I wanted to believe I had changed. I was a better person with more empathy for others, but if Billy hadn’t pulled away, I wasn’t so sure I would have passed his test. It was time for another moment of reckoning. I walked over to my front stoop, climbed the three steps, grabbed the handle of the rust-colored, never-locked security door, and froze. I couldn’t quite bring myself to take the inside staircase to the top floor apartment to face the discordant soundtrack that was my family, but what choice did I have? I turned back to the street—maybe I could leave—but my ride was gone. Besides, my mother didn’t send a return ticket and the change at the bottom of my backpack wasn’t enough to buy a subway token. My backpack! I left it and my suitcase in the back of the van. I plopped down onto the stoop. The sun was setting, and in the second-story windows of the nearby buildings, with their red-brick exteriors, mirror images to mine, with their two legal apartments and one illegal basement apartment, I could see silhouettes of the infamous Beach Chair Ladies, BCs for short. From Memorial Day until the first…

My debut novel, THE OCEAN IN WINTER, was published by Blackstone Publishing this past July. It’s a story about three adult sisters whose mother died by suicide when they were children. It’s a story about loss and grief, but it’s also a story about ghosts. My first impulse in writing this book was, I wanted to create a ghost story where the ghosts reveal something important about the characters, where the ghosts have some meaning. Here’s the thing: I love a good ghost story. I love them told around campfires or unfolding – even reenacted! – on television, I love it (LOVE IT!) when people tell me about creepy things happening in their houses. I have never actually seen a ghost myself, but I have had a few experiences of inanimate things moving in strange ways at strange times. (Ask me about that later.) Side note: My ten-year-old daughter is obsessed with ghost stories. She’s too young for horror movies, but we have brought her to several places purported to be haunted, like, very haunted. I am sad to report that unlike a New England whale watch, when, if you don’t see a whale, they give you a voucher to…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MY RIDE OR DIE 2–What is it about? It’s about two friends who decide to give up their search for the perfect man and make an arrangement with each other. They go on a “honeymoon” to Cabo, Mexico, fix up a dilapidated brownstone in Harlem, and soon, they have the emotional support that they need as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. They have men around, but they aren’t dependent on them. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, their whole arrangement comes into question.  3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s set in Hamilton Heights, which is a really pretty part of Harlem that not everyone knows about. It’s quiet and has rows of ivy-covered brownstones and cobblestone streets.  4–How did your main character(s) surprise you?  My intention was to have Sophie be the tough one, and to make Amanda more vulnerable. But they each have moments of strength and vulnerability, depending on the situation. What makes their friendship great is that those moments don’t typically overlap.  5–Why will readers relate to your characters?  These characters are steadfastly searching for…

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 TOM TURNER! Writes: Crime fiction, mysteries and thrillers with a ton of action, characters you love, characters you hate, humor, and yes, dare I say it, some steamy stuff, too. My latest, CHARLIE CRAWFORD – NEW YORK HOMICIDE, is a prequel novella set in New York, a year before my protagonist heads down to the Sunshine State to fight crime, solve murders and hook up with a Florida hottie or two. About: I have no life. Writing, going to the gym, then knocking back a cocktail or two. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I love going to art galleries, museums, listening to live rock ‘n roll at my favorite gin mill, and playing my new favorite sport, pickleball (is there a lamer name for a sport?) What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Readers who like to devour murder mysteries with action and humor and try to figure out whodunit. Ones who appreciate a recurring cast of characters who…

Maeve felt her heart pound. In the time Ivy had been there, she’d already wandered off twice. The staff all knew she should have been placed in a home more suited to someone with Alzheimer’s, but Ivy’s son had begged the powers that be to let her stay at Willow Pond until a bed became available at the new memory care facility opening in Savannah, and everyone suspected that a little extra money had changed hands to make it happen. Now, Maeve turned to see if the old woman had moved to a different seat, but all she saw were seventeen crooked backs straightening up as seventeen pairs of eyes peered over the railing, and then all she heard were seventeen voices starting to whisper. Maeve hurried down the steps. “Ivy?” she called, scanning the wide front lawn and gardens. “Ivy!” she shouted, feeling the icy fingers of worry grip her heart. “She’s right there,” a deep voice behind her called. Maeve turned and saw Aristides Lincoln standing at his full height–six feet two instead of his hunched-over five feet ten–pointing. Maeve turned, and through the sun-dappled curtain of willow branches and wispy Spanish moss, she spied a tiny figure…

from Anne-Lise Briard RUE DES MORILLONS, PARIS, APRIL 25TH, 2016 Dear Madam or Sir, I am sending you this package very late, please forgive me. After discovering it in room 128, someone else would have immediately handed it over to the reception of the Beau Rivage Hotel; nevertheless, if you were to ask those who know me, they’d tell you just how lazy I can be in my daily life. So don’t take this postponement to mean that I don’t like your book. Not at all. I will even admit to you: I read it. I had just opened the nightstand to the right of the double bed, which as it happens was quite comfortable, when I was delighted to find the distraction you provided me. You see, I had forgotten to bring a novel to keep me company this weekend on the shore of the Iroise Sea . . . Since I can’t fall asleep without first reading a few pages, I become very annoying when I’m deprived of the pleasure. Thanks to you, my husband didn’t have to deal with my rotten mood. Anyway, it was on page 156 that I found—between two chapters—the address to where I’m…

Melanie’s heart quickened when the first tower of the Mackinac Bridge came into view. This would be her seventh time over the bridge, a significant number. Seven days of the week. Seven notes in the diatonic scale. Seven letters in the Roman numeral system. The seven in the Tarot deck was the card of the chariot—the symbol of overcoming conflict and moving forward in a positive direction. Lucky number seven. She’d need luck on this trip if she hoped to move forward in a positive direction with Olivia. She hit her sister’s upper arm with the back of her hand. “There’s the bridge!” To her surprise, Olivia smiled. A good sign. Maybe it would all work out. It had to. Because they couldn’t go on as they had for the past ten years. Something had to change. Only time together would do it. Time with no distractions. Time in the forest. Time for Melanie to explain herself. She had seven days to make it work. Seven days was enough. Her seven-day spiritual detox program was her most popular offering on Meditations with Melanie. And nothing needed detoxing like her relationship with her sister. “I know a bailiff who refuses to…

1–What’s the name of your latest release?  The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany 2–What is it about?  The book, set in Italy, chronicles a life-changing journey of three second-born daughters who, according to centuries-old family lore, are believed to be cursed, never to find lasting love. But eccentric Aunt Poppy never believed in the curse. She invites her great nieces–and fellow second-born daughters–to accompany her to their homeland of Italy, where Poppy vows she’ll meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her 80th birthday, and break the supposed curse once and for all. As the trio traverses the Italian countryside, hearts are lost, memories are found, and secrets are revealed. . . secrets that could threaten the Fontana family far more than a centuries-old curse.  3–What word best describes your heroine(s)?  Independent 4–What inspired you to write about this group of women? When I worked as a high school guidance counselor, it wasn’t unusual for my young female students to come to me, heartbroken over some doomed teenaged romance. I tried to assure them they were young and had decades ahead of them, that if I had a crystal ball, we’d see that one day…

What inspired you to write The Boys’ Club? I started writing as a way to sort my thoughts and ease my anxieties about the world around me, not necessarily to publish a book. I felt that I was living through an inflection point in American history: Donald Trump had been elected president, Brett Kavanaugh had weathered his hearings and had been confirmed to the Supreme Court, and the #metoo movement had heated to a boiling point. I felt myself hoping that we came out on the right side of history, but I was dissatisfied with only hoping, I needed to get my thoughts out somehow. I’ve always loved to write and find my thoughts make more sense somehow when I write them down. The most fascinating thing to me was that for the first time in my life, my words came out in the form of fiction. I suppose, in retrospect, that makes sense as I was trying to understand thoughts and perspectives different from my own and in writing fiction, the writer really needs to understand all perspectives. My hope is that the book is fun enough for many people to read and, therefore provide fodder for very important…

Jen: What inspired you to write your new release, ​Musical Chairs​? Amy: The countryside, family, wine, and a little Mozart! I was excited to write a book about a family spending the summer together in a house that has seen better days. And I wanted to include adult children who move back home with their messy problems, dogs, and habits. Also, since my children are all musicians, I decided to place several of the characters in the world of professional music. I wrote a book trailer that makes it pretty clear that there are certain elements of my real life that worked their way into the novel. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IffxAo-QMh4 How would you describe Bridget and Will’s unique friendship? I remember watching Nora Ephron’s iconic movie When Harry Met Sally in 1989 and admiring the longtime friendship between the characters. In discussing male-female friendships, Harry says that “the sex part always gets in the way,” and I wondered. . .  Does it have to? I began writing MUSICAL CHAIRS in an effort to celebrate a male-female friendship, a solid, marriage-like bond between two characters, a bond that–one hopes–can withstand the test of time, conflict, old secrets, and…