Jessica Cale

Hi everybody!  I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season! I know I've been a little quiet lately, but I have a few good reasons, I promise!  First and foremost, Liquid Silver has picked up the third book of The Southwark Saga series, The Long Way Home , and we are working hard to polish it up to sparkly perfection before unleashing it on the world on February 29th. Hurray!  Second, I've been up waaaaay past my bedtime working on a new Southwark Saga book, as yet untitled. As I write this, I'm about 30,000 words in to a holiday novel about the notorious Meg Henshawe. Can anyone guess what she's getting for Christmas? I'll give you a hint:  His name is Jake.  Lastly, I've been baking like a demon who bakes. In the last week, I've managed five batches of macarons, molasses cookies, and some peanut butter blossoms that are less blossom and more, erm, tasty peanut butter snow balls. Here's a picture of the macarons I honest-to

Hi, everyone! So, my purse is ultra boring. Nothing but piles of receipts, my wallet, phone, sunglasses, and my reading glasses which I can never seem to find. Instead, my character Genevieve Drake from the Vessel series will share with you what’s in her purse. FYI, Gen is a college co-ed turned demon hunter in New Orleans. Take it away, Gen! 1. Tommy Girl Hand Lotion —My hands get chapped, and a girl’s gotta smell nice, right? 2. Chocolate —Always have some stashed in my purse. Helps me in all kinds of emotional emergencies. 3. A Benchmade Knife —My dad’s first present to me when I moved out of the house into an apartment with my bestie, Mindy. (Check out the closeup! It’s got the cutest butterfly.) And Jude almost cracked a smile when he saw me carrying it. Almost. 4. Mindy’s Ferrari-red Lipstick —Mindy has way more fashion sense than I do and insists I wear it when we go out. 5. Pony Tail Holders —Gotta have ‘em. 6.   Bracelet —I bought this in the French Market becau

Resplendent Rush Resplendence #2 By Bella J Release Date: January 11th, 2016 Lexi is a vivacious, quirky, and fiercely independent woman with enough attitude and wit to intimidate even the most confident of men. Levi is a sexy-as-hell, cocksure, smoldering hot marine blessed with smooth swagger and cool confidence to charm his way into any woman’s bed. The one thing they have in common, though, is their disinterest in finding love. She’s determined to not let love interfere and dictate her life. And with his career, he doesn’t need the emotional ties and baggage of love, and dreams of white picket fences. But a few chance encounters have these two tangled up in one wild, passionate, explosive ride which neither of them expected, and which leaves them completely and utterly addicted to each other. Already in too deep, Lexi stubbornly fights her growing feelings for him and refuses to become vulnerable against the power that love seems to yield. She has witnessed firsthand how l

What's coming at the end of February and feels like it took about four years to get here?  That's right, The Long Way Home! Oh, and Leap Year, of course! Both will be here on February 29th, not even three months away. Hurray! The Long Way Home is Book 3 of The Southwark Saga. It takes place a few years after the end of Virtue's Lady in 1677 and follows silent barmaid Alice Henshawe as she becomes hopelessly lost in France and takes up some unusual employment. Jack is back and more gorgeous than ever, and he is tasked with finding Alice in the midst of the Franco-Dutch war.  Where is she? Can you guess? We're not in Southwark anymore, Jack... That's right. We're going to Versailles, baby.  Stay tuned for more information over the coming weeks! There will be ARCs to review, blog spots to beg, and way more French history posts than you ever knew you needed. It's going to be a wild ride.  Thank you all for your support and your wonderful revi

I'll hope you'll join me today in celebrating the release of Anneka Ever's new contemporary romance, Hearts Race! Hearts Race is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and I don't think this beautiful part of the world gets enough love on the romance front. If this photo of the mountains isn't enough to convince you, then maybe this awesome cover will. Oh my!  Congratulations, Anneka!  Hearts Race Burns Class of Love, Book 2 By Anneka Ever When it comes to adventure, she’s stop and he’s go. When it comes to romance, he’s yes and she’s no. Can billionaire Dylan Delaney overcome his adrenaline addiction with life coach Greta Larsen’s help before he loses his technology empire? Can she move past the death of her husband to find love again? When Greta finds herself attracted to her very rich, very handsome new client, she sees it as a betrayal of her late husband. Despite her feelings of guilt, she can’t walk away from Dylan, especially when s

I should probably be thrown out of the Girlie Girl Club because I don’t carry much in my purse. Given the opportunity, I don’t even carry one. I often stuff cash in a front pocket with a Chapstick or lipstick on the other side and I carry a very small, leather pouch for credit cards. Years of long distance traveling has taught me that a purse can get stolen so quickly and weighs you down. By the end of the day, your shoulders ache. I also have a tendency to leave it hanging on the back of a chair so more than once I’ve revisited a restaurant in search of the darn thing. Fortunately, I’ve only lost it once. So I often don’t take one with me when I leave the house. Unless I’m carrying. Yes, I have been known to carry a gun in my purse. And yes, I have a Handgun Carry Permit. And yes, I know how to use it. I hope I wouldn’t hesitate to do so if a life-threatening situation should arise. I am a shooter and can often be found on the range. To see a picture of the gun I carry, visit

Reason to Wed By Heather Boyd Book Seven, Distinguished Rogues Series Release Date: December 8, 2015 Genre: Regency Historical Romance Heat Rating: Sizzling Richard Hill, the Earl of Windermere, might desperately require a wife and heir, but thoughts of duty fly from his mind when he rescues Esme, Lady Heathcote, from the embarrassment of a failed affair. They usually never agree about anything. He’s never even kissed the vexing widow. But when the opportunity arises to whisk her away for a no-strings-attached rendezvous, Richard can’t imagine a better way to spend a moonlit evening. Esme has never lacked for admirers, but having Lord Windermere’s company goes a long way to ease the pain of losing her suddenly betrothed lover. And when Windermere suggests an affair, Esme is intrigued by the blazing-hot connection even while knowing their relationship has no future beyond his house party. But as with any temptation, it’s a bargain they’ll soon regret. Excerpt The ha

So, it’s my turn to dump the contents of my purse and tell you all about them. I must say, this feels akin to opening my underwear drawer and letting everyone poke about.  My purse functions as the mobile command center for my family.  I see my sunglasses are missing from the picture, but I never go anywhere without them. Someone told me years ago, when I was still in my teens, that they’re the best form of wrinkle protection, and I stick by that. The effectiveness of this method is a topic for another blog post altogether. Now let me explain myself, items one through thirteen 1. A collection of invoices that I’ll need within the next week or so. In this case, the invoice for my new glasses and beneath it for kitchen stools I’m waiting to be delivered. Pieces of paper get lost in my house, so my purse is the best place to keep them. 2. Um, it got nothing. These are receipts from grocery shopping, and I routinely get rid of them. Typically when I can’t find stuff in my p

When thinking of other historical periods, how much attention do you give to the food? Do you wonder what the Romans were eating in 44 BC, what King John dined on after signing the Magna Carta, or what was on the table the night before Lincoln was assassinated?  In spite of my love of history, and, well, my even stronger love of food, I hadn’t really combined the two. I know bits and pieces of random food history (many from reading historical romances!), but it wasn’t until I delved into research for A Matter of Time , my new Regency time-travel romance, that I had to really think about what would be on the table, and how a twenty-first century woman might react to it.  Of course, our heroine Eliza James feasts at a duke’s table, partaking in meals of a much higher quality than she’d likely encounter in the streets of London. Still, I easily pictured her shock at some of the foods, especially for a girl raised on modern American cuisine – and by that, I don’t mean the high falutin’