About a week ago I experienced winter in a way that I haven’t had to since we moved to Texas. Our area had a record snowfall of 12.5 inches, and while I realize that’s nothing compared to the rest of the country, for Dallas it’s paralyzing. All that winter weather got me to thinking about books with winter or some other season in the title. Off to Fresh Fiction I went searching, and found The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice. I read this when it first came out and was unfortunately less than impressed, but Luanne Rice is still one of my must read authors, and I have several favorites by her including Cloud Nine which is what my friends call a weepy read…so if you decide to read it have the Kleenex handy. The opposite of winter is summer…so I went searching for titles that have summer in them, and was amazed at how many there were, and that I needed a list to remind me of one of my favorite books, The Summerhouse by Jude Devereaux When I read this book it spoke to me on so many different levels, and if I were a keeper it…

It has been nearly a decade since I had a snow day…one of those days made for curling up under a blanket with a good book, watching the big fluffy snow pelting down. In Texas it never happens But this month we were blessed with a foot of snow. WOW plus two days to “enjoy” it, and a week to recover from the repercussions of the snowfall…you know, collapsed roofs, broken trees, fallen tree limbs etc. But I enjoyed my day off with escape to foreign climes… went to India! Yes, it seems to be a new trend in the romances, adventure in the subcontinent during the late 1700s early 1800s. Two of my favorite authors brought out books with part of the story set in India. Lauren Willig‘s latest Carnation is BETRAYAL OF THE BLOOD LILY and Stephanie Laurens new quartet, the Black Cobra. Lauren Willig has taken us all over England and parts of France with her amazing series of spies during the Napoleonic era, but now she’s taking us off to India with a bride who’s perhaps made a not-so-wise choice in trying to escape her life. Captain Alex Reid has better things to do than play…

I saw it again this week: “Romance novels, like fairy tales, lack realism; they make young women believe a handsome prince is going to rescue them with promises of happy-ever-after.” Oh, please. I loved fairy tales as a girl, but spent not a single second staring down the road for my prince. It’s my considered opinion that those who use this analogy know fairy tales only from Disney movies, particularly “Cinderella” with its dreamy-eyed heroine singing “Some Day My Prince Will Come.” They are seriously misinformed. (And don’t get me started on the premise that women can’t tell fiction from real life while men apparently have no problem distinguishing between James Bond’s 007 stunts and their daily grind.) To read more of REALISM AND FAIRY TALES please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

It’s the end of January and I thought I’d try something new this year-taking a day to recap some of what I read or listened to this month. One of my many yahoo groups has several different reading challenges which will be ongoing throughout the year, and last year I had resolved to participate and started out great, and really petered out, but this year I am again determined to participate. There are three challenges that I chose to attempt for January, and below you will read about my results. To read more of WHAT I READ FOR JANUARY and to make a comment please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

December 2009On Sale: December 1, 2009Featuring: Adrianna Barrington; Gage Hudson384 pages ISBN: 1420100289EAN: 9781420100280Paperback$6.99 Romance Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Dying Screamby Mary Burton It’s the last sound you’ll ever make… NO ONE WILL FIND YOU. An aspiring artist. A high-school senior. A stripper. Three women who seemed to have nothing in common except their sudden disappearance. But one man knew them all. Wealthy, privileged Craig Thornton even claimed to love them. And for that, they paid the ultimate price. NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU When Adrianna Barrington receives an anniversary card from her husband Craig, she assumes it’s a some crackpot’s idea of a joke. After all Craig is dead. But then come phone calls, flowers, messages…all reminding her how much Craig misses her. While Adrianna begins to doubt her sanity, grisly remains are found on the Thornton estate. Detective Gage Hudson is convinced the bodies are linked to Craig. But the biggest shocks are yet to come. NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM A psychopath has taken up his chilling work again, each death a prelude to the moment when she is under his control at last. And the only way for Gage and Adrianna to stop him is…

t’s time to reveal something you may or may not know about me. I am quite serious about series. For more years than I can count I’ve been told I really needed to read the Born In trilogy by Nora Roberts. For a variety of reasons these three books never made it to the top of my TBR. However I finally downloaded them in audio from the library and have totally enjoyed listening to all three titles. Another series I’ve put off reading was the Grace Valley series by Robyn Carr. When I finished the first two books in the series I had been entertained and didn’t feel like I had wasted my reading time, but still pined for more from her popular Virgin River series instead. Then I finished Down By The River and went “Oh I get it now” I now fully understand the need for more books in this series. To read more of SERIOUS ABOUT SERIES please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Last Sunday my husband and I went shopping. He has decided that we need to attend a dinner for long term employees of the company he works for and therefore I needed a cocktail dress. I was really not looking forward to buying a fancy dress, and especially not with him as my co-shopper. I suppose he knew this as he bribed me first with a new piece of technology. I know am the proud possessor of a new MP3 player that holds a micro sd card that has preloaded music. The card is called slot radio, and while you can’t arrange the songs there are different cards you can buy, and the cards have several different playlists to choose from, and my card has 1000 songs. To read more of TECHNOLOGY MY NEW BEST FRIEND please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

Went to the west office of FreshFiction (VR) and worked on the books. We’re still processing books from 1/4 and almost done so the arrival of another 97 just adds to the pressure. Processing means opening the packages, sorting by publication dates, entering into our systems: once for sheer number and offering to reviewers and secondly and more important, putting all the data from the book package into our database and thus the website. So conservatively we’re dealing with about 200 books with publication dates of 12/26 to 2/5 range. Every book we enter needs to be checked to see if we have all the information about the book, summary, the books place in a series (or not), an excerpt if available or not, cover information, taglines. If we added videos to the mix we’d go nuts but that is definitely coming, I can see it. It’s hard enough prying the summary and excerpt from publishers and authors. I do NOT understand why authors don’t willing and eagerly supply the information on their websites or in the review packages! It only helps them, ah well. After all the books are entered…actually while two of us are doing data input, and…

On Saturday I had a nearly perfect day. I say nearly because is any day truly perfect? I woke to temps that were climbing, even though my friend Yvonne took great pleasure in informing me that my home in Texas was several degrees cooler than her home in England. I went to coffee and donuts with my friends, and came home to find my oldest son awake and coherent. Woke the younger one to head out the door and did a few things like loading the dishwasher and laundry. Finally it was time for some “mom” time. I hid out in my room and finished reading One Reckless Summer by Toni Blake. Then it was errand time. To read more of THE PERFECT DAY…DOES IT EXIST? I SAY MAYBE please click here. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

After the flurry of the holidays, I had expected January to be a nice, quiet, slow month for books – boy, was I wrong! I have a plethora of brand new cozy mysteries to share with you this month, and each one sounds just as fun and fascinating as the next. And what a perfect month to just stay inside and read! Where I live in North Texas, we are experiencing the coldest, strangest winter I can personally remember. We had 11 inches of snow on Christmas Eve that all but brought the entire region to a standstill and now, in January, we are about to dip down into the ‘teens temperature wise. We Texans aren’t used to this! But I’m not too worried about it – got a load of firewood and a batch of delightful cozy mysteries to keep me busy and warm! I hope you can find something among these titles that will peak your interest as well! DEAD AIR:A Talk Radio Mystery By Mary Kennedy Obsidian Mystery; $6.99 In a brand new series, author Mary Kennedy explores the scenes behind a popular radio talk show with her book, DEAD AIR: A Talk Radio Mystery. Maggie Walsh…