My new novel THE CHRISTMAS LAYOVER is about friendship among strangers. While the terms friendship and stranger seem more like antonyms than synonyms, that is (happily) not always the case. In my book, a small town opens its arms to an airliner full of strangers at Christmastime, and, in my own life, I’ve had similar experiences. On more than one occasion, those that didn’t know me from Adam reached out with the hand of friendship and drew me into their lives just when I most needed to feel included. One such occurrence happened long ago in a college town called Athens, Georgia. I’d like to share it with you.  I’d seen her around campus long before I pledged the Kappa Sigma fraternity the winter of my sophomore year. I’d admired her from afar—the epitome of the untouchable college beauty. I’d decided that if I were forced to choose one perfect girl, she would be the one. Even though our paths crossed several times a day, I felt as if she lived in some remote corner of a distant universe. I was sure she had no clue I existed. She was there the night, several weeks into my pledgeship, when I was invited…

Before KNOCKED-UP CINDERELLA, I published four YA novels, three of them rom-coms. I’d always seen myself as a young adult writer, because I’d always idealized teen romance, with the heady, all-encompassing first loves and epic mistakes. Teenagers are blessed with time–time to obsess over minutiae, whether that means longing looks from a hot guy in calc class, perceived slights from a best friend, or every lyric from their favorite band’s new album. For most of my twenties and thirties, I continued to romanticize teen love, probably because, for me personally, those decades were not about looking for romance and dating, but marriage and parenthood. And most of my circle of friends were in the same place. But now that I’m approaching forty (in a little over a month *cough*), I’ve started to focus more on mature romances. I have friends who’ve found love after thirty-five–after they’ve settled into careers and their single lifestyles. They’re learning how to let a new person–with their own careers and baggage–into their already established existences. I know people who have divorced and found themselves single for the first time in two decades. They have to figure out the dating game in a whole new millennium….

We are so happy to feature an interview with USA Today bestselling author, Jasmine Guillory, author of THE PROPOSAL and THE WEDDING DATE!  1. I love how the setting is so important to your books – the neighborhoods, restaurants, cities, and homes all feel real. What made you choose LA as the setting for The Proposal? Are any of the places in the book based on real places?I knew THE PROPOSAL was about Carlos, and I knew Carlos grew up in LA and had a strong connection with the city and that his family was there, so the book had to be set there too! And probably about half of the places in the book are based on real places; I did some scouting trips to LA while I wrote the book, and I have a bunch of friends in LA who helped me a lot! The bookstore, in particular, is a great bookstore in LA: Skylight Books. 2. Family, both biological and found, are important support systems for your main characters, Nik and Carlos. How do their friends and family shape some of the decisions they make throughout the novel? Friends and family are very important to both Nik…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Jenny Hale! About: Child-wrangling, photo-taking, travel-loving romantic women’s fiction author seeks readers for her Christmas novel about single-mother Abbey Fuller, who loves her family more than anything and doesn’t regret a moment of having to put her dreams of being a designer on hold to raise her son, Max, and a quiet, workaholic hero, Nick Sinclair, who thinks he’s hiring Abbey for a small design job, only to find himself learning salsa dancing and up to his neck in Christmas festivities. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: The perfect date includes a roaring fire, plates of Christmas cookies, hot cocoa, and a book in hand… Seeks long hours spent turning pages, the only sound in the room being the Christmas carols playing softly in the background Likes sweet, family-oriented, romantic stories that will make you laugh and cry Willing to nibble candy canes while reading about cookie baking and other delicious desserts Enjoys simmering romance that will leave…

Happy Holidays from Holiday, Texas! The little town of Holiday doesn’t need much of a reason to throw a party. With a name like Holiday, every day is a celebration! But when it comes to Christmas, like most of their fellow Texans, they tend to go all out. Folks living in the state of Texas definitely have their share of holiday traditions. From the lighted boat parade at the Harbor Lights Festival in Corpus Christi to the festive twenty-six-foot weihnachtspyramide in Fredericksburg, some towns go Christmas crazy! And we haven’t even talked about the food yet. If you celebrate Christmas in Texas you’ll be just as likely to eat tamales or brisket as you are to chow down on a deep-fried turkey. Small towns, in particular, are a special place to spend the holidays, especially in the Hill Country of Texas. There’s nothing like strolling down Main Street, cup of wassail in hand, peeking in all of the shop windows as you go. If you’d rather ride, you can head to Bandera and go Christmas caroling on horseback. In Lockhart, you can rub elbows with carolers in period costumes during their annual Dickens’ Christmas. And if you’re in Gruene, Texas,…

Meet Kyle Kimpton, the Hero from Jennifer Probst’s A Brand New Ending   1) Greetings Kyle! Thanks for being with us at Fresh Fiction today. I know that a lot of readers are interested in your story. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Absolutely. I’m a successful Hollywood screenwriter with some big movies to my credit, but lately, my life hasn’t been what I’ve imagined. Sure, I’m successful, but I sacrificed the only woman I ever loved for my career, and I plan on getting her back. I’m going to win back her love, and write the greatest script of all time. I can still have it all, right? 2) Maybe… We see know why you returned to your hometown after a decade. What’s the first thing that you did when you arrived? Went straight to the Bishop B&B to see Ophelia. God, she took my breath away. I’m still madly in love with her. I explained I needed to stay at the Inn in order to write this new script, but she didn’t take my request too well. 3) A little birdy told us that Ophelia isn’t exactly happy to see you. Care to comment on that?…

Confession. I’m a PK. For those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, I’m a Pastor’s Kid. A pastor’s granddaughter, too. So, in the church world, that’s like a double-dog whammy of either hell raiser or goody-two-shoes. Because in the eyes of most people, PKs fall into two groups: sinner or saint. There’s no in-between. And by “in-between” I mean, normal. Growing up as the granddaughter and daughter of pastors was…interesting. For the most part, my twin sister and I fell into the goody-two-shoes camp. And more so because my mother could shoot a “If You Cut Up Even the Lawd Won’t Be Quick Enough to Save You” look from the choir stand to the back of the church in zero-point-two seconds. I could read my death in her eyes from that distance, and yeah, it kept me in line. But when my sister and I did have moments—and we did—it seemed as if people were just waiting with the, “Aha! I knew they were bad seeds!” Man. If those people could see me now. A good number of romance authors, who are also Christians, wrestle with how their religious beliefs square with what they write. Myself included. Yet, the one…

A few hours later, I began to realize that Eli had some standard skills. He’d surveyed the landscape, using the basic signs to find a small stream where we’d filled up water bottles. We still had to boil the water, but Eli had managed to use his knowledge to find it. Grudgingly, I had to admit that he really was interested in primitive survival. I’d taught him some advanced skills, like how to make an underground still if he couldn’t find an obvious source of water, and a few more ways to get drinking water in other climates. He listened, which made my irritation with him fade away a little. I’d expected him to scoff at everything I said or the things I tried to teach him. Instead, it had been exactly the opposite. Eli Stone seemed to suck up knowledge like a sponge, and he asked a lot of intelligent questions. “What are these?” he asked as he stopped on the hiking path we’d been following back to camp. I came to a halt next to him, reaching for his hand as he went to touch the small fruit bush. “Be careful,” I warned as I gripped his fingers…

If you’ve ever lived in an urban or suburban area, you’ve probably experienced a neighbor from hell. For me, living next to a man who likes to play Shaggy’s greatest hits at 3 am wasn’t exactly fun, but it did give me the inspiration to write a neighbors-to-lovers romance. In Make Me Fall, Nora and Eli are next-door neighbors who don’t exactly get along. His late nights and loud noises from his home reno projects have been driving Nora crazy, even if she appreciates how good he looks while operating his circular saw. For months, the only communication they’ve had is through antagonizing notes left in each other’s mailboxes—until Eli overhears some of Nora’s friends giving her a hard time about being too uptight to get a date. While there’s no love lost between the pair, Eli doesn’t like the way they are talking about Nora and finds himself volunteering to take her out. If neighbors-to-lovers is one of your favorite tropes, too, I’ve got five more to recommend: 1. The Bad Boy Next Door by Jody Holford: With this book, you get exactly what it says on the tin—a deliciously tropey and sweet romance about Shay who moves in…