I’m so excited about the release of MAYBE THIS CHRISTMAS, the latest book in my O’Neil Brothers series (each story stands alone so don’t worry if you haven’t read the other two). The hero, Tyler O’Neil, is the bad boy of the three brothers. He’s a medal winning ski racer and was one of the best in the world until an accident brought an abrupt end to his career. He’s also a single dad and now he’s back in the mountains where he grew up, helping to run the family business, Snow Crystal Resort, while raising his teenage daughter. Tyler’s fearless, adventurous nature makes him one of the sexiest heroes I’ve written. As well as having nerves of steel, he’s supremely fit, confident and a natural athlete. All that powerful thigh muscle, developed from skiing near vertical slopes at speeds of up to 90 miles and hour, means his jeans regularly have to be reinforced along the seams. My heroine Brenna has been friends with him since childhood and is one of the few people who can keep up with him on the slopes. She’s been in love with him her whole life and is all too aware of Tyler’s…

In celebration of MADE FOR YOU‘s release day, Lauren Layne has shared her favorite enemies-to-lovers stories that helped inspire her latest contemporary romance! Top 5 Favorite Enemies-to-Lovers Stories 10 Things I Hate About You–Filmed in my hometown, so I know like 90% of the extras you see at that high school! Star Wars (Leia and Hans) You’ve Got Mail–I’ve watched his movie so many times it’s alarming Maria and Michael from Roswell–Never heard of it? GET ON IT! The Proposal–I’d find a way to fit this movie into every trope-category if I could About MADE FOR YOU Three years ago, Brynn Dalton made a rare error in judgment and had a one-night stand with the one man she swore would never get into her designer panties. Will Thatcher was exactly the type of sexy playboy that good girls like Brynn stayed away from. And when Will moved across the country just days after their fling, Brynn vowed to put him behind her, even as the memories haunt her. Now Will Thatcher is back, and just in time to see Brynn’s perfectly structured life begin to crumble. Her job is dull, her social life is tedious, and Brynn’s perfect cardiologist boyfriend…

Aside from his family, the one person Georges, Marquis Cruzy-le-Châtel has tried to keep safe during the Napoleonic Wars is Madeleine du Beaune, the woman he wishes to marry. Although, the war is over, shadowy forces are at work to bring Napoleon back to power. When George discovers Madeleine is in danger, he joins forces with the British Home Office to rescue her and bring down a spy ring. When George first appeared in my second book, THE SECRET LIFE OF MISS ANNA MARSH, he was a jaded man whose use for women was to gain information or aid. By the end of the novel he had rehabilitated himself, and the reader is briefly introduced to Madeleine. I knew then that their story would be a Christmas novella. Although, I didn’t know Madeleine at all at the beginning of the book, she turned out to be a wonderful surprise. Madeleine gazed out the window at the now bare vines. The signs of the first frost were fading as the sun rose higher. In another few weeks, the Christmas season would be upon them. The first one without her father. She would do her best to make it a happy Christmas…

If you’ve read LAST TRAIN TO BABYLON, you already know that Aubrey Glass is the novel’s 22-year-old, slightly contentious narrator. In it’s finished form, the book is written entirely in first person POV. But fun fact: I originally intended to write Last Train in alternating POVs between Aubrey and her high school boyfriend, Adam Sullivan. I was about halfway through writing when I realized I had way more Aubrey than Adam chapters. So as I made a conscious effort to beef up the Adam scenes, they started to feel forced and extraneous — like I was rewriting the exact same scenes with different commentary for the sake of word count. I struggled with it for a while. I even put the whole writing process on hold while I tried to figure out how to finish the book. I considered everything short of cutting out the Adam chapters. I’d put a lot of heart into some of those scenes, and the thought of axing them felt sort of like betrayal. I eventually realized this was Aubrey’s story, not Adam’s. And in the end, I had to let go of his side of the story. But I saved his chapters, just in…

It was the holiday we’d been dreaming about for months. All through the gloomy depths of winter we’d been working long hours, and hubby and I were stressed out and longing for sunshine, cocktails, and relaxation. What could be better than a ten-day break in the Whitsunday group of islands, off the tropical coast of Queensland, Australia? When some people go on holiday, they’re determined to leave no statue, park, cathedral, or fountain unvisited. On some overseas trips with friends, I’ve been so exhausted by the schedule of sight-seeing that I’ve had to take several days off work afterwards to recover. But if I’m left to my own devices, I’ll gladly spend the entire time lying beside the nearest body of water with my pale skin turning ouch-red, and my nose in a novel. And that’s exactly what I’d planned for this trip. Before boarding the plane to Hamilton Island I’d gone crazy cramming my eReader full of every new release I’d been dying to read and I was looking forward to spend the entire ten days book-bingeing. When it came to the goal of complete and utter laziness, the resort was perfect. Our small, beach-front bure was a short…

Serial killers are often the stuff of a good suspense novel. My book, A MATTER OF GRAVE CONCERN, includes them, too. But when we think of serial killers, we often associate them with contemporary stories. Or, if we don’t, we focus primarily on Jack the Ripper. The dark mystery behind Jack the Ripper’s crimes keep the memory of his poor victims ever-present. I’ve always been intrigued by Jack the Ripper, but when I was looking for ideas for my next historical romantic suspense novel, I ran across a different type of serial killer that intrigued me just as much—not someone who murdered for lust or the thrill of it. William Burke and William Hare teamed up to murder for money. Granted, that isn’t unheard of (then or now), but the circumstances surrounding their crimes were bizarre, especially to a modern reader. And when I learned that conditions in the late 17th century and early 18th century were rife for the same type of thing to happen again, over and over, I knew I’d hit upon the perfect spine-tingling backdrop for my story. Burke and Hare were Irishmen living in Edinburgh when they murdered sixteen people. Oddly enough, they didn’t have…

Story has been my deepest love since before I could read. And I was serious about it. I watched Mary Poppins at five years old and thought the idea of a carousel horse joining a real horse on a racetrack was insulting. I expressed similar disdain when books violated reality. A mouse born to human parents? A swan learning to read and write and play the trumpet? Ridiculous. I wrote my first story in first grade and never stopped writing. My stories never messed with reality, never took “what if?” too far. Then, in high school, I discovered Star Trek: Voyager. A new frontier opened in my imagination. I started seeking out fantasy and science fiction. A few years later, my first full-length novel idea bloomed—the idea that would grow into SEEK AND HIDE. In the storyworld of SEEK AND HIDE, the government has seized control of the church. Bibles have been retranslated. Churches agree to teach only from the retranslated Bible or are closed. The dystopian world is represented well by the bleak sky and dilapidated farmhouse on the cover; here, freedom and truth are decaying like this house. My main character, Marcus Brenner, is a new Christian who…

Hi! I’m so happy to be back here, blogging at Fresh Fiction! This is release week for my book, THE DOCTOR’S FAKE FIANCEE. I probably had the most fun with the hero in this book, Evan. He was also the most different of all my heroes. He’s a guy who’s always had to excel, skipped ahead in school, and had it instilled in him that he needed to be the best. He’s a guy who’s SO intelligent. But he’s actually the most emotionally unaware hero I’ve ever written, so I had a blast torturing him into self-awareness. I brought the poor guy to his knees by the end of the book, as it FINALLY dawned on him what was most important in his life. So while I enjoy reading and writing about all different kind of heroes, there are certain traits they must all have-or acquire-by the end of the book. Here’s my list (in no particular order). 10. Honor. Even if a guy is a grump at the beginning of the book, he needs a code of honor. If he doesn’t have one, he just doesn’t interest me and I’ve lost respect for him. 9. Ambition. He doesn’t have…

When I look back at my earliest memories I remember the flicker of oil lamps casting shadows on the wall of our home, our buggy, and wearing plain clothes. I remember when my dad drove our first car into the driveway—a green Nova with lime colored carpet on the dash—we were leaving the Amish. And when my mammie (grandma) visited from across the street and my mom told me not to bring out my new English dress that was blue seersucker with ruffles and smocking. But I did. For several years I spoke Pennsylvania Dutch better than English but my little friends still understood me. I was still raised alongside my plain cousins because my shunned parents exhibited great patience and unconditional love in order to maintain a relationship with our Amish family. From these memories came my mammie’s memoir that shared her life through the Great Depression and World War Two. It was a difficult life and not the mainstream picturesque Amish. Seasons: A Real Story of an Amish Girl brought voices from my Amish ancestral past. I could hear my daudy (grandpa) telling me about being drafted to World War Two but because of his conscientious objector status…

Architects are special creatures. They are cut from a cloth that’s all their own, and lumping them in with businessmen, doctors, or lawyers is to miss the nuances that make architects so fascinating. In all things, they balance art and science, instinct and creativity. They tend to be highly articulate and attend to fine details, and bring deliberate thought to all of their decisions, and those are delightful quirks. Here are a few more snippets from Matthew Walsh, and how you’ll know when you’re sleeping with an architect: 1. They state their opinions as fact. It comes from years of defending their reasoning and advocating their designs with loads of research, and they need someone who can argue right back. “”The load on this structure”—I pointed to the roof—”is causing extensive stresses and deformations on the internal supports. The walls, the pillars. And I’d bet anything the foundation has deteriorated beyond repair. A strong gust and this place is coming down. I want you fifty feet away, Miss Halsted.” I passed my fingers down the stone column for emphasis, a trail of sand and pebbles trickling to the ground. “I’m only Miss Halsted inside the classroom. Call me Lauren.” Her…