think of it as stumbling upon a rare gemstone in a vast treasure trove of books – mesmerizing, precious, and absolutely captivating. Join us as we uncover the intricate facets of Melissa’s storytelling, from the sparkling characters to the glamorous backdrop of Hollywood. So, grab your favorite reading nook and prepare to embark on a literary journey filled with laughter, love, and a touch of magic. Let’s delve into the treasure chest of Jen’s Jewels and discover the hidden gems awaiting us!   Jennifer Vido: Melissa, your novel presents such an intriguing dynamic between Finn Masters and Lavender Rhodes. Can you share what inspired these complex and captivating characters? Melissa Ferguson: Thank you! Well their dynamic came out naturally as I wrote. I didn’t intend to have Finn be so Mister Rogers-y. I wanted to see him have intense payback scenes for her to do on screen but when push came to shove he just didn’t want to commit….

Royal, Grim Sinners Rebels Series by LeAnn Ashers Avenging Angel by Kristen Ashley Blue Ridge Breakdown, Book 4, The Jubilee Series by Rachel Hanna The Charming Billionaire, Book 1, The Baltimore Boys Series by Samantha Skye The Alpha’s Mystery, Book 6, Shifters of Grey Ridge Series by Reece Barden Really? At Your Age?: A Better Late Romance, Book 1, Sisters, Lovers & Second Chances Series by Jacqueline Diamond Unspoken Bonds, Book 2, Long Shot Series by Michelle Grey Get In My Swamp: An Ogre Love Story, Book 1, Get In My Swamp Series by G.M. Fairy Slay King by Abbi Glines Brass Anchor Inn, Book 1, The Turner Family of Bluestar Island Series by Jennifer Faye The Billionaire’s Temporary Marriage, Book 3, Limitless Sweet Billionaire Romance Series by Tamie Dearen The Sunshine Court, Book 4, All for the Game Series by Nora Sakavic To Woo an Heiress Series Books 1-3 by Lindsay Randall The Thief, Book 4, Black Arrowhead Series by Dannika Dark The 5-Time Rejected Gamma & the Lycan King, Book 1, Coalescence of the Five by Stina’s Pen Seducing Steve by Maggie Wells Reaching for Forever, Book 4, Kinklink Series by Tara Eldana The Housemaid by Sarah A….

Book Title: CHARMED BY A WILY LASS Character Name: Modesty MacGalloway   How would you describe your family or your childhood? Well, I’m the sister of a duke. My family is vast and I’m the youngest of eight children, which meant I was under the thumb of either my nanny or my governess until my first Season. I didna follow in the footsteps of my elder sister, Grace, who attended Northbourne Seminary for Young Ladies to lose her Scottish accent. I’m far to partial to Scotland to lose my burr.   What was your greatest talent? I’m a horsewoman through and through. Had I been born a man, I would have become a jockey for certain.   Where do you live? That depends on the time of year. During the Season we oft stay in the duke’s London town house. We spend at least two months in summer at Stack Castle in the far northeast of Scotland. But my favorite of all the duke’s residences is Newhailes, which is only a short carriage ride from Edinburgh. The manor house is situated on the Firth of Forth and the stables are enormous!   Do you have any enemies? Not that I’m…

O: Old friends, turning into something more… N: Nobody puts Sara in a corner! E: Entrepreneurship after working in big tech   L: Love at age 34 A: Artificial intelligence runs wild! S: Sara Chae, the feisty heroine T: Tech makes the digital world go ‘round   W: Women in STEM O: OH NO…the feeling you get when drafted messages accidently get mailed out R: Requited love D: Development, both in a tech sense…and in love ONE LAST WORD by Suzanne Park What would you say to your meddling parents, your ex-best friend, your toxic boss, or your high school crush if you didn’t have to face the consequences? Sara Chae is the founder of One Last Word, an app that allows you to send a mes­sage to anyone you want after you pass. Safeguards are in place so the app will only send when you’re definitely, absolutely, 100% dead, but when another Sara Chae dies and her obituary is posted online, Sara discovers that drafted messages she had drunkenly uploaded on one night have been released —one each to her emotionally charged mother, to her former best friend who ghosted her, and to her unrequited high school crush, Harry Shim. Still reeling…

1–What is the title of your latest release? INDIAN BURIAL GROUND 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A grief-stricken woman is convinced her boyfriend’s death was an accident despite strange circumstances suggesting suicide until horrors from her family’s past waken traumas that make her question everything. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Indian Burial Ground follows up on my debut novel Sisters of the Lost Nation. Since the stories take place on the same fictional Native American reservation, the setting was a given. I was happy, however, to return to the Takoda Reservation, where Native mythological entities are as real (and dangerous) as the rattlesnakes and alligators that inhabit the land. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? I would. Indian Burial Ground has two key figures: Noemi and her uncle Louie. Both are down on their luck and struggling to come to terms with traumas in their lives, but they are genuine people who are more resilient and inspirational than they know. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? I would describe Noemi as steadfast, headstrong, and bold. Louie is loyal, conflicted, and resilient. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this…

I type these words because I’m like a bouncing puppy, eager to share my excitement about the books I love. But sometimes, (and yes, I mean right this minute!), I’d so much rather get back to one of those marvelous books and forget about everything else! My laptop is in my lap, allowing me to type, but my phone, with FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston on audio, is just inches to my left, and it’s calling me to get back to it! I’m a little more than half-way through, and it is captivating. A young, decent woman, whose life has involved more than a fair share of sorrow, ends up a foot-soldier to a crime boss with tentacles seemingly everywhere. Life deprived her of a college education, but Evy (the name we know her by when the story opens), is whip-smart, and her latest assignment has her ensconced in an everyone-knows-everyone town in Louisiana, posing as the live-in girlfriend of a businessman her boss seeks to control. Or bring down. I can’t say for sure because I haven’t finished it yet, but take my word for it: I’m going to, pronto! On the opposite end of the edge-of-your-seat scale,…

Book Title: DEATH AT THE SPRING FLING Character Name: Kiki Hepburn   How would you describe your family or your childhood? Well, one word…privileged. I’m not particularly comfortable with saying that, but I guess I should own it. My parents – my mother born into money and my father, a self-made success – are very wealthy. So growing up, we had drivers, a penthouse, Christmas in Paris, a house in the Hamptons, just the whole deal. The downside was I grew up feeling like just another belonging. My relationship with my parents is better now. They respect my choice to go my own way and pursue my passion of scuba diving.   Significant other? My boyfriend is Dex Kokoa who works at the dive shop here in Aloha Lagoon.  His father run the dive shop and was kind enough to hire me too!   Where do you live? I live in Aloha Lagoon, Kauai, in a cute little bungalow with my landlady, Auntie Akamai – she’s not my aunt, that’s just a term Hawaiians use for older ladies (she is Dex’s actual aunt though). She has a smart-beaked Amazon Grey parrot named Paulie who gets along amazingly well with my…

Book Title: A FONDNESS FOR TRUTH, the brand-new Polizei Bern mystery Character Name: Renzo Donatelli   What do you do for a living? I’m a cop. Specifically, I’m what the Canton of Bern Police call an investigator or Fahnder, a plain-clothes detective assigned to all kinds of cases: car thefts, drugs, break-ins, murders, you name it. I’m not a specialist like the homicide detectives I work with. That’s my ambition, to do homicide full-time.   Do you have a family? I have two families. There’s my big Italian family—my mother, big brother, two sisters, sister- and brothers-in-law, and all the kids. That family used to include my father, but he died of lung cancer six years ago when I was barely thirty. His death—well, that’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. When all of us have a Sunday lunch with my mother, we speak Italian because my parents were born in a village near Perugia. They came to Switzerland in their early twenties to get jobs here. Without our mother around, my brother and sisters and I speak mostly Swiss-German because we were born here in Bern, and all our schooling was in German. Actually, we speak a…

The most talked-about tourist attraction in Regency England in the summer of 1815 was the deposed French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, who spent two weeks on a British naval ship anchored off the southern coast of Devon. This little-known footnote in history plays out in the background of my new historical mystery-thriller, WHAT CANNOT BE SAID, in which Sebastian St. Cyr, Lord Devlin, investigates the bizarre murder of a woman and her daughter that takes place that fateful summer. After his bloody defeat at Waterloo on the eighteenth of June, Napoleon had returned to Paris, where he abdicated in favor of his young son before retreating to Josephine’s famous Château de Malmaison. At that point Josephine, his first wife, had been dead for over a year, the house had been ransacked, and its famous gardens were dying from neglect. Napoleon’s family and supporters urged him to immediately head for the west coast and take ship to the United States—in fact, his brother Joseph successfully did just that after failing to convince Napoleon to come with him. Instead, sunk in grief and depression, Napoleon wandered the echoing empty halls and ruined gardens of Malmaison. He delayed his departure for so long that by the time…