DEVOURING DARKNESS completely blew me away! And oh man, that epilogue! I’m bursting to ask spoiler type questions but instead will ask if you’ll give us any hints about what the next book will bring us? Thanks so much! Heirs 5, which will be titled COLD CURSES, will bring more trouble, more excitement, more sarcasm. And a lot more (SPOILER!)   One thing I love about your vampires is you have carefully crafted such specific rules and hierarchies, only to have Elisa (and Merit in the original series) break all the rules. How do you keep track of the various rules and ways to bend them? I have a fantastic continuity reader (shout-out to Krista!), and it’s pretty common that I forget things. (I usually have to remind myself what happened in the last book by the time I’m writing the next one). That’s a definite advantage of having printed books – they’re an automatic reference library.   I’ve enjoyed watching Elisa and Connor mature and come into their own as characters in the Heirs of Chicagoland series. In DEVOURING DARKNESS, they are pitted against a foe who makes them pull on their own connections, powers, and friendships without the…

I don’t remember the first vampire book I ever read, but I do remember the first vampire movie I saw. I didn’t sleep soundly for days after watching Stephen King’s SALEM’S LOT movie. In fact, even thinking about it now, I can still envision those vampires at the window and hear them trying to come inside! The sound still gives me shivers! It didn’t help that I was still young (not even a teenager yet) and my best friend had giant bay windows in the living room where we watched the made for tv movie. As night fell, the windows behind us seemed more and more ominous as I was just certain a vampire or two would come calling for us! After watching the movie,  I of course had to read the book, ‘SALEM’S LOT, and Stephen King’s words were even scarier than that old movie. I devoured all of his books that I could get my hands on, looking for something to grab my attention like the vampires had. And oh, did I love Stephen King’s books… but the vampires came back to bite me again when I discovered Anne Rice and Lestat. INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE took me…

Debbie Wiley is a senior reviewer at Fresh Fiction.  The last days and weeks of 2020 are thankfully drawing to a close, leaving folks with a lot of emotional turmoil. Yes, 2020 has been challenging at best, and heartbreaking if you are one of the many directly impacted by Covid-19. In the midst of the pain and distress, we’ve seen heroes rise to the occasion. First and foremost, our health care workers, but also the many grocery store workers, teachers, food bank volunteers, and so many others who have quietly provided essential services to people in the midst of a global pandemic. It makes me reflect about the heroes and heroines of the urban fantasy, fantasy, and steampunk books I read, and I’d like to share a few of those heroes and heroines with you today. THE AWAKENING by Nora Roberts, features Breen Kelly, a young lady who has lived her life feeling “less than”. Her mother constantly berates or belittles her, she works a job she hates, she has a mountain of student debt, and she even hides her flaming red hair under dark hair dye to keep from being noticed. All of that is about to change, however,…

Dark Elite #1 January 2010 On Sale: January 5, 2010 Featuring: Scott; Lily Parker 256 pages ISBN: 0451228863 EAN: 9780451228864 Paperback $6.99 Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Firespell by Chloe Neill New girl. New school. Old evil. From the author of the Chicagoland Vampires novels. A new series about a boarding school filled with something worse than homework. Lily’s parents have sent her to a fancy boarding school in Chicago filled with the ultra-rich. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s hearing and seeing bizarre things on St. Sophie’s creepy campus. Her roommate, Scout, keeps her sane, but keeps disappearing at night. When one day Lily finds Scout running from real-life monsters, she learns the hard way that Scout is involved in a splinter group of rebel teens. They protect Chicago from demons, vamps, and dark magic users. It’s too bad Lily doesn’t have powers of her own to help. At least, none that she’s discovered yet… Start of a new and exciting magical young adult series. Excerpt CHAPTER ONE They were gathered around a conference table in a high-rise, eight men and women, no one under the age of sixty-five, all of them wealthy beyond measure. And they were…