Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Kennedy! We are so excited to have you here. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, QUEEN MOVE. Thank you for having me! I’m so glad to be here. I write contemporary romance that goes straight for your heart, sometimes with a sucker punch. LOL! My new book Queen Move is a reunion romance. The hero and heroine know each other literally from the time they’re babies. It’s a bit of a soul mate story. Their parents are best friends, and Kimba and Ezra are separated just as they’re entering high school. When they meet again years later, they’re both adults with very complicated lives. Negotiating their HEA is complex and kinda messy, but I hope, rewarding. QUEEN MOVE is loosely related to the All the King’s Men Duet. What do you love about this setting and world you’ve built? Yes! We first meet Kimba, Queen Move’s heroine, in The Kingmaker, book 1 of the All the King’s Men duet. Queen Move is written to completely stand on its own (Seriously! Not just saying that! LOL!), but Kimba’s best friend and business partner is Lennix, the heroine of the duet. I think of SCANDAL…

The Feedbag Cafe was empty when Matt took a corner seat early that morning and perused the bill of fare. Breakfast was served at the hotel where he was staying, but the out-of-town guests had no personal knowledge of Neal Blackwell. Matt counted on the café to serve up a generous heap of local gossip along with his cackleberries and bacon. What he hadn’t counted on was coming face-to-face with Blackwell’s widow. No sooner had his eggs and bacon arrived than he spotted her storming into the restaurant. She paused for the briefest of moments at the doorway. Even from a distance, he could see the fire in her eyes. Whoever had earned her ire this time deserved his sympathy, that was for sure. At least she wasn’t packing iron. Picking up his fork, he was just about to dive into his breakfast when her gaze zeroed in on him. As a Ranger, he’d been the target of angry men and blazing guns, but he’d never been as tempted to hide as he was at that moment. Unfortunately, there was no time to follow through with his cowardly wish. For before he could move, she dashed toward him like a…

Putting the book back on the shelf, Connor’s gaze floated to two pictures in wooden frames. One photograph was of a young woman with a book—much like the ones on the shelf—opened and covering the bottom half of her face. Her mouth wasn’t shown, but there was no denying the smile in her blue eyes or the obnoxious French writing scrawled over the cover of the book. The second picture was of a young Gabriel with a wide grin and black tie draped around a white button-down shirt with his arms wrapped around the waist of a young woman. A curtain of dark, curly hair rained over her face as she twisted away from him, but there was no denying the playful grin beaming from her. The clinking of glass alerted him to someone behind him. He swiveled, and ice ran through his veins. Gabriel lingered at a drink cart set up beside the lone brown leather chair on the other side of the desk. He had the lip of a crystal decanter pressed against a short glass. Amber liquid flowed from one container to the other. Gabriel waited until his glass was filled before lifting his gaze to Connor….

Ahhh, summer. Warmer temps—when? Sunny skies—where? And great reads—thank God, I got one right! It’s the perfect time of year to read and relax, something all of us need right now. To start the holiday off right, I thought I’d recommend a few mysteries to freshen up your library and clear out all of those stress induced cobwebs—the real ones, and the imaginary ones in our brains—shouldn’t we have cleaned all of those out by now? I hope you enjoy them all! (The books not the cobwebs—nasty buggers.) Short and Delightful! Botched Butterscotch An Amish Candy Shop Mystery 4/28/2020 Amanda Flower Mother’s Day is a sweet and busy time at the candy shop Bailey King runs with her Amish grandmother. This year is extra special, because Bailey’s parents are visiting Harvest, Ohio. Bailey’s father has rarely returned since leaving the Amish faith over thirty years ago, but Bailey is confident that the right treats can help sugarcoat any awkwardness. For Mother’s Day Tea at the local church, she’s whipping up her mom’s favorite: butterscotch pie. All’s going well, until a sticky-fingered thief makes off with the money raised for a local women’s support group. While Bailey tries to discover who…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Careful What You Click For 2–What is it about?  Online dating. Four church members–in their quest for lust and love–do the unimaginable. Blinded by desire, the characters are determined to sex the lover of their choice. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Fallible. 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  There is no hero in Careful What You Click For. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? Loved ones. Law enforcers. In some instances, as church members and friends, they depend upon one another. In a particular situation, one character has no means to communicate with the outside world and must rely upon God to deliver him from evil. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book?  Atlanta, Georgia, is intriguing. Churchgoers and politicians often share the same bed. I enjoy taking the characters from Sunday service to the bar to show how Christians are sinners. 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantster (write by the seat of your pants)? I’m an artist first. My characters are real to me. I don’t like to get ahead of them and dictate their direction. I outline four chapters at…

Every so often, we challenge authors to describe their new releases using the letters of their titles! Enjoy this Title Challenge from Juno Rushdan’s latest romantic suspense release, along with an exclusive excerpt from UNITL THE END:  U is for unexpected N is for necessary T is for thrill ride I is for intrigue L is for love * T is for twist H is for heart-stirring E is for entertaining * E is for edge-of-your-seat N is for national security D is for danger Excerpt:  Did you find out why they changed security protocol?” Jess asked, driving the armored truck along the dark, deserted road stretching before her like a giant black hole. “Nope.” Roger stared out the passenger window. “I don’t care either.” She tried ignoring the dread that always bubbled in her gut on Route 15. This road was the worst part of their quarterly drive making deliveries from Nexcellogen to Fort Detrick. Her gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. All clear. She half expected to find the boogeyman chasing up behind them. So ridiculous. Nothing was different about this run—except the sidearms she and Roger both carried. A new security requirement that substantiated the unnerving rumors among the drivers about…

Jennifer: What inspired you to write The Wife Stalker? Liv (Lynne & Valerie): The ideas always start with a common trope that we try to turn on its head. When the idea for The Wife Stalker came to us, it presented a challenge in terms of how exactly we could transfer that idea to the page, and that became the propelling motivation as we wrote. What draws Piper Reynard to Westport, Connecticut? Piper wants to leave California and put as much distance as possible between her past and her new life. Moving almost 3,000 miles away, to the other side of the country, is the best way to do that. The draw of Westport is its cosmopolitan yet small-town atmosphere and the fact that it’s on the water. Piper is passionate about sailing, and so she wants to find a place on the coast. Because many of the residents aren’t natives of Westport, no one is particularly interested in anyone’s family history. It’s a place she can re-invent herself and become “Piper”. How does her life change when she meets the handsome Leo Drakos? Piper feels both excitement and a tiny (very tiny) bit of trepidation when she meets Leo….

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-ReaderMatch” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present LINDA BOND! Writes: Linda Bond writes romantic thrillers because she’s a big fan of the James Bond franchise. She’s also a real-life news reporter who spends every day writing under deadline. Her series from Entangled Publishing is set in a Central Florida newsroom, where each reporter goes out on assignment, stumbles onto a mystery, and while solving the mystery, falls in love.  Her latest, Flatline, is a medical thriller: People are dying in Dr. Joshua Salvador’s ER. His medical assistant, only weeks from delivering her baby, hangs on to life by a thread. The symptoms seem horrifyingly familiar, and he begins to suspect the deaths are targeted at him. But, before he can figure things out, top TV investigator Rachel Wright is standing in the middle of his ER, convinced an outbreak, an epidemic, or even a botched flu vaccine could be the cause, and she’s going to tell the world.  About: Adrenaline junkie news reporter by day, romance writer by night, seeks…

D is for Dare. Everything in this book starts because of the dare that Bryson Keller accepts. A is for Anticipation. Kai starts to anticipate the time he spends with his fake-boyfriend. T is for Truth. Kai desires to live his truth. E is for Empathy. Kai is surprised by how empathetic and understanding Bryson Keller is. * M is for Music. Both Kai and Bryson connect over their favorite band. E is for Embarrassed. Kai blushes a lot, a fact that Bryson finds cute. * B is for Bryson Keller. The swoon-worthy love interest. R is for Romance. This is a gay Rom-Com. Y is for Yearning. Being a closeted teen can be lonely. S is for Sexuality. This is a coming out story. O is for Open. Kai and Bryson slowly open their hearts, and themselves, to each another. N is for Now. Kai decides to live in the ‘now’ with Bryson. * K is for Kissing. ‘Nuff said. E is for Endure. Kai and Bryson endure trials & tribulations for their happy ending. L is for Life. Kai’s life is forever changed by the dare. L is for Love. This is the story of two boys falling…

by senior reviewer Debbie Wiley Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing- wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?  I have a love/hate relationship with birds that started with Mother Goose and the Song of Sixpence nursery rhyme. Sure, there are birds I dearly love, like the graceful Sandhill cranes and the majestic owls, but it is the mystery of those blackbirds that has left me with a healthy dose of fear for birds. I know I’m not alone as look at Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, or Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (shudders). Several authors recently have challenged me to rethink how I feel about some of these maligned birds and I’d like to share their wonderful books with you. Heather Webber tackles the Song of Sixpence directly with a bit of magical realism in MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE. Anna Kate Callow has arrived in Wicklow, Alabama, to bury her beloved Granny Zee. Unbeknownst to her, she inherits her grandmother’s entire estate, including the Midnight Cafe under one condition- she has to remain in Wicklow and run the cafe for a specific amount of time. Anna Kate has preconceptions about Wicklow….