Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Miranda Owen | A Killer POV
Author Guest / July 8, 2019

You can read more about Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen and her reviews here! “But sometimes, the things you wanted most were the things that would destroy you.” Cynthia Eden, BOUND IN SIN In general, I’m a cozy mystery kind of a girl. I don’t usually go for movies or books that promise “high suspense.” That’s usually a turn-off for me. If a book has dog tags or a pistol on the cover the odds are that it’s probably not for me. Likewise, a film trailer or poster with some intense music or describing how the hero/heroine has a limited amount of time to defuse a bomb, rescue so-and-so, or recover the lost jewel of blah blah blah does nothing for me. I like scary movies, but usually with the violence that is cheesy and obviously fake rather than what I think of as “torture porn” – gratuitous torture scenes that don’t further the story or have us learn anything new about the baddies and generally just stick in my head like some toxic sludge that resurfaces even years later. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I do read some mysteries and some romances with a few…

Miranda Owen | Some Like it HOT: Erotic Moments in Romance
Author Guest / May 17, 2019

“To bask in passion’s glow. To bathe in love’s fountain. To swim in the rivers of Eros.” “It sounds quite vile. No thank you.” It was very difficult not to laugh. She managed it, just. MUCH ADO ABOUT DUTTON by Claudia Dain The other day one of the authors in one of the many online reading groups I’m in posted a question asking readers how many love scenes they demanded in a romance. I get why authors ask this, but I feel like it’s a difficult thing for readers to answer. I know there has been a lot of debate and general discussion about how many love scenes/sex scenes put in romances, and over how the quantity and quality of love scenes in a book should be advertised to readers. I remember reading a few years ago that a favorite romance author of mine felt pressured by her publisher to include a specific number of sex scenes in her book. I felt that was unfair; not just because I think that she should be allowed complete freedom in her creative process, but also because those scenes weren’t what I found most enjoyable about her books. In the end, I took…

Miranda Owen | Contemporary Gothics
Author Guest / March 26, 2019

Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen loves a contemporary gothic story! The atmosphere, the moody settings, and the thought-provoking plotlines… The de Vincent estate was one of the most haunted locations in the entire state of Louisiana. –MOONLIGHT SCANDALS by Jennifer L. Armentrout I have been fascinated by gothic tales of romance and danger since I read my first Dorothy Daniels book in junior high. It had a predictably historical setting, with a dash of the paranormal, and a hint of romance. For a long time, I only connected gothics with a historical setting, and never imagined that there were such things as contemporary gothics. I recently discovered Jennifer L. Armentrout’s spectacular “de Vincent” series and was immediately sucked into her world of danger, mystery, and eroticism with a decidedly gothic edge. All of the authors discussed in this article utilize a few classic elements of a gothic novel but throw them in a story with a contemporary setting. She felt…God, this sounded insane, she felt watched. Obviously, she wasn’t being watched unless it was by a ghost. There were no windows and no one else was in here. –MOONLIGHT SINS by Jennifer L. Armentrout Location is everything. Authors who…

Miranda Owen | Widows in Romance
Author Guest / February 20, 2019

Today we are joined by Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Miranda Owen: I am a widowed lady, well past the age of innocence. Why should I not kiss a handsome man in a drawing room? A little carnality won’t hurt me.  – THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley I find stories with a widowed heroine particularly compelling. For good or bad, marriage and living with somebody play a huge role in your life, and how you function every day. In a good marriage, your partner enhances your life – in small ways and big ways. If you have the misfortune to be in a bad marriage, it sours many aspects of your life. In different ways, stories about women who have loved and lost, as well as stories about women who have endured until being set free by a spouse’s death, are equally fascinating. In stories where there was some affection between the husband and wife, an author tries to convey the love that existed and how the wife is left to pick up the pieces. One of the first stories I read with a widowed heroine was THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley. In Jennifer…

Miranda Owen | What If Your Favorite Side Characters Had Their Own Books?
Author Guest / January 16, 2019

I always look forward to a new Lorraine Heath book and her newest novel, TEXAS LEGACY, is something very special. The hero in TEXAS LEGACY is a character who was a boy in Lorraine Heath’s Texas Trilogy, which she wrote quite a few years ago. Lorraine Heath’s new book got me thinking about all the wonderful supporting characters I’ve read about over the years. Sometimes, as with TEXAS LEGACY, an author will give the character a book of his own and other times the reader is just left to forever wonder “what if.” Love’s a silver bullet That blows your world apart I wanna be remembered as an outlaw The boy who stole your heart I wanna be the guy who wears the white hat Then rides across the plain I’m gonna be your enigmatic stranger Honey, you are looking at your Shane – “Cowboy Dreams,” Prefab Sprout Rawley Cooper first appeared in Lorraine Heath’s Texas Trilogy series as a boy who knew what it was to suffer. Now, in TEXAS LEGACY, Rawley is a grown man coming back home and reuniting with the girl he left behind. In the earlier series, Rawley’s story made readers shed a few tears,…

Miranda Owen | Celebrate the Season with Festive Romance Reads!
Author Guest / December 21, 2018

A warm holiday welcome to Fresh Fiction Reviewer, Miranda Owen, who is here to discuss some of her favorite holiday-themed romances! If this post doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit, we don’t know what will. Without further ado… I love a fun holiday-themed romance. Admittedly, my favorite holiday-themed romances involve Halloween, but I enjoy Christmas ones too. Some of my favorite books by Carolyn Brown and Terry Spear are centered on Christmas and family. The Christmas romances I’ve read this year – by old favorites and new-to-me authors – have had dual themes of “family” and “Christmas” with delightful results. The one story featured here that’s not set during Christmas is a paranormal romance by Cynthia Eden that opens with a catastrophic blind date on New Year’s Eve, but that story also has a lot to do with family. In SOMEONE TO TRUST by Mary Balogh and THE CHRISTMAS KEY by Lori Wilde, the heroes are both drawn to women with big hearts and loving families. SOMEONE TO TRUST opens with an idyllic Christmas house party with the Westcott family and their assorted friends and relations. Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges can’t help but be charmed by these people because…

Miranda Owen | Batman & Catwoman’s Wedding That Wasn’t: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Author Guest / December 6, 2018

A warm welcome back to Fresh Fiction reviewer Miranda Owen, here to chat about the possibly doomed nuptials of Batman and Catwoman in their recent DC graphic novels!  The flirtation and sexual tension between Batman and Catwoman are well documented and encompass the comics, TV, films, and animated shows. My earliest exposure to their relationship was when I watched the 1960s pairing of Adam West and Julie Newmar. When DC was building up this latest Batman/Catwoman romantic storyline, I knew that it wouldn’t end in a happily-ever-after, but Tom King and the other writers and artists who worked on this story built something with a strong emotional punch and added interesting nuances to these beloved characters. In BATMAN VOL. 6: BRIDE OR BURGLAR, readers saw a different and more human side to two comic book legends, leaving their story on an optimistic note. The end result, covered in BATMAN VOL. 7: THE WEDDING, BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM, and BATMAN: PRELUDES TO THE WEDDING, is something to wonder over and scream into the void at the unfairness of it all. Even though this entire arc is focused on Batman and Catwoman and their alter egos Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, the…

Miranda Owen | Historical Mysteries
Author Guest / November 14, 2018

A special treat: we have another lovely article from fresh fiction reviewer Miranda Owen, all about historical mysteries. Enjoy, and be sure to check back soon for more from Miranda and other reviewers soon! Nowadays I generally read contemporary cozy mysteries, but I have a fondness for Golden Age mysteries. Some of the first mysteries I ever read were set in England during the 1920s and 30s written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Although it may not be what I usually read, I’ve recently enjoyed a crop of fascinating and incredibly varied collection of historical mysteries. THE MURDER AT MANDEVILLE HALL by Stephanie Laurens, AN ACT OF VILLAINY by Ashley Weaver, BRIGHT YOUNG DEAD by Jessica Fellowes, BLOOD IS BLOOD by Will Thomas, and NAUGHTY ON ICE by Maia Chance are all entertaining stories but with sleuths, settings, and tone that differ wildly from each other. I love a hint of romance in a mystery, so I adore Stephanie Laurens’ mysteries and the Amory Ames mystery series by Ashley Weaver featuring Amory and Milo Ames. These authors’ books are totally different but each does an exquisite job balancing mystery with a hint of romance. THE MURDER AT MANDEVILLE HALL…

Miranda Owen | 6 Bad Boy Boos for Halloween
Author Guest / October 31, 2018

A special Halloween treat! Fresh Fiction Reviewer Miranda Owen is letting us know her favorite paranormal romance heroes!  “I’m not the big bad wolf everyone makes me out to be.” – “Rocky Ride” by Vivian Arend In general, I prefer heroes who are more Clark Kent than your typical bad boy or antihero, but there are a few amazing exceptions. My main beef with bad boy heroes is when they take on “alphahole” qualities, say or do things to the heroine that are reprehensible and can’t be easily – if at all – taken back, and use their supposedly sexy bad boy status to get away with anything. I also feel cheated if the author has the bad boy hero experience a miraculous epiphany in the last few chapters or pages of a book and completely change his personality without any believable buildup to see how the character got to that momentous change. I much prefer when an author digs deep into the psyche of a bad boy, explains his thinking, and changes his perspective and how others view him, rather than a fundamental and all-encompassing change that seems hard to believe. One of my favorite examples of a bad…

Delish Drummers and the Women Who Love Them!
Romance / June 20, 2018

I blame Fred Astaire. Years of listening to records entranced by the sublime staccato of his tap dancing made me naturally inclined toward a hero who can keep a good beat. There are a lot of romance novels featuring rock stars of every type. While reading Brooklyn Ann‘s recent book TEMPTING BEAT, I began thinking about just how many of my favorite books have diverting and delicious drummer heroes. “For life can be delish With a sunny disposish” Ira Gershwin “You know, you can be kind of intense sometimes, Malcolm Ericson. You come across as this happy-go-lucky-type dude most of the time, but you are in fact a man of many layers.” —PLAY by Kylie Scott I love a charming and witty hero. Mal Ericson, from Kylie Scott’s Stage Dive series, is the first drummer hero I read about. It’s easy to see immediately why Mal, a fan favorite, is still talked about years after his book PLAY came out. Mal’s manic energy, good humor, and highly amusing sexual confidence is vastly entertaining. Anne Rollins is fighting a losing battle trying to resist Mal’s charm once he picks her to be his fake girlfriend. Over the course of PLAY, Anne…