My husband and I have this long-standing disagreement. He likes names like John and Jane—literally the more boring the better. I, however, like something with some interest. While I have to work with him on naming our baby, I don’t have to give a hoot what he thinks about my character names! I am a collector of names. I have files in my phone for girl names, boy names, and surnames. Whenever I come across something interesting, I add it to the list and then pull my character names from there. Side characters usually have something I like but not one of my top favorites, except when I have a theme going. In NEVER MISS, which is a Christian romantic suspense book releasing from Revell on May 4, 2021, my female main character’s family all has names related to combat and fortification, which is fitting for a family of snipers. Their last name is Tolle simply because I’ve always liked that name. Bastion – her father Redan – her uncle, Bastion’s brother Caponier – her cousin Ravelin – her cousin The male character’s parents’ names are more personal. Lee Vaile is his father. Lee is my father’s middle name, and…

LIKE CATS AND DOGS is the first book in the Whitman Street series, which is set at a cat café in Brooklyn. This first book is about the café’s manager, Lauren, and the new veterinarian next door, Caleb. Caleb is grumpy and a little jaded; he is kind to his canine and feline patients but has little patience for humas. Lauren loves her job and doesn’t care how silly Caleb thinks it is. They don’t get along and rub each other the wrong way. But for the pesky problem of them being intensely attracted to each other, they might be able to ignore each other. L is for Lauren and Lindsay. Lauren manages the Cat Café, and her friend Lindsay provides snarky commentary about everything going on there. Lauren and her two friends Paige and Lindsay form the core of the series. (Paige falls in love in the second book, and Lindsay tangles with an ex in the third.) I is for Independent. I wanted to shine a light on the independent businesses that make a neighborhood feel special. Brooklyn and New York City are obviously huge, densely populated places where it’s easy to get lost in a crowd. But…

Home Paris Ben climbed the stairs from the metro station at Saint Germain and turned north on Rue Bonaparte under the late morning sun. Its rays did nothing to ease the winter cold, and he altered his route to his flat in the 16th arrondissement to take him past a favorite café. In the ten months of Ben’s posting there, Paris had stolen his heart. He loved his country, certainly, but his American roots had thinned. His parents had him late in life and passed while he was still muddling around in his six years at Rice University, deciding what he wanted to be when he grew up. He knew he didn’t want to be a cabinetmaker, so he’d sold the family business, the last tie binding him to his hometown, and moved on. No siblings. No connections. The Company sought out people like him. They’d recruited him—­rescued him—­during his first year as a commodities trader. Life at the schoolhouse ended nine months later with his death. Drug overdose. Tragic. His professors at Rice would have never guessed. The Company resurrected him in London as Ben Calix, and he’d never looked back. With a fresh cup of tea to warm…

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE AMISH COWBOY’S HOMECOMING 2–What is it about? Two horse trainers who can’t help falling for each other while battling for the same job, set in beautiful Amish Country. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  Lancaster County, PA is simply gorgeous. The first time I visited Hershey, PA, I also took a tour around Honey Brook, as well as the other sweet communities in Amish Country. Beautiful rolling hills, green pastures and rows and rows of farms. I would love to live there! 4–How did your heroine surprise you?  Grace Zook is awesome! What surprised me about her is how she was able to work hard at a “man’s job,” while remaining feminine and always optimistic. 5–Why will readers love your hero?  Ahhh, Isaac is such a dreamboat! He’s kind and compassionate, a true friend, and the cutest single father you’ll ever meet. 6–What was one of your biggest challenges while writing this book (spoiler-free, of course!)?  I wanted to be respectful to the Amish community. They are very private people, and yet they have active lives just like anyone else. I did my best to keep the characters…

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 Sloane Steele! Writes: IT TAKES A THIEF: The Counterfeit Capers series are light romantic suspense books: art heists with HEAs. IT TAKES A THIEF sets up the premise of the series and builds the team. Cousins Mia, the mastermind, and Jared, the negotiator, plan to steal art from their fathers’ friends and sell it to pay the victims of their father’s Madoff-type scheme. To pull this off, they hire Audrey (Data), the hacker; Nikki, the thief; and London, the forger. As this group of individuals learns to work together as a team, Audrey and Jared start to fall for each other, which complicates everything. About: Diet Coke swilling, TV watching writer who bakes cookies when stressed by life or plot points. I have a snarky sense of humor and use curse words prolifically. I’m amused by my own teenagers and spend a lot of time laughing at/with them. I believe reading and writing romance should provide escape from the frustrations of life….

Jen: What inspired you to write Under the Southern Sky? Kristy: I was at a party and one of my friends pulled me aside. She was visibly upset because she had been to the doctor that day and he had told her that she and her husband needed to make decisions about their leftover frozen embryos. She said, “When we were freezing these embryos, all we could see is the babies we wanted. We never thought about what would happen next. We never thought about what we would do with the ones we didn’t have.” And then she said the magic words. “A lot of people are going to be going through this. You should write a book about it.” I remember where I was standing and how I got chill bumps all over, as a sure sign that she was, indeed, correct. I knew there was a story there. Only, I didn’t exactly know what that story was What happens in Amelia Buxton’s professional career that brings an old friend back into her life? Amelia is researching for a story about what people do with their unused, frozen embryos when she is sneaking around and accidentally finds out that…

CHAPTER EIGHT Peter Bernhardt woke up again. He felt odd, unlike anything he had yet experienced as a digital entity. His peripheral vision registered a clean engineering room’s wipeable acoustic tile ceiling and walls. From the ceiling hung three accordioned mobile ventilation ducts. He focused on the square mouth of one duct. The image was clear but edgy, as though his digital vision tried to blend each pixel together into an approximation of human sight, but had not quite succeeded. He lay supine in the center of the room, probably on a workbench or table. Raising his index finger, he tapped the surface three times and heard the muffled thud of a thick silicone skin on metal. The table seemed real, tangible, yet his finger felt jerky, electronic. He lifted his head and heard the faint sound of servos as he stared down along the length of the table at an android body. The skin appeared to be high-end silicon, with body hair tastefully punctured into the surface. The build was athletic, but not pumped. Slim, but not skinny. Pecs had definition and the stomach was flat, with a subtle six- pack. He lifted his head two centimeters more. Below…

It seems you played a few cards right, a familiar mental voice said as the butler opened the door to Branwyn’s room. I can’t enjoy a room like this as I once did, but it’s a much finer view than the inn. Yathana was lying across the foot of Branwyn’s bed, three feet of straight, razor-edged steel in a scabbard covered with midnight-blue silk, with thin golden chains connecting small amethysts and garnets. Her hilt appeared gold too—a thin layer of gilt did wonders—and the eye-sized fire opal in the center of her guard was now flanked by two chunks of amber on the quillons and another on the pommel. Seventeen years of partnership had given Yathana’s normal form time to sink very deeply into Branwyn’s consciousness, and even after two months of practice, the additions stood out whenever she had occasion to examine the soulsword. Adapting to the shifts in balance had come more easily, praise the Four. “It looks wonderful,” she said to the butler, though she really hadn’t even noticed the room save for marking a window opposite the door—real glass, not shuttered, and framed by heavy rose-pink curtains. “Thank you.” “The maids will have put your…

1–What is the title of your latest release? The Wolf Wore Plaid 2–What is it about? The Highland lass is a little too unpredictable for him, but maybe that’s what the Highland wolf needs in his life. Heather MacNeill has always had a crush on Enrick MacQuarrie, but no real hope to snag his interest as he’s too wrapped up in being the secondary pack leader in his Highland pack. Work always come first. Until, a movie is being filmed at Enrick’s castle. To Enrick’s consternation, he learns the American movie star who plays the lord of the castle is a man who could be his clone. Worse, the enemy clan they’ve battled it out with for centuries is bent on revenge because the film isn’t being shot at their own castle. What begins as a need to keep Heather MacNeill safe, and for her to do the same for him as the battle between the clans escalates, turns into something much deeper between the wolves who have known each other forever. Maybe her wildness is rubbing off on him, but is that a bad thing? 3–What do you love about the setting of your book? It’s in Scotland! I’ve…

Danielle: Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Amelia! Congrats on the release of the third book in your First Comes Love series, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR EARL. Amelia: Thank you for having me. I’m absolutely delighted to be here.  What do you think brings people back to historical romance?  For me and I assume for most, it’s the intrigue of living in a different era, learning about something that is old but new to us. Because I’m very settled and contented in the life I live in, it’s exciting and entertaining to read about a time when life was unlike what I’m used to. I especially love the pageantry, the clothing, and the manners of the Regency. Zane, the Earl of Blacknight, is a notorious rake and rogue. What did you love about writing him as a character?   Zane was very comfortable being the black sheep of the Blacknight family. When he became the earl and head of the family, he didn’t think he could do it and no one else in the family thought he could either. I loved writing about how he dealt with his meddling uncles and his younger cousin’s dangerous troubles. Most of all I loved how he was…