With the release of J.R. Ward‘s new book – THE VIPER – I thought I’d reflect on the Black Dagger Brotherhood series and the newer prison spinoff series. These are my insights into J.R. Ward (The Wharden) and her Black Dagger Brotherhood books and they may not align with others’ impressions but that’s what reading fiction does for readers. They can see things the way they want using the author’s words as a kicking-off point. There is a race of vampires, who live among humans mostly in Caldwell, New Jersey. The race was made by the Scribe Virgin (SV) – who is a whole other story – but she has a brother the Omega, who is the opposite of her, jealous, petty and evil. Though, to be honest, there are times in the BDB series you wondered about the SV. She made the vampires and then had to come up with the Black Dagger Brotherhood to protect her race from the “Lessers” which was her brother’s attempt at creating a race. The lessers are soulless humans who prey on vampires of all ages and strangely smell like baby powder. The brothers – Wrath, Tohrment, Vishous, Phury, Rhage, Zadist, Butch, Quinn,…

A great cast of characters is more than just a compelling hero and heroine, more than just a villain who readers can believe might actually come out on top in the end. To have a truly great cast, you need interesting secondary characters. Secondary characters fill out the world around your hero and heroine and make it feel more real. They’re the friends of the main characters, who help show you different sides of the main characters, whether it’s their secret dark sense of humor or how they’d drop anything to help someone they love or that they have an unexpected wild side. They’re the coworkers, who antagonize and befriend, and betray the protagonists. They’re the family who is estranged or super close or created from non-blood connections. For me, my hero and heroine rarely feel truly real or rounded until I know whom they surround themselves with – whether that’s on purpose or as a result of their job, or for some other reason. I love building the secondary cast in each book so much that often, those characters grow beyond their original purpose. Sometimes, that even means my secondary characters turn into heroes and heroines of their own…

It’s my mom’s fault I have such odd tastes in books. She blames me because I introduced her to Laurell K. Hamilton, but it really started all those years ago when she took to the movie matinees, and I fell in love with old Godzilla movies. Back before streaming and on-demand, we had to watch whatever was currently available on tv or in the movies. My brother and I made up a game where we picked the oddest thing we could find and then the “winner” was whoever lasted the longest. A funny thing happened though… we discovered movies like The Valley of Gwangi, The Birds (a classic by anyone’s standards), and plenty of other stories combining multiple genres with sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. This love translated into the books I read. Vampires and shape shifters used to be uncommon but now my tastes have spread to even more unique and unusual combinations. MARTIANS IN MAGGODY by Joan Hess is the first book I remember reading that involved a crossover between cozy mysteries and the supernatural. Joan Hess plays off the fascination with tabloid stories of Bigfoot, aliens, and other oddities as first a neighboring area has cattle mutilations and…

Favorite genre and why. As a child, one of the core memories I remember so vividly is the bookmobile at my small, rural Lutheran school. The smell of the books, the librarians smile…I am instantly transported back to that time. That is where I discovered Nancy Drew and my love for mysteries was found. As I got older, I discovered The Baby-Sitter’s Club books and devoured every book in that series. As an adult, I think the cozy mystery genre perfectly encapsulates those two genres into one perfect book for me. You get the clean mystery with strong female leads and friendships.   What qualities make a book super satisfying for you? The setting will always make or break a book for me. Since discovering the cozy mystery genre, I admit I have become a settings snob. But the great thing with the cozy mystery genre is the settings are all perfect! You can’t go wrong with a bookstore, craft shop, restaurant, etc. as a setting. If you add snow, I’m even more thrilled. Haha!   Do you re-read? Unfortunately, I am not a re-reader. I have certain books that will always hold a place on my bookshelves, but that’s…

For your end-of-summer reading, this month our stories present compelling pictures of some unique women:  larger-than-life, fearless, and determined to be who they are despite the consequences.  Women we admire and sometimes wish we could be! We begin with an amazing lady who beat incredible odds to become one of the most influential women of her day.  ISLAND QUEEN by Vanessa Riley tells the remarkable story of “Doll,” Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free Black woman who bought her way out of slavery to become a wealthy landowner, hotelier, and planter.  After purchasing her freedom from her Irish planter father, the shrewd and ambitious Doll used the help provided by the men in her life—a shipping merchant, a wealthy planter, and a royal naval captain—to acquire money and land, making the patriarchal system she couldn’t escape work to her advantage.  Her story sweeps from the Montserrat of her birth to the markets and plantations of Dominica and Barbados to the drawing rooms of London, the story of an indomitable woman who refused to let the barriers of sex and race contain her adventurous spirit. We move to the Gilded Age–early 20th century with A DRESS OF VIOLET TAFFETA by Tessa Arlen. …

Here at Fresh Fiction, we love book chat, and we have a lot of reviewers with fierce opinions about the authors, characters, and books they love (and about the things that drive them crazy). This is one in a series of reviewer profiles. Hopefully, these will give other readers ideas about what books to add to their TBR lists, as well as spark some conversations. What qualities make a book super satisfying for you – characters, dialogue, setting, mood? Does it depend on what genre the book is? Any examples? I adore urban fiction and paranormal books, especially paranormal romance books.  I also really enjoy historical fiction, especially historical mysteries, and historical romance.  I find that I am more willing to give leeway to characters in historical settings than I am in contemporary or futuristic settings, which is intriguing to me.  I still haven’t figured out why, but it’s fun to ponder why that might be.  I guess its easier to put myself in the shoes of a contemporary character? I really like kick butt heroines.  Seeing women be uber competent and take charge is super satisfying to me, as a counterpoint to the patriarchal society we are challenged to…

Here at Fresh Fiction, we love book chat, and we have a lot of reviewers with fierce opinions about the authors, characters, and books they love (and about the things that drive them crazy). This is one in a series of reviewer profiles. Hopefully, these will give other readers ideas about what books to add to their TBR lists, as well as spark some conversations.   What qualities make a book super satisfying for you – characters, dialogue, setting, mood? Does it depend on what genre the book is? Any examples? I am not married to any particular book genre – I read a variety of them from sweet romance to hot and steamy, down and dirty. I want a story that has likable characters and a strong plot that pulls me along. I enjoy visiting and learning the history of different places, especially historical or exotic places I will never visit in person. While reading I want to do things I could never imagine doing – you will never catch me jumping out of a perfectly good plane but via a book, I have done just that.   Are you a reader who has favorite “re-reads”? If so, what…

I have been a romance reader for years, but I’ve never been fortunate enough to attend a reader convention. Until now. This year I attended ApollyCon 2022 in Washington, D.C. For those who don’t know about it, it’s a multi-author event that includes panels by authors, book signings, and book parties. There are three different levels for the tickets which provide different levels of access. Tickets range from $20 to $125 per ticket. Having never attended anything like this before, I have nothing to compare it with. If you plan on attending this event in the future, just make sure to factor in the cost of any travel expenses and hotel stay. If you plan on staying the entire duration, I recommend trying to book a room at whatever hotel the event is located at. The large group of attendees and the occasional long lines make it more convenient to be on-site versus coming from somewhere else. For the book signings, some fans pre-ordered books and picked them up at the event, while others (like me) just bought books while I was there. Initially, I was worried there wouldn’t be enough books to browse and buy, but I thought there…

Here at Fresh Fiction, we love book chat, and we have a lot of reviewers with fierce opinions about the authors, characters, and books they love (and about the things that drive them crazy). This is one in a series of reviewer profiles. Hopefully, these will give other readers ideas about what books to add to their TBR lists, as well as spark some conversations. What qualities make a book super satisfying for you – characters, dialogue, setting, mood? Does it depend on what genre the book is? Any examples? I think a good mix of all these qualities makes a great book.  The characters have to be interesting, the dialogue has to move the story forward, and the setting and mood have to pull me in.  I grew up in the eighties and nineties reading R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, Richie Tankersley Cusick, and Stephen King.  I’ve always liked mysteries and scary novels with a sinister atmosphere and unexpected twists.  Some recent favorites are novels by Carter Wilson (THE DEAD HUSBAND and THE NEW NEIGHBOR), Riley Sager (FINAL GIRLS and HOME BEFORE DARK), Vera Kurian (NEVER SAW ME COMING), Lily Sparks (TEEN KILLERS CLUB), and Annie Ward (THE LYING CLUB)….

Here at Fresh Fiction, we love book chat, and we have a lot of reviewers with fierce opinions about the authors, characters, and books they love (and about the things that drive them crazy). This is one in a series of reviewer profiles. Hopefully, these will give other readers ideas about what books to add to their TBR lists, as well as spark some conversations. What qualities make a book super satisfying for you – characters, dialogue, setting, mood? Does it depend on what genre the book is? Any examples? All these elements are important to me but especially characters that I can get behind and hope that things work out for them. If it’s a mystery and there is a Texas peace officer involved, I’m more apt to like a book, but it must be believable and realistic. I read with a very critical eye in this genre. I love a fresh setting, too, but right now, I find myself attracted to books set in wide-open, unsettled spaces – Alaska or Texas or Oklahoma. But if a book has a setting in Texas, I will pick it up. My favorites are Reavis Z. Wortham’s Red River Mysteries, C.J. Box’s…