Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new, summertime release, THE FRIENDSHIP PACT? Jill Shalvis: I’ve always wanted to write a story about a teenage girl who found her The One (lol, I’m such a sap) and then blew it … and then runs into that The One (sexy Riggs!) years later. Would she take the second chance? And just like that, Tae and Riggs were practically writing their own story. As for April (Tae’s mom), I loved that she’d had Tae as a teen herself because that made the mom/daughter relationship deliciously complicated. I also love complicated.   Jen: How would you describe April and Tae Holmes’s mother-daughter relationship? Jill: Complicated! April was 15 when she had Tae, so to say they raised each other isn’t far off the mark. Although Tae would tell you SHE raised her mom, and not the other way around.   Jen: What’s going on in Tae’s personal and professional lives? Jill: Tae is the middle of opening her own event planning service. She’s scrappy and determined, always has been, but she knows she needs this to succeed. Growing up dirt poor had hammered the point home that she doesn’t ever want to be scared and…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, Where the Road Bends? Rachel Fordham: Every novel has its own way of going from nothing to something. It was the beginning of the pandemic, and I was thinking about how there was going to be the time before Covid and the time after, but things weren’t ever going to be exactly the same. This line of thinking led me to reflecting on the novel Les Misérables and how one moment changed the main characters entire life. I decided I wanted to explore that idea, of a defining moment, but in a different time period and setting. After that, pieces began coming together until I had a novel, I was extremely proud of.   Jen: What is Norah King willing to sacrifice in order to save her family’s land and why? Rachel: At the beginning of the novel Norah King is about to have her family farm taken over by the bank. In order to save it and keep herself from a desperate situation she agrees to marry an older man that she doesn’t love. At this time in history her options were limited, and this seems like the safest route to taking…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your new release, THE HOMEWRECKERS? Mary Kay Andrews:  I was watching one of those DIY reality television shows and the title The Homewreckers came to me. Not coincidentally, we’d just purchased a fixer-upper beach cottage on Tybee Island, Ga, where the book was set, so I had the title and the research, and very quickly, the plot started to come together.   Jen: What is causing angst in Hattie Kavanaugh’s personal and professional lives? Mary Kay:  Hattie is guilt-ridden because she fears that the over-budget money pit of a house she’s been restoring with her father-in-law’s construction company will bring the company to financial ruin, but on a deeper level, her emotional life has been on hold since her husband’s death, seven years earlier, in a hit-and-run accident. Faced with the possibility of romance, she’s deeply conflicted.   Jen: When Mauricio Lopez offers Hattie a starring role in a beach house reality show, how does she react? Mary Kay:  Hattie tells Mo she has zero interest in show business, and just wants to do her job, restoring old homes.   Jen: What does Hattie think of her male cast mate? Mary Kay: Hattie’s first response is…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write SUMMER AT THE CAPE? RaeAnne Thayne: I have been fascinated for a long time by the unique relationship between twins. I was interested in exploring what happens to one twin when their “womb-mate” dies. Factor in another older sister who was not part of that twin relationship and I wondered how the dynamics of a family would change with the death of one of the twins. A big subplot of this book involves glamping, something that definitely appeals to me. I love the outdoors and camping, escaping the hectic pace of life in the outdoors, but I must admit I’m of a certain age where I also enjoy my creature comforts. LOL. Glamping seems like a way to have the best of both worlds.   Jen: The novel is set in the fictional town of Cape Sanctuary. From where did you draw inspiration to create this welcoming place? RaeAnne: I live in the mountains of Northern Utah, far from the ocean, but when my family vacations, we tend to head to the coast. Two of our favorite places are Cannon Beach, OR and the Monterey/Carmel-by-the-Sea areas of Central California. When I was trying…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write EVERYTHING MUST GO? Camille Pagan: I’m the eldest of three sisters, so I’ve always wanted to write a novel about that complicated but often-wonderful dynamic. As Laine observes, “Being raised by the same parents at the same time was like being the last few to speak a dying language.” That’s how I’ve always felt when my sisters and I have had to deal with stressful family situations. The novel is also about the choices we make at midlife (I’m there now!) and the difficulty of dealing with dementia, especially in its early stages when it’s not always apparent there’s a “real” problem. Not all of my novels are inspired by my life, but this one definitely was.   Jen: What’s happening in Laine’s marriage that causes her to question the future? Camille: Laine and her husband Josh have been together for years, and they have a comfortable if staid relationship. But when Laine’s beloved dog, Belle, dies, she realizes that she actually isn’t happy with Josh—who is absentminded about everything, including their marriage—and is tired of being the one to keep the status quo for everyone in her life … including Josh. The…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired you to write THE WEDDING VEIL? Kristy Woodson Harvey: I was putting a veil on my cousin’s head—the veil that I had worn, many members of my husband’s family had worn, and several friends had worn as well—before her wedding, and it occurred to me how the veil connected the many women who had worn it. As I so often do, I thought, That’s a book! And here we are!   Jen: What was the most fascinating bit of history you discovered about the Biltmore during the writing process? Kristy: Well, honestly, that first spark of inspiration might have been my favorite! I was considering writing about a real, historical wedding veil, and, after a recent trip to Biltmore, I was very interested in Edith Vanderbilt and all the amazing things she did with her life. A quick Google search showed that the wedding veil she had worn, her mother and sisters had worn and her daughter Cornelia worn had disappeared. I knew immediately that was the framework for my story.   Jen: What does the wedding veil represent to Julia Baxter and her family? Kristy: For Julia’s family the veil is a symbol of long,…

Jen Vido: What inspired THE SHOP ON ROYAL STREET, the first book in the spin-off series based on the New York Times bestselling Tradd Street novels? Karen White:  Back in 2005, when I first started thinking about writing my first series, I wanted to set it in one of my favorite Southern cities—one with lots of history, gorgeous architecture, and—of course—ghosts!  Because I had attended Tulane University for four years, I was already familiar with New Orleans so it was an obvious choice.  But then Hurricane Katrina came along and changed direction for that first series that eventually became the seven-book Tradd Street series set in Charleston.  Seventeen years later, it was hard to close the door too permanently on those characters or the ghostly elements.  It was natural to think spin-off, with fan-favorite character Nola Trenholm leading the new cast, and to return to the original setting of New Orleans.  And that is how The Shop on Royal Street was born!   Jen: Why did you select New Orleans as the backdrop for this new series? Do you have a connection to The Big Easy? Karen:  I spent four of my formative years in The Big Easy while in…

Jen: What inspired your new release, THE TOBACCO WIVES? Adele: As a young girl growing up in North Carolina, I was fascinated by my grandmother’s stories about the women she called the tobacco wives. She was a hairdresser for the wives of the wealthiest, most powerful tobacco magnates in Winston-Salem, NC in the 1940s, and tales of these wealthy, glamorous women captured my imagination.   Jen: What’s the most fascinating thing you learned while researching the book? Adele: Insights into what life was like for tobacco workers was fascinating, and pretty disturbing. One example is that the field workers suffered from a condition called “the green monster.” When they tended to and picked wet tobacco leaves, nicotine seeped into their skin, giving them tobacco poisoning. I had no idea about this condition. Factory conditions and practices were also a shocker to me.    Jen: What brings Maddie Sykes to Bright Leaf, North Carolina? Adele: When Maddie’s father is killed in WWII, her mother has a breakdown. She doesn’t know how she’ll support herself and her daughter and decides to take Maddie to her Aunt Etta’s house in the tobacco capital of the South. Aunt Etta is a professional seamstress in the…

Jennifer Vido: What inspired your gripping new release, THE CAGE?  Bonnie Kistler: The opening scene in the elevator came from my years of practicing law in big firms in high-rise buildings. I spent countless hours riding up and down in these “cages,” and the situation often struck me as fraught with peril. Imagine getting trapped in a disabled elevator. Then imagine getting trapped with someone who might wish you harm. That’s where we find Shay Lambert and Lucy Carter-Jones when The Cage begins. The larger themes of the novel were inspired by the fall-out from the Great Recession of 2008. I knew so many bright young professionals who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Once you lose your place on the ladder of success, it’s hard to ever get back on the right rung. That’s Shay’s back story. The third big “light bulb” moment came when a big news story broke: a prominent man was arrested for frequenting a massage parlor/brothel in Florida. The women involved appeared to have been trafficked, and that got me thinking about the exploitation of workers at all levels of the labor spectrum. What’s the office culture like at the fashion conglomerate…

Jennifer Vido: How did your admiration for The Great Gatsby inspire your new release, BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS?    Jillian Cantor: I’ve long been a fan of The Great Gatsby as a reader, but I’ve also always felt there was more to the women’s stories beneath the surface. Daisy says in the original that the best thing a girl can be is “a beautiful little fool.” But I always felt certain she was so much more than that! My novel explores Daisy’s story, as well as Jordan’s, Myrtle’s, and Myrtle’s sister, Catherine’s. What happens during the investigation of Jay Gatsby’s death that sends the police in a tailspin? In the original novel, Jay Gatsby is murdered, and George Wilson is found shot dead nearby, and the police wrap up the case as a murder-suicide. In my novel, one detective finds a diamond hairpin in the bushes by Jay Gatsby’s pool, and that leads him to start looking closer at the women in Gatsby’s orbit. Let’s talk about the three suspects, starting with Daisy Buchanan. How is she connected to the murder victim? Well, as we know from the original novel, Daisy and Jay met and dated in 1917 in Louisville, where…