We are so excited to bring you the 2021 Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup! We have a fun week of great authors, awesome books, and delicious recipes to share to get you ready for Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re celebrating Galentine’s Day with friends or making a special meal with your significant other, these recipes are yummy and fun.  Today, Marina Adair is here to tell us more about her new book, HOPELESS ROMANTIC, and a great recipe for chili. . . While I love a good summer barbeque, nothing beats a warm bowl of soup and fresh baked bread on a brisk winter night. With the days getting shorter and the night longer, we tend to stay indoors. A good way to beat the cold-day chill is a home cooked meal of comfort food. For three generations, my family’s favorite winter meal is a pot of my grandmothers chili and warm cornbread—and I can’t forget the honey butter. I may have been corn in California, but with my family hailing from Arkansas and a live in grandparents, my upbringing was more the Clampetts than the Cleavers. I grew up on chicken fried steak, scratch biscuits smothered in white gravy. And that…

1–What is the title of your latest release? LOVE SPELLS AND OTHER DISASTERS 2–What is it about? This is an ooey-gooey romance about a girl who writes some love spells for a class project then discovers they actually work! 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love the Marshall mansion with all of its ghostly appeal. I love the candle store, Scents and Things, where Rowan and Abby get one of their spells from –it’s modeled after some of the stores I’ve visited in Salem, Massachusetts. I love the Grady Farm and the renovated barn that Luca takes Rowan for a romantic evening. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  I created Rowan to be the embodiment of so many of my past students that she has all of the parts that I loved the most. While it didn’t surprise me, I love that she finds the strength to reconnect with her mom and through their bond, find a solution to her love spell dilemma. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Luca is caring and respectful. He understands consent and doesn’t push Rowan into doing anything she isn’t comfortable with. He knows what he wants to do…

As the dawn breaks, she turns her thoughts to the future, imagining the map of France dotted with stops on her circuit. The main region of her new network is located throughout the Massif Central—the highlands of central and southern France. It is remote and mountainous, and only the locals have a clear understanding of the geography. She had argued with Vera about stationing her in a mountain region. “Send me back to Lyon,” Virginia had said. “If you want to be a kamikaze, enlist with the Japanese.” “Then anywhere else, but not mountains. I can’t face that again.” “Then that’s precisely why you must.” Mountains. It’s impossible to articulate what they represent to her. The terror of the crossing in winter—with a prosthetic leg—was bad enough, but add the guilt over abandoning her people, the Gestapo breathing down her neck, and the knowledge the betrayer was still at large, and it crushed her. She had never experienced a terror like she felt on every level during that crossing, but even then, she hadn’t seen with her own eyes the murder of her people. Until today. The air feels as thin as it did in the Pyrenees. It takes her…

1–What is the title of your latest release? WINTER’S ORBIT 2–What is it about? In an intergalactic empire, charismatic social butterfly Prince Kiem is commanded to marry Count Jainan, a serious and duty-conscious diplomat from a vassal planet. But Jainan’s last husband died unexpectedly, and Jainan himself is under suspicion of murder. The pair must work together to solve the mystery of his last husband’s death, while they find themselves unexpectedly falling for each other. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I had fun writing a royal family under a media spotlight and what that meant for the public perception of the main relationship. And while I was working on it, I enjoyed living in a world where queer relationships are so normalized they’re totally unremarkable. 4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  Prince Kiem is one of those people who reacts to every situation by opening his mouth and starting to talk—some of the time I had no idea what he was going to say, but it always took the scene to fun places. 5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  I found it very easy to write Jainan, a habitual overthinker completely baffled by…

Have you ever wanted more from a series? Wanted to know more about the characters and how their world came into being or maybe you wanted to visit the setting and walk around a bit, enjoying the literary places you’d visited before. Those thoughts are what lead me to write STAR-CROSSED DRAGONS. It’s a love story about two Dragons from different social classes and clans that fall in love. These Dragons, Sara and Ian, are the main character’s parents from the Going Down In Flames series. In the Going Down In Flames series, I mentioned that Bryn’s parents ran away from a secret society of shape-shifting Dragons to escape arranged marriages. Honestly, I didn’t give much thought to how that happened. When I sat down to write her parents’ story, I realized I needed to reread the whole series to make sure I kept my facts straight. You’d think as the author I’d remember all the details, and I do remember most of what happened to the main character and her friends but remembering the information about the side characters was a bit more difficult. Once I had my ducks or dragons in a row, I wrote characters I really liked…

1–What is the title of your latest release? The Afterlife of the Party, out Feb. 2 with Entangled Teen 2–What is it about? The Afterlife of the Party is the first book in a teen vampire trilogy. Tansy’s life changes  when Tansy goes to a party with her crush/friend Vaughn and her best friend Skyler. Shed ends up on the road with Vaughn, chasing after a vampire band called The Drainers to save Skyler from the lead singer. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set in sunny Southern California, which is where I live, and I love the idea of vampires having to deal with all that sunshine. 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Tansy surprised me by the lengths she would go to save her friend. And when I started writing the book, I didn’t know that she had a crush on Vaughn, but then again, how could she resist him? 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Vaughn’s a cinnamon roll with a hot bod and musical talent. He’s a good friend, loyal and funny. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  You know that phrase, kill…

Winter glared at the butler for making him feel guilty. “No. Call for my horse. I’m going out.” “You just returned home, my lord.” “Are you my keeper now?” Ludlow’s mouth had gone so thin, it was nearly invisible. “Someone has to be.” “Now, see here—” Winter had had just about enough. He turned to give the man the blistering he deserved and stiffened as the front door to his house crashed unceremoniously open, letting in a burst of cool, fragrant wind. A cloaked vision stood there as the enticing waft of flowers slammed into Winter. He couldn’t see beyond the heavily-brimmed bonnet, and for a moment, he thought the actress, Aline, had changed her mind about a frolic in the sheets with Matteo. But Aline was petite. This new arrival was not. Ludlow rushed toward the door in greeting, and froze as the woman chuckled and said something to him in a low, sultry voice. He couldn’t quite see the butler’s face. He also couldn’t catch the lady’s tones to recognize its owner, but they were decidedly refined. Most of his callers were from the demimonde, but the occasional aristocratic lady still found her way to 15 Audley Street…

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Jennifer Deibel! Writes: Stories that view home through the lens of culture, history, and faith—typically with a healthy dose of Irish flare and charm. Her debut, A DANCE IN DONEGAL, is set in Ireland in 1921 and releases February 2. About: My ideal day of fun includes wandering around my favorite stores with a couple of close friends; coffee in hand. There’s always coffee.  That comes second, of course, only to spending time with my family…and taking a really. good. nap. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Must love Ireland, and all things Irish Must love sweeping views, rugged seas, rolling green hills, and toe-tapping music Must love ruddy heroes with quick with and swoon-worthy singing voices Must love inspiring stories filled with danger, struggle, and hope What to expect if we’re compatible: A glimpse into the heart and soul of Ireland and her people Heart-fluttering romance Uplifting stories that speak the soul, filled with faith, friends, and lots of tea An author who adores interacting with…

I’m Suzanne Woods Fisher, the author of The Moonlight School. This historical fiction will release on February 2, 2021, and is based on a true story featuring Cora Wilson Stewart, a Kentucky woman way ahead of her times. In 1911, Cora had a crazy idea—to open rural one-room schoolhouses in her county on moonlit nights to teach illiterate adults how to read and write. So what happened next? Well, it’s so astonishing that you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Instead, I hope you’ll read the book and find out for yourself. T – T is for Time. Cora Wilson Stewart knew the time had come to address the alarming adult illiteracy rate (25%) in her county. H – H is for Hero. And Handsome. Both describe Brother Wyatt, a Singing School Master who brings music to the mountain people. E – E is for Everything. Cora, as Kentucky’s first female Superintendent of Education for Rowan County, put everything on the line to create the first grassroot movement of Moonlight Schools. * M – M is for Moon. Cora chose a night with a full moon to open the rural schoolhouses to adults. O – O is for Overprotective. Cora convinced her overprotective cousin to allow his nineteen-year-old daughter, Lucy Wilson, to come work for…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Susan! We are so happy to have you here today. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your new book, THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS. I am a historical fiction novelist and native Californian who has lived in other states and abroad, but California is where I have spent the majority of my life and is probably the reason why I chose to set my newest novel around the time of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. I’ve experienced many tremblors; they are fairly common here, but none of the magnitude of that historic one. It reshaped San Francisco in many ways. Anytime you have a major event where ordinary people are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, you also have a backdrop for a story to be told. Sophie answers an ad to be a mail-order bride. An Irish immigrant in New York, she then travels across the country to marry a man she’s never met and take care of his daughter. Where did the idea for Sophie come from? What research did you do into mail-order brides, and did you learn anything truly surprising?  I wanted Sophie to have good reasons for wanting to…