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 Alexandra Villasante! Writes:I write queer love stories with a speculative twist. My latest book, FIREBLOOMS, is a queer, speculative love story. It takes place in a failing utopia where teens pay for all the words they use—in an effort to prevent hate speech and bullying. About:I run on cafecito, vibes and dulce de leche! In addition to writing swoony, thought-provoking YA stories, I’m the co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival and the Latinx Storytellers Conference. I want to do all I can to amplify the voices of Latinx creators, because we need more of our stories out in the world. I have a master’s degree in art and even though I don’t paint as much as I’d like, I do use drawing and painting in my writing life. If I get writers’ block (the horror!), I’ll shake it loose by drawing a sketch of my character, or an intricate map of the story world. I live with my family and an adorable disabled…

What is the title of your latest release?RESTITUTION What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?As children in Central Illinois, Kate and Martin were never told much about their mother’s childhood in East Germany. Decades later, when the Berlin Wall falls, they are faced with a difficult decision: Should they try to reclaim the house in East Germany from which their grandparents fled in the 1950s? But a house is never just a house, and the family secrets they discover drive the siblings apart just as divided Germany is coming together. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Restitution is not autobiographical, but all the places featured in the book are places I know well. Like my characters, I grew up in Central Illinois, spent my childhood summers at the Bodensee (a lake in southern Germany), and lived in Leipzig, Germany while writing the early drafts of Restitution. Even before I started, I knew the story I wanted to tell and where I wanted it to unfold—in the places I love. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?Absolutely. I would hang out with both Kate and Martin. Like them, I grew up moving…

What is the title of your latest release?THE LOST STORY OF EVA FUENTES What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?THE LOST STORY OF EVA FUENTES is the story of three incredible women spread across multiple countries and time periods whose lives are connected by the powerful legacy of one unforgettable book. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?As a Cuban American, I love exploring the interactions throughout history between Cuba and the United States, so I wanted the book to take place in both settings. I also had the opportunity to live and study in London for four years and it’s one of my favorite cities, so I was excited to incorporate it into the book. Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?I would love to hang out with my protagonists in real life! I get very attached to my characters when I’m working on a book, and I really start to think of them as friends. What are three words that describe your protagonist?I have three protagonists (Eva, Pilar, and Margo) in the novel, and even though they live in different time periods, they share many similarities. They’re each brave,…

Book Title: PROPHETS OF WARCharacter Name: Alex Morgan What got you interested in finance as a career?I grew up around business. My father ran a successful insurance brokerage, and most of my aunts and uncles were entrepreneurs. Industry was in my blood going back generations. At Brookville College, investing in stocks was the cheapest way to get started. I fell in love with the rush, the pure adrenaline from picking the winners. I had a better strategy, I foresaw something others didn’t, I saw the future. I won. I also studied the great titans of business history. That’s where an interest became a passion. Then I got into real estate investing. Similar concept, but bricks instead of stock tickers. I started applying the same methods across both. By the time I graduated, it was a coin flip between real estate and stocks. Lucky me, I got my good pal Gordon as my first boss and the rest was history. What makes you good at it?First, you’ve got to be fluent in numbers. Accounting is the language of business—if you don’t speak it, you’re already out of the game. You can’t let emotions drive your trades. You need the temperament to…

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 RACHEL LINDEN! Writes:I write stories about so many of my favorite things – strong women facing big challenges, delicious food, travel, and second chance romance, all with a touch of magical realism and a happy, hopeful ending! My newest novel, THE SECRET OF ORANGE BLOSSOM CAKE, is set on a gorgeous olive farm in Italy and is about three generations of strong women, a magical cookbook, and a lost recipe that can show you the happiest moment of your life. Oh, and a second chance romance with the hot olive farmer next door! About:I’m a novelist and humanitarian aid worker whose adventures in fifty countries around the world provide excellent grist for my writing. I live with my family and sweet pup Cosmo in a charming little harbor town in the Pacific Northwest where I enjoy growing dahlias and herbs, kayaking, camping, reading on the porch in the salty sea air, and cooking my way around the globe in the kitchen. I love a…

Jen: What inspired you to write a story about mothers, daughters, and finding your own way in the world?Jane: Mothers, daughters, finding your own way in the world: that’s one of the basic stories, isn’t it? A friend of mine said, Jane, the Phoebe book is so brave. I said, what are you talking about? It’s an old-fashioned novel. She said, I know, that’s what I mean! That’s why it’s brave. This made me laugh because: I didn’t set out to write a brave book or an old-fashioned book. I wanted to write about a specific girl and her mothers, and the problems she faces. And then, when I was done, I thought, Oh! This book is about mothers of various sorts, and it’s a coming-of-age story, and it’s about those solemn and continuing questions: Who am I? What am I? What can I do in this life? Jen: Phoebe’s relationship with her birth family really shakes things up for her. What made you want to explore adoption and identity through her story?Jane: I’d heard a few real-life stories from acquaintances about adopted people who meet their birth families wherein they realize that the birth families have been intact all…

What is the title of your latest release?CHRISTMAS PEOPLE What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?When a woman who has totally lost her Christmas spirit begrudgingly visits her family for the holidays, she gets more than she bargained for when she wakes up to a version of her hometown that’s straight out of the too-cheery-for-their-own-good holiday movies that air on the Heartfelt Channel. To get back to reality, she needs to throw herself into the season, and into a love triangle featuring her smoldering ex, and her high school crush. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?Though I live in the Los Angeles area now, I’m originally from the south suburbs of Chicago, and I’ve made it my mission to see the place where I grew up on the page. Powell Park – the name of the town my main character Jill Jacobs hails from – is a fictional version of Oak Lawn, Illinois, my hometown. Jill eventually is trapped in a Heartfelt Channel (you know what Heartfelt is a stand-in for) iteration of Powell Park, which was a choice I made because so many Christmas movies are either set in a big city,…

Book Title: KILLER TRACKS, A Misty Pines Mystery (#3)Character Name: Deputy Rachel Killian How would you describe your family or your childhood?Traditional, I’d say. I’m the only daughter of a cop, and a stay-at-home mom. My parents were solid, although there were few dull moments. Mom was always in charge of something whether it had to do with charity work for the Police auxiliary, or the PTA. She’d chosen to stay home with me because of the uncertainty of my dad’s job, which often kept him out late. Sometimes I think she believed that if she spent enough time with me I’d want to do something else for a living. But as you can see, I followed in my father’s footsteps, which has been a blessing and a curse, but more on that later. What was your greatest talent?Taking care of plants, if you can believe that. Both my parents have what they called the black thumb, but I can make anything grow. When I had my place in Portland, I had plenty of Monstera because the big leaves are just cool. But honestly, I love all things green. Probably why I love the forest so much. Significant other?It’s complicated….

Dear Reader September 30th is a huge date for me – it’s publication day for COLD PANIC, my new psychological thriller. It’s been a few years since my last book was published – with a busy day job, four kids to raise, life, etc., writing time is a rare commodity. But I had this idea that just wouldn’t let me go: What would you do if some very bad people kidnapped your little boy and were holding him for an outrageous ransom? And calling the police was not an option? Wouldn’t you do just about anything to get him back? Wouldn’t you turn to anyone who might be able to help? Even someone who had betrayed you decades ago, and who’s whole life has been defined by fraud, theft, and murder? That story idea haunted me so much that I couldn’t help but sit down and write it. What is it about anti-heroes that fascinates us so much? Those characters who might ultimately help their families, mete out justice, but use very questionable means to do so? Think Dexter Morgan, Lisbeth Salander, Tony Soprano – all people who operate well outside the lines of what society might deem acceptable, moral…

Excerpt from OLD MONEY by Kelsey Miller: Briar’s Green was always a destination of sorts. Renowned as both idyllic and elite, the village has long been considered the archetypical Hudson Valley enclave: lush, bucolic and laden with early American history—and just dazzling in the fall. It’s been the subject of countless short stories and rhapsodical poems, and a whole school of nineteenth-century painters, who came to perch along its stony shore and capture the almost unimaginable grandeur of its vistas. It’s also the place where, twenty years ago, my cousin, Caitlin Dale, was beaten to death by her boyfriend and left floating in a pool. Almost twenty years ago—it’ll be twenty years next month on July Fourth, 2019. Everyone seems to know that now. For the last decade, I’ve been the oddball who goes somber as July Fourth approaches, showing up to the barbecue with supermarket potato salad and a forced smile that makes everyone ask if I’m feeling okay. I’ve been hurrying home to my apartment at dusk, while the rest of Manhattan floods outward toward the waterfront, angling for a decent view of the fireworks. Nobody remembered that July Fourth was also the day of a once-infamous murder….