Day Drinking With Authors

If you haven't listened to Amy Clark's Book Gang Podcast interviews - you are missing out!  Here - let me help you out. Go listen .  She does impeccable research and asks brilliant questions and she really and truly only recommends books she loves.  Amy has great taste and she's never recommended a book to me that I didn't love.  (see recently - Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.) So...

Whenever Joshilyn stops by you know you're getting an excellent book and knock-down delicious cocktail. Today is no exception. The Missing Sisters has all her signatures: beautiful prose, excellent complex characters and perhaps the best opening scene I've ever read. And the Meadowlyn is like getting punched in the face by spring. Highly recommend. ALSO - I read the book but JOSHILYN NAR...

I love Mindy Hung. Her writing is like talking to a friend or having the perfect cup of coffee. It just feels good.  Mindy has written a little bit of everything under a bunch of different pen names but The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu feels like the perfect blend of all her talents. It's got some magic (some menopause) some romance some family drama and a GORGEOUS cover.  I can't recommend...

Like millions of you I read The Change a few years ago and it blew my little mind. Magic, menopause, female rage - it's a perfect witches brew for a fantastic book. Enter - The Women of Wild Hill. More witches than menopause, still lots of female rage and a dark destiny that ripples through a family. Kristen writes my kind of book - sharp but soft on the inside, full of women trying really ha...

Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare are dear friends and amazing authors so for the last interview before summer - you get a real doozie. We talk for OVER AN HOUR - so plug in those air pods and take us for a walk and then fill up your summer TBR with all of the amazing books they have out now.  In this interview we talk about the following books:  If I Told You I'd Have to Kiss You  Cosmic Love at Th...

The Phoenix Pencil Company is a Reese's Bookclub Pick!!!  When Allison and I chatted this had not been announced so I didn't get to ask her about that experience.  :(  But we had a fantastic conversation about the idea behind his fascinating book and it's magical premise. She talks about "hand wave" magic and the very real research she did on the historical timeline of thi...

Sake!? Mary Alice's secrets come out early in this interview!  And what an amazing interview with one of my all-time favorite authors about a book that feels very much in the Mary Alice Monroe wheelhouse but is SO different. It's historical, it's in first person and it's a CLIFFHANGER!    We talk about the challenges and joys of taking on all those variations in her process. Th...

Not only is an Aperol Spritz one of my favorite drinks of all time - I have not stopped talking about this book. I told my mom. My friends. I told my teenage son about this book.  There is something about the world Elisabeth makes up and the world she reveals - that has completely captured my attention. Part of it, is that the books feels a little bit like a Stephanie Plum mystery but with a more...

This happened. This really happened. I got to talk to Jennifer Weiner about her latest release The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits. We talked about everything - everything . How we celebrate -or don't celebrate!  Her musical inspirations for this new release, she gave me some insider knowledge on how she writes men and we talked a lot about the toxic '90's in pop culture. I mana...

I had the privilege of reading this book months before it was released and it has felt like I've been keeping an amazing secret, but now that it's out and I really want tot talk about it with someone! Anyone! MOM! read this book!!!  This book has a HUGE heart, an unbelievable protagonist and absolutely show-stealing secondary characters.  Holly and I talk about how Denny just arrived in...

You know how books are often advertised as "swoony" and it's a word that gets tossed around so much that it's perhaps lost it's meaning? I couldn't tell you before reading No Ordinary Love what it meant for a book to be "swoony."   Enter - No Ordinary Love and in particular Miles. And... I get it now. Swoony, for me, has everything to do with the hero. And M...

Oh! OH! This book! This weird drink! And Lauren! What is not to love about this episode?  I love everything Lauren writes - her touch with historical fiction is so deft. It's enlightening and page turning and as a reader I am never once bogged down by research - so much so her books feel like peeks into the homes and hearts of real people living in fascinating times. And this book is part cou...

The premise of this book made me gasp. Made me read far into the night. Nora is dating Garrett. Garrett works for death. Clever, right? But there's more... Garrett is middle-management for death. There's a company structure and he's working his way up the ladder. This, of course, is totally a secret.  He says his job is logistics and that makes sense.  Nora is grieving the loss of h...

I sat down with a glass of white wine to talk to one of my favorites - Rochelle Weinstein about her latest novel We Are Made of Stars. If you are a fan of the TV show White Lotus or the book/TV show Nine Perfect Strangers - this book is for you.  Strangers gather at an inn for a week and drama unfolds.   There's good food, excellent wine and everyone is keeping secrets. We talk about the plea...

Oh, we all need an escape right now. The news is crushing. The weather is awful. Even my dog is bummed. Well, Jillian and Meredith have the right book at the right time - Sweet Escape. It's book two in a series but can be read alone, though, why not read the first one too? What else are you going to do? Shovel snow and doom scroll?  Come for the romance which is crackly, tension-filled and HO...

I barely managed to stop this from turning into a fan girl moment for Elizabeth Lowell. It is so rare that I find someone who shares my outrageous fandom for that author - and here is Adriana ready to talk about her for days.  BUT we had more important things to talk about - A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke currently a USA Today Bestseller!  Adriana gets very real about ending a series and how writi...

I know, I know, I said no more witches but who can resist a sentient garden? Who can resist ivy that senses emotions or a plum tree that's fruit is an opiate? Who can resist a heroine who feels trapped by the garden but the garden is the only thing that's ever taken care of her?  NOT ME! I CAN NOT RESIST!  The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt is a delicious novel about a woman coming into...

Oh! OH! This one is BONKERS! You're going to need a Bloody Mary at some point while reading this absolute page turner.   Alison combines conspiracy theories, cults and grief. It's a huge story and also a very small story. I honestly feel like there were some magic tricks in the writing of We Are Watching - all of which we talk about in our fantastic conversation. “Alison Gaylin proves on...

This is one for the authors. Any author. All The authors.  Forget every bit of pacing advice you've ever been given and pick up Ines' book - Page Turner Pacing How To Write a Bingeworthy Novel in 21 Days Using the Addictive Principals of Episodic TV.  This book is broken, for me, into two parts. The beats tv writers use to keep viewers coming back for more and how to use them to write a...

There are a few things that make an author a favorite. And what makes Naima Simone a favorite of mine - is she always understands the assignment. This is a writer who gets romance. She knows how to pay off the tropes, how to create fully alive characters and most importantly, keep the pages turning.  I've read a lot of Naima's books but nothing prepared me for Church Girl.  It's hot...

I had no idea Queen Elizabeth II had a favorite cocktail. Did you? A Dubbonet and Gin and let me tell you, that first sip is a doozy, but after that it's delicious drinking. Much in the same way Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor's latest release: Christmas With The Queen is just delightful reading. Rich with historical details and cozy Christmas details and a lovely star-crossed love story. ...

Monica stops by to talk about her fascinating and fast-paced Historical Fiction - The Jewel of the Blues while sipping the most sophisticated cocktail there is - The French 75. Deliciousness all the way around. The Jewel of the Blues rich with impeccable and fascinating research about the 1920's Vaudeville Circuit.  We discuss her fantastic touch with dialogue and the interesting choices she...

Oh!!! Such a treat this week. Mimi Matthews bestselling author of The Siren of Sussex sits down to talk about the last book in her Belles of London series - The Muse of Maiden Lane.  We talk about the joys and challenges of finishing a beloved series and we have a very forthright conversation about the inspiration for Teddy, her artist hero who uses a wheelchair.  And while neither of us drink a G...

This is the last witch, I promise!  Charlotte Stein is top-tier romance. Years ago I asked her how she kept the romantic and sexual tension in her books at such an excruciating point.  She gives her insightful answer in the podcast...  if you love romance and haven't read Charlotte - do yourself a favor and pick up How To Help A Hungry Werewolf. It has her delightfully absurd world-building a...

Hey hey!!! Who wants more witches? Me! And with a Groundhog Day time twist? Yes Please!  Celestine Martin sits down with the last of her stash of pumpkin cold brew to discuss all things witchy.  Deja Brew is the third book in her Elemental Love series and features a dreamboat of a hero who is trying to change his bad boy ways.  In this spellbinding rom-com about a wish gone wrong, two opposites mi...