Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Jayce Ellis | Exclusive Interview: JEREMIAH
Author Guest / January 6, 2020

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Jayce! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, Jeremiah. Thank you so much for having me. I’m a California native who found her way to the East Coast for undergrad and law school, met a boy, and stayed. I still shake my head at myself for that one, but we’re disgustingly happily married so I guess it worked out okay. Before our wedding a few years back, I said, I’m going to write a love letter to my husband in the form of a story! And that spawned the idea of Jeremiah, which is my first full-length novel. Because apparently, I’m a bit long-winded. . . Jeremiah Stewart is a young gay man who is still in the closet, but when he meets Collin, an enigmatic hot guy, he wonders if he’s ready to finally come out and live his life freely. What are some of your favorite things about Jeremiah? What surprised you about him while writing this book? Jeremiah is, at his core, a mama’s boy. He adores her and doesn’t want to do anything to upset her or make her life difficult or put more on her plate, and I love…

Lauren Dane | Exclusive Excerpt: BLOOD AND BLADE
Author Guest / December 26, 2019

Genevieve showed up looking effortlessly pretty. Like flowers in a vase. Rowan braced herself for the hug and the dual cheek kiss, awash in the heady scent of roses and a bit of jasmine. “Hello, Rowan.” “Hey, Genevieve. Come through to the kitchen. Dinner is nearly ready.” “Give me a tour first.” That’d give Clive a little longer with his tea to calm and accept reality and it would give Rowan some extra time to gentle Genevieve toward him. David had come up to the main house for the meal and Rowan heard him speaking to Betchamp in the kitchen as she and Genevieve headed away. Some part of her relaxed, knowing everyone was in the house and safe. “I didn’t want to say this on the phone or over text,” Rowan said after the tour of everything but the kitchen and dining room. She and Genevieve remained in Rowan’s office. “I had a visit with Carl today. He told me a bunch of stuff and gave me a dog. Or maybe it’s more like she decided to come live with me and be my keeper. She’s magic. Something like that.” Genevieve’s gaze sharpened. “Carl? The sage who likes stuffed…

JN Welsh | Exclusive Interview: IN RHYTHM
Author Guest / December 10, 2019

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, JN! Please tell us about yourself and your latest novel, IN RHYTHM. Hi! Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here! I’m a native New Yorker raised in the Bronx. I’m a wine and music lover, wanderlust-er like my characters, and when I’m not dancing (many times rocking out in my bedroom solo), you can find me spending time with friends and family or cheering for my favorite baseball team. I’m also a wellness warrior especially for writers and passionate about practicing mindfulness for mind, body, and spirit. My latest novel IN RHYTHM is the follow-up novel to IN TUNE and second book in my Back on Top Series. It’s a stand-alone novel that features Asha Kendall aka “Velvet,” a dance music DJ who is going after her goals with blinders on. She’s so focused that she never sees Dutch DJ Isaak “Zazzle” Van Sandt coming. The two have an immediate and intense connection but when Zazzle’s hard-partying gets out of control, Velvet presses pause. Their career paths are about to converge, hers on the way up and his on the way down. When their paths cross again, things get very interesting. Your Back…

Shannon Stacey | ONE CHRISTMAS EVE + a Delicious Recipe!
Author Guest / November 12, 2019

I love the holidays so much. Christmas romance movies. Christmas romance novels. And the food. So much food and, for my family, a lot of food that we only have during the holidays because most of the dishes we eat to celebrate would pack on the pounds if they were a part of our regular diet. The sausage balls and crack potatoes I make for Christmas breakfast every year, for example. In One Christmas Eve, Zoe (the bookstore owning heroine who’s got the hots for the slightly uptight business owner next door) shows up for Thanksgiving dinner with a dish of baked macaroni and cheese, which is one of those special occasion dishes the Stacey family only gets for the holidays. I took the original core recipe from Julie James (though I can’t find it on her site and I think it was a Facebook post several years ago), and she said it came from Walt Disney World’s Food & Wine Festival. (Wine being another great holiday tradition!) The second time I made it, I tried adding some dried mustard to give it a little zing. Then I tried adding buffalo chicken and now that’s the only way we eat…

Ruby Lang | Exclusive Excerpt: OPEN HOUSE
Author Guest / November 12, 2019

In this excerpt, Ty runs into Magda when he’s out jogging, and she’s coming off a long evening of work. The woman stepped out into the light just as Ty was approaching the spot under the street lamps. He’d angled himself off the sidewalk and onto the street and put on a burst of speed to get past her–slowing down would scare her into thinking he was a creep, especially at this time of night. But he’d already sprinted past her when he registered who it was–and that she had already seen him. Magda Ferrer. What the hell was she doing out here in the middle of the night, half limping? Was she hurt? He turned quickly and almost ran smack into her as she came back toward him. “Are you okay? Are you safe? Talk to me.” His eyes scanned her as best they could under the street lamp. He was aware that he wanted to run his hands over her, to check for himself to see if she was whole and healthy. But he didn’t want to scare her more. She seemed unharmed. A little dazed. She was staring at his chest, which he realized belatedly was bare…

A.C. Arthur | Author-Reader Match: AWAKEN THE DRAGON
Author Guest / November 7, 2019

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present A.C. Arthur! Writes: I write paranormal and contemporary romance featuring hunky guys, strong women, and sweeping passion! Awaken the Dragon, the first book in my Legion dragon shifter series releases Nov. 4th, and A Private Affair is my upcoming workplace romance coming January 1st. About: While writing is my first love, I’m a paralegal by day and a wife, mother and grandmother twenty-four-seven. I’ve written over 85 romance novels and enjoy reading (of course), watching romantic movies and going to Disney World. I don’t drink, but I do curse. I like black and white movies but am not a big fan of popcorn. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Someone who loves big families and the drama that brews between them A reader who’s not afraid of vampires, dragons, and demons, oh my! Readers who block off everything on their schedule to read a book because seconds after they start they must know how it ends Someone who…

Rhenna Morgan | Exclusive Interview: HIS TO DEFEND
Author Guest / October 15, 2019

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction, Rhenna! Can you tell us about your new series, NOLA Knights, and the first book, HIS TO DEFEND? Absolutely! Sergei Petrovyh first appeared in the fourth book of my Men of Haven series, TEMPTED & TAKEN. I loved everything about him. His broodiness. The unmistakable danger and unapologetic approach he took to life. I was also fascinated with articles and stories I’d read of Russian culture and the highly Alpha aspect to dating. So, when my publisher asked me what I wanted to do after the last of the original Men of Haven got their stories, I knew I wanted to delve deeper into Sergei’s world. The result was a planned trio of three extremely Alpha males conquering not just one of my favorite cities in the world (New Orleans), but three bold and brave women who give their driven men a run for their money. Evette Labadie is a hardworking woman who will do anything for her son, Emerson. Although she was recently (wrongfully) fired from her job, she needs to find a way to send her son to an expensive private school so he can have the best future possible. Desperate and unsure…

Angelina M. Lopez | Author-Reader Match: LUSH MONEY
Author Guest / October 15, 2019

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Angelina M. Lopez! Writes: I write sexy contemporaries about strong women and the confident men lucky to love them. My debut book, Lush Money, is about a self-made Mexican-American billionaire businesswoman who makes a deal with an impoverished prince: If he marries her and has sex with her three nights a month for a year, she will give him enough money to save his struggling winegrowing kingdom. All she wants is a marriage of convenience and three hot nights a month. And, oh yeah, a royal baby! It’s the first in the three-part Filthy Rich series, which are all about powerful, wealthy women who get what they want because they’ve earned it. About: While I have a long history as a writer — I’m an ex-newspaper journalist with a story in the Newseum and a romance writer for 19 years — my first published novel didn’t come out until yesterday, Oct.14. So please, be gentle. I enjoy wine and love spending…

Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck | GRAVEYARD SHIFT by Jenn Burke + Giveaway!
Author Guest , Potluck / October 10, 2019

We’re back with another stop on our Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck! Don’t forget to comment below for a chance to win an eBook copy of today’s featured book. And be sure to check back at all of the other great posts this week: Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10267   Day 2 with Soraya Lane: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10269 Day 3 with Laura Lee Guhrke: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10270  *** In the Not Dead Yet series, Wes Cooper and Hudson Rojas have the chance to rekindle the romance they abandoned thirty-three years before–thanks to Wes being a sort-of-but-not-quite ghost and Hudson being a vampire. The paranormal side of Toronto seems to be invested in making them work for their happily-ever-after, though. In the third book in the series, Graveyard Shift, Wes and Hudson have shared all of their secrets and are solidly a team, all-in with each other, their found family, and their business as private investigators. But Toronto’s not done messing with them. Someone’s out there, poisoning shifters with specially made street drugs. There are newbie vampires running amok. And a threat from Hudson’s past might steal his and Wes’s happily ever after for good. Both Wes and Hudson are cooks, but not cooks, if you get my meaning….

Adriana Herrera | Exclusive Interview: AMERICAN LOVE STORY
Author Guest / October 8, 2019

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Adriana! Please tell us about yourself and your latest novel, AMERICAN LOVE STORY. I am an Afro-Dominicana author writing contemporary romance. I like to say that I write romance full of people who look and sound like my people. American Love Story is the third installment in the Dreamers series and it’s a story about love, racial justice, activism, privilege and navigating a world that sometimes feels like it wants to pull us all apart. Patrice Denis is an ivy-league professor and a Black Lives Matter activist and Easton Archer is a prosecutor who is everything he wants in a lover, but represents some of the things that he’s actively fighting against. Patrice Denis is an interesting character – he works tirelessly both in his job as a professor and in his work as an activist, but this intense work ethic denies him a personal life. What does Patrice’s need for perfection in all aspects of his life, aside from personal relationships, show readers about his personality? With this series I wanted to render the immigrant experience, as I understand it. As a black man and an immigrant Patrice is a man that has a lot…