the DEFY TRILOGY is on KU!!

I woke up to quite the surprise this morning when I checked my amazon author page — apparently Scholastic put the ENTIRE DEFY TRILOGY ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!! I’m still working on getting the books back in print (more on that hopefully sooner than later) but I’m SO excited readers have a new and easy way to either reread the books, or discover them for the first time!

GET DEFY ON KU HERE!

Summary of DEFY:

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory. The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

I hope you will love Alexa’s story as much as the hundreds of thousands of readers who have already fallen for this trilogy over the last 12 years! Will you share this with your reading friends and let’s see if we can get this book back up into the top 100 again?? That would honestly be a miracle and one my family could use!

It’s been just over 3 weeks since Every Beat After came out, and I thought I would quickly pull back the curtain a little bit on what it looks like right after a book release.

First of all, at least for me, there are a lot of different emotions. Excitement, absolutely. That’s what you would expect, right? It is such an amazing and wonderful moment to finally see your book out in the world! And my launch party—though a comedy of errors (ifykyk)—was an incredible night!

But there’s also:

*relief (the anticipation and stress of prelaunch is over)

*nervousness (trying not to let myself look at goodreads)

*even some anxiety (are readers finding out about it? Is it doing well enough for me to sell my publisher more books?)

Do any of those surprise you?

Then comes the one question most trad authors have no idea how to reply to—unless their book hits a list, then it’s an easy one. But for the rest of us, when someone says, “How is your book doing?” we usually kind of have no idea? Or maybe that’s just me? So my answer is that I really really hope Every Beat After is doing well, finding readers, and touching hearts. I want to keep writing these kinds of books! And I’ve had some truly beautiful reviews of this book that make me think many of you do, too! (I know a lot of you have mentioned this story making you cry—sad and happy tears. But I’ll just say a lot of your reviews have made me cry. So are we even??)

GET EVERY BEAT AFTER HERE!

And meanwhile, I’m in the midst of my final pass pages for When We Were Everything, my next book that comes out May 4th of next year! The work of an author is always five steps ahead of what the world has in their hands. The cover reveal went live a week ago and a video of me pitching it at my launch party even went viral. It should be up for preorder soon! Did you see the cover? Have you heard the pitch? If not - check out my socials. I can’t WAIT to share more about this second-chance romance, about soulmates whose love gets blown up by a misunderstanding that makes him a superstar and tears her life apart.

That’s all from me for now — but stay tuned for next month when I’m going to share some writing advice and hints. If you have a specific question you want answered, reply to this email and let me know, or comment on this post on Substack. I might pick yours!

HAPPY SUMMER AND HAPPY READING!