Month: June 2023

Meet the Characters of the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

If you enjoy cozy mysteries, you might have seen these skeletons floating around the internet:

Shortly after the second book, Death by Pins and Needles was released, it became apparent that the cover skeleton needed a name. Ms. Black put the naming in the hands of the readers and set up a contest. The winning name got a free digital copy of Death by Pins and Needles. 

As you can see by the cover for the third book, Death by Surfboard, Susie now has a male skeleton that needed a name. She created another contest with the same prize. Well, I helped name the male skeleton (Susie will be sharing the details of these two contests down below), and I got a free copy of Death by Surfboard! 

So, here is my review of Death by Surfboard:

Holly is a swimwear executive, and she has a new colleague who she does not trust. She tried to warn her boss about him, but she got shooed out of his office instead. Well, quickly into this new hire Holly is proved right. And who does her boss assign to clean up terrible-colleague’s mess? Holly, of course!

Lucky for Holly, and unlucky for terrible-colleague, his body is found on the beach, attached to his surfboard. But the issue is not over for Holly because the detective, who also happens to be Holly’s friend, accuses not one, but two innocent suspects. So, Holly, being the nosy do-gooder that she is, can’t just sit back and let the detective figure things out. She then spends page after page doing crazy things that risk her job and her life on her quest to discover the real murderer. 

This is my first time reading a cozy mystery, and I’m in love. Even though it’s the third book in the Holly Swimsuit series, I was able to jump in and figure out who everyone is and the layout of Holly’s world. Holly reminds me of a grown-up Hanna Marin (Pretty Little Liars): fashion forward, blunt, and she can’t pass up an opportunity to solve a mystery. I thought it was a great challenge for the victim to be such an unlikeable character. I mean, the reader is made to feel he deserves what he got, so why try to solve his murder? Because the two suspects the police are looking at Holly knows are innocent. So, it becomes less about justice for the victim and more about protecting the innocent from being framed. I was determined to figure it out before Holly did, and I’m proud to say, I was half right. I’ll definitely be reading the first two in the near future.

Reading a series out of order is not new for me. I do it all the time. So, I have teamed up with Susie Black herself to introduce the recurring characters of the Holly Swimsuit Mystery series. That way, no matter where you start in her books, you will know who is who.

Hello, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Susie Black, author of The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series. I’ve been asked to share what entails writing cozy mystery series.

Like the protagonist in my Holly Swimsuit Mystery series, I am a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. From the beginning of my career, I have kept a daily journal that chronicles the quirky, interesting, and often challenging people I’ve encountered as well as the crazy situations I’ve gotten myself into and out of. The journal entries are the foundation of all my writing.

As a sales exec, I am a people person. So, naturally, my primary focus is on character development. Once the characters are created, the plot easily falls into place because it reacts to the characters in the story, not the other way around. I chose to write my stories as part of a series, but because I like to give options, each book can be read on its own out of order without the reader getting lost. Pretty cool, huh? So, how in the world did I accomplish this? By making references to the background of the story setting and the main characters. I make each plot, the murder method, the victim, the murderer, and the minor characters different in each tale. But I anchor the continuing main characters with consistent and distinct histories, personalities, and quirks that readers invest in and root for because they appear real.

Here are some of the important continuing main characters who appear in every book and a bit about them:

HOLLY SCHLIVNIK: Wise-cracking, irreverent Holly is the protagonist of the series who is patterned after yours truly…Holly is the me I always wanted to be. Loyal to a fault and fearless, Holly is a ladies’ swimwear sales exec/nosy amateur sleuth who can’t mind her beeswax and sticks her nose everywhere it doesn’t belong. Holly has a quirky personality trait. She inherited her nana’s fear of death. They both respond to death by laughing.  And Holly does when she discovers a corpse. Holly is famous for this quirk and all her friends ask if she laughed whenever she has discovered a corpse. Holly’s pet phrases to describe her feelings are Yikes, Cripes, Holy Guacamole, and Merde.  

QUEENIE LEVINE: A compact dynamo equipped with a razor-sharp wit and sharper tongue, Queenie is Holly’s close friend and professional colleague…and her erstwhile crime-solving sidekick. Queenie has a distinctive habit of pushing her index finger up on the tip of her nose whenever she’s thinking out loud. When trying to flesh out the murderer, Queenie is always the one who asks “Who has the most to lose?”

JOAN BINDER: Quick-witted, sarcastic Joan is the oldest of the Yentas- four of Holly’s colleagues she meets with for coffee every workday morning at a coffee shop in the California Apparel Mart lobby to kibbitz and compare notes and opinions. Joan has a habit of looking over her eyeglasses perched on the tip of her nose in her “kindergarten teacher” disapproving pose whenever she delivers one of her acerbic zingers.

Dr. Sophie Cutler: Los Angeles County Assistant Medical Examiner Sophie Cutler is Holly Schlivnik’s lifelong friend and not your typical Coroner. For a medical doctor, “Snip,” as Holly calls Sophie, has atrocious eating habits. She is a pizza and cheeseburger lover as well as a desertaholic. Sophie refuses to share any of her cheesecake and is known to use a fork as a weapon to fight off Holly’s attempts to swipe a bite.

Smart Alec Snip has caller ID on her phone. When Sophie sees it is Holly calling, irreverent Snip answers the phone with hilarious greetings: such as “Good afternoon. This is Los Angeles County Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Sophie Cutler. You stab ‘em we slab ‘em.”

Sigmund Freud AKA Siggie: Introduced in book three of the series, lovable, nosy Siggie is Holly’s male standard-size Poodle/assistant sleuth, and Psychiatrist. Holly discusses everything with Siggie-her love life, her friends, how to deal with pain-in-the-patootie customers, as well as viable options to flesh out a killer with her four-legged companion. Siggie might not speak but he gets his points across just the same. If he likes Holly’s game plan, he barks his approval. He shows his disdain for some of Holly’s crazier sleuthing ploys by rolling his eyes or shaking his head from side to side.

The book cover Skeleton:  Whodathunk that a skeleton wearing a swimsuit would ever garner such a huge amount of attention? I’ve had countless numbers of readers tell me they found the book cover with the skeleton so intriguing; they bought the book to see what kind of story was inside! The skeleton on every book cover was so popular it took on a life of its own and became the face of The Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series brand and became a successful marketing ploy.

Before the release of Death by Pins and Needles, the skeleton demanded she is given a name so I ran a contest to name the female skeleton and was inundated with hundreds of entries. So many great names were submitted that I ended up using several of them as a first name, middle name, and surname: Mizz Bone-ita Skelemina Bonz.

Before the release of Death by Surfboard, Mizz Bonz informed me she had a boyfriend and insisted he needed a name. So, to make our girl happy a second contest was launched and her boyfriend is now known as Mitzer Skeltor Bone-Jangles. Writing a standalone book requires a goodly amount of character development and plot planning. Writing a series requires the same. But by having a cast of long-term continuing characters an author must create one with distinctive histories, personalities, and quirks for them to keep readers interested enough so the series successfully continues.

The series continues in Holly’s next adventure, Death by Cutting Table, which publishes August 2, 2023.

Follow Susie Black and her journey at https://authorsusieblack.com/

New Release: The Snow Queen by Suzy Davies

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

The World of The Snow Queen

Let me take you back to London Town, in the old days. A sister and brother live in an upstairs tenement. They are poor and not yet worldly-wise. My book, “The Snow Queen” takes you to this London you may already know or have read about. But although the metropolis is very real, it is seen through a magic lens in the mind’s eye.

The city shivers with chiming voices on fragile winds that sigh. The presence of an ethereal beauty rides the wintry landscape. Children are in a playground on the swings. Back and forth, back and forth, they ride. Time stands still in an innocent world of cars and trains, traffic lights, steaming chips and ketchup, Christmas trees and oily rainbows on cracked concrete… and Mum at home awaiting them…

Yet as they grow, and the years pass slowly, someone else – a wizard – is watching. He has a plan. To conjure a spell to ensnare a boy, a teenager of good character, a hard-working boy, Adam. He will be The First Slave. 

And so, through this dark conjuring, this malevolent wizardry, the world of reality and the world of magic collide. The dark force of the wizard’s magic will be known and felt. And the children of the world will be held captives forever…

Far, far away, over the ocean, all the enchantment and wonder of a glittering winter; a winter in The Snowlands, a place of mystical animals that tread the land and soar on the wind awaits. This is a mythological land of dreams. 

A shoemaker is making a boot fit for a king. A princess awaits in her Danish castle with her horses who follow the star of Pegasus. A seamstress in Rovaniemi is sewing a gown of sparkling threads and jewel-drops, fit for a queen.

The Snow Queen resides in the frozen glass Ice Palace in Norway. She is waiting for her wizard. Together, they will be an evil power couple, and rule till the end of days.

A Snow Goose rides through the storm, carrying Sean to his one true love.

A brave dwarf has a plan…

Adam slumbers, a prisoner, alone in the fairy tower on the west wing of The Ice Palace. Beside his bed, a game of chess, the black king toppled over.

Aragog lies in wait in her glistening web …and always, there’s dark magic… 

The wind whistles through the skeleton tree. In her crystal ball, the old gypsy caught a glimpse of what would befall her daughter. The three sisters cast their spells, harnessing good and the forces of nature.

There is yet a ray of hope. Truth be told in the prophecy of The Book of The Ancients.

In a fair world of good and evil, there’s a battle ahead. Justice is all in this moral universe. Darkness consumes itself.  The Light shines forever. Shimmering rainbows dance through shadows in the snow. Celestial light glows from the heavens.

The world of “The Snow Queen” is a romantic world; a fairytale, of castles and queens, rivalry, jealousy, revenge, destiny and inheritance. It is a world of sacrifice and redemption.

My book is an epic love story. Bryony, a young warrior with dark gypsy eyes, is the heroine. Over the sea, as if in a dream, she rides, and back again, on an ocean of forgiveness, to a land, long forgotten, back in time…

The Idea for The Snow Queen

My book is a reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s original story.The seed of an idea to have a gypsy protagonist in my story came from my late dad’s cousin who was a television producer for Children’s BBC Wales. At a churchyard gate, in Llanberis, she informed me that on my late dad’s side of the family, we are descended from Roma people.

My Writing Process

I have written at length about my writing process on Goodreads. Basically, I combine plotter and pantser tactics. I have an outline of the story and a sense of an ending before I begin writing. However, I think you can overplan, so I revise and adjust my ending at intervals in line with the resolution of the story. The characters “tell me” which way to go. It’s a process of forward and back, and thorough editing before it all comes together. I think spontaneity is what makes writing full of life and exciting. From the seed of an idea, to outlining, writing and several edits, it takes me about 18 months to write a book this length. Part of this is because I enjoy tackling a variety of projects so I am never working on one project full time until I reach the editing stage.

Suzy Davies is a writer of fairy tales.

She was born into a dual language family. Her dad was a lecturer, and her mum a housewife. Both her parents shared a love of art.

In her early days, Suzy lived in a big old mansion in Wales; her grandmother rented the top flat for a peppercorn rent, and Suzy, her mum, dad and grandma lived there in an extended family. 

The house made a huge impression on her in these formative years. There was something magical about it; it had iron gates, a long sweeping driveway, and an island of trees that screened it from the road, making it seem like Suzy’s secret place.

In the neighbourhood, in spring, there were country lanes of wild flowers, in summer, hedgerows where berries grew. In autumn, the sea mirrored the sky in stormy colours, in winter, frozen waterfalls made ice sculptures and tunnels.

All year long, there were birds.

From an early age, Suzy loved the magic of nature and wildlife, and this is reflected in her writing.

Suzy is an educationist, and her varied background includes teaching, life coaching, counselling and voluntary work. She has worked as a bookseller.

She resides in Florida, with her husband, Craig who also loves to write. They have two tabby cats who are semi-wild, Dinky and Glammy.

Follow Suzy on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/473767.Suzy_Davies?from_search=true&from_srp=true

The Robber Girl is back! Bryony has a special destiny, foretold in The Book of The Ancients.With her dark eyes on a handsome Roma boy, Sean, and a gypsy crown, she has a battle to win, cheating death. She must rescue Adam from the Snow Queen’s web of evil, defeating the wizard and his dark sorcery. If she fails, the evil couple will cast a maleficent shadow of doom across the world, enslaving all children until the end of time. In this tale of romance, magic, rivalry, inheritance and destiny, a heartwarming epic journey awaits.

New Release: The Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight by Jennifer Ivy Walker

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

Inspiration for The Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight

The Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight is the conclusion of The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven trilogy, a fated mates paranormal fantasy adaptation of the medieval legend of Tristan et Iseult (Tristan and Isolde), interwoven with Arthurian myth, Avalon, Elves, Druids, forest fairies, and dark magic.


My trilogy was inspired by the medieval legend of Tristan et Iseult, which I discovered while obtaining
my MA degree in French literature. When I became a high school French teacher, I wrote a little play,
Yseult la Belle et Tristan la Bête, which was a blend of the original story and the fairy tale, Beauty and
the Beast (which was originally written in French).


I decided to expand my play into a paranormal fantasy trilogy, incorporating dark tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande, birthplace of Merlin, Lancelot, and Viviane, the Lady of the Lake. Many of the French myths I researched were incorporated into my trilogy!


In this trilogy, the Emerald Fairy Issylte is the Princess of Ireland who has been denied her rightful crown
by her wicked stepmother, the Black Widow Queen. The Dragon Knight Tristan is the heir to the throne
of Cornwall and Lyonesse who leads Issylte’s army as she confronts the wicked queen. Armed with
otherworldly weapons, the fated mates join a cast of characters that include Lancelot, Viviane,
Guinevère, diabolical dwarves, Druids, woodland fairies, Avalonian Elves, and shapeshifting wolves,
bears, and mermaids—the Wild Rose and the Sea Raven trilogy comes to its thrilling conclusion in The
Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight.

Anything else to share?
My novel, Winter Solstice in the Crystal Castle, features some of the characters introduced in my trilogy.
It’s a steamy medieval romance between a fiery French princess descended for Viking Valkyrie and the
sullen, solitary knight who suffers an impossible love for her, winning the chance to compete for her
coveted hand in marriage in the perilous Yuletide Joust.


My novella, Flames of Flamenco, is a sizzling romance set in Montmartre, the bohemian heart of Paris,
between a talented artist who melts the frozen heart of the heroine with his passionate flamenco
dance.


Finally, my second novella, Amour in Avignon, is a Cyrano de Bergerac inspired romance which takes
place in the French city of Avignon during the world-famous Festival of Theater.
All of the works will be published by The Wild Rose Press later this year.

Enthralled with legends of medieval knights and ladies, dark fairy tales and fantasies about Druids, wizards and magic, Jennifer Ivy Walker always dreamed of becoming a writer. She fell in love with French in junior high school, continuing her study of the language throughout college, eventually becoming a high school teacher and college professor of French. Explore her realm of Medieval French Fantasy at https://jenniferivywalker.com/. She hopes her novels will enchant you.

Wielding a trio of enchanted Elven weapons to battle a dark wizard and a legion of diabolical dwarves, Tristan is faced with the impossible choice between saving the woman he loves or defending his endangered kingdom. Inexplicably compelled to remain in the sacred forest where he hears the voice of her heart, the heir to the throne of Cornwall incurs the wrath and scorn of his army when he decides to hunt for his captive mate.


Her verdant magic greatly enhanced by the mystical Morgane la Fée, Issylte must summon a
coalition of Naiad nymphs and celestial fairies to destroy a nascent evil as she fights to reclaim her
rightful crown.


When the Black Widow Queen unites with a malignant menace and a ghost from Tristan’s
haunted past, the Emerald Fairy and the Dragon Knight must ally with a triad of shapeshifting warrior
tribes to defeat a Viking Trident and defend their trinity of Celtic kingdoms.
Interwoven fates. Otherworldly mates. Destiny awaits.

New Release: Forward in Time with Jelly Beans by Michelle Godard-Richer

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

My sweet romance, Forward in Time with Jelly Beans, is the second story in a time-travel romance duology. It’s set in the small, fictional town of Mayflower, Illinois during the Great Depression where new doctor, Henrietta Hinchcliffe, realizes her dream of becoming a doctor during a time when the profession is still predominately male. But she longs for more—a soul-deep love connection like the one her brother Henry has found. Little does she know, she’s about to embark on the quest of the lifetime in the future to save her unborn nephew where she’ll meet another handsome doctor, Joshua Bingham.

The inspiration for this story came from the first book in the duology, Back in Time with Jelly Beans. I wasn’t ready to leave my characters and the fictional world of Mayflower, Illinois behind. In fact, I still feel the pull to my fictional town, and I may return there again someday.

I would call myself a discovery writer. I have a loose outline and a sense of where my story is going, but mostly I’m pantsing my way along. As I connect with my characters, I just let the story go wherever they take me. This lends to additional suspense and unpredictability, especially when I don’t always know what’s going to happen next.

Michelle Godard-Richer is an award-winning thriller and romance author living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. With her degree in Criminology, she writes edge-of-your-seat suspenseful stories with strong protagonists and diabolical villains.

Follow Michelle at her website: https://michellegodardricherauthor.com/

Forward in Time with Jelly Beans can be purchased here: https://books2read.com/ForwardinTimewithJellyBeans

In 1932, Henrietta Hinchcliffe graduates from medical school and jumps on the opportunity to reopen a clinic with Dr. Iain Carter. After realizing her dream, Henrietta should feel fulfilled, but she longs for more–the kind of soul deep love her brother and parents found.

Fate intervenes when a magic box of jelly beans whisks her away to the future. Soon after arriving, she discovers her unborn nephew will die in 1932 if she can’t find a way to save him. To complicate matters, the answers she seeks may lie with a handsome doctor named Joshua Bingham. 

Favorite Fictional Dads

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

Like what I did with Mother’s Day, I want to highlight some excellent fictional fathers and father figures for Father’s Day. Unlike with my fictional moms post, this one was harder to write. It turns out, there aren’t as many great fictional fathers as I anticipated. It seems that writers really like to have absent or subpar fathers in their stories (which I am guilty of). But I was able to find three for this first year of Favorite Fictional Dads.

Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter is arguably one of the best father figures in fantasy. Without having ever met baby Harry, Hagrid braves the wreckage of the Potter’s destroyed home to rescue him and deliver him to Dumbledor. Hagrid didn’t know what danger he could possibly face by doing that; after all, no one really knew what happened. Ten years later, he would jump back into Harry’s life to tell him he was a wizard and take him school supplies shopping.

Harry enters Hogwarts knowing no one but Hagrid. Hagrid frequently invites him to tea to give Harry a safe space to share his feelings about this new world. Hagrid is always understanding, but will offer advice and correction when needed. He also serves as a father figure for Hermione. While Hermione isn’t an orphan like Harry, her parents are muggles, so she is braving the wizarding world alone as well. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron and Hermione spend several weeks fighting, and Harry semi-takes Ron’s side. Hermione spends many nights crying in Hagrid’s cabin. Even though Hermione met Hagrid through Harry, Hagrid views her as her own person and continues to care for her regardless of her friendship status with the boys. I imagine that Harry, Ron, and Hermione aren’t the first lonely Hogwarts students Hagrid has befriended.

Charlie Swan from the Twilight series can be a complicated situation. When I was a teenager, I hated Charlie in Eclipse. But the older I get, the more I see things from his perspective. Charlie is a single father whose teenage daughter decides to move in with him when her mother marries a traveling baseball player. Charlie doesn’t really know how to be a dad, but he loves Bella unconditionally and he wants to protect her.

One of the many things my own father taught me was that no matter how much a man may dislike the boy dating his daughter, he never wants his daughter’s heart broken. Charlie doesn’t know what the reader knows. From his point of view, the boy his daughter is dating continually puts her in dangerous situations. She makes erratic decisions for Edward. And there is always the chance of Bella’s heart being broken, again. In Charlie’s, he has very good reasons to distrust Edward and want him far away from his daughter. 

And even though, to Charlie’s utter dismay, Bella stubbornly sticks with Edward, Charlie will support her. When Bella breaks her hand punching Jacob in the face, Charlie tells her he’s going to have to teach her how to throw a proper fist. He says that no one should kiss his daughter if she doesn’t want it. When Bella marries Edward, Charlie walks her down the aisle and provides his mother’s comb for her “something old” and “something blue”. And in the end, Charlie wants to be in Bella’s life so much, that he will accept the supernatural that she is now a part of, even if he doesn’t understand all of it. 

Charlie is the protective father who will support his daughter no matter what.   

William Stafford was real. He was the second husband of Mary Boleyn. However, his character adaptation in The Other Boleyn Girl is fictional. When comparing Philippa Gregory’s caricature of him and the historical facts that Alison Weir dug up for her biography on Mary Boleyn, Philippa Gregory’s version is fictional, so he can be part of my fictional dads post. (This isn’t a criticism of Philippa Gregory’s work. I highly admire her as a historical fiction author, and will probably write a post dedicated to her in the future.) 

In The Other Boleyn Girl, William comes into Mary’s life after her first husband has died and she’s been cast aside by the king for her own sister. William gains Mary’s trust and love by how he treats her two orphaned children: Catherine and Henry.* William teaches both children how to ride a horse and becomes the father they never had. In a society where children are used for what they can bring the parents, William is simply a loving stepfather. He doesn’t care that these children are of royal blood. He doesn’t care to get Catherine an advantageous marriage. He doesn’t care that Henry could serve the future king (if Anne can give birth to a living son). He just wants to raise them safely. 

Mary and William marry in secret and are forced to admit their “sin” when Mary becomes pregnant. This is William’s first biological child, but in his mind baby Anne** is his third child. He has always viewed Catherine and Henry as his. As the children grow and the court becomes more dangerous, William protects his children from their royal bastard status. When Anne is taken into the tower, William secretly rides to the palace Henry is living with other noble boys his age, and brings him home. Anne makes Catherine serve as her lady in waiting while in the tower.*** But as soon as Anne’s head is off her body, William sneaks up to the platform, pulls Catherine down and gets her on the road back home. 

In the fictional version of the Tudor court, William Stafford was the best stepfather the Carey children could have had. He raised them with love. He played with them. And as they grew and their lives became dangerous, he protected them and prepared them to survive their cousins’ reigns.  

*In the book, both are the illegitimate children of King Henry VIII that William Carey (Mary’s first husband) was forced to pretend were his. In real life, most historians agree that Catherine was most likely fathered by Henry VIII and accepted by William Carey, but Henry was most definitely William Carey’s biological child.

**In real life they had a son, but in order to keep them with the court so that Mary could be a witness to Anne’s fall and execution, Ms. Gregory made their baby a girl. Mary marrying in secret and giving birth to a son when Anne was struggling to carry a baby to term, caused Anne to cast her sister out of court. And Mary and William moved to Calais until she became the sole Boleyn heir after Anne and George were beheaded. 

***Once again this detail is also fictional. Catherine served as lady in waiting to Elizabeth I, not Anne Boleyn.

Happy Father’s Day! Give some love to the men in your life.

New Release: Back in Time with Jelly Beans by Michelle Godard-Richer

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

My sweet romance novella is set in the small fictional town of Mayflower, Illinois. The town’s economy is fueled by the Mayflower Jelly Bean Factory founded by Henry Hinchcliffe. Henry doesn’t realize it, but his life and factory are in jeopardy. And the only one that can save him is Bella Thomas, a journalism student from the future. But she’ll have to convince him to believe her wild tale of time-travel while trying not to fall in love with him knowing he’s destined to marry another.

The inspiration for this story came from one of the weekly chats hosted by The Wild Rose Press when the Jelly Beans and Spring Things Collection was announced. As a group, authors and our president Rhonda Penders were floating genres and ideas. Rhonda expressed a desire for more romance and the idea of time-travel came up. Somewhere in my brain, I connected the dots, and the idea of time-travelling jelly beans was born.

I would call myself a discovery writer. I have a loose outline and a sense of where my story is going, but mostly I’m pantsing my way along. As I connect with my characters, I just let the story go wherever they take me. This lends to additional suspense and unpredictability, especially when I don’t always know what’s going to happen next.

Back in Time with Jelly Beans is out today and can be purchased here: https://books2read.com/BackinTime

Michelle Godard-Richer is an award-winning thriller and romance author living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. With her degree in Criminology, she writes edge-of-your-seat suspenseful stories with strong protagonists and diabolical villains. Follow Michelle’s journey at her website: https://michellegodardricherauthor.com/

Fueled by curiosity, and her dream of becoming a big-time journalist, Bella Thomas digs deep into the history of her small town. Mayflower thrived until the local Jelly Bean factory burned to the ground in 1927, killing handsome founder, Henry Hinchcliffe, and devastating the economy.

In a twist of fate, instead of Bella finding the past, she’s snatched out of the present and transported to the factory a year before the fire. There she is rescued by the sweet and swoon-worthy Henry.

Bella can’t stop herself from falling for him even though he’s destined to marry another and suffer a tragic fate. Without any regard for her own happiness, Bella is determined to prevent the fire and save Henry. Even if he can never be hers.

What if a Global Pandemic Came from Space? An Interview with Lisa Wilkes

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

Last time Lisa Wilkes was on my blog, she was talking about her first book Flight Path in preparation for the release of her next book, Mid-Flight. I recently read Mid-Flight and am pleased to announce that Lisa agreed to an in depth interview. 

Lexi Brennan is a flight attendant in the year 2037 when a meteor shower veers off course and strikes earth. The plane her best friend is on is hit by the falling space debris and all on board are incinerated immediately. Lexi feels extreme guilt because she was scheduled to be on that plane as well, but switched shifts. Jason Bresline is an airplane mechanic who is called in to do emergency fixes when the meteor shower hits. His mentor is also killed on one of the planes hit. Jason’s engagement falls apart shortly after. He and Lexi meet in Orlando, FL a year later for different training sessions for Skyline, the airline they both work for. They spend each night after classes together, getting to know each other and falling in love.

But all is not well in post-meteor America. The meteor shower brought a new disease that humans are struggling to combat. The fear of this disease, ContaCan, causes extremists to seize control of the government and implement totalitarian policies. Lexi, her brother, her friends, and Jason plan a way to secretly fight against the new policies. Jason and Lexi’s relationship is also one of healing and self-acceptance. Both have past traumas and hurt that they have to overcome in order to fully give themselves to one another.

I really enjoyed Ms. Wilkes’ world building. The connections between the fictional ContaCan and the real life Covid pandemics are very clear. She also expands upon very real fears that POCs and LGBTQ+ Americans face. Basically, Ms. Wilkes answered “What would America look like if the extremists gained control?” The technological advancements were also very intriguing.

So, let’s take a look at Ms. Wilkes’ world building. First, this is a Sci-Fi Romance, so technological advancements are expected. In American 2038, everyone has a chip implant called AutoScan which allows you to call, text, and receive information using brain waves. Text messages, news articles, and Internet searches show up across one’s cornea. The image my brain conjured when reading was a miniature screen constantly on your eyeball. People also use their thumbprint to pay for purchases and identify themselves. But this thumb scan is more than a driver’s license. All information has been made public – for national security, of course.

The disease brought on by the meteor shower is called Contagious Cancer – ContaCan for short. The world went into quarantine while scientists scrambled to find a cure (sound familiar?). Once a vaccine was made available, the world attempted to return to normal, but one problem emerged: the vaccine didn’t work on everyone. These people are labeled AR, or Antidote Resistant. ARs are forced to register as such by having their documentation readily available and get a government sanctioned tattoo on their left shoulder blade that reads “AR”. As the story progresses, Lexi and Jason watch via AutoScan how the government continues to pass more and more policies that chip away at human rights for ARs. The whole thing is very reminiscent of WWII. 

Another layer to the story is the diversity representation among the characters. Lexi is bisexual, Colin is gay and suffers from mental illness, Jorge is gay and Latino, Jason is Black, Colleen is lesbian, and Reggie is gay and Black. Each character has suffered discrimination due to their race and/or sexuality. 

I think my favorite thing about the above representation is Lexi and Jason’s relationship. Lexi is white and Jason is Black, but their racial and cultural differences don’t play into the tensions and struggles they are facing. It was really refreshing to see an interracial couple who could focus on things other than race. Not to say race is or should be ignored, because it’s not. Lexi and Jason do have conversations about his experience as the youngest Black airplane mechanic in the south; it’s just not the main plot point. And as someone who is in an interracial marriage, I really appreciate what Ms. Wilkes did with that part of the plot. 

And now, onto the interview portion with Lisa Wilkes!

Chelsey: What was your inspiration for Mid-Flight? How did you come up with this story?

Lisa: Mid-Flight was originally going to be an aviation-themed love story, similar to my first published novel, Flight Path. However, Mid-Flight’s plot (and setting) changed drastically as I witnessed a lot of wild things occurring in society. The book was written in 2019 and 2020. At that time, I was completing my graduate school internship in the behavioral health unit of a hospital. Many of my clients had endured horrible abuse and mistreatment, which deeply impacted their mental health. I decided my next book would address those injustices. I wanted to shed light on the iniquities rampant in modern society, so my readers would be inspired to address these issues and take a stance in favor of equality and inclusion.

Mid-Flight’s characters are very diverse. Lexi is a bisexual flight attendant, Jason is the youngest Black mechanic at SkyLine Airways, and Colin is a brilliant programmer battling mental illness. The story aims to remind readers that we all have so much to offer this world. It also seeks to demonstrate that our differences can unify—rather than divide—us, especially as we work toward building a better and brighter future for all of humanity. I felt the book would be more impactful if it was set in the future, since the hostility and antagonism we see in our current world might be greatly magnified over the years, unless we take deliberate steps to protect those facing oppression.

Chelsey: How did you come up with the technological advancements? Are these advancements something you would like to see in real life?

Lisa: Mid-Flight’s technological references were a combination of my wild imagination and real-life initiatives/developments within the tech sector. For example, there are actual programs similar to AutoScan, where electrodes can scan our scalp for impulses and assess what we are thinking. Of course, there’s still a long way to go before the technology is perfected and made available to the public, but it was really fun to imagine how that might look fourteen years in the future!

I also really enjoyed writing about solar-powered cars, tablets, and buildings. I’m a huge fan of sustainable energy, and I truly believe our planet deserves far better than the treatment we have given it thus far. So it was exciting to envision the ways energy could be harnessed to power our lives without negatively impacting the environment.

Chelsey: Off the top of my head, it appears the majority of your characters identify as LGBTQ+. Was that a conscious decision? Or did your characters tell you who they were as you created them?

Lisa: I’d like to hope the world is becoming more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, although recent legislation would indicate otherwise. I felt compelled to write a book that offered a positive alternative to the recent hostility we have witnessed from lots of folks in power. In my novel, I aimed to show the beauty of all these characters with different preferences, identities, and orientations. Lexi’s sexuality is nuanced and complex, so I really tried to capture that with sensitivity. Her best friend and her brother are gay. They are also amazing humans who deserve to be valued and appreciated. I guess it wasn’t really a conscious decision for me, as the author of Mid-Flight. But I am so glad these characters showed—and embraced—their authentic selves for the whole world to see.

Chelsey: I would like to applaud you for writing an interracial couple whose struggles have nothing to do with cultural differences. Same question as above. Did you consciously choose the race of each character or did they tell you who they were?

Lisa: This was a conscious decision. Lexi had experienced her own struggles; she was no stranger to exclusion or microaggressions. However, she didn’t know the full extent of  discrimination until she met Jason and learned all the nonsense he’d faced because of his skin color. Lexi and Jason fell in love easily, linked by their tragic losses as well as their triumphs…and their powerful desire to make a difference in a broken world. It was important for these characters to represent different ethnic backgrounds. This reinforced the idea that true, deep, meaningful love is accompanied by a sense of moral responsibility and an ongoing quest for justice.

Chelsey: There are obvious connections between Covid and ContaCon. But the treatment of ARs also reminded me of WWII Japanese Internment Camps and Jewish Concentration Camps. What other world events (if any) inspired the AR plot point? And did you do any historical research for this part of the story?

Lisa: Interestingly, I had a wealth of knowledge in this area since I was completing my Master’s in Social Work when I wrote Mid-Flight. There are countless historical references to exclusion and annihilation of groups who have been vilified by the dominant majority. There are also tons of modern references, sadly; as a social worker, I have witnessed the effects of systemic bigotry. Recent attacks on the trans community have left people without resources, protections, or hope. I needed Mid-Flight to portray the horrifying possibility that extremists will continue to assault anyone arbitrarily deemed “other,” unless we expose and reject that widely-accepted mistreatment. 

The ARs in Mid-Flight, a small subset of the population with a genetic anomaly, might be a new concept. Their plight, however, is a terrible tale that’s been replayed throughout history. It’s time we say enough is enough. Lexi and Jason found a creative way to do this within their airline and their sphere of influence.

Chelsey: Is Lexi and Jason’s story going to continue? What’s next for your writing career? 

Lisa: Originally, I said there would not be a sequel to Mid-Flight. But I’ve been known to break my own rules, so it’s definitely possible I’ll write a follow-up novel at some point! In the meantime, I am working on a different project. I’m approximately 70 pages into my next novel, a metaphysical thriller about a love powerful enough to transcend multiple dimensions.

Lisa is an author, flight attendant, licensed social worker, and animal rescuer. She lives in Florida with her spouse and several rescue furbabies. Lisa uses her royalties to donate to animal rescues. Follow Lisa at her website: Books By Lisa Wilkes

Silver Flames: Overcoming Toxicity

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

Nesta Archeron is the Severus Snape of Sarah J. Maas’ ACOTAR series. Like Snape, the reader spends the first several books hating her as she tears down our heroine, Feyre. Unlike Snape, Nesta eventually acknowledges her shortcomings and works her way out of the toxic person she had become. 

The first four books are from Feyre’s point of view, so the reader’s view of Nesta is only outward: her words and body language. It isn’t until the fifth book, A Court of Silver Flames, that the reader gets to be inside Nesta’s head and learn about her memories, feelings, and interpretations of past events. 

As the oldest sister, Nesta has the most prominent memories of their mother before she died. Nesta was her mother’s favorite child, the family’s golden egg. She taught Nesta how to be cunning and aim for the best. She instilled in Nesta that she was better than everyone else and was one day going to marry very well. And so, Nesta became exactly who her mother raised her to be: arrogant, ambitious, and cruel. Their family losing their fortune crushed Nesta, and she was furious her father gave up and let them starve. Even in their poverty, Nesta still acted like a queen, expecting the rest of her family to figure out how to survive and serve her. She was especially cruel to Feyre, because Feyre was their mother’s least favorite. She protected Elain because their mother’s plan had been to use Elain’s natural beauty to snag a good marriage. Nesta is a product of her mother, and she is toxic. 

She is the toxic family member that today’s youth are encouraged by social media to cut out of their lives. I could not wait for Feyre to kick Nesta to the curb. As High Lady she could do it. But like other complicated plot points in the series, Sarah J. Maas decided to take me on a ride. 

Nesta’s journey to healing and redemption is a continuous one step forward two steps back path. And the first time the reader is fooled into thinking Nesta is progressing is halfway through Thorns and Roses. Feyre returned home for a couple weeks before she traveled to Under the Mountain to free Tamlin and his court. Tamlin had glamoured Feyre’s family into believing Feyre was off taking care of a sick aunt. Only, the glamor didn’t work on Nesta. She remembered everything and knew the truth. Nesta went so far as to try to get into Prythian on her own to find Feyre and save her, but she was unable to. Nesta encourages Feyre to go back to Prythian to get a second shot with Tamlin. But then her parting words are, “Don’t come back.” With that final statement, I realized Nesta still held resentment for her sister. 

In the Mist and Fury, Nesta refuses to allow Feyre and Rhysand to use the Archeron home as a meeting place to converse with the human queens. Nesta’s reasoning is that if anyone nearby finds out, they will all be in danger. Cassian promises Nesta that he will personally ensure that her property and the people who live on it will remain safe. When Elain wants to help, Nesta reluctantly agrees; but she isn’t going to do so quietly. She is incredibly rude to all of their guests, including the human queens (though, they deserved it). At the end of the book, when Nesta is forced into the Cauldron, she goes in fighting, and points a finger at the King of Hybern, a death promise. 

In Wings and Ruin, Nesta is so focused on protecting Elain, she fails to spend time accepting what happened to her. She wears a mask of judgment and arrogance to hide her pain. She continuously insults every character who tries to help or connect with her. She is especially nasty to Cassian. During the final battle, Nesta drops her mask and gets the reader’s hopes up that she is changing. She lies on top of Cassian, prepared to die with him, and Cassian kisses her; Nesta accepts the kiss. Frost and Starlight quickly shows us that we were wrong in hoping for improvement. She goes back to being angry and rude. 

At the beginning of Silver Flames, Nesta is cut off financially by Rhysand and Feyre. They end her lease on her apartment, and move her into the House of Wind. She is given two choices: 1. Live in the House of Wind, train with Cassian, and work in the library. 2. Return to the human lands, and take care of herself. There really isn’t much of a choice for Nesta. As High Fae, she wouldn’t survive the human lands, so she’s going to make option one incredibly difficult. 

Every morning of the first week, Cassian takes Nesta to the Illyrian war camp to train her. And every morning, Nesta sits on a rock and refuses to do anything, making Cassian the laughing stock among his warriors. Cassian is dumbfounded until he finally understands Nesta’s refusal: “I’m not going to train in this place.” The Illyrians are the most sexist species in Prythian. During the war they labeled Nesta a witch, and on her first day there to train with Cassian, they made comments about how any weapon she touches will have to be cleansed, especially if she is menstruating. So Cassian takes Nesta to the training grounds on the roof of the House of Wind, and she slowly starts to train and trust Cassian.

Nesta spends her afternoons working in the library that is below the House of Wind. This library is unique not only in the books housed there, but in the librarians who take care of it. The library is a sanctuary for high priestesses who are victims of abuse. Their trauma is so horrible, that they hide away from the world. Nesta becomes close to one high priestess librarian, Gwyn. She eventually convinces Gwyn to join in the training sessions, and they are joined by a female Illyrian, Emerie. Emerie’s wings were clipped by her father, prohibiting her from flying. She also battles her male uncles and cousins in proving she can run a business.   

Overtime, more priestesses brave the outside world to train with Nesta. Together, the small group of women decide they want to resurrect the training and creation of the centuries deceased Valkyrie warrior. Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn are the first to complete Valkyrie training and officially be named Valkyries. After that, Cassiand and Azriel set up a different obstacle course each day, that no female is able to complete. On the day that Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn finally complete it, two generals from the Illyrian army were invited to watch. The three females are then informed that they just completed the qualifying round that Illyrian males must complete in order to qualify for the Blood Rite – a yearly Hunger-Games-type of competition that warriors participate in. At the end of one week, the surviving warriors are ranked based on where on their sacred mountain they are found. 

During all of this training and friendship, Nesta has two other things going on. The first is using her Made powers to find three objects called the Dread Trove: the Crown, the Harp, and the Mask. They are sure that Queen Briallyn has the Crown. Which means they need to find the Mask and the Harp before she does. Nesta is a successful in getting both objects – a great risk to her and Cassian’s life. 

The second and hardest thing she is working on is her relationships with Cassian, Amren, Elain, and Feyre. Nesta is very attracted to Cassian, but she fights her attraction because she doesn’t feel worthy of love. (I also think she struggles with his friendship and loyalty to Rhysand because Nesta hates Rhysand.) She first gives in physically. The two engage in foreplay and eventually sex with the understanding that its “just sex”. Of course, it’s not. Both are crazy for one another, but Nesta thinks Cassian is just using her for pleasure and vice versa. They won’t admit feelings until it is almost too late. 

Back when Nesta was grieving, Amren was the only one who told the others to give her space. Nesta botched that compassion, and the two got into a big fight, causing Amren to walk away from their friendship. When Nesta accidentally imbues three blades with her Made powers, Amren votes to keep the information and the blades away from Nesta. Nesta is so furious when she learns of Amren’s distrust, she performs her biggest sin in the series.

Feyre is pregnant with a boy, and this boy has Illyrian wings. Feyre’s pelvis is High Fae and not shaped to safely deliver a winged baby. When it is time to deliver, she will die, and the baby will probably die as well. This information has been kept from Feyre so that she might have a peaceful pregnancy while everyone else scrambles behind the scenes to find a way to save her. 

When Nesta goes to confront Amren about her voting to keep Nesta in the dark about the magic blades, Feyre shows up to mediate. Nesta is so angry, she tells Feyre the truth about her pregnancy. Everyone is furious with Nesta: Rhysand, Cassian, and Amren. To be honest, this is the first time in the entire series I was on Nesta’s side. Feyre had a right to know what was happening inside her body. The whole thing felt like more a Tamlin thing to do than a Rhysand thing to do. Rhysand is ready to kill Nesta, so Cassian takes her camping in some distant Illyrian mountains. 

It is on this trip that Nesta cracks open all of her pain, trauma, and self-loathing. Cassian holds her, comforts her, and loves her. Upon their return trip, Nesta tries to do better with her family and friends. During the Winter Solstice she and Cassian spend the night together, and the bond finally solidifies. Nesta is scared of the bond, and her reaction upsets Cassian, causing him to say he didn’t ask to be shackled to her. Understandably, Nesta is hurt and commands Cassian to leave her alone until she reaches out to him, or a week has passed, whichever comes first. Nesta flees to Emerie’s cottage with Gwyn. The two help her accept her mate bond with Cassian, but before she can reach out to Cassian, the three females are captured by Illyrian generals and thrown into the Blood Rite. The only three females on a mountain full of misogynistic males who think females belong in the kitchen and rape is okay.

This final showdown is going to be the final test of love for Cassian and Nesta. They will have to make sacrifices for one another, for their friends, for their family, and for the greater good of keeping Prythian free from invading forces. In completing this final sacrifice, Nesta is going to atone for the sins she committed against Feyre since they were young girls. Nesta will overcome the toxic traits her mother had instilled in her and become a new person. 

Nesta’s redemption is beautiful. It doesn’t excuse her past misdeeds. She goes through an excruciating repentance process, and comes out white as snow. When I first started Silver Flames, I really did not believe that I would change my mind about Nesta in the end, but I did. A very well-earned 5 stars.

Silver Flames is the most recent published installment in the ACOTAR series. I have scoured the internet to find out if it’s the last one, because there are a lot of things left open at the end of this one. The only thing I was able to find is Sarah J. Maas’ website lists the series as an “ongoing series”. Silver Flames was published in 2021, so I’m crossing my fingers we’ll have an announcement about the next installment soon! I’m also crossing my fingers that the next book is Elain’s story. I really need to know if Lucien is going to step up and be a good mate or if Azriel is going to steal her away.