1–What’s the name of your latest release?  Wild Love 2–What is it about?  My hero, Colin Brooks, has returned to Antero Brewing, but it’s not exactly the homecoming he was hoping for. His partners no longer trust him, and the building where he lives and brews his honey-sweetened beer is little more than a shack. The only one who gives him any affection is his hound-dog puppy, but he’d like to change that with the luscious cook at the corner deli. My heroine, Peaches Guidry, doesn’t trust good-looking charmers like Colin. Besides, she’s got enough on her plate managing the Salty Goat deli and dealing with her underhanded assistant. But Colin’s admiration for her cinnamon rolls expands to Peaches herself. And the soft-hearted baker finds herself falling for the last man she should be interested in. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Determined 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  He’s a reformed bad boy, trying to win back his place at the local brewery. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Well, Colin turns to Peaches, since she’s the only one who’ll talk to him at first. Peaches turns to her boss, Ruth Colbert, and…

Jen: What was your inspiration for your latest release, Feels Like Falling? Kristy: It started as most good stories do… In the drugstore! (Just kidding.) It was two days before Christmas, our car was packed to the gills, and we were heading home for the holidays–right after we picked up the photo books I had had made for our families. The woman at the photo desk said she couldn’t give me the books without a signed photo release because some of them were from a professional photographer, but I begged and pleaded and she gave them to me, after getting permission for me to bring the form back later. A few days later, I took her the photo release and she put it on file, no harm, no foul. But then I thought, “What if something similar happened but the woman working had gotten fired because of it? What if there was some reason she had felt like she wanted to do a good deed and, because of that, she lost her job? And then what if these two women formed a bond because of it and it ended up changing both their lives?” Most of my stories start this…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Julia! Please tell us about yourself and a little bit about your latest book, FIRST COMES SCANDAL. Hi, Fresh Fiction! Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself. I’ve been writing historical romance since 1995, primarily set in late 1700s/early 1800s Great Britain. First Comes Scandal is the final book in my Rokesby/Bridgerton prequel series, and it opens with Nicholas Rokesby being basically ordered by his father to marry his neighbor and girl-next-door Georgiana Bridgerton after her reputation is ruined by an overzealous suitor. This is the final book in your prequel series to the Bridgertons series. What have you loved about writing this expanded world? I first conceived of this series as a way to show some of our favorite characters (namely Edmund and Violet Bridgerton) when they were younger. But then due to the way the series was structured, they didn’t really show up in a meaningful way until this final book. It was incredibly fun to visit with them, and especially to show Anthony and Benedict Bridgerton as young boys. (And Colin as a baby!) But beyond that, the Rokesby books have enabled me to visit new locales. The Girl With the Make-Believe Husband…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? An Unsuitable lady for a Lord 2–What is it about?  Here’s the back cover description: Lord Aaron Lyle has one hell of a choice: a bankrupt dukedom, or marriage to some simpering society miss so his spendthrift father can get his hands on her huge dowry. He won’t do it. He has a reputation to maintain, and besides, he’d rather run naked through the streets of London than marry anyone at all. Surely, there must be a third option. Then Lady Crystal Wilding walks into his life, a bluestocking, full of subversive thoughts, who hates the notion of marriage even more than he does. He is intrigued, and suddenly he has an idea. He invites the totally unsuitable lady home on the pretext of presenting her as a possible match. .  . But in truth, Aaron has something far more pleasurable in mind. For her part, Lady Crystal has her own reasons for going along with his harebrained scheme. Imagine their shock when his highly proper family loves her and starts planning the wedding. Good lord. Now what? 3–What word best describes your heroine? Feisty 4–What makes your hero irresistible? He’s good-hearted, wealthy…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Alison! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your debut novel, YOU AND ME AND US. Thanks so much for having me! My name is Alison Hammer, and during the day, I’m a VP Creative Director at an advertising agency in Chicago, and during nights and weekends—I write upmarket women’s fiction. You and Me and Us the story of a workaholic woman and her distant teenage daughter, and it’s about the way their relationship evolves as they go through a tough summer, losing the third member of their family. It’s a tearjerker, but there are parts that will make you laugh and smile, too! What had your publishing journey to your debut novel been like? What has surprised you about getting to the publication of your first book? While You and Me and Us is my debut novel, it isn’t the first book I wrote. I have a manuscript that I put in a drawer after trying to find an agent for about a year. While I was querying, I wrote and revised You and Me and Us. It took about seven months of querying to sign with my amazing agent Joanna—who happened to be the…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, M.A.! Please introduce yourself and tell us more about your new novel, THE IRON CROWN. Thank you so much for having me! I always struggle to introduce myself. I guess the easiest way of explaining who I am is to say that I’m basically the village lady who lives on the edge of the woods and only comes in to town when absolutely necessary. I love my animals, spending my time gardening, crafting, and baking, as well as writing and reading. I enjoy living in the liminal space between the world we know and the world we can sense, but not always see. The entire DARKEST COURT series is a great reflection of who I am and all the nerdy things I love. It centers on the lives of three Unseelie princes at the moment a civil war breaks out in Faerie, threatening their world and the safety of their people. THE IRON CROWN features the last battles of the war and ties up all the plotlines that have run throughout the series. This is the third book in the Darkest Court series. Can you set the scene (without out too many major spoilers, LOL!) for…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  To Have and to Hoax. 2–What is it about? It’s a Regency rom-com about an estranged married couple who have barely spoken in years, who get immersed in a battle of wits & one-upsmanship as they attempt to get even (and, of course, fall back in love in the process). A fake case of consumption may or may not be involved. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  Stubborn. 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  He’s a really fundamentally good, considerate person who is so unable to trust that it damages his ability to have relationships with others – and watching my heroine slowly change this in him is, I think, pretty swoony. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  They each have two best friends – Violet, my heroine, has Diana and Emily, and James, my hero, has Jeremy and Penvale. These friends are super meddling – and also really quick to call out Violet and James when they’re being ridiculous, which is key in any friendship. (Spoiler alert: they have to do a lot of calling out in To Have and to Hoax.) 6–What do you love…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Sarah! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, RUTHLESS. Hello!  Thanks for having me!!  I started off my career writing for television (and still do!), so my prose tends to be fast-paced and dialogue-heavy.  RUTHLESS is the third book in my EYE OF THE BEHOLDER trilogy, about a seemingly idyllic future society where good people are rewarded and bad ones punished… “good deeds” make you more beautiful, while “bad” ones lead to deformity and death.  By the time we get to the third book, our main character, Grace, has learned the truth about her world, and she’s on a mission to set things right.  Although, “setting things right” is more complicated than it seems, just like in real life – and that’s a lot of what this series is about, that nothing is black and white. RUTHLESS marks the end of your Eye of the Beholder trilogy. What have you loved the most about creating these books? Is it bittersweet for this series to come to an end? I’m really excited for this full trilogy to be out in the world!  Though RUTHLESS was the hardest book I’ve ever written, I’m really proud of…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  FURY UNLEASHED, the first book in the Forgotten Brotherhood series. 2–What is it about? The Forgotten Brotherhood are a group of paranormal assassins. They aren’t the monsters lurking under the bed. They’re the ones that kill them. Maccus Fury is a fallen angel and their leader. Now Lucifer has sent Morrigan Quill, one of Hell’s bounty hunters after him. This is not your ordinary love story. 3–What word best describes your heroine?  In this series? Badass. 4–What makes your hero irresistible? Maccus is the type to kill first and ask questions later. He’s dangerous, cynical, and trusts no one. How can you not love him? 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? No one. As a fallen angel who has spent time in Hell, Maccus trusts no one, not even the members of the Brotherhood. He expects betrayal, so he’s never disappointed when it happens. Morrigan signed a contract with Lucifer to save her sister. The life she once knew is gone, and she can’t afford to trust anyone. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book? New York City is the perfect playground for…

Jen: What inspired you to explore Jackie O’s life through a work of fiction? Stephanie: After writing American Princess, I wanted my next story to be about another iconic American woman and Jackie Kennedy was the first to come to mind. I found that while people think they know her story, many of the details of her life–the deaths of her children, the monuments she saved, her many tumultuous family relationships–have already started to gather dust. Also, while there are enough nonfiction books about her and the rest of the Kennedys to fill an entire library, I quickly realized that there was an opportunity to transform her momentous life into historical fiction, to really let the reader feel what it was like to be Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. While I love a good nonfiction read, there’s something special about experiencing life through the eyes of the person who lived it. (I often joke that historical fiction is the closest thing to a time machine, but it’s true!) I loved being able to transport readers to see what it would have been like to be the one and only Jackie-O.   In order for the novel to be historically based, how…