#FreakyFriday continues with this delicious excerpt from Marina Anderson’s THE DINING CLUB, as part the Forever Romance Menage a Trois Release Blitz! About THE DINING CLUB You are invited to the Dining Club. If you pass the challenges we set, a world of pleasure awaits you. He is everything she never wanted: brooding, secretive, rich – and far-removed from her care-free artistic lifestyle. Yet David has a power over Grace that she cannot resist, a power that comes from his darker, passionate side. And now he is ready to truly reveal himself. Inviting Grace to a weekend at the Dining Club, David offers her the opportunity to discover his deepest desires and to find pleasures far beyond her wildest imagination – but only if she is willing to play a series of sensual games. Grace faces a choice: give in to her doubts and retreat to her quiet life, or truly embrace happiness with David and win over her mesmerizing lover forever. Excerpt of THE DINING CLUB The subdued lighting and quiet murmur of intensely private conversations in the dining room were an arousing background to these small acts of sensuality, and Grace was thoroughly relaxed and enjoying herself when…

Time to celebrate #FreakyFriday with the Forever Romance Menage a Trois Release Blitz! We have a special excerpt for you from Rebecca Rose’s hot new romance TEMPTING MR. PERFECT. (Warning! Steamy content below.) About TEMPTING MR. PERFECT Dave Sanders is making up for a lifetime of sin. After leaving his reckless past behind, he now runs a respectable bar and grill. But keeping his wild side in check becomes nearly impossible when Kathy Mae Smith starts working for him. She’s shy, modest, and sexy as hell. Slow, sweet seduction has never been his style, but then Dave has never wanted a woman like this before . . . Thanks to her ex-husband, Kathy doesn’t know if she can ever trust another man. And she certainly isn’t about to jeopardize her job by jumping into bed with her hot new boss. Yet Dave is kind, caring, and his sizzling persistence is about to burn through the last of her defenses-until her past catches up with her. If she surrenders the truth to Mr. Perfect, will she lose him . . . or get a second shot at love? Excerpt from TEMPTING MR. PERFECT Slow, he reminded himself. Take your time. When…

When I began writing novels, description was not an area of strength for me, and setting was just a place to plop my characters. Fast forward ten years and my publisher compliments my upcoming release with a “You can smell the salt in this one.” DRIFTWOOD TIDES (releasing this September) is set at the Outer banks in North Carolina. You can’t set a book a place like that without readers expecting a richly painted scene. They want to feel the cold ocean foam on their feet, feel the grit of sand between their toes, hear the seagulls circling above, see the cotton candy colors in the sunset . . . and yes, smell the salt. 1. The best way to learn to master setting is by reading other books that have done just that. One novel that sets the scene better than maybe any other book I’ve read is To Kill a Mockingbird. Here’s one example of the masterfulness of her scene-setting: “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop, grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.” You…

Sensible. Dependable. Reliable. These three words epitomize Miss Penelope Rose, confirmed spinster. Of course, these are fine attributes for a lady…or a cocker spaniel. After being the bridesmaid in the successive weddings of all of four of her sisters, Penelope Rose is officially on the shelf. So she does the most sensible thing and becomes the companion to the Dowager Duchess of Marchford. In addition to her regular duties as a companion, Penelope has also joined the dowager to form a matchmaking service under the name of Madam X. Penelope facilitates the love matches of many a happy couple. So adept is she in finding matches, that the only one she seems unable to create a happy alliance for is herself. Despite her penchant for practicality, Penelope longs to be seen as the bride, not just the bridesmaid. However, when a proposal finally does arrive, it is not the romantic offer she secretly dreams to receive. Here is the brash offer from the Duke of Marchford from her perspective. “I need at least a fiancée, someone who will not plague me. Someone who does not whine or cry or do other feminishy things,” grumbled Marchford. “Feminishy?” Penelope raised an eyebrow….

Hello! I’m Diane Alberts (but I also write as Jen McLaughlin), and I am so happy to be here today! I have a new book out with Entangled Publishing (Entangled Brazen), and it’s the second book in my Shillings Agency series. The first book was TEMPORARILY YOURS, which I also blogged about a few months ago! I’m thrilled to be back, and talking about the second book in the series (which is loosely tied with FALLING FOR THE GROOMSMAN, which came out in June). So, when I first starting writing my newest release, STEALING HIS HEART, I knew one thing right off the bat. My heroine would not be a simpering heroine, nor would she be completely legal. In fact, she’s a thief. To top it off, she’s actually a modern day Robin Hood, with a dash of Sherlock in her for good measure. I knew, right away, that an obstacle I would face is making her thieving something that a reader could accept. Because it’s a lot harder to accept flaws in our heroines than it is in our heroes. With our heroes, all they have to do is say one charming phrase here, a scorching kiss there, and…

My medieval novel, TIME ENOUGH TO LOVE, is the story of knights in the service of King Edward III of England. Knights are perhaps the iconic image most readers have of the period. The men didn’t, however, spring fully ready at birth for this way of life. There were years of training and hard work that went into becoming a knight. After the fall of the Roman Empire, old Roman families became rulers of their own land holds, usually a castle and a certain amount of land. These lords depended on the strength of their retainers, arms-bearing men who swore fealty them and lived within their households. This is the beginning of the knightly social class who became defined as warriors on horseback. In return for their service, the lord would usually give the knight a small parcel of land or fief, with authority over the peasants who worked the land. This authority led to the knight’s elevation into the ranks of the nobility. Training to be a knight began actually at birth. Male children who were not destined for Holy Orders, began learning at his parents’ home what is expected of a knight, good manners, and the code of…

Though Georgia Thackery, an English professor and single mother, is the actual protagonist of my Family Skeleton mystery series, it’s the skeleton himself that people associate most with the books. You see, the Thackery family skeleton is an actual skeleton: Georgia’s best friend Sid, who lives in the Thackery family attic. Well, sort of. Technically he’s not living. Despite that, Sid walks, talks and makes bad jokes. And he’s the one readers usually mention first when talking about the books. My calling them the Family Skeleton Mysteries may also have something to do with that. I admit that having an osteo-American sidekick is a bit unusual. In fact, when I first came up with the idea of a skeletal sleuth, I thought I was being astoundingly original, even ground-breaking. But the fact is, there are a slew of skeletons in popular culture, and Sid is connected to all of them. Metaphorically, anyway, since he no longer has connective tissue. The most famous skeleton is probably the big guy himself: the Grim Reaper. He’s usually portrayed as a skeletal harbinger of death wearing a chic black robe, carrying a scythe. Sid doesn’t go in much for clothes, other than when attending…

Anybody who reads Scottish history will come across mention of the Massacre at Glencoe, an incident involving the English government of William of Orange and a small sept of Clan MacDonald who dwelled in the valley of Glencoe. Delayed by snowstorms, red tape, fractious English soldiers, and a recalcitrant royal magistrate, the Laird of the clan was a few days late signing his oath of allegiance to the Dutchman who’d taken over England’s throne. On Friday, February 13, 1692, at precisely 5 a.m., per orders, royalist soldiers of Clan Campbell who’d been billeted among the MacDonalds for more than two weeks, rose up and literally murdered their hosts in their beds. Anybody below the age of seventy was shot or put to the sword—women, children, and even men who’d surrendered and were bound hand and foot. In all, 38 of the sept’s 150 souls were killed, and more perished in the days that followed. Sir John Dalrymple, who’d engineered this show of force to quell loyalty to the deposed Catholic (Jacobite) line of the royal succession, was astonished at the outrage the incident provoked. Highland reaction railed against the murder of defenseless infants and elderly, but equal contumely was aimed…

I’ve been fascinated by dreams for as long as I can remember, and as a psychologist, I listen to dreams all day long!  My patients love to recount their dreams to me. Their dream material offers me a window into their innermost feelings, their hopes and dreams, their fears and anxieties.  In NIGHTMARES CAN BE MURDER, a group of Savannah women form a dream club and meet every week to discuss their dreams and solve a murder or two. Here are some of the most common questions people have asked me about dreams. “What does it mean if a dead relative appears to me in a dream?” When people dream of a loved one who has passed, they usually experience a sense of joy and peace. It reassures them to know that their friends, relatives and spouses really do exist on another plane. Invariably, the loved one appears to be in perfect health, happy and relaxed with no sorrow or cares. “Why do I keep dreaming about a beautiful house? “ The “House Dream” is very common and well documented. The house is supposed to represent all the untapped potential in your life. All the rooms are bright and airy,…

Hi, everyone! I’m Samantha Grace, historical romance author of the series Rival Rogues. It’s great to be back at Fresh Fiction on release day for IN BED WITH A ROGUE. Book two focuses on the romantic connection between Lady Helena Prestwick and Sebastian, Baron Thorne, and it was a relief to finally give Sebastian the happy-ending he deserved, especially since he was jilted in the first book. Poor guy. But introducing him to his true love would never have been enough to satisfy me. There was a broken friendship to fix, too. Give me the BROMANCE! I’m sure most of us are familiar with the term, but a bromance is a close non-romantic friendship between two or more men. In the past, maybe it was called a sidekick? Some of my favorite bromances include: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid Sherlock Holmes & John Watson Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn The Three Musketeers Joey & Chandler (Friends) Spock & Captain Kirk (New Star Trek) Napoleon Dynamite & Pedro Forest Gump & Bubba Shrek & Donkey The list could go on, but I’ll stop here. I’ve always loved the dynamics of the male buddy relationship. Maybe it’s because I grew up…