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 you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Jamie Beck!   Writes: Jamie Beck is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of romance and women’s fiction novels. Her newest, THE BEAUTY OF RAIN, is about two devoted sisters at a tragic breaking point who discover the beautiful and painful truths of being alive. “An important and meaningful read about what makes life beautiful.” – Sonali Dev, bestselling author of The Vibrant Years   About: I just celebrated my twenty-fourth wedding anniversary. I live with my husband, two “adult” children, and dog named Mo in Connecticut, just outside New York City. I am always listening to music and looking for a place to dance, and we are avid skiers and hikers, always looking forward to getaways in Vermont and Utah.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: As the author’s note in this book states, this story was inspired by a terrible health year that culminated in an emergency surgery that saved my life and nine days…

I’m excited to share a brief excerpt from my new release, TAKE IT FROM ME, a story about friendship and all its little secrets. This snippet is from the end of Chapter One, which is in Wendy’s point of view. The scene takes place late on the afternoon that someone new has moved into the house next door. Wendy—a lonely empty-nester—picks up a ready-made meal and flowers to give her new neighbor (Harper) as a welcome gift when they meet for the first time:   Before I leave the house, it occurs to me that my neighbors will be busy unpacking. Not an ideal time to chat. I pull out a sheet of embossed stationery from the kitchen desk. Welcome to the neighborhood! We hope these small gifts make your day a little easier. Looking forward to meeting you once you’re settled. Fondly, Your next-door neighbors, Wendy and Joe Moore After taping the note to the soup container and packing the food into a recyclable bag, I check my reflection in the microwave’s glass door and then slip out the back with the goodies in hand. It feels as if I’m floating across the yard as fantasies about whoever has…

Meet the Sisters in Jamie Beck’s If You Must Know Your newest series, Potomac Point, releases this week with If You Must Know. Please tell us about the sisters that are at the center of your novel.  Amanda is the middle child. She’s diligent, earnest, hard-working, and generous. She wants the people she loves to be happy and feel her love. Her weakness is a deep-seated insecurity—a sense that she is not interesting enough to be lovable. This leads her to overlook when she is being taken for granted because her need to be pleasing is omnipresent. Erin is the baby of the family and her late-father’s pet. She is outgoing, fun-loving, and views her average intelligence as a blessing (rather than lamenting that her siblings are smarter). She is willful and has her own way of moving through the world. The big weakness she has is her impulsiveness, whether with jobs or relationships. As she approaches her 30th birthday, she’s looking to mature and create a more stable life for herself. Arguably, Amanda has led a pretty charmed life – no real worries about money, no problems in her relationships, a big house, doting husband… Then her world comes crashing…

Welcome back to Fresh Fiction! Can you tell us a little bit about your latest release, THE WONDER OF NOW?  Thanks for having me! It’s hard to believe we’ve come to the end of the Sanctuary Sound series. I’ve really enjoyed writing about these three childhood friends, the traumas they’ve survived, and the betrayals they’ve overcome. This final book was the most difficult to write because Peyton–a privileged, self-centered woman who ran off with her friend’s boyfriend–had the Mt. Everest of mountains to climb in terms of earning her redemption. But ultimately I fell in love with her story, and am extremely pleased with early reader reaction. I also think readers will enjoy traveling around Europe with her on her book tour.  Something I’ve admired in the books in the Sanctuary Sound series is each of the heroines has survived difficult hardships. THE WONDER OF NOW features Peyton Prescott, who recently survived breast cancer, but is reliving every moment of her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery promoting a memoir she really didn’t want to write in the first place. What went into creating a character readers see at her most vulnerable?  Writing the excerpts from her memoir was the most difficult…

Exclusive Interview with Ryan Quinn, the Hero of The Memory of You 1) Greetings Ryan! Thanks for joining us today. We know you have a lot going on–you’re a single father and public defender and you just had a big move back to your hometown. Can you tell us a bit about your day-to-day life? Thanks for having me. At the moment, my day-to-day life is a bit chaotic now that I’ve temporarily moved in with my folks while my divorce is finalized. I’ve started a new job and am trying to get my young daughter to embrace a new school and make new friends. Meanwhile, my meddling mother went and hired my high school sweetheart, Steffi, to remodel her house, so now I have to see Steffi every day, too. Emmy, my daughter, is taking to her, which is a risk because Steffi can’t be trusted to keep her commitments anymore than Emmy’s mom can. But I do love being home on Long Island Sound, and I look forward to getting back out on my old sailboat. 2) Emmy sounds great, but it seems like your divorce has been really hard on her. What has been her reaction to all…

I’ve been writing romantic women’s fiction for several years now. Of the eleven books I’ve published to date, seven of my fictional couples fall somewhere on the “opposites attract” spectrum. The couple in my new release, WHEN YOU KNEW, is probably the most extreme example I’ve created to date, which made them eminently fun, yet challenging, to write. Obviously, this is a trope I adore, but I am not alone. There are literally thousands of these stories out there. If you’re getting ready to write a new story of your own, here are some reasons you might want to consider basing it on one of these couples: This kind of relationship is relatable to readers because it’s one that’s played out in real life rather often. (In fact, my own relationship falls into this category!); Opposites create lots of friction. Friction drives tension, which is necessary to keep the reader interested in turning the page instead of putting the book down; The push-pull provides nice opportunities for witty banter, which is something romance readers typically enjoy; and The compromises and transformations that will be required of the characters if they want to stick together will help you set their character…

Thank you for inviting me to speak to your readers about ALL WE KNEW, the second book in my Cabot series, which is set near Portland, Oregon, and revolves around the dysfunctional Cabot family. This book differs from most romance novels because Hunter and Sara are already married. Theirs was a love-at-first-sight union, having met by chance on campus on a sunny afternoon. After graduation, Sara moved away from her close-knit family in California to move to Oregon to be near Hunter. They married at twenty-five but, at thirty-four, have yet to start a family of their own. We first meet Hunter and Sara in the first book of the series, where we learned that a failed IVF cycle is creating a lot of stress. At the opening of their book, they are undertaking a second IVF cycle at the same time that Hunter is fighting to keep his father from selling the family business—one he considers his family legacy and wants to retain for future Cabots. The strain of these events is reaching a crisis point, and communication between Hunter and Sara is breaking down under its weight. Writing this story was an interesting challenge because it wasn’t about…

Thank you for having me here today to discuss my Christmas novella, JOYFULLY HIS. Originally, I’d only planned three books for the Sterling Canyon series—one for each friend. But Avery’s twin, Andy, who first appeared in the first book when he injured the hero while driving home from happy hour, kept popping up. By the end of the third book, I felt he’d suffered enough and deserved his own happily ever after. At the start of this novella, Andy has just completed his yearlong probation following the accident mentioned above. His persona non grata status has made it difficult for him to find work and integrate back into the social fabric of his small Rocky Mountain town. What he really wants is his old job back as a ski instructor, but his criminal record makes that a near-impossibility. Enter Nikki Steele, his former boss and long-time friend. Unbeknownst to him, Nikki feels somewhat responsible for Andy’s predicament because, on that long ago evening, she’d left him at the bar instead of taking his keys. She’s also harbored a crush on him for many years. Due to these circumstances, she goes out on a limb with her boss to get Andy…

Thank you for hosting me today to talk about my new release, BEFORE I KNEW, in which shattering tragedies eventually lead childhood friends, Colby and Alec, to reunite in search of second chances and love. Sadly, secrets behind those tragedies threaten to destroy the new life they’ve built together. Colby is a lawyer-turned-restaurateur. She believes that the way to reconnect with others is to own a place where people come to celebrate life’s milestones and happy occasions. Of course, she has no real experience in this industry, so when her executive chef quits weeks prior to the opening, she’s in a bind. Alec, a disgraced but formerly reknowned chef, is determined to help her get her new dream off the ground. Given the story premise (and Alec’s training in New York and France), there are a fair number of menu items referenced in this story. I had fun conducting research about haute cuisine, the Michelin rating system, and some of our country’s top-rated restaurant menus. Bonus: I now have a wonderful list of places to eat if I ever get out of my office! Now, before we get to the menu, I must clarify one point. If Alec were preparing…

There’s something inherently sexy about poker. Unlike many forms of gambling, poker requires skill, knowledge, and instinct. You need confidence to pull it off, and confidence is always a turn-on. Levi Hardy, the hero of IN THE CARDS, uses his poker skills to change his life. His con artist father introduced him to the game in grade school. Then, while living on the run with his dad, time and practice honed Levi’s skills. Good thing, too, since his father’s lifestyle robbed him of a proper education. But Levi ultimately uses his intelligence, discipline, and determination to break away from his dad and build a stable life for himself. How? Poker tournaments, of course. If that sounds far-fetched, consider the fact that twenty-eight-year-old Andrew Robl’s lifetime poker earnings are already approaching four million dollars, while forty-year-old Daniel Negreanu has earned thirty million at the tables. Luckily, like those real players, Levi is exceptional. Once he banks a few million dollars, he leaves Vegas and moves to Malibu, which is where he runs into Lindsey for the second time in his life. Then the girl with a big heart melts his cynical one, and falling in love teaches him a thing or…