Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Janna MacGregor Interview – Trailblazing Women and a Story Mixing Mystery and Romance
Author Guest , Interviews / April 27, 2022

Your heroine in RULES FOR ENGAGING THE EARL is a businesswoman, among other things. What made you decide you create this type of heroine? Any real-life inspiration? This is a great question; one I’m delighted to answer. It’s a common misconception that women didn’t work during the Regency period. They did. Let’s look at a few. One of the most familiar examples is Jane Austen. Yet, poor Jane didn’t make enough from her beloved novels to make ends meet. Since she never married, she had to rely on the generosity of her brother after her father passed away. There were other trailblazers. Let me introduce you to Harriett Mellon. Have you ever heard of her? Probably not, though her influence on society during the Regency period was great. An actress of moderate accomplishment, part of her fame and biggest success came from her career as a banker and major partner at Coutts & Co. It’s still in business, and it’s where Queen Elizabeth banks. Let’s not forget Eleanor Coade who purchased a stoneware company and turned it into a successful business by supplying neoclassical statues and garden ornaments for the Prince Regent and others during this period. Her pieces are…

Valerie Bowman Interview – Noblemen in Disguise
Author Guest , Interviews / April 27, 2022

I love stories in which a main character “comes back from the dead”. What inspired you to create a story with this plot? THE DUKE IS BACK is book 6 (and the final book) in my Footmen’s Club series. The series was based on the idea of three noblemen betting each other they couldn’t pull off pretending to be servants at a house party. Whoever makes it the longest, wins! That is the premise of the first three books, and I’d only planned to write the trilogy. But readers asked for more (yay!). So I wrote the book about how the couple who hosted the house party met (Book 4, Save a Horse, Ride a Viscount). In that book, there was a mysterious house guest who was hidden away. His name is Phillip. Save a Horse ended on a cliffhanger for Phillip (it was sort of a surprise for me, too!) THE DUKE IS BACK picks up the story of what happened to Phillip and how he reclaims his life.   Phillip’s brother was murdered. I suspect there’s a mystery thrown into this romance. If that’s so, would you say you have an even balance of mystery in romance? Or…

Linda Goodnight | 20 Questions: CLAIMING HER LEGACY
Author Guest / April 20, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? I actually have two books releasing in the month of April. KEEPING THEM SAFE is contemporary for Love Inspired and the other is a single title western historical. I’ll focus on the historical, CLAIMING HER LEGACY. It releases everywhere April 26. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Desperate to earn the bounty that will save her land claim in 1890’s Oklahoma Territory, a tomboy with gumption to spare must convince a flawed guide battling past demons to track her father’s murderer into dangerous outlaw territory. But first she must get him sober. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? The idea for the setting, as well as the entire book, came from a photo I saw at the Territorial Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma. A lone woman stood outside a make-shift tent, rifle in hand, to protect her land claim after the Land Rush of 1889. Even as the rest of the country became more genteel and civilized in the late 1800s, Oklahoma was still the wild west. With research opportunities all around me and such a varied and fascinating state history, AND with the many…

Maeve Greyson | 20 Questions: A SCOT OF HER OWN
Author Guest / April 20, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? A SCOT OF HER OWN – Book One – Once Upon a Scot Series 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? When mighty Thorburn MacDougall fells the canniest Norwegian he’s ever battled in close combat, he discovers the adept warrior isn’t a man at all. She’s a blue-eyed beauty with fire in her eyes, fury in her soul, and the determination to escape from her cruel brother no matter the cost—even if it means becoming the prisoner of the most notorious Scottish warlord the isles have ever known. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I didn’t. Adellis and Thorburn came to me and demanded their story be told. 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Even though Adellis is a wounded warrior in her own right, her loyalty is steadfast—unless you cross her, of course. She loves as fiercely as she fights and never turns her back on those she cares about. You’d never get mean girl cattiness from Adellis. She might tell you what you don’t want to hear, but she would only do it because you needed to hear…

Jane Charles Interview – Governesses and Romance
Author Guest , Interviews / April 20, 2022

What made you decide to write series about governesses? JANE EYRE fan? Or just interest in the way women at the time struggled to earn a living? I can’t really recall the reason. The series was written nearly ten years ago, and they were all short stories and were only published for a year. I always knew that that there was much more to their stories and finally revisited them. The books changed so much that I gave them new titles, new covers, and a new series name.   It’s not totally clear to me from the description for TEMPTED BY A GOVERNESS, but how do Katrina and Timothy get thrown together? What’s the dynamic between them like? Katrina had inherited her father’s book shop, but the debts he also left her were too high. She had no choice but to finally sell all the contents and return to her previous vocation as a governess. Timothy tired of his position as a Fellow at Oxford and when he saw the advertisement selling the contents of a bookshop, he decided to quit his job to open a lending library. The romance began in the book shop and discussions over Timothy’s travels….

Kathleen Ayers | 20 Questions: FORGETTING THE EARL
Author Guest / April 13, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? FORGETTING THE EARL. It is the first book in a 3-book series of novellas about three very arrogant earls and the women who tame them. 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Honora Drevenport is a young, awkward, young lady who falls in love with the dashing Earl of Southwell and is humiliated in the process. Years later as a beautiful, sought-after widow, Honora vows to make Southwell fall in love with her and extract her revenge. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I write early Victorian (1837-1845) and love lords and ladies, so England was the obvious choice 4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life? Absolutely. Honora has a great sense of humor, loves history, and wants to set off and explore the world. And she’s a hopeful romantic, which I can appreciate. 5–What are three words that describe your hero? Intelligent. Ruggedly handsome. Daring. He’s Indiana Jones if Indiana Jones was an earl who liked to make maps and travel the Amazon. What I like most is that Southwell liked Honora when she was chubby and awkward. He values her…

Marguerite Kaye Interview – Heroines With Age and Experience
Author Guest , Interviews / April 13, 2022

LADY ARMSTRONG’S SCANDALOUS AWAKENING is set in the Victorian era. What appeals to you about that time period as a setting? Is that your favorite period to set a story in? The Victorian period was a time of huge change in every way. The Industrial Revolution was really taking hold, railways and telegrams transformed communication and travel, and there was a move away from the countryside to city living. What fascinates me are the contrasts that all this change emphasized – between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, and in particular, in the position of women, who were being forced by a society which was in many ways liberating men, into a much more domestic and constrained role. Ideals of femininity were disseminated through photography, and image took on a new importance. Women who did not conform had to be real rebels, incredibly strong and radical thinkers, and it’s coming up with this type of woman as a heroine that really appeals to me. As to whether this is my favorite period to write about – I’d say yes, at the moment, because it’s the period I’ve been immersed in for the last couple of years,…

Mary Jo Putney Interview – Lords, Lairds, and other Curiosities
Author Guest , Interviews / April 13, 2022

Fresh Fiction: If you could only recommend one of your books to romance readers who are unfamiliar with your work, which would you recommend? And why? Mary Jo Putney: Hmm, tough question!  Maybe LOVING A LOST LORD. It’s the first book in my Lost Lords series, and it sets up the framework for the rest of the series. The heroes of all seven books attended the Westerfield Academy for boys of “good birth and bad behavior.”  The founder, Lady Agnes Westerfield, helps boys who are having trouble fitting into the niches they were born to.  She teaches them how to be themselves without losing their souls. The hero of this first book, Adam Lawford, the Duke of Ashton, is half Hindu and has to deal with resentment and prejudice.  Then a steamboat explosion leaves him half drowned and amnesiac in northern England, where he is found by a desperate young woman who needs a pretend husband for protection…. FF: Scotland is the setting for your regency romance ONCE A LAIRD. What do you like about this setting? And what is so captivating about a hot Scottish hero? MJP: This story was inspired by a wonderful visit to Orkney, one of the island groups north of mainland Scotland.  Both…

Chantry Dawes | 20 Questions: THOROUGHLY CAPTIVATED
Author Guest / April 12, 2022

1–What is the title of your latest release? THOROUGHLY CAPTIVATED 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Two damaged people, one purpose. A man and a woman with scars from their past find love and a future together… 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Aldbey Park (the estate home and stables of our heroine in the first book, Lady Amelia Darley) is actually a true place. It is where the first Darley Arabian came to England and was bred with the heavier coach-horse type breeds to create the “thoroughly bred horse” now known as the Thoroughbred. (Hence the titles of this series.) This book is Miss Lula Darley’s story and is inspired by my life on a horse farm as a single mom, caring for horses, teaching, and training them. In my research, I found that though women could not be actual doctors or veterinarians, they could study and take the exams. However, they could not be officially recognized as such. During the many wars that England was involved in during the Regency, women were left quite often to their own devices. Medical practitioners, including veterinary practitioners, were needed on the battlefields, leaving…

Holly Newman Interview – History and Mystery Mixed With Romance
Author Guest , Interviews / April 12, 2022

In HEART OF A TIGER, a child is in danger. What made you use this element in your story? Was that meant to increase the tension and engage the reader even more? The child in the story is because of the Earl of Soothcoor. He has been a “cast member” in three previous stories. I’ve become quite fond of him. He’s 40ish, never married, plain looking, and secretly heavy into philanthropy. I decided he was in a rut and needed something to push him out of his comfort zone. The child is his heir through his brother and his Indian wife.   I like a mystery series with a couple who solves mysteries together. Was it always the plan to have a mystery series with a married couple? Or did things change as you began writing the first book? Things changed after I wrote the first book, THE WAYLAID HEART. Readers requested I have them in a series. So, I did! I adore them. They are a loving couple, opposites that complement each other.   I love historical romances and historical mysteries, but I always wonder one thing. How much research went into a book like this? Are you a…