Holiday movies and books are uplifting, heartwarming, and absolutely irresistible. Here are several of my favorites, so light a cozy fire, grab a large blanket for two, and snuggle up with one of these romantic holiday treats. Nancy Meyers’ romantic comedy The Holiday stars Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. After romantic disappointments, Englishwoman Iris (Winslet) and Los Angeles woman Amanda (Diaz) meet on-line at a website that helps people exchange houses. They decide to switch homes for the holidays. Both women discover a fresh look at life and love in this fun and funny switcheroo. The Christmas Spirit by Elisabeth Fairchild is a perennial favorite of readers. I particularly enjoy getting lost in this story of holiday love. In Regency England, Lord Copeland’s Christmas invitations promise a frolicking fortnight imbued with Christmas spirits of every kind. Unfortunately, icy roads complicate the arrival of his guests, except the one person he did not invite. Miss Belinda Walcott, a music teaching spinster, lands on his doorstep with her own hidden reasons for weaving magic into the season to revive Lord Copeland’s flagging Christmas spirit. Christmas in Connecticut stars Barbara Stanwyck as a Martha-Stewart type who writes a column with delicious recipes about…

You know how they say that preparing for something is almost more fun than actually doing it? All those hours spent to find the perfect holiday destination, crossing off the days until you’re leaving, the nerves in your stomach when the big day has arrived. . . It’s just like that with Christmas! No matter how many ornaments there are, neatly wrapped in tissue paper in the boxes in the attic, the cellar or the garage, it’s always a good idea to buy some more. Advent calendars are a fun way to count down to Christmas, and when certain smells invade the house – pine, cranberry, gingerbread – you know the time is coming near. . . I wanted to capture all that and more in my very first Christmas romance, A Family by Christmas, just released from Entangled Bliss. My heroine Emma is a bonbon maker whose agenda is over-full in the runup to Christmas. Her whole life seems to consist of work, really, as she’s an orphan with no siblings and not a lot of new friends yet in Wood Creek, the small New Hampshire town she moved to, to open up her very own chocolate-making business. But…

It’s the final day of our Fall Slow Cooker Recipe Potluck! We’ve enjoyed following along with all of these great authors, their new books, and delicious slow cooker recipes. Comment below for a chance to win yet another book! And be sure to take a look back at all of the fun we’ve had all week:  Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard  Day 2 with Soraya Lane Day 3 with Laura Lee Guhrke Day 4 with Jenn Burke  *** Autumn: Time for Comfort Food The mornings are crisp now in central Pennsylvania, and the mist hangs in the valleys for an hour or so after the sun makes its way over the mountain ridges. Leaves have begun to turn, orange pumpkins fill the roadside stands, and we bring in the last few tomatoes and winter squash from the garden. At a time like this, with winter not far off, my thoughts turn to comfort food. And for comfort food, what could be better than a slow cooker? Comfort food forms a large part of any collection of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. The farmers, both Amish and English, who settled in these fertile valleys felt the need for plenty of carbohydrates to keep…

Our Potluck continues with yet another delicious recipe and fabulous author with a new book! Don’t forget to follow along all week for more recipes, more books, and more giveaways!  Day 1 with Elizabeth Goddard: http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=10267    *** When Cody Ford is back home on the ranch, he loves nothing more than the comfort food he grew up with as a kid. So I can imagine Cody and Lexi curled up by the fire at Christmas, while it’s snowing outside, eating this devious beef stew! Aromatic Beef Stew You don’t need a slow cooker for this recipe, it’s equally as good if you do it in the oven, or if you simmer in a pot on the stovetop. The combination of orange peel, star anise, and hoisin sauce makes it aromatic and delicious! Ingredients Approx. 1.5 kg beef blade steak or beef cheeks 2 Tbsp flour 2 Tbsp cooking oil A handful of shallots 1 cup red wine 1 x 400g can tomatoes Half cup prunes 60ml hoisin sauce 1 star anise One approx 3cm length of orange peel Extra water if necessary Trim the fat off the meat, then cut into large chunks. Put the flour in a plastic…

Against the odds, the oak sapling took root in our backyard that was filled with scrub pine trees and overrun with bramble. Despite the strong growth of the underbrush, the oak sapling, with its tiny trunk and even tinier branches, pushed upward, reaching for sunlight from high above. It was a decent height, maybe five feet, but scraggly and skinny. A canopy of other trees and thicket kept the sapling in the shade and depleted its soil of nutrients. Vines of various kinds wrapped around it, using it to gain a height of its own. But it didn’t die. It also didn’t thrive. It reminded me of a vine of poison oak more than an oak tree. Its sickly trunk bent and twisted, always jetting out and then reaching up, clearly trying to find a way to reach life-sustaining sunlight. At the time our backyard had a blind fence enclosing a half-acre of mostly scrub pines and thicket. We’d left it that way for over ten years because our youngest son asked us to. He loved being outdoors as well as the feel of “deep woods.” It seems he spent half of his childhood in that space. As children do,…

My reading habits don’t follow a very regular course. I’ll spend an entire year reading nothing but Traditional Regencies only to spend the next six months devouring the entire Betty Neels backlist (all 134 of them, for my fellow jersey dress lovers). Then I’ll skip to sexy thrillers for a few months before losing myself in a sea of Pride and Prejudice retellings. In other words, I tend to read the same way I watch Netflix: I binge. Since it can be difficult to pick my favorites out of the so many different and varied rabbit holes I’ve plunged myself into recently, here are five that stand out as worth a second read. Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin: This one came into my world during my Pride and Prejudice retellings binge, and it didn’t disappoint. I particularly adored the hero, Khalid, whose deep and quiet admiration of Ayesha perfectly captured the feelings Darcy has for Elizabeth. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat: My love for the Captive Prince series is so strong that I re-read these books every year. They’re twisted and sexy and intricately plotted in ways my mind can’t even fathom. This time I opted for the audiobooks,…

IT WAS LATE NOVEMBER WHEN HE FOUND THE ENVELOPE. Big Jim Garrett held the letter for a while before opening it. It was from his sister-in-law, Adele, who now lived over in Fort Worth. There was a stack of mail on the kitchen counter, but from what he could tell, it was made up mostly of Christmas cards. He would leave those for the others in his household to open, but this letter was addressed to him personally with no “and family” tacked on. What’s going on with Adele? After Big Jim’s brother had died, Adele had sold their land and moved to Fort Worth, where she had some relatives. Big Jim’s back teeth ground together as he recalled how she had fallen way behind in property taxes and was forced to sell off the property and stock. The woman had always been headstrong and shortsighted, to his way of thinking. No business sense, and she hadn’t come to Big Jim until it was too late. He took a seat at the counter separating the kitchen from the dining area. Tearing the envelope open, he slid out a single sheet of notepaper. Dear Jim, I’m writing to let you know…

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 Jennifer Snow! Writes: An Alaskan Christmas is a sexy contemporary romance set in a fictional town in Alaska, featuring search and rescue heroes and heroines. About: Socially awkward, introverted author seeks equally awkward introverted readers who like to hang out together, while silently reading their respective novels. I’ll supply coffee, wine, and sexy contemporary romances. . . Also, you must love cats. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: · Must love a narcoleptic Husky puppy · Must love strong, sometimes “prickly” heroines · Must love a wild, adventurous, breathtaking setting · Must love Christmas · Must love a brave, sexy, charming hero · Must love a story that makes them laugh out loud, swoon, cry and feel emotionally satisfied by the last page What to expect if we’re compatible: · Fun, heartwarming, sexy stories supplied on demand · The previously promised coffee or wine should we meet face to face · An inconsistent newsletter with lots of giveaways…

Holy crap. . . He’d killed her. Carter dropped to his knees and gently shook her the second Emery collapsed. “Emery? Emery, come on now. . . wake up!” Fear had him by the throat when he realized how rough he’d been with her a moment ago. He had no idea anyone was staying here and thought she was a burglar! How was he supposed to know it was Emery? And for that matter, he was still confused as all get-out why she was here. Giving her another small shake before checking her pulse, he continued to coax her to wakefulness. His hand getting smacked away was kind of a shock. “You still know how to make an entrance, Montgomery,” she murmured, slowly sitting up. Looking around as if still a little dazed, she took her time before letting her eyes land on him. And when they did, they were shooting daggers. “Are you okay?” Hesitantly, he reached out to help her to her feet and once again she moved his hand away. It wasn’t until she was up and steady on her feet that he realized how little she was wearing. “Um. . . Emery?” “What is your deal,…

A warm holiday welcome to Fresh Fiction Reviewer, Miranda Owen, who is here to discuss some of her favorite holiday-themed romances! If this post doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit, we don’t know what will. Without further ado… I love a fun holiday-themed romance. Admittedly, my favorite holiday-themed romances involve Halloween, but I enjoy Christmas ones too. Some of my favorite books by Carolyn Brown and Terry Spear are centered on Christmas and family. The Christmas romances I’ve read this year – by old favorites and new-to-me authors – have had dual themes of “family” and “Christmas” with delightful results. The one story featured here that’s not set during Christmas is a paranormal romance by Cynthia Eden that opens with a catastrophic blind date on New Year’s Eve, but that story also has a lot to do with family. In SOMEONE TO TRUST by Mary Balogh and THE CHRISTMAS KEY by Lori Wilde, the heroes are both drawn to women with big hearts and loving families. SOMEONE TO TRUST opens with an idyllic Christmas house party with the Westcott family and their assorted friends and relations. Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges can’t help but be charmed by these people because…