Spotlight: The Prince by Dinitia Smith

Money. Power. Sex. Family. These conflicts propel the world’s greatest novels. They seared the pages of The Golden Bowl by Henry James when it was published in 1904, and they inflame Dinitia Smith’s retelling, THE PRINCE (Arcade Publishing; March 1, 2022), creating a modern classic with twists and turns that even James couldn’t imagine.

Smith, a multiple award-winning former New York Times reporter, uses the modern equivalent of the glittering high society setting of the Golden Age to tell the story of a father and daughter and the prince who comes between them. Set partially on Woodford Island, based on Gardiners Island off the coast of East Hampton, NY, THE PRINCE reconstructs the claustrophobic tension of the original while exploring the four central relationships with a fresh, modern gaze.

Entangled in a complex web strung between love, duty and desire are Emily the happy, fresh-faced and rather clueless daughter of enormous wealth, and her worldlier friend, Christina, who has gotten ahead on her sense of style and stunning beauty.

Emily is about to wed the charming, affable and nearly destitute Italian Prince Frederico who spends his feckless days amusing himself with music and soccer, but unknown to Emily, hides a potentially devastating secret. 

At the wedding, Emily’s father, Henry Woodford, is drawn to the elegant Christina and soon after proposes marriage. But his primary relationship is with his daughter, and as his bride is left to her own devices, the interplay of the characters is set into chaotic motion culminating in an ending that fans of Henry James would appreciate—but never see coming.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Hardcover | Bookshop.org

About the Author

DINITIA SMITH is the author of four previous novels, most recently The Honeymoon (Other Press), and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines. For 11 years, she was a reporter at the New York Times where she wrote on literary topics and intellectual trends. She has won many awards for her writing, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the MacDowell Colony and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. She is also an Emmy Award-winning film maker.  Her film, Passing Quietly Through, was chosen for the New York Film Festival, and shown at the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. 

Spotlight: Only a Fling by Delancey Stewart

Release Date: February 28

My new boss is a former fighter pilot -- and it should be illegal to be that hot. But this city-boy condo builder doesn't know the first thing about construction in a place like Kasper Ridge.

Will hired me to oversee the renovation at the old Kasper Ridge Resort - a job that will make my company and guarantee that Papa can live comfortably to a very old age. I just need to keep my eyes on the prize.

And the prize is not Will Cruz's ocean blue eyes or those rock-hard abs. Besides, all those muscles and that killer smile are temporary. I've lived in the mountains long enough to know that slick city boys don't stick around for the long run.

So I tell myself the things I need to hear to stay strong, hold firm, maintain my distance.

Until Will kisses me one night and I forget pretty much everything I'd been telling myself about protecting my heart.

I know it's only a fling, but what if there's a chance Will Cruz is the one? What if I give him my heart, and he doesn't stay?

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Paperback

Meet Delancey Stewart

Hi there!

I'm USA Today Bestselling author Delancey Stewart. My contemporary romances run the gamut of settings and setups, but they always deliver humor, heart and heat. It's a guarantee.

I write from my home near Denver, CO, where I manage a household full of boys and men. Okay, only one man. The hubs. But two boys. I mean, three if you count the hubs. (You see why I do words and not numbers. I was told there'd be no math in this bio. Someone lied.) There is also a dog named Charlie Taco.

I grew up in California and have had more jobs than anyone on earth (personal trainer, pharmaceutical rep, copywriter, tech writer, marketing director, wine seller, elementary school teacher... I'm not kidding. The list. It goes on.) But the one I love the most is writing, in part because I get to meet people who love books and stories as much as I do! 

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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Delancey-Stewart/e/B00A8OZDKU 

Cover Reveal: The Magi Manifesto by Kale Lawrence

(The Magi Menagerie, #2)

Publication date: December 13th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, New Adult, Young Adult

Synopsis:

After the true power of the Tablet of Destinies is revealed, Ezra grapples with the horrors of the night that changed everything. Haunted by the monster who claimed his father’s life, Ezra is determined to see his promise through and become a Magus. But when the Third Order of the Magi have him arrested for crimes he has yet to commit, Ezra is willing to do whatever it takes to prove himself, even if it means going after the very force that terrorises his dreams.

But there’s more at stake than the Magi realise and major risks must be taken to settle the score. Desperate to stop the Legerdemain Brotherhood from claiming infinite power, Jonas must lead a team into the heart of enemy territory and dismantle the Brotherhood from the inside. Can Ezra and Jonas successfully stop the Legerdemain from ushering in a new era of terror? Or will yet another unlikely foe rise from the deep?

About the Author

Since the early age of 6, Kale Lawrence knew she either wanted to be an astronaut or an author. Obviously, the astronaut gig didn’t work out, so instead, Kale turned to fantastic fictional worlds. When Kale is not writing creatively, she works as a Marketing Manager at a pet product company, and pretends she’s an Olympic swimmer at the gym. She has also served as a board member for the South Dakota Writes organization.

In addition to books, Kale has lent her writing prowess to television, and her writing has been featured on nationwide PBS television programming, NBC newscasts, ABC newscasts, and the Travel Channel.

Kale currently lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with her feisty tortoiseshell calico cat, Emma Bug and sassy Siamese, Seattle Bean.

Connect:

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5241807.Kale_Lawrence

Spotlight: Accidentally Perfect by Marissa Clarke

Genre: Contemporary Romance

About Accidentally Perfect

Workaholic Lillian Mahoney has given everything to her job. The hugely popular lifestyle show she helped create monopolizes her time, energy, creativity, and anything remotely resembling a life. But all it takes is the show’s womanizing, egomaniac star throwing a massive hissy on live TV to utterly implode Lillian’s career in a New York minute.

Now Lillian’s hiding out in the gorgeous and completely unknown seaside village of Blink, Maine. Out of gas. A stolen wallet. A broken heel. And worse, she’s somehow managed to completely piss off the town’s resident hunk, Caleb Wright. She’ll show that hot, grumpy single father exactly what she’s made of.

But Blink isn’t quite what Lillian expects—and neither is Caleb...or his feisty teen daughter she can't help but love. And while her entire life and career are in shreds, Lillian might just discover what happens when she gives her bad first impression a second chance…

Excerpt

Lillian hadn’t woken up with a man in her bed in…ever. In fact, she’d never woken up with a man in her bed. Sleeping over was way too intimate, and she’d never allowed it. Until last night. 

Tossing her car keys on the counter, she opened the cupboard and pulled out the coffee beans. Her behavior was completely out of character. She put the beans in the grinder. Everything she’d done had been out of character since she’d gotten here. She flipped the switch, and the grinder rumbled. That kiss they’d shared a few minutes ago when she’d dropped him off at his houseboat was way out of character. 

Maybe out of character was really her true character and she didn’t know it until now.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” she muttered, pouring the ground coffee into the basket. She liked who she was here. Not the freaked-out bits like when she’d bolted from Amanda’s deck last night, but she liked who she was the rest of the time. More relaxed. More… She thought about last night with Caleb and cleared her throat. Yeah, more that. She liked who she was with him. 

She started the coffeemaker and shuffled to the bathroom to get ready to go to Roger’s. The woman in the mirror was a total stranger with wild hair and red cheeks caused by abrasion from his whiskers. And her bathrobe was inside out. Perfect. She’d driven him home like that. She almost laughed. Perfectly put together Lillian Mahoney was a complete inside-out mess, and she didn’t care. 

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Mass Market Paperback | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Marissa Clarke is a multi-award-winning, RITA nominated author of romance for adults and teens. She lives on the Texas Gulf Coast with her ever-patient husband, two cantankerous Cairn Terriers, and an abundance of bossy chickens.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

Spotlight: Greetings from Asbury Park by Daniel H. Turtel

In a small, seaside city on the Jersey Shore, three half-siblings confront the death of a distant and bullying patriarch. They now have the chance to imagine new relationships and new futures, ones that would have been near-unthinkable while their father was alive.

At the heart of the novel are Casey and Gabrielle who are pushed toward a brief but torrential affair composed of equal parts love for one another and resentment for their father. Caught in their crossfire are the conservative religious communities that border Asbury Park, the longtime locals who have been pushed to the fringe by the shore's revitalization, and the legendary town upon which the whole world seems to converge. Slowly, however, they come to understand that everything depends--their future, their happiness--on whether they can face themselves.

Wise, perceptive, and provocative, Greetings from Asbury Park is a remarkable literary debut in the tradition of great American novels such as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. It is a deep interrogation of place that depicts flawed characters as they breakthrough to adulthood, truth, and to a moral relationship with the world.

Buy on Amazon Kindle | Audible | Hardcover | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Daniel Turtel grew up on the Jersey Shore. He graduated from Duke University in 2013 with a degree in mathematics and has been living in New York City since. In 2020 Greetings from Asbury Park was awarded the Faulkner Society’s Best Novel Award. In 2018, he won the Faulkner Society’s annual competition in both the novella and novel-in-progress categories, for Among the Porcelain and Greetings from Asbury Park, respectively. His novels have also been short-listed in the Del Sol Press First Novel Competition and the James Jones Literary Society’s First Novel Fellowship, and his short fiction has been published in The Baltimore Review.

Spotlight: Butterfly Sisters by Jenny Hale

Publication date: February 22nd 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary

Synopsis:

“When emerging from its cocoon, a butterfly needs the struggle to push the fluid from its body into its wings. So essentially, without the struggle, it never flies.”

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Beach House comes a story about family bonds, second chances, and finding out who we really are. Butterfly Sisters is the perfect escape for fans of Susan Wiggs, RaeAnne Thayne, and Susan Mallery.

About to land her biggest deal yet, Leigh Henderson is on her game. She’s prepared for this, and nothing can get in her way. Except Rebecca Mayer, who’d sashayed in a few weeks ago with a former client list that would fill the entire hallway to Leigh’s office if she laid it out end to end. When her boss unexpectedly offers the deal to Rebecca and tells Leigh he’s letting her go, Leigh finds herself without a job.

But that’s the least of her worries. 

Her mother has some news that will change everything. She’s asked Leigh and her sister Meredith to meet her at the family cabin on Old Hickory Lake. Not only has Leigh been unable to pin her sister down in years, but going back to the cabin would mean dealing with the loss of her beloved grandmother and also chance running into her old flame Colton Harris, the one love she’s never been able to completely let go of.

Will confronting her grief, speaking to her estranged sister, and being forced to face the love she’d left behind help Leigh to learn who she really is? 

A heartwarming story that will have you laughing, crying, and rushing to those you hold dear. If you loved the Christmas movies based on Jenny’s books and are looking for more feel-good, small-town romance, look no further!

Excerpt

Her phone pressed to her ear, Leigh strained to hear through the buzz of morning commuters who bustled into New York City’s Financial District every weekday and gathered at the café on the corner of Wall Street and Pearl, while they waited impatiently for their morning coffee. Her younger sister’s voice came through the end of her phone—happy, bouncy. “It’s Meredith! You’ve reached my voicemail, so I’m obviously off doing something incredible. Leave a message.” 

She wedged the phone against her shoulder while she paid the cashier for her double-shot caramel latte on her way to work. Leigh had resorted to calling after both she and her mother had tried to text Meredith several times with no response, and apparently that wasn’t working either. 

“Mom wants us to go to the lake house,” she said after the beep, feeling strangled when she uttered the words, knowing the resentful look that would show in her sister’s eyes when she heard the message. Meredith hadn’t given the family or the cabin any thought since she’d left home, something Leigh had never understood. “It’s... important. Text me or call me back.” She ended the call, guessing she’d have to leave a few messages with something more dramatic for Meredith to actually respond. 

Her family had never been that close group of four who went to the movies together or laughed with each other over games of charades or family dinners. It was something Leigh had always longed for, but never seemed to be able to catch hold of. 

Her sister hadn’t been home for any length of time in the last eight years, other than their father’s funeral, which had happened three years after Nan died, when she’d actually stayed a night, before claiming she needed to go. The last time Leigh and Meredith had been in the same place for more than twenty-four hours had been in high school, for Leigh’s graduation. When, a few weeks later, everyone had gathered in the driveway to see her off to college, Meredith hadn’t appeared with their mother, father, Nan, and their neighbors to wave and cheer as Leigh left home for four years at Northwestern University, her old Ford Escort filled to the brim with all her belongings. Leigh had seethed over it for the first hour of the trip, wondering what she’d ever done to make her sister hate her so much. 

Leigh had always been frustrated with Meredith; her behavior put a strain on them. It had seemed as if Meredith would do anything to set herself apart from everyone in their family. And while her sister had appeared as though she’d had no direction her whole life, she had a kind of contempt for them all, as if they were criminals for having their lives together. All her sister had to do was apply herself, but she never did. She took odd jobs and lazily gathered the bare minimum to live on, spending nights on her friends’ sofas and living out of her car at times. 

But even though her sister was a disaster, Leigh was always a little envious at the way she never had to stay in one place or have anything special to be happy—she’d gotten that from Nan. Meredith could pack a tent and a loaf of bread and leave for a week, coming back looking vibrant and rested. Leigh wished she could have just a little of her free spirit.

Buy on Amazon

About the Author

Jenny Hale is a USA Today, Amazon, and international bestselling author of romantic contemporary fiction. Her books have sold worldwide, have been translated into multiple languages, and adapted for television. Her novels Coming Home for Christmas and Movie Guide Epiphany Award winner Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses are Hallmark Channel original movies.

She was included in Oprah Magazine’s “19 Dreamy Summer Romances to Whisk You Away” and Southern Living’s “30 Christmas Novels to Start Reading Now.” Her stories are chock-full of feel-good romance and overflowing with warm settings, great friends, and family. Jenny is at work on her next novel, delighted to be bringing even more heartwarming stories to her readers.

When she isn’t writing, or heading up her romantic fiction imprint Harpeth Road, she can be found running around her hometown of Nashville with her husband, two boys, and their labradoodle, taking pictures—her favorite pastime.

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