Working class heroes, man. I love ’em. Heroines too. I’ve written plumbers and farmers, bartenders and construction laborers—there’s something about someone who knows what it’s like to put in a hard day’s work that makes me believe that they can and will put that same work into their relationships. I worked in the white collar corporate world for years, and we liked to throw around the “work hard, play hard” line, but you have never seen play like a bunch of mechanics when they go out on the Continue Reading
Guest Post: The Sights and Sounds of NOLA Knights by Rhenna Morgan
I love New Orleans. I’ve been there more times than I can count, and I’m pretty much your standard tourist when I visit: Nighttime trips to the French Quarter.A stop at Pat O’Brien’s—because it’s Pat O’Brien’s.Requisite visits to at least one fortune teller—because it just seems to fit the city, and who knows where you’ll find a good idea for a book!A breakfast or mid-afternoon trip to Café Du Monde.Souvenir shopping at the French Market.Cajun Food.Cajun Food.Cajun Food. Oddly, hardly any Continue Reading
Guest Post: Subverting the Billionaire Trope by Angelina M. Lopez
My debut romance novel, Lush Money, is about a Mexican-American self-made billionaire businesswoman. I would love to say when I thought her up in 2015, that I was aiming for a trope-subverting heroine; that I anticipated the 2016 election, the #MeToo movement, and the resolve of women and people of color to no longer accept the status quo of being pushed to the background. But I’m just not that wise. I owe much to luck for the gift of Roxanne Medina, the smart and sultry billionaire heroine Continue Reading
Giveaway: Celebrating Kitty Scarlett’s One Year Adoptiversary
One year ago today, I officially adopted Kitty-Scarlett. Just 5 days prior I made an impulsive decision to adopt her. I’d been thinking for years about adopting a pet, but it’s a huge commitment. But in early October I was really feeling my aloneness with my son in college and my parents announcing they would be relocating to Nebraska. I just knew I needed some other living being at home with me. I need to feel less alone. I went to my local shelter with the intention of just looking. I knew I Continue Reading
Guest Post: Dream Cast for American Love Story by Adriana Herrera
Adriana is back with another beautiful dream cast for her latest novel, American Love Story, which released earlier this week. Thanks for stopping by Adriana!! Patrice and Easton’s romance is almost here and have I got a casting for you! For this third installment of the Dreamers series we’re back in Ithaca and my favorite broody Haitian is in deep with a certain Whiskey eyed ADA. Since I’ve already picked some of the main players for the series, you will see some familiar faces, but Continue Reading
Guest Post: Writing with Baggage by Charish Reid
When I first saw this tweet, I laughed until I realized that I was being dragged by Twitter’s #WritingCommunity. As you can imagine, thousands of writers liked and retweeted this image, making us all a band of scarred adults just trying to keep our collective shit together. Sure, I’ve had therapy and journaled my feelings, but there’s nothing quite satisfying like giving all my baggage over to another person and seeing how they sort it out. I’m not ashamed to say that I do that with my own Continue Reading
Q&A with Annabeth Albert
Annabeth's new novel, Arctic Heat Frozen Hearts #3, releases September 23rd. She stopped by for a Q&A about her the book. Hi! I’m so delighted to be here on one of my all-time favorite blogs with some Q&A about ARCTIC HEAT, my newest release in the Frozen Hearts series set in Alaska. As with the other two books in the series, this one stands alone fine—there’s only the briefest of mentions of the prior books’ couples and no spoilers. This is my opposites-attract, odd couple Continue Reading
Guest Post: Quirky Heroines by Amanda Weaver
Amanda Weaver's newest novel, Love and the Laws of Motion The Romano Sisters, #2, is out today. Amanda stopped by Smexy to highlight some of her favorite quirky heroines. Livie, the heroine of Love and the Laws of Motion, is brilliant, shy, and just a little bit out of step with the world around her. I loved writing her, because I love quirky heroines. Give me your shy girls, your bookish geniuses, your socially awkward ladies…I love them all. When I sat down to make a list of my Continue Reading
Sheena’s Thursday Tingles! Featuring: Dalliances & Devotion by Felicia Grossman
I'd love to greet you all and thank you for checking out this feature, but there is no time for that. No time! None! All of the minutes, seconds, nanoseconds I'm hording for the express purpose of sharing how FREAKING cute, bad ass, funny, sexy and enjoyable this book is! OHMYGOSHITSSODAMNFUN! First of all. Blurb. After two disastrous marriages, beauty columnist Amalia Truitt's life is finally her own—well, it will be if she can get herself back to Delaware and demand access to her share of Continue Reading
Angela’s Tuesday ARC Reviews: Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore and Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie DunmoreA League of Extraordinary Women #1Historical Romance September 3, 2019 by BerkleyARC This was a pleasant surprise! I love it when a debut author exceeds my expectations and leaves me looking forward to the next release in the series. Bringing Down the Duke is set in the late 1800s, and features a heroine who has secured a scholarship to Oxford and is involved in the suffrage movement in England. She, quite by accident and without knowing his Continue Reading