I’m Gina LaManna, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to my new novel, THREE SINGLE WIVES, on-sale on September 1. Here’s a sneak peek at what to expect! When Eliza, Anne, and Penny arrive at book club bearing bottles of wine, none of them anticipate the night will end in murder. But when the subject of a philandering husband arises, revenge is in the air. By the end of the night, someone is dead. What actually happened that night? And is the truth stranger than fiction? T – T is for Three. Three women are featured at the heart of this story. Follow Penny, Eliza, and Anne through this winding tale to find out who is innocent. . .  and who is guilty. H – H is for Heart. Several of these women follow their hearts. Sometimes it gets them in trouble. R – R is for Revenge. Did one of these women go to great lengths for justice? E – E is for Entrepreneurial. When one of the women sets out to start her own business, the cost of it backfires in a way she didn’t see coming. E – E is for Everything. Will one woman give up everything…

Hi, Julie! Thanks for stopping by Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and your new book, THE LAST FLIGHT. Thanks for having me! THE LAST FLIGHT is the story of two women, both desperate to escape their lives. A chance encounter in an airport bar presents the two women with a crazy solution: switch plane tickets, then drop off the grid when they land. But one woman will never reach her destination. On the surface, both Claire and Eva have led inspired lives. Claire is a socialite and married into a powerful pollical family, but there are painful secrets she’s tired of hiding. Eva was raised in the foster system, and had a pretty good life going until she met the wrong guy. Even though their lives are different, they are quite similar in many aspects. . . How did you develop these two women while writing THE LAST FLIGHT? It took a lot of brainstorming, drafting, and revising to fully flesh these two women out. I wanted to make sure they were fundamentally different, and yet I wanted the core of them to be the same–two women, each fighting to get the life she wants. It took me about two years…

My new novel, Miss Cecily’s Recipes for Exceptional Ladies, has two heroines–Kate Parker, 40 and on the verge of a break-up, and Cecily Finn, a 97-year-old grumpy but very funny old lady–bond over an unusual cookbook.  The cookbook, Thought for Food, contains more than just recipes.  It has menus for some of life’s most challenging occasions: “Dinner for the Man You Hope to Marry,” “Dinner for The Man You’re Trying to Bid Farewell To.”  Along with delicious recipes, the book has tips on how to survive the occasion, varying from the practical to the richly comic. Thought for Food was a real book published in 1957.  It was co-written by the real-life Cecily Finn, who was my grandma. Real-life Cecily was born in London’s East End in 1903.  Her family ran a candy and ice-cream store–which created her lifelong passion for food. My grandma had a beautiful older sister, May, and my great-grandpa Josef constantly told Cecily that because she lacked May’s beauty, she’d never find a husband, and so at 18, he forced her to become a teacher.  (The job would guarantee a secure pension.)  Cecily may not have shared May’s beauty, but she was warm, smart, funny, creative,…

Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Jill! Please tell us about yourself and your new book, IT STARTED WITH A SECRET. Hello, hello, I’m Jill Mansell, this is my 32nd novel and I’ve now sold over 13 million copies of my books worldwide. This one will hopefully make readers laugh and cry and is set in Cornwall in the UK, so it’s a nice sunny seasidey read full of fun characters you’ll enjoy spending time with. Oh, and they all have secrets! You’ve been writing romantic comedies for a long time – what has changed the most since you started writing? The internet! Smartphones! My older books tend to have plots that revolve around not being able to find out details about people or to be able to make contact with them. Nowadays these problems can be solved in a split second, and it’s a complete nightmare for all authors of contemporary fiction. Plotting is far more tricky than it used to be. There’s such a thing as having access to too much information! One of my favorite things about your books is the huge cast of characters, each one with a distinct personality. How do you manage all of them? I…

1–What’s the name of your latest release? The Sunday Girl 2–What’s it about? It’s an answer to the question: what would happen if a good girl snapped? 3–What word best describes your main character? Flawed. 4–What makes your story relatable? Most of us have had one really terrible breakup where, in our darker moments, we’ve toyed with the idea of revenge. Most of us, however, don’t actually go through with it. Not so for Taylor Bishop! And so, through her we get to live vicariously… 5–Who are the people your main character turns to when they need help? One of the key themes of The Sunday Girl is how abusive relationships isolate us and make it almost impossible to ask for help. But when Taylor does reach out, it’s to her best friend, her mother and, briefly, the police. 6–What do you love about the setting of your book. Well it’s set in London, and London is a second home for me. 7–Are you a plotter (follow an outline) or a pantster (write by the seat of your pants)? I’m a hybrid. I go in with an outline knowing how it begins, a couple of things that happen in the…

What is a whispering dress? Venture inside the bridal boutique of my heroine, Fran Delaney, and you’ll find out. Fran finds vintage wedding dresses, gets to know their histories, then matches them to modern-day brides, helping them to transform their lives. In that sense, her dresses ‘whisper’ their secrets and wisdoms to whoever wears them next. I was inspired to write The Second Chance Boutique while working for the Victoria & Albert Museum, researching their extraordinary collection of historic wedding dresses. It wasn’t just the dresses that fascinated me, but the personal stories behind them. From demure to ultimate glamour, from the courtesan’s sack-back gown to the ever-changing Victorian silhouette, the thirties to the sixties to the nineties, these dresses were as varied in character as the women who wore them – and it struck me that the spirit of these women seemed very much present, embodied in the fabric and stitches. The idea of these dresses stayed with me until, not long after my own wedding, I decided I simply had to write a romance based around them. So here are some of the ones that inspired me: The Scandalous One This dramatic Norman Hartnell gown was worn by…

Staying home means more time to read. Right? To help pass the time between books, we asked six of our cozy mystery authors to share what they’re doing during their time at home! We hope you’ll cozy up at home with these first in the cozy mystery series: Can’t Judge a Book by Its Murder by Amy Lillard, a Main Street Book Club Mystery Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker, a Seaside Cafe Mystery Death on Windmill Way by Carrie Doyle, a Hampton’s Murder Mystery Penne Dreadful by Catherine Bruns, an Italian Chef Mystery Dead in the Water by Denise Swanson, a Welcome Back to Scumble River mystery Last Pen Standing by Vivian Conroy, a Stationery Shop Mystery Keep reading to cozy up with our authors and check out the books over here! You’re trapped in a remote cabin with one character from your series for one week. Who would it be and why? Amy Lillard: Hands down-Fern. She might not have Helen’s cooking skills or Camille’s bottomless handbag or even Arlo’s practical side, but being stranded definitely wouldn’t be boring with Fern! Bree Baker: I would definitely spend the week with Everly Swan, the heroine of my Seaside Cafe Mysteries!…

My name is Tracey Enerson Wood, and I’m thrilled to chat about my debut novel, THE ENGINEER’S WIFE, on-sale April 7. What fun this is! I never would have thought to look at the title this way. Here’s what I came up with. Would love to hear ideas from readers! Emily Warren Roebling oversaw the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge—yet she was lost in its shadow after the fact. In THE ENGINEER’s WIFE, her story finally gets the spotlight. T— is for Time. It took nearly 14 years to build the Brooklyn Bridge. H— is for Henrietta, one of my favorite characters, whose humor and wise council keep Emily grounded. E— is for Emily, the amazing unsung hero. * E— is for Electricity. They built that amazing bridge without it! N— is for Emily’s true North. You find out what that is at the very end. G— is for Ginormous. A great word to describe the challenge Emily and Wash face. I— is for Ingenuity, they’re building a massive bridge like no other before, and have to solve unique problems. N— is for New York City, the always fascinating city that is the main setting. E— is for Eleanor. A…