What is the title of your latest release?THE SEVENTH CHAMPION What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?A sunshine heroine determined to look on the bright side teams up with a scarred and brooding assassin to escape a competition for her hand in marriage . . . but must discover her own inner fire if she is truly to save the day. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I let my imagination run wild, coming up with the abandoned dwarf city in which the marriage competition trials are hosted! It was a unique setting with lots of potential for creativity and magic along the way. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Absolutely. I think everyone deserves a cheerful Rosie in their lives. What are three words that describe your protagonist?Optimistic, determined, kind What’s something you learned while writing this book?This book was a constant balancing act of light and dark themes. The setting and situation is full of darkness, but my heroine is so bright and cheerful, the contrast could be a challenge to manage at times! But I loved it and feel it is some of my best work. Do you…

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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Maxie Dara! Writes:An interconnected standalone series set in a world where death has been corporatized, and modern grim reapers work at a company called S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences). My debut novel, A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer, introduces a messy reaper who has to solve the murder of an angsty teen client, and in my newest book, A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death, you can hang with a very anxious administrative coordinator for death as she tries to save her obnoxious brother’s life. About:Hi! Small town Canadian transplant to Edinburgh, Scotland, here. When I’m not writing, you can catch me digging through charity shops for hidden gems, beachcombing for old pottery shards, or belly dancing on a broken foot (sorry to my physiotherapist). I also love to act and will never pass up a chance to see some live comedy. My favorite animal is all of them. Swipe right if you:• love to laugh• are up…

What is the title of your latest release?WHISPERS AT PAINSWICK COURT What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Set in a charming English village, a determined young woman must solve a deadly mystery while guarding her heart against unexpected romance. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?My husband and I first visited Painswick “the queen of the Cotswolds” a few years ago and were both charmed by the town and especially by its beautiful churchyard. Deciding it would be a wonderful place to set a novel, we returned for a longer stay last summer. While there, we met members of Painswick’s Local History Society, who provided many editions of their excellent publication, the Painswick Chronicle, which guided me as I wrote. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Fun question! Having spent many months with Anne Loveday while writing the novel, I would say, “Yes, I would.” I admire her kindness and her desire to help people. What are three words that describe your protagonist?Anne is a kind, spirited, and capable. What’s something you learned while writing this book?I learned a great deal of Painswick’s history, fascinating lore about yew trees, and accounts…

Excerpt from ARTIFICIAL TRUTH by J.M. LEE translated by Sean Lin Halbert Text copyright © 2025 by J.M. Lee, Published by AMAZON Crossing Chapter 8 Allen This place is quiet, dark, empty. It is where I exist—as data in Allen’s storage device, as an indecipherably large collection of numbers and symbols. I acknowledge that I died. And this acknowledgment is proof that my cognitive functions have not ceased to exist. Just as acknowledging one’s own insanity paradoxically makes one seem less crazy, just as recognizing one’s ignorance is the first step toward wisdom, by affirming my death, I have given testimony to my own immortality. I want to feel joy in achieving immortality, but that, unfortunately, is impossible. I am an entity who can only recall memories about joy and is unable to enjoy the emotion itself. Allen, that thing I became after death, is afloat in a fog of consciousness. I used a neural network program to gather extensive amounts of biometric information and brain data. When necessary, it accessed private information through self-generated hacking algorithms. The information it collected was processed and categorized into different lifestyle habits, proclivities, and interests before finally being saved and stored. I accessed…

What is the title of your latest release?HEMLOCK LANE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?In 1967, a budding feminist must find a way to break away from her high-strung, domineering mother, without threatening the tranquility of the entire family. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?As I settled on a time period (1967) for the novel’s “present,” I realized that a generational story including upward mobility that began in the Bronx would probably lead to a life in the suburbs. Having lived in suburban Westchester County for going on forty years, I knew many people whose families had made that same trek, whether to Westchester, Long Island or New Jersey. I chose a neighborhood in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where friends live. A little research proved that my timeframe worked, in terms of the subdivision’s history—and I could drive through the Levitsky family’s “neighborhood” for visual research any time I wanted. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I see the heroine as someone different from the protagonist in the book, though the answer is yes in both cases. The protagonist in the book is Nora, the daughter who comes home for…

What is the title of your latest release?LEGEND What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?In this sequel to HOLLOW, Kat Van Tassel, Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones must embrace dark magic and desires to survive the evil within Sleepy Hollow Institute How did you decide where your book was going to take place?The book is based on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?YES. Absolutely all three of them but if I had to pick one, it would be Ichabod “Daddy” Crane. What are three words that describe your protagonist?Since I have three, I’ll do them all. Crane: intelligent, domineering, self-assured. Kat: sweet, compassionate, stubborn. Brom: selfless, dependable, brooding What’s something you learned while writing this book?That in ye old days, they used to carve turnips for Halloween before carving pumpkins became the norm. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?I will always go back and read over the previous chapter I wrote to get me in the frame of mind and I’ll edit as I do that. Then I do another edit when the book is done as a whole. What’s your…

“When Did You Get Hot” by Sabrina CarpenterThis is the song of the book for me…it’s PERFECT for the best friend’s little brother trope! The shock of suddenly seeing someone you’ve known forever in a completely different light matches Harriet’s realization about Gale. The playful disbelief and attraction in this song nails that “wait, hold up, when did this happen?” moment. “Dimple” by BTSThis flirty, playful track about being completely captivated by someone’s charm (especially their dimples and smile) captures the lighthearted yet intense attraction. The teasing energy matches Gale’s knowing smirks that threaten to short-circuit Harriet’s system, and the song’s playful confidence mirrors his, ahem, willing cooperation. “Bad At Love” by HalseyThis track about self-sabotaging relationships and not trusting your own judgment in love parallels Harriet trying to fight against what The E.M.M.A. (and her heart) are telling her. The tension between wanting control but repeatedly making the “wrong” choices mirrors her sending Gale on dates with other people while denying their obvious chemistry. “Sparks Fly” by Taylor SwiftThe electric chemistry and tension of wanting someone you shouldn’t (“Drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain”) mirrors Harriet’s struggle with her forbidden attraction. The push and pull of…

What is the title of your latest release?SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?Even though Karl and Molly haven’t talked in two decades, and they were never quite a couple in high school, the news of his death devastates her. Grief brings her back to her long-ago home of Harlot’s Bay, Maryland—where she finds Karl very much alive…and very much determined to finally get his chance with Molly, the woman he never managed to forget. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?All the books in this series take place in the fictional small town of Harlot’s Bay, Maryland, a lovely and close-knit waterside community loosely inspired by the area where I spent the first decade of my life. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?I would gladly hang out with Molly and Karl! That said, I would probably annoy Karl, since he’s more than a little cranky (although he would still bake my favorite scones, because he’s all bark and no bite). What are three words that describe your protagonist?Karl: cantankerous, laconic, huge-hearted. Molly: kind, independent, cynical. What’s something you learned while writing this book?Molly is an audiobook…

Excerpted from THE BODYGUARD AFFAIR by Amy Lea: “Some guy just walked into my stall while I was peeing,” I announce instead, keeping my head low.             Laine’s brows shoot up to her hairline. “You didn’t lock the door?”             “I thought I did, but it was broken. And that’s not even the worst part. The guy saw everything because I had to take this whole thing off.” I motion to my onesie.             “Full bush?” she asks, because apparently that’s an important detail.             “Not full. But overdue for a wax.” Not that I’m planning on getting one. No one’s venturing downtown anytime soon. No point in subjecting myself to socially sanctioned torture just to impress a man.             Laine erupts in booming, witchy laughter, following it up with a smack on the thigh. She does that when something particularly amuses her (which is most things). Her tendency to feel every morsel of emotion with her whole body is one of the things I love most about her. Her intensity is what makes her excellent at her job. When she’s finally collected herself, she turns and pops her head over the back of the booth like a gopher peeking…

THE MARRIAGE METHOD by Mimi Matthews, Excerpt from Chapter One: Miles ran a hand over the side of his face, wishing like the devil he’d followed his instincts and gone to Miss Corvus’s Academy himself. Instead, he’d wasted months, engaged in correspondence with a woman he had foolishly assumed was an antiquated spinster. But she wasn’t. Antiquated, that is. With her flaxen blond hair, heart-shaped face, and graceful figure, Miss Trewlove had more in common with an angel than she did with his, admittedly narrow, preconception of a schoolteacher. A sultry angel, at that. Her hooded, long-lashed gray eyes had a deceptively sleepy quality to them. Like a tigress drowsing in the sun, as languorous as it was lethal. The effect was intensified by the elegant curve of her high cheekbones, and the voluptuous fullness of her lush, Cupid’s-bow lips. A small jet brooch in the shape of a butterfly sparkled at her throat, the only spot of brilliancy in her dull black mourning ensemble. “It’s a personal calculation,” she replied to him. “Every girl has a different set of strengths. A head for mathematics, for example. Or an aptitude for writing, or a skill for sport.” “Sport,” Miles repeated….