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 JAYCI LEE! Writes: I write sexy and flirty #ownvoices contemporary romance featuring Asian-American main characters with strong, relatable heroines and swoon worthy heroes. My latest book, SECRET CRUSH SEDUCTION, is the second book in the Heirs of Hansol series where fashion designer Adelaide Song wants to prove she’s more than just a pampered heiress. With the help of Michael Reynolds, her childhood crush and her brother’s best friend, and some hard-won courage, Adelaide sets out to build the future she wants–and find the happily after she’d always dreamed of. About: One of my favorite things is a girls’ night out with delicious wine and yummy shared dishes, and lots of laughter. Actually, if you want to be my friend, you have to laugh at my jokes. It’s the rule. Lol. My sense of humor seeps into everything I write, so I hope you enjoy laughing. But you also have to like poignant tenderness, sizzling sexual tension, and serious groveling by the heroes….

“I’m not asking you to forgive me, only to trust me that this was necessary. For both of our safety.” Her vision blurred with instant, furious tears. Helpless anguish. “I can never trust you. Do you realize that? How could you even suggest it?” “Have I ever hurt you?” he demanded tightly, then swore and looked away, seeming to realize as he said it that he was inviting the vitriol that climbed like bile into her throat. “I meant physically. Look, I’ve been waiting for the right time to resurface. I need to know you’re safe when word gets out that I’m alive. As of today’s debacle, it’s out. Please come with me and let me explain.” She realized the ache in her other hand was from gripping her phone this whole time. All those people inside this tiny rectangle, all those “friends” who’d been so sympathetic, eating up her grief like bitter chocolate bonbons. Where were they now, when she was in real trouble? Not here. She fingered her pendant, thinking of Nels. He was a reliable friend, but they weren’t exactly soul mates. She didn’t have anyone. That’s what she’d come to terms with since Giovanni’s disappearance. For…

A WINNING SEASON is the 10th and final title in the Wickham Falls Weddings series. I wanted to end the series with a heart-warming, emotional story about a recent high school graduate who puts her life on hold to raise her six and eight-year-old brothers after the death of their parents.  The knowledge that as a toddler her mother gave up full custody of Zoey to her ex-husband makes it even more distressing for her not to abandon her younger siblings to the foster care system. Ten years later her eldest brother has enlisted in the military.  However, it is sixteen-year-old Harper who is acting out and challenging the limits of Zoey’s rules, making it difficult for her because she can’t work and monitor his whereabouts.  She is ready to give up on him when her new next-door neighbor offers to mentor him. Sutton Reed left Wickham Falls to enter college on athletic and academic scholarships and returns two decades later as a retired major league baseball hometown hero.  Sutton has quit the game and looks forward to reuniting with friends and family away from the spotlights and the roar of crowds.  He rents the house next to Zoey Allen…

Hi, Roan! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Thanks for visiting with us today. Will you tell us about yourself and a little bit about your new book, BETTER THAN PEOPLE? Hi! Thanks so much for having me :-). I am extremely into cooking and baking, plants and gardening, Halloween, horror movies, DIY projects out of random stuff I find, and exploring abandoned buildings. I live in West Philadelphia with my magical cat, Dorian Gray, where I bake a lot and write queer love stories about people who feel like home to one another. BETTER THAN PEOPLE is the first in my cozy new series, Garnet Run, and the whole series is my love letter to animals. BETTER THAN PEOPLE is about Jack, a grouchy children’s book illustrator, who eschews other people in favor of a pack of stray animals he’s collected. Jack’s favorite thing is walking his pack of dogs (and Pirate the cat, who leads the way). But one evening, chasing after Puddles, a jittery dog, he breaks his leg and needs someone to walk the animals for him. Enter Simon, an animal lover with no animals and intense anxiety around people. The more Jack and Simon know about each other,…

Duke woke just after daybreak, but when he heard rain on the roof, he knew morning chores were going to be messy. He rolled over on his back and began mentally going over the tasks for the day. He’d still been up when Hope came home last night, and he knew today was her day off, so she was likely sleeping in a bit. Jack tried to be protective of Hope, but she was just as strong-willed and independent as her sister, Mercy, and somehow that became what was most special about her. Lord knows, Jack was forever smitten. Duke sighed. He really didn’t want to grow old alone. He wanted to be smitten, too, but for whatever reason, he’d never found that certain someone. And the very next thought that went through his mind was of Cathy Terry. He wondered if she’d been able to sleep much last night and if she needed help with anything. He’d left his number with her, but he knew she wouldn’t call. That left the next move up to him, so he got up, showered, shaved, and dressed, then made his bed before going downstairs to start breakfast. Because of Hope’s work schedule,…

It can be fun to flirt. And when you know it can’t go anywhere, it can be a little more fun. You can just let loose because there’s no chance you can blow it. That’s how TEMPTING THE PRINCE starts. Two people who absolutely know they can’t ever be together, sharing a fun night. #spoiler – they do get together! #spoiler – happy ending guaranteed! So here’s a peek at an average American pushing the envelope with her *actual* Prince Charming… *** Mallory couldn’t tell if the bar was nice because everything in Moncriano’s capital was both ancient and charming–or because her bodyguard had chosen very, very carefully where to bring the princess’s sister to get wasted. Because that was, indeed, her entire plan for the night. Drink. Eat a pretzel the size of her head. Maybe flirt with the semi-hot guy who’d been eying her from the corner. Except that flirting would require conversation. That conversation. Because every conversation she’d had with a stranger since returning to the country followed the same lines: How are you? You’re so brave. What’s the princess really like? If she wasn’t fine, she wouldn’t be out at a bar, would she? As for…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? LOATHE AT FIRST SIGHT, coming out August 18! 2–What is it about? LOATHE AT FIRST SIGHT is an #OwnVoices workplace rom-com set in the video game industry. In this novel, Korean-American producer named Melody Joo is tasked with launching a controversial video game while being antagonized by everyone around her, especially Nolan MacKenzie, the company’s new MBA intern. 3–What word best describes your heroine? Fierce. 4–What makes your hero irresistible? He’s a charming, smart, quirky, plaid-shirt-and-tortoise-shell-glasses-wearing kind of guy. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? Her best friends Candace and Jane, as well as her mentor/friend at work, Kat. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book? The backdrop is Seattle, where I lived for a long time. I love the sense of place it invokes, especially with the weather and the food and cafe scene. The work setting is also something I loved including in this book: I hearkened back to my days in tech where we had cubicles/workspaces and hard-to-book conference rooms and it was a lot of fun to describe. 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantser (write…

Daniel sighed, the sound lost to the thud of their skate blades on the rubber mats lining the tunnel. He hadn’t anticipated the chilly reception when he arrived in the Thunder’s dressing room that first day of train­ing camp–and now he finally knew why his breath had practically been fogging whenever he was in the presence of his new teammates. Apparently there was some resent­ment about his win. Probably some assumptions about his reasons for being there or how he would behave. Never mind that Daniel had worked his ass off for more than a decade before he could add Stanley Cup champ to his resume. He’d fought his way there–tooth, nail, broken bones, and bloody lips. It hadn’t come easy, and he didn’t take it for granted. Nor did he think he was hot shit now that he had a championship win under his belt. He was just trying to play hockey, same as he’d done all his life. Daniel poured onto the ice with the rest of his team­mates and sucked in a breath, the cold, crisp scent as familiar and comforting as the sound of his blades cut­ting into the ice and the roar of the crowd….

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 Adriana Herrera! Writes: I write contemporary romance centering Afro-Latinx characters and have recently been dipping my toes into historical romance. I like to say I write books about people who look and sound like my people getting unapologetic happy endings–that’s the best way to describe my stories. Here to Stay is a contemporary romance set in Dallas, Texas, and centers around Julia del Mar Ortiz and Rocco Quinn two New Yorkers who have recently arrived in the Lone Star State and are at odds in their workplace. Here to Stay is about found family, starting over and there is a lot of fashion, family shenanigans, and cute stray cat rescue. About: New York City (by way of Dominican Republic) 40ish bi trauma therapist/author looking for readers who love: stories centering Afro-Latinx culture, banter, foodie moments in their romance,  a little social justice in their romance,  found family, big HEAs, and protagonists who reach for love as they reach for their dreams….

chapter two HOT LUMBERJERK Blaire “My name is Blaire, not Alice, thank you very much.” I want to smack myself for that terrible, unimpressive comeback. I blame my inability to come up with something–anything–better on thinking we were in the middle of an earthquake, the loss of one of my precious unicorn martini glasses that I honestly cannot afford to replace, and this ax-wielding hipster. Oh, did I forget to mention that beyond the fact that he’s filthy and dressed like some kind of GQ lumber-jack, he’s also incredibly good-looking? “Well, Blaire, you’re standing in the middle of a construction zone, and I’m pretty sure those shoes don’t meet the required code, so you can march them right back out the door.” He uses the axe handle to point to my heels–which are adorable and surprisingly comfortable. I take a step back. “Pointing is rude.” Where the hell has my quick wit disappeared to? “So is trespassing.” “I knocked, more than once, but with all the racket going on in here it’s not really a surprise that no one heard me, is it?” I’m irritated and gathering steam, thanks to my embarrassment, residual fear, and frustration over the problems this…