For the month of Bastille Day, I’m serving up a selection of historical fiction that captures the time just before, during, and after the Revolution. Caught in the merciless cogs of this seismic shift are four very different women, some who will thrive–and one who will pay the ultimate price for being on the wrong side of history. Beginning first with the one who loses the most, we have ABUNDANCE by Sena Jeter Naslund. Much like Sophia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette, Naslund’s book looks at Marie’s life through her own eyes. Beginning as a giddy 14-year old thrilled to be going to France to marry the 15-year-old Dauphin, completely unprepared for the vicious cauldron of political intrigue that is Versailles, Marie is dazzled by the court, who seemed charmed by her. But although she works hard to build a relationship with her husband, his failure to consummate the marriage and give France the heir it needs sours her life at court. She buries her disappointment by retreating in opulent comfort, surrounding herself with a small coterie of women friends, the Austrian ambassador–the Swedish Count Von Fersen. By the time the long-awaited children arrive, France is in desperate circumstances, with bitter…

Hi.  I’m Alice Gaines, and I’m here to talk about my new release, The Player’s Game.  It’s the second book in my Players’ Pact series from Entangled Indulgence. I’ll let my hero, Grant, introduce himself: I’ve got to admit, life is sweet these days. As a starting NFL quarterback, I do okay, and I haven’t been lacking for female companionship. But I’d give it all up in a heartbeat if I could get back the woman I loved and lost–my ex-wife, Katy. Now I’m at a wedding, watching one of my best friends tie the knot. I’m happy for him–really. I just wish things had turned out better when I’d taken that walk down the aisle. Still, those days are over. I’m on my way up to my room when I run into my ex in the elevator. It’s like karma. Has to be. Only she’s with some random guy, who’s getting a little too handsy for my liking. I can’t help myself–I have to say something. Something that ruins her night. . . and mine, too. Now, I’m sitting alone in my hotel room, when suddenly, Katy’s at my door, complaining that I ruined her 30th birthday. Her solution–that…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? High Rise: Andre 2–What is it about? One-night-stand turned employer-intern turned omg I think I’m in love. 3–What word best describes Andre? Confused. Poor baby is so confused. 4–What makes Marcus irresistible? He’s so focused, and he knows what he wants. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? For Andre, his friend Fiona. For Marcus, his boy Jake. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book? Honestly, I love the familiarity of it. I can go out and scout the locations, and they’re places that are comfortable, welcoming, where you don’t have to feel on edge the entire time. It feels more like home. 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantster (write by the seat of your pants) Plotter all day long! I tried pantsing once, and after a tantrum to rival that of any two-year-old told “no,” realized the error of my ways. 8–What is an ideal writing day for you? On my balcony with either my papers or laptop, a cup of Earl Grey tea in hand, at 6:00 a.m., for two and a half hours of uninterrupted work. Summer…

Miranda: The first of your books I read were in the Fusion series. I loved it because it had friendships and realistically strong yet flawed female characters. How important is it for you to write strong female characters and friendships? Does the dialogue flow easily? Kristen: Thank you! I’m absolutely a dialogue-driven author. I also love to read dialogue. I think it moves the story along at a fast pace. Friendships are integral to every book I write. None of us just fall in love and have no one else in our lives. I think it’s important to show a character’s community, her family and friends, and their reactions to the character falling in love. One of the things I enjoy so much about your Romancing Manhattan series, as well as many of your other books, is the balance between romance, character development, and conflict. Do you consciously try and maintain balance in your books or does it just evolve organically? The books evolve organically, as I write them. As a huge fan of the series, I’m thrilled about your new Romancing Manhattan book AFTER ALL! But are there any supporting characters in any of your series that you’ve toyed…

6 DONNA Marleen extends a round porcelain bowl with pills. I scoop them up, put them in my mouth, and take a sip of water from a glass on the nightstand. She leaves the room and I lean back and listen to the sounds of the house. Marleen karate-chops the throw pillows on the couch (I don’t care for that look but I won’t correct her) and wipes the kitchen counters (there is the tearing of a disinfectant wipe from the container, followed by the sound of the garbage can lid clinking shut shortly thereafter). Her heels clack, make their way down the hallway and into the powder room, followed by a silence during which she undoubtedly straightens towels on the shelf. The house phone rings. Marleen’s explanation about someone punching in the wrong numbers at the gate sounds contrived. I want to get up, hurry from my bedroom down the hallway and into the kitchen, want to get to the bottom of this–want to grab the receiver and demand to know who is on the other end of the line–but the phone stops ringing. I don’t want to be in this state of mistrust but– That book on the…

Canceled plans, social distancing, and masks are a regular part of our lives nowadays. Can we all just give a huge round of applause to the authors, editors, and publishers out there who have kept the books coming even as the world has seemingly shut down? In fact, I’m supposed to be just returning from an Alaskan cruise right now, sharing pictures and memories of what was to be a trip to rival my outstanding trip several years back to Ireland. Thankfully, there are a plethora of phenomenal books out there to keep me entertained (and keep my mind off that missed Alaskan cruise LOL!). Daryl Wood Gerber adds a dash of the paranormal to the cozy mystery, A SPRINKLING OF MURDER, where readers enter a world where fairies exist and they have to complete certain goals to earn their wings. Courtney Kelly loves sharing her belief in the world of fairies with others through her store, Open Your Imagination, where she teaches and sells various items to help with landscaping, including how to design fairy gardens. Her own personal fairy, Fiona, is visible to those who are willing to believe. Can Courtney and Fiona uncover a murderer? Readers will…

Jen: What inspired you to write THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE? Fiona: At author talks and book signings, readers often suggest New York City landmarks they’d like to see featured in my novels. The New York Public Library came up repeatedly, so I figured I’d do a little research into its construction and history. I learned that when it opened in 1911, the superintendent lived in a seven-room apartment deep inside the library with his wife and three children. The idea of a family living in this monument of marble that’s filled with books struck me as a perfect setting for a novel, and I was up and running–although I created a fictional family for the story.  What is the catalyst behind Laura’s decision to apply to the Columbia Journalism School?  Laura, the superintendent’s wife, has been living in the library for a couple of years, and feels stifled and lonely–it’s not like there are any neighbors to chat with or borrow milk from, as there would be in a regular New York City apartment building. She’s been writing a column about her life raising her two children in a library for the employee newsletter, and when she hears that…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Under Scottish Stars, the third book in the MacDonald Family Trilogy. 2–What is it about?  Single mom Serena Stewart has focused on her kids to the exclusion of her career and her sanity. But when she returns to the Isle of Skye to help oversee her family’s guesthouse, her independent nature is challenged by the prickly and all-too-handsome hotel manager, Malcolm Blake. 3–What word best describes your main character(s)?  Dedicated. Whatever Serena turns her mind to, she does it wholeheartedly, whether it’s giving her children a good life after their father dies or making the family hotel into a success. 4–What makes your story relatable?  Those of us who have children can relate to the fact that they become the priority, even to the exclusion of the things we need for our own health and happiness. Even if you don’t have kids, it’s easy to relate to how life sometimes throws us curveballs and interferes with the futures we’ve envisioned for ourselves. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Serena’s aunt Muriel is the rock upon which the MacDonald family is built–she’s quirky, sassy, and always has…

one Roxy Brayburn and a broken heart 1974 Dear Mama, Losing Lucas has embittered me to the world, to every couple on the beach, Elle, Santa Maria, and even you. You’ve had twenty years with Daddy. Why didn’t I get that with mine? I expected to live with Lucas and Mayhem and maybe a whole bunch of babies for the rest of my life. But then Lucas jumped off the cliffs like he was late for an appointment. You know what that means. I can’t look at Elle after what she did, and if I have to fight this battle, cleanse my Brayburn blood, I have to do it away from here, where I can’t hear the water whisper, where I can’t feel its pull on my heart, never mind my body. I been thinking, Mama, Santa Maria is just like us, like Brayburns. It seems like a good, safe place for some free love and a party on the beach, but once you peel back the first layer, you realize it’s a lie, and what’s underneath is rotting and dirty. Spoiled, like meat that’s been sitting out too long. I know what you’re thinking: I’ll be a Brayburn wherever…

Out July 7th, The Princess Will Save You is a gender-flipped damsel-in-distress tale inspired by one of my most beloved cult classics: The Princess Bride. First and foremost, this isn’t a retelling. Rather, it’s a love letter to all the things I adore about William Goldman’s spin the classic damsel-in-distress fairytale–True love! Sword fights! Mouthy pirates!–as well as an examination of the one thing about the story that I found more and more frustrating as I grew into adulthood: Buttercup’s character arc. I’m assuming the majority of the Fresh Fiction readership knows the story here, but in summation, Buttercup’s adventures in The Princess Bride go like so: Our princess starts off the story as a commoner, so sure in whom she is and what she wants: her farm boy, Westley. And even after Westley disappears, the presumed victim of the notorious Dread Pirate Roberts, she has the same fierce spark. Buttercup has been plucked from her common life to be a princess, and from the outside has everything a girl could ever want, but still she’s willing to push back. Then, when she’s kidnapped by supposed pirates, Buttercup fights back, tries to escape, and uses what she has to try…