Hi everyone, I’m A.J. Locke, author of the upcoming urban fantasy novel, MAGIC DARK, MAGIC DIVINE with Entangled Publishing. Today I thought I’d share a fun interview with my four main characters, Pennrae, Callan, Gideon, and Toji, as a way of introducing them so you can get to know what they’re like before you meet them on the page. The answers they give don’t just pull from the book either! You’ll learn tidbits about them here that don’t echo in the novel, so it’s a great bit of insight into who they are as well as what their relationships with each other are like. I hope you enjoy getting to know my crew a bit. Q1: Give one word to describe the others Penn: Oh, this should be good… Gideon: Unflattering descriptions will be heckled. Toji: Gideon is one of the most fiercely caring people I know. Penn is unfathomably protective of those she cares about. I don’t know Callan very well yet, but he has to be strong if Penn has him by her side. Callan: I definitely need my strength. She throws a mean punch… Penn: Watch it before one really comes your way. Gideon: Me next! Toji,…

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 Faith Hunter! Writes: Hi All! I’m Faith Hunter, and currently, I am writing three series: The longest-running is the Urban Fantasy, Jane Yellowrock series, set in New Orleans, La. and Asheville, NC. The Soulwood series is a Paranormal Police Procedural series set in the same world as Jane Yellowrock, but features magic-user, agent rookie Nell Ingram, in Knoxville, TN. Lastly, the Junkyard Cats series is completely unrelated to Jane’s world. It’s a Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi novella series, starring Shining Smith…and several special cats! My next book is TRUE DEAD, number 14 in the Jane Yellowrock series. TRUE DEAD is an urban fantasy with mixes of mystery, action-adventure, amazing fight scenes, and just enough sizzle to keep things interesting. The series features Jane Yellowrock—biker-chick/hunter of rogue-vampires/Cherokee skinwalker who accidently absorbed the soul of a mountain lion in a desperate, unintentional act of black magic when she was five years old. She is a contradictory blend of strength and vulnerability—a gun-toting Harley rider, a tribal war woman, and a magic-using skinwalker….

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 as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Tim Rayborn! Writes: QWRYK is the first of four books set in and around modern Northern England, though it’s a world that’s a bit different than we think we know. Shadows, wondrous creatures, and magic abound, even if most people can’t see them. Oh, and there are the Nighttime Nasties, though the less said about them at the moment, the better. One of these Shadows, Qwyrk, is tasked with checking in on the vulnerable among humanity, and while trying to take a brief holiday in Yorkshire, things go very wrong, very quickly. Bloody hell… About: Professional writer and musician in Northern California. Obedient servant to a cat. Passionate about history, music, good food, good wine, and good humor. After years as a non-fiction writer, I’m now beginning to get all of these silly stories out of my head and onto the page, where they belong. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Enjoys quirky humor, sarcasm, and banter, especially…

Debbie Wiley is a senior reviewer at Fresh Fiction.  The last days and weeks of 2020 are thankfully drawing to a close, leaving folks with a lot of emotional turmoil. Yes, 2020 has been challenging at best, and heartbreaking if you are one of the many directly impacted by Covid-19. In the midst of the pain and distress, we’ve seen heroes rise to the occasion. First and foremost, our health care workers, but also the many grocery store workers, teachers, food bank volunteers, and so many others who have quietly provided essential services to people in the midst of a global pandemic. It makes me reflect about the heroes and heroines of the urban fantasy, fantasy, and steampunk books I read, and I’d like to share a few of those heroes and heroines with you today. THE AWAKENING by Nora Roberts, features Breen Kelly, a young lady who has lived her life feeling “less than”. Her mother constantly berates or belittles her, she works a job she hates, she has a mountain of student debt, and she even hides her flaming red hair under dark hair dye to keep from being noticed. All of that is about to change, however,…

Senior Reviewer Debbie Wiley 2020 has been a difficult year–a global pandemic, economic turmoil, and racial injustice finally being called out. . . Discussions about how to move forward are hard to comprehend, let alone actually have. As a social worker, I am in a position to see and hear about these issues firsthand, and there is much more work to be done. While I find myself scrolling through news posts and continuing to work through the things I want to improve on, I turn to my favorite way to find solace during difficult times–books. Urban fantasy and dark fantasy may not be the genres for everyone during all of this, but for me, escaping to a different world is a welcome distraction for a little while. Thankfully, there are a plethora of phenomenal books out there to keep me entertained! DEVOLUTION by Max Brooks is one heck of a scary thriller, particularly when read during this quarantine, and I can guarantee you’ll think twice about all those modern conveniences we take for granted (looking at you, Amazon one-click shopping, lol). Mt. Rainier has erupted, and the tiny ecological experimental town, Greenloop, is now cut off from the rest of…

Times are stressful right now. Parents and teachers are learning how to implement distance learning, going to the grocery store feels like a live version of Pac-Man, and we’re all desperately hunting for toilet paper. Nerves are frayed as everyone fears that even the slightest cough could mean a dangerous virus has entered their home. Quarantines are the norm. Who would have thought this is what 2020 had in store for us? Now, more than ever, is time to stop, take deep breaths, and read some good books that take us all away to other places right now. Urban fantasy and fantasy are two of my favorite genres and fortunately, there are some phenomenal new books out there right now to dive into. Here are a few of my recent favorites: The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is one of my go-to series when things seem depressing as Mercy Thompson Hauptman is one of the best kick-butt, loyal, and compassionate characters out there. SMOKE BITTEN is the latest in the series and things are definitely in a chaotic state in the Tri-Counties. Mercy’s mate and Alpha wolf, Adam Hauptman, has been emotionally distant, a rarity for a werewolf. There’s…

By Fresh Fiction Senior Reviewer Debbie Wiley Winter is in full swing in most of the country, while here in Central Florida we’re still trying to decide whether to even participate. So far temperatures are wildly swinging from the 40s to the mid-80s with a nice gusting of wind (all day for two days, I might add) thrown in just to keep us on our toes. So why does that matter? Because it’s the perfect weather to stay inside where I can adjust the heat or the AC (sometimes both during the same day!) and curl up with a book! Even better, January and February have given us some phenomenal urban fantasy/fantasy novels to choose from. Here are a couple of my favorites: Jennifer Estep concludes her Mythos Academy Spin-Off series with SPARTAN DESTINY. Rory Forseti, a Spartan and Mythos Academy student, and the rest of Team Midgard are determined to keep powerful artifacts out of the hands of the Reapers. Unbeknownst to the rest of Team Midgard, Rory has been secretly replacing real artifacts with copies. . . but will she be able to save her friends when their latest attempt to obtain an artifact goes sour?  I love…

It should be no surprise to both readers and writers that often a story will take turns not originally expected by the author. I’ve had this happen, but never so much as with my BLACK CITY SAINT series. Here, then, are the five that caught me most off-guard. 1) Minor characters who refused to be so minor – It’s nice to have a world populated by more than just the main characters. Each novel has its share of minor ones who, hopefully, give it more depth. One of the earliest was Barnaby, who was meant to be someone who Nick had helped, and so provided him with occasional transportation. Then I began to think about why Barnaby had needed Nick’s help, which brought in another supposedly minor character — Joseph, Barnaby’s son, and a very bad egg who had run afoul of Nick. Suddenly, the history of this pair turned the storyline I was working on in an utterly different direction. Joseph’s secret involvement with the Wingfoot Express airship disaster and how Barnaby now sought to help his son, currently a resident of the Dunning mental facility, have become essential elements of the series. 2) History lending a hand to…

Today we are joined by Senior Reviewer Deb Wiley, with an article all about charismatic pets as side characters in cozy mysteries, contemporary romance, and other fiction genres. Enjoy! Stories featuring pets are always a popular draw for me. Whether it involves a man borrowing someone’s dog to capture the interest of a woman, such as in Sarah Morgan’s NEW YORK, ACTUALLY, or a mysterious cat who keeps popping up at the most opportune times, such as in FINAL SHADOWS by Kay Hooper, dog and cat stories are almost guaranteed to be on my TBR shelf. But what about stories featuring some more unusual animals rather than the expected dog or cat? Here are a few of the more intriguing stories I’ve read with pets outside the norm. Kym Roberts is hands-down the winner for having the most unusual and most entertaining pet! Her Book Barn series features a bookstore owner, which already draws my attention. However, Charli Rae Warren’s pet pink armadillo, Princess, steals the show in almost every book. In KILLER CLASSICS, Princess gets a boyfriend.  I’m not going to spoil anything by saying more but if you love pets and other animals getting involved in the storylines,…

Urban Fantasy…April takes you to celebrity-mad London, to the boarding school where the students aren’t quite just “normal” and roommates are hard-to-handle. Or take a trip to Georgia, it’s different than expected. All this and more in April Urban Fantasy… Richelle Mead, SUCCUBUS SHADOWS (Kensington, 3/30/2010, $15.00) Georgina Kincaid’s already complicated life just got a whole lot messier. Her new roommate is stirring all kinds of sexual tension. Adding to her angst, she’s being recruited to help plan the wedding of her ex, Seth–and she keeps getting visited by a shadowy force trying to draw her into the dream world. When she finally succumbs, Georgina is captured by dream demons intent on sapping her power. But when Seth turns out to be the only one who can find Georgina and bring her back, all kinds of new questions arise. And the answers will change her world forever. Patricia Briggs, SILVER BORNE (Ace, 3/30/2010, $24.95) (A Mercy Thompson Novel #5) When mechanic and shape-shifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she’d previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down. It seems the book contains secret knowledge–and the Fae will do…