1–What’s the name of your latest release?  HIS SECRET MISTRESS, the first book of The Logical Men’s Society’s Guide to Dangerous Women series 2–What is it about?  It is about the one that got away. You know, that person whose path crossed ours with such intensity, we couldn’t believe what the relationship promised was real.  So, for whatever reason, we made other choices. Still, the memory of that relationship lingers in the back of our minds years after we have gone on—until we rediscover each other.  Fun stuff because usually, the first parting was not present. 3–What word best describes your heroine(s)?  I will go with a phrase: They aren’t fools. 4–What makes your hero irresistible?  That in spite of being mutton-headed at times, his heart is always in the right place. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help?  Friends.  Friends are our sounding boards, our mini-mes.  I need my friends to give me a hard shove in the right direction when I go astray . . . or start feeling sorry for myself. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I’ve been writing about Regency England for over twenty-five years. …

After the Great Fire of 1871 destroyed Chicago’s business district and rendered 100,000 people homeless, the city lost no time in rebuilding. Within two years, the downtown area was completely reconstructed, and better than ever. But if you visit Chicago today, you’ll still be able to find glimpses of the Chicago my characters in Veiled in Smoke knew well. The Chicago Fire Academy The site of the blaze’s first sparks can be found at the Chicago Fire Academy, at the corner of DeKoven and Jefferson. Visitors are allowed inside to see the spot, and to see antique fire engines as well. Courthouse finial, Lincoln Park My characters, the Townsend family, lived across from Courthouse Square. The night of the fire, the bell in the Courthouse Cupola rang for five hours before it collapsed. Today, an urn-shaped finial from the courthouse’s roof can be seen in front of Lincoln Park Zoo. Thousands of Chicagoans fled north from the flames in October 8-9, 1871, many of them finally finding refuge in Lincoln Park. St. James Cathedral The Great Fire gutted St. James Cathedral at the corner of Wabash and Huron. All that was left were the stone walls, the bell tower, and…

My first historical romance novel is Fair Weather Enemies. The Hancocks and Ashfords have fought a long-standing feud between their families long before Miss Jane Hancock couldn’t stand the sight of Adam Ashford. But after both families fall on hard times and an unscrupulous creditor forces Jane and Adam to sign a devil’s bargain, they’ll finally understand the true meaning of keeping your enemies close at hand. The terms of this bargain? Locate a lost treasure shrouded in deception and mystery. The catch? Only one can claim it to win…the loser is left to ruin. As Jane and Adam embark on a trek throughout England, they plan to hate their adversary, no matter how attractive, generous, and kind they are. Sometimes, plans change… For Jane and Adam… F is for Feud. The fighting between their families stretches back 70 years. A is for Animosity. At first, their relationship is defined by it. I is for Inheritances. Both stand to lose everything. R is for Road Trip. Only an odyssey can save them. W is for Wicked Banter. They can’t resist verbal sparring. E is for Enigma. The clues to finding the treasure are vague and puzzling. A is for Ally….

We’re pleased to present another delicious recipe on our Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup from the historical romance writing team, May McGoldrick!  *** In Highland Sword, Aidan Grant and Morrigan Drummond are both proud and principled. He is a barrister. She is a trained fighter in search of revenge. They each know their own mind and are certain about what they want. And they end up spending a lot of time together, be it fighting in Inverness alleyways or the training yard at Dalmigavie Castle or duel each other in a battle of wits. But it is during the night of the Samhain celebration that their romance blooms. Many of our readers already know that May McGoldrick is actually two people – Nikoo and Jim McGoldrick. We write together, live together, love endlessly, and enjoy cooking together. In our household, Nikoo loves the everyday and holiday cooking, and Jim is great at baking. In this Highland competition, players are banned from using their hands. This game challenges participants to take bites out of treacle scones dangling from string. How can you lose?! Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 cup white sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons…

The Fresh Fiction Valentine’s Day Recipe Roundup continues with Mimi Matthews! We hope you’ll enjoy this sweet treat. . .  *** Neville Cross is one of the four Victorian orphans of my Parish Orphans of Devon series. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in his youth that impacts his speech, his ability to recall words, and also causes him to occasionally lose time. He’s a gentle giant of a man who generally prefers the company of animals to people. Enter Clara Hartwright, a lady’s companion and aspiring academic who has recently rescued an elderly dog. She’s come to stay for the winter, and at once enlists Neville’s help with her problematic pug. Soon, the two of them are bonding over their mutual love of animals. They’re also sharing several cups of tea. During a cold winter, nothing goes better with hot tea than freshly baked molasses cookies. You can dip them and then let them dissolve on your tongue. As an added bonus, baking molasses cookies makes your entire house smell fantastic. The following recipe is one I’ve used often. Note: For a better dipping experience, I generally skip the part where you roll the cookies in sugar before baking…

For those of you who know me as both Jade Lee and Kathy Lyons, the cover below may surprise you. First – I’m going back into HISTORICAL ROMANCE!  Woo hoo! Dragonsblade Publishing asked me to launch the most amazing shared world and I agreed. It’s a fun, fun, fun set up about a gaming hell that gambles on unusual things. My book is about a jewelry maker and the lord who needs her skills ASAP and is willing to pay handsomely for the privilege. (He needs her to make jewelry not…well, some of the other things that happen!). The book releases February 27 and is up for pre-order now. In case, you know, you wanted to check it out! Anyway, the world is the Lyon’s Den, not the Lyons’ Den. It’s not a typo, even though my alternate penname is Lyons. Confusing? Don’t worry about it. All you have to do is admire the cover. Tell me it looks fabulous. Read the back cover copy and tell me you like it. (I cannot tell you how hard we worked on that copy). Say something to me and one of you will win a signed print copy of the book! —…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? The Land Beneath Us 2–What is it about? In 1943, Private Clay Paxton trains hard with the US Army Rangers at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, determined to do his best in the upcoming Allied invasion of France. With his future stolen by his brothers’ betrayal, Clay has little to live for. Leah Jones works as a librarian at Camp Forrest, longing to rise above her orphanage upbringing and to find the baby sisters she was separated from so long ago. A marriage of convenience binds Clay and Leah together, but will D-day—and a foreboding dream—tear them apart? 3–What word best describes your heroine? Poetic. 4–What makes your hero irresistible? Clay’s kindness and generosity and his sense of honor drew me to him. But what made me feel for him most was his sense of loss. His brothers betrayed him and stole his future, so he feels he has nothing to live for. Yet he’s determined to make the most of his life. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? Leah is young and innocent, and she finds a mentor-friend in straight-talking Red Cross volunteer Rita Sue Bellamy. Clay’s…

(1) I enjoy following characters over time. I’ve always loved reading series and writing series because I get to see what happens to the people in the future. (Conversely, with HER SCANDALOUS PURSUIT, it was fun figuring out what happened in the past!) (2) I’m able to develop my characters in fuller detail. Over the course of writing a book, I come to understand my characters more. As I write dialogue and have them interact, I get a better ‘feel’ for what they would do or say. This process works even better when they appear in several books. With the twins’ stories, HIS SINFUL TOUCH and HIS WICKED CHARM, I saw them grow up throughout the four books, and they became the most ‘real’ and beloved characters to me. (3) I find other characters in the series that I want to write about. People pop up that I hadn’t planned on or a side character develops in a way that makes me really interested in him or her. I had intended the Mad Morelands series to be only the original four books. But I loved the twins so much (and fortunately, so did readers) that I had to write stories…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE’S SECRET 2–What is it about? An outlaw with a large bounty on his head becomes sole guardian of twin nephews and a niece. He quickly sends for a mail order bride to help with the kids only she’s come looking to find his loot and facilitate his arrest. 3–What word best describes your heroine? Desperate 4–What makes your hero irresistible? The love he shows these kids who have no one else. 5–Who are the people your main characters turn to when they need help? Friends in the outlaw town of Hope’s Crossing. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book? It’s wild and desolate—the perfect place for outlaws 7–Are you a plotter or a pantster? I’m a true panster. I don’t outline at all and want my story to unfold through the characters as I go and not through any preconceived plan. 8–What is an ideal writing day for you? An ideal day is when the story flows through my fingertips and I can easily get 5k words. 9–Do you listen to music while you write, need total silence, or have the TV on? I need total…

Hi Everyone, my name is Maddison Michaels and I’m thrilled to be doing a blog post for Fresh Fiction! First off, just to tell you a little about myself, I write historical romances that incorporate sexy history with a dash of mystery. My debut novel THE DEVILISH DUKE won the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year in 2019 for best historical romance! It is book one in my ‘Saints and Scoundrels’ series, and book two is THE ELUSIVE EARL, with my current up and coming new release THE SINFUL SCOT being the third book in the series (they are all stand-alone, though the characters do make appearances in the other books). One of the things I love about writing historical romances is researching the era and the setting that the book is set in. And I had such fun researching the Scottish Highlands which is where THE SINFUL SCOT is set in. I’ve never travelled there myself (though it’s on my bucket list) so I immersed myself online as much as possible to get a feel for the country-side. During my research, I spent some fun times looking at all of the castles in the regions, and…