Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Kirsty Manning | 20 Questions: THE FRENCH GIFT
Author Guest / November 3, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE FRENCH GIFT 2–What is it about? THE FRENCH GIFT is a dual time-line story of female friendship, longing and sacrifice through war and loss, bringing together the present and the past. The story begins with Margot Bisset—a French maid on the Riviera—who is convicted of murder after a glamorous party takes a surprising turn. She is interned in a German rayon factory, and develops an unlikely friendship with the brilliant writer and resistance fighter Joséphine Murant. In a German WWII rayon factory, two female prisoners support one another—and others—in horrific circumstances and form an unbreakable bond. In her later years, Joséphine Murant retires to the Riviera and continues the career she has built as an international bestselling mystery writer. Overlaying this is a contemporary storyline: the healing, hunt-for-truth story of Evie—and her 17-year-old-son Hugo—as they try to make peace and heal following the tragic death of beloved father/husband, Rafael, two years ago.   Mother and son decide to summer at an old family house in the Riviera—inherited from Rafael’s great-aunt Joséphine Murant—to help local museum director—the handsome and gentle Clément Dumas—prepare a retrospective exhibition. Together they hunt for a missing manuscript that…

Moni Boyce | Author-Reader Match: MORE THAN ENOUGH + Giveaway!
Author Guest / November 3, 2021

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 MONI BOYCE! WRITES Steamy contemporary romance, with my latest release MORE THAN ENOUGH, book #8 in the Blue Collar Romance series, in stores now! ABOUT Forty-one-year-old romance author seeks readers for steamy, interracial, contemporary romance novel, with a newly divorced heroine looking for spontaneity and to break out of the box society has placed her in and a former bad boy hero who is fighting to not be defined by his troublesome past. WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR IN MY IDEAL READER Their idea of a perfect date is dinner, good conversation and a surprising end to the evening Dreams of breakfast in bed and making love in the wild Falls easily in love with a bad boy with a wicked sense of humor and a big heart Likes steamy contemporary romance stories with plenty of heart, depth, and a little bit of angst Doesn’t mind reading open door love scenes Enjoys a will they or won’t they, sexy, emotional, (sometimes slow burn) romance Wants…

Sherry Thomas | 20 Questions: MISS MORIARTY, I PRESUME?
Author Guest / November 3, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? MISS MORIARTY, I PRESUME? 2–What is it about? This is book 6 in the Lady Sherlock series and Moriarty at last makes his grand appearance. A most unexpected client shows up at Charlotte Holmes’s doorstep: Moriarty himself. Moriarty fears that tragedy has befallen his daughter and wants Charlotte to find out the truth.  Charlotte and Mrs. Watson travel to a remote community of occult practitioners where Moriarty’s daughter was last seen, a place full of lies and liars. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s sister Livia tries to make sense of a mysterious message from her beau Mr. Marbleton. And Charlotte’s longtime friend and ally Lord Ingram at last turns his seductive prowess on Charlotte—or is it the other way around? But the more secrets Charlotte unravels about Miss Moriarty’s disappearance, the more she wonders why Moriarty has entrusted this delicate matter to her of all people. Is it merely to test Charlotte’s skills as an investigator, or has the man of shadows trapped her in a nest of vipers? 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  One of the great loves of my life is the Southwest Coast Path in England, 630…

Karen White | Exclusive Interview + Excerpt: THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET
Author Guest / November 2, 2021

Danielle: Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Karen! We are so excited to have you here. It’s a bittersweet day, because the last book in the Tradd Street series, THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET, has finally arrived. What has writing this series meant to you? How do you think you’ve changed during the course of writing about Tradd Street?   Karen:   The idea for the series began in 2005—sixteen years ago!  A lot can happen in sixteen years.  My children, then 13 and 11, have gone through high school, college, and grad school (lots of graduations!) and are now launched into adulthood with one wedding on the horizon.  We acquired two dogs, and lost one, remodeled our kitchen, bathrooms, and pretty much everything else, and bought a beach house.  We survived a pandemic and I inherited the care of my elderly parents.  All this while writing all seven books in the series plus nineteen other books and a chapter in an anthology.  I’m not sure I slept very much! I had never written a series before, and when the idea first hit me, I knew immediately it had to be set in a Southern city filled with lots of history, gorgeous architecture and, of course,…

Denise Williams | 20 Questions: THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL
Author Guest / November 2, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL 2–What is it about? THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL centers heroine Britta, a budding journalist tasked to review a body positive fitness app and write about her experiences. Wes is the owner of FitMi Fitness and, overwhelmed with day-to-day corporate life and family issues, decides to take on a client for training through the app. The two have immediate chemistry while chatting on the app and eventually meet in person but working out and running together turns into both feeling like they’re running toward professional and ethical disaster by being interested in the other. Then again, professional and ethical disaster might not be so bad when the person running next to them just might be the one with whom they go the distance. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  Chicago is a great city in the heart of the country. Wes grew up in Chicago while Britta is a transplant from a small town. With distinctive neighborhoods, a multitude of cultures, and a Midwest setting, Chicago is perfect. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  When I started writing, I thought Britta might think…

Kelly Farmer | Title Challenge: UNEXPECTED GOALS
Author Guest / November 2, 2021

The Out on the Ice series features Sapphic women’s hockey romances. These strong athletes find love on and off the ice. Their friendships, teammates and found families play an integral role in each woman’s journey to happily ever after. UNEXPECTED GOALS is the second book in the series. It hits the ice today (November 2, 2021). Woo-hoo! It’s an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers story between Canadian goalie Maisy Goode and American forward Jen Donato. International competition has created a bitter rivalry between them. Now teammates in the women’s pro league, they have to learn how to play nice in order to win. What they didn’t expect was falling for one another. U is for Uniforms. Maisy and Jen wear different ones on their national teams, but now don the same uniform for the Boston Ice. N is for Nature. They find common ground in their love of the outdoors. E is for Enemies…to friends…to “Oops! Feelings!” X is for EXpedition Unknown. It’s one of my favorite TV shows, and I based Maisy and Jen’s favorite show, Nature Escape, on it. P is for Professional women’s hockey players. Unexpected Goals is full of female athletes competing in the sport they love, where they make…

Amy Pershing | 20 Questions: AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR
Author Guest / November 1, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR 2–What is it about? Well, as you can probably tell from the title, it’s a holiday book about eggnog … and murder. Just kidding. It’s a bit more complicated than that. An Eggnog to Die For is the second of the Cape Cod Foodie mysteries, which feature Samantha Barnes, a disgraced but resilient ex-chef and now the local paper’s “Cape Cod Foodie.” In this book, Christmas is coming to Cape Cod, but when Sam finds a very dead Santa in a very hip restaurant, it’s up to her to sift out suspects who have been naughty vs. nice…. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  The setting is the captivating small town of Fair Harbor on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the weeks before Christmas.  I love the Cape, which even in winter has the power to thrill your heart. Here’s how Sam describes it:  “In the winter sun a thin frosting of snow still sparkled on the green branches of the pines, and the blue waters of Crystal Bay peeked tantalizingly through the leafless oaks. Once again, the magic of this great curve of sand and…

Patricia Bradley | Exclusive Excerpt: CROSSHAIRS
Author Guest / November 1, 2021

Muggy air wrapped around Ainsley as they walked to the crime scene. Air so thick you could stir it with a spoon. She couldn’t wait to get back to the mountains in Tennessee where she’d lived for the past four years. Before that, it’d been a new park almost every year. As it was, she barely kept pace with the district ranger as they hiked to the old Methodist church. Right now Sam was a good thirty feet ahead of her and had barely broken a sweat, whereas perspiration rolled down Ainsley’s face. He stopped and waited for her. “Forgot you’re not used to the heat.” It wasn’t the heat that slowed her down. “I’ll have to get acclimated to breathing water again,” she said, catching her breath. He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s not the heat that kills you—it’s the humidity.” Standard joke in the South. “Absolutely. Has a time of death been established?” “Unofficially, the ME estimates Hannah died sometime between eleven and three. When I get the report, I’ll send it to you.” She was glad he used the girl’s name. Let her know he viewed her death on a personal level. They left the road for a narrow,…

Robin Bielman | 20 Questions: THE WEDDING CRASHER AND THE COWBOY
Author Guest / October 29, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE WEDDING CRASHER AND THE COWBOY 2–What is it about? It’s about an ER doctor who crashes a wedding to help a friend and comes face to face with the last man she ever wanted to see again. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love that it’s set in a small town where everyone knows everyone, it’s hard to keep anything a secret, and there are shops like Baked on Main where you can get the best glazed doughnut ever. 🙂 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Kennedy turned out to be more adventurous than I thought she’d be. She’s a city girl who likes to wear high heels when not in the ER but she took to the ranch with relative ease and accepted the challenges Maverick threw at her with confidence. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Besides Maverick’s blue eyes and dimples, he’s loyal, attentive, earnest, loves his family, and talks to his horse. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  This is my first enemies to lovers romance and I wanted to be sure that transitioning…

Lori Wilde | Exclusive Excerpt: SECOND CHANCE CHRISTMAS
Author Guest / October 29, 2021

Jana lay in the twin bed listening to the sound of Gabriel’s soft breathing and thinking about Joel sleeping across the hall. She was exhausted to the bone, but the events of the day kept circling her head. Mentally, she walked through the evening wondering how, in six short hours, she’d become a temporary surrogate mom for a baby abandoned over the Christmas holidays. Thinking about that stirred memories of another abandoned baby. Another mournful Christmas. Except this time, she wasn’t alone. Joel was on her side. She smiled into the darkness. Joel was right there with her all the way. He was a solid, dependable guy. Someone she could trust. She thought about how he’d swooped in and taken charge right when she needed him most. Packing her clothes. Insisting she and the baby come stay at his place. This alpha-male image was appealing if somewhat uncomfortable for her. She’d never seen him so commanding, and it stirred butterflies in her belly. Big time. What if, a voice whispered in the back of her head, what if she and Joel . . . Good grief! He didn’t even know that Ursula was running around on him. And even if…