SWEET ENEMY…A Veiled Seduction Novel ~ Book One “Historical intrigue and heart-pounding passion make Sweet Enemy a great read. Romance fans will love it.” ~#1NYT Bestselling Author JULIE GARWOOD Geoffrey Wentworth, a war hero and rising political star, never wanted to be the Earl, but when his brother dies, he knows his duty—take up the responsibility for his family’s estates.  His mother’s definition of duty differs from his, however, and can be summed up in one word—heirs.  When Geoffrey rushes home to answer her urgent summons, he finds himself host to a house full of women, all vying to become the next Countess of Stratford.  But his love is Parliament, where he wields his influence and reputation to better the lives of ex-soldiers, until a tempting houseguest and a secret from his past threaten his freedom…and his heart. Liliana Claremont, a brilliant chemist, doesn’t want to be any man’s wife, much less a countess.  If she had tuppence for every time she’d been told her place was filling the nursery, not experimenting in the laboratory, she could buy the Tower Bridge.  However, when she receives a coveted invitation to the Earl’s house party, she trades in her beakers for ball…

When I see someone say, sequel bait, my first reaction is, where?!  Because I love sequels, continuing stories, trilogies, series, you name it.  I also love television, so that’s probably helped along by the fact that the dramas are built on cliffhangers, not only season finales but episode to episode, sometimes for the entire life of the series.  And while I might complain about being too impatient for instant gratification, I’m addicted to the promise of what’s to come afterwards. If I’m going to get invested in someone – a character, a world – most of the time I want to know it’s going to continue onward, that they will be a chance of seeing or hearing about characters I’ve met in the past. Honestly, I can’t remember the last non-series book I read – no, wait, not true – I adored Nora Roberts’ ANGELS FALL.  And while it’s a romance, to me it read like more of a thriller, which is where I can accept the stand-alone more easily.  Even so, I wait anxiously for the new Karen Slaughter book, and although it’s not exactly romance, there’s enough promise to pull me along through each book in the series….

A lot of people have asked how I came to know the models featured on the Lux Series, and like everything revolving around OBSIDAN, it just… sort of happened. Actually, me and the editor on the series have deemed OBSIDAN a trail of  ‘stupid smart’ that kind of worked out in the end. When I sat down to write OBSIDAN, namely create the character Daemon Black, I had a very clear picture of him in my mind: tall, dark hair that waved, broad cheekbones, full lips, and a sort of exotic beauty to how his features pieced together. The next character I created was Katy. In my mind, she was of average height, but compared to Daemon insanely tall height, she’d looked very small. I wanted her to be a very pretty girl, but also had an innocence to way she looked.  Once the story was complete and the wonderful team over at Entangled started looking for the perfect image they, namely Liz Pelletier, stumbled across two cover models that she knew right off matched the description of the characters. She told me about them, and how she was going to feature both “Daemon” and “Katy” on the cover. I…

Hi, and a big thanks to the folks here at Fresh Fiction for inviting me to blog with them. Today I’d like to talk about reunions.  When an envelope arrives in the mail to announce a family or class reunion, the person receiving the invitation can react in many different ways.  With joy and anticipation.  With second thoughts and trepidation.  Or maybe with outright panic because two weeks won’t give him or her enough time to lose twenty pounds or to find the outfit that will make them look ten years younger. As a romance reader—and writer—I have always loved reunion stories, especially those books in which the hero or heroine returns home.  The character gets to do what we sometimes wish we could.  Grab a second chance.  Have an opportunity to make things better.  Get lucky enough to make things right.  But when the hero of my latest book, THE RODEO MAN’S DAUGHTER, returns to his hometown, he’s not looking to do any of those things.  In fact, he wants just the opposite. Caleb Cantrell’s a rodeo star who grew up dirt-poor and looked down upon by folks in town.  Still a teen, he took off for the fame…

One of the main differences between writing an Urban Fantasy vs a Paranormal Romance is the inclusion of an HEA (or Happily Ever After.)  PNRs need to have it, UF’s don’t.  Most PNRs are about a specific couple, whereas a UF might have a couple, but that couple doesn’t have to stay together. The heroine can hook up with the hero…or not. When I first wrote A BRUSH OF DARKNESS, it was definitely a PNR. I had a completely different ending in mind, but after I sold I was asked to turn it into a UF and bring in another potential love interest for A SLIVER OF SHADOW. I wasn’t sure about that at first. At the time I had my head fairly wrapped around the HEA concept, but the more I thought on it, the more I realized my editor was right. It’s hard sometimes – as an author I can spend years with my characters. Even though a book might span a timeframe of a few days or weeks (or hours, even) – it can feel like a lifetime for me. So I have trouble sometimes with not “rushing” the romantic elements. (Obviously, if the characters have some sort…

Hi! I’m Samantha Grace, debut author of the regency historical romance, MISS HILLARY SCHOOLS A SCOUNDREL. February has been a whirlwind month with the release of my book and blogging tour, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I’m especially happy to be at Fresh Fiction today in what will be one of my last guest stops. I’ve had some fun questions come up along the way, such as “Did you pick the guy on the cover?” No, my publisher deserves all the credit. “Do you mean I can find your book at Barnes & Noble?” And most any other place books are sold. “Will the guy on the cover be at your book signing?” Um, no. “Do you know the guy on the cover?” Okay, enough already about the hot cover model. “Do you think I should hit the gym again?” You’re perfect just the way you are, honey. Now, could you please let someone else ask a question? I’m just kidding, of course. My hubby didn’t ask those questions. Actually, his only response to the cover was “I’ll never wear a puffy shirt.” Now I want to find a puffy shirt to test his conviction. Here’s another question…

Most women know it’s hard to juggle career and family. We all do it; we manage our time between the kids’ school and athletic activities, make sure there’s food in the house and that the bills are paid, take care of the pets, give some attention to the husband and—oh, yeah—some of us have careers, too. And yet somehow we manage to do it. We figure out how to allocate our time (you don’t really need to sleep, do you?) so that we can somehow juggle all these important things and not let any of the balls drop. Women are good at that. We seem to be natural multi-taskers, and sometimes men don’t understand that. A lot of men are single-task oriented people: they do one thing, they do it well, and they move on to the next thing. This is the dynamic I used in my Western historical, DONOVAN’S BED. Jack Donovan is looking for a wife, and he’s hot for Sarah Calhoun. Seems simple, right? But Jack has this idea in his head that his wife needs to be the type of woman who stays home all day, cleaning and making cookies for him and riding herd on…

When I started writing mysteries, I spent a lot of time researching the gritty underbelly of society, but when I was given the opportunity to write A Cheese Shop Mystery series, all of a sudden I had to spend more time in the kitchen. Why? Because I wanted the stories to make you hungry for more than just the mystery; I wanted the stories to titillate all of your senses. I wanted the moment you entered Fromagerie Bessette (what the locals in quaint Providence, Ohio call The Cheese Shop) to be a moment that you experienced on many levels. That kind of detail requires research. My mysteries include a literal feast of foods: cheeses, as well as meals devoured at homes, the Country Kitchen diner, and the local pub. I would find it difficult to write about these moments if I didn’t experience them for myself. Sometimes I make myself hungry when I insert food and cheese descriptions into a chapter, but it’s the sacrifice I make for my art. [Can you hear me laughing? Such a sacrifice! Lucky me.] FROM THE LONG QUICHE GOODBYE: However, when I treated her to a taste of Tuscan Tartuffo, the ultimate in Italian…

First of all, thank you so much to Fresh Fiction for hosting me today. This is one of my favorite sites. I especially love the contests. In fact, while you’re here, check out mine listed on the contest page! If someone had told me, when I was eighteen and going into my first year of college, that I would be a romance writer, I would have laughed. I didn’t even know writing was a career. I mean, I knew Stephen King and Anne Rice wrote books for a living, but I didn’t think of them as real people. To me, they were like Mark Twain or John Steinbeck—very far removed from my real life. Of course, this was in a different time. The internet was only just beginning to become widely available and lots of people didn’t even have computers. I didn’t. If I wanted to use the computer, I went to the computer lab. And if I wanted to surf the ‘Net, I used Netscape and didn’t have a clue what to search for because I didn’t know what kind of stuff was even out there. Oh, and email. You pretty much had to know programming code to email….

Who doesn’t want a bad boy? Hmm… I prefer to let them bake for a while. Those misbehaving boys will rise to be irresistible, dominant, and experienced men. When cooked at the right temperature they’ll still taste disobedient, but with the right amount of heat they’ll become succulent and tantalizing. Bad boys may have once fulfilled our whimsical hearts, but as women it takes more than a sexy little smile to get our blood pumping. Sure, your Mama might have warned you about bad boys, but she certainly kept those all grown up, sexy, and naughty men to herself. Nevertheless, I did eventually find them nestled between the pages of my romance novels (thanks to all you wonderful authors!). After years of reading about these magnificent men, I wanted a chance to introduce the world to my all grown up bad boys. But like their aging process, from boys to badly behaving men, my aging process has taken my men, who were once nestled between paper pages, to the 12 point font of the ever-rising eReader. Hey, at least now they’re just one click away! No more need to purchase them at the store, wait for them in the mail,…