2024 is shaping up to be a blockbuster year in books. In the first two months alone, we have:
- 1/9 Jayne Ann Krentz THE NIGHT ISLAND
- 2/6 Kristin Hannah THE WOMEN
- 2/13 Susan Mallery THE SUMMER BOOK CLUB
- 2/13 Susan Elizabeth Phillips SIMPLY THE BEST (Chicago Stars!)
- 2/20 Christina Dodd FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW in mass market paperback
And that’s only the beginning!
In less than two months, EVERY SINGLE SECRET!
On March 5, my next full-length suspense, EVERY SINGLE SECRET, comes out in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. From the moment I wrote first line, I knew it would be amazing:
Mr. Bandara, Helen Lamb’s first and dearest client, puttered in his kitchen, cleaning up their snack of coffee and biscotti. “I need a gardener to plant my spring flowers, the toilet is leaking, and I need an assassin to kill me.”
😳
Our heroine, Helen Lamb (real name Rowan Winterbourne,) owns The Fixer, a firm that specializes in helping her clients connect with someone to do the jobs they needed done. Most of her work involves repairs: gardeners, plumbers, housekeepers, construction workers, handymen. But she prides herself on always matching her clients with the proper laborers, people who will fix, clean, plant, repair, and most of all listen. For special clients, for an elevated fee, she also finds travel agents, nannies, doctors, and bankers. But never has she been asked to find an assassin.
But…Rowan can. Because of her shadowy past, she has connections. And because she finds an assassin for the dying Mr. Bandara, she’s distracted by grief and guilt…
Joe Grantham appears on Rowen’s doorstep, and for the first time, she gets it wrong. Horrifically, passionately wrong. She lets him in, reveals too much, and he blackmails Rowan to go with him to Raptor Island where she’s flung into a dangerous maelstrom of secrets, intrigue—and if she dares grasp the terrible challenge, the chance to reclaim the life and family she lost so many years before.
EVERY SINGLE SECRET…what are your secrets?
You can read an excerpt and pre-order your copy here.
The Husband is updating the Reviewers’ Club list, and every Christina Dodd newsletter friend is eligible to enter the contest and possibly win a place on the team. Watch for that email!
On June 25, A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA!
There’s a certain rhythm to creating a story that becomes a book. First there’s the wild euphoria of an idea, followed by the self-interrogation. Is this interesting to me? Do I want to write the story so much I’m willing to spend six months living with these characters? Then, very important to a working writer—will anybody want to read the story?
When it came to A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA , all those were huge questions because the form was so different to me: historical fiction, first person, a happily-ever-after fan-fiction retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. (Hint: They weren’t too good at suicide, which is nice because twenty years later, they’re the parents of seven children and still wildly in love.)
After I seriously consider the questions and the ramifications (I’m lying; I’m a fool-rush-in-and-write-the-story-I-love kind of author) I write the first few pages. Sometimes there’s some scrambling around, trying to figure out how to start the story. With both A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA and EVERY SINGLE SECRET, the first pages fell right into place and :cough: just about perfect, because they’ve barely changed.
In A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA, their oldest daughter, Rosie Montague, an almost twenty year old spinster, lays out the facts about her family (they’re all so poetic and romantic it’s exhausting) and her goal (to remain single by matchmaking any suitor with his perfect mate; in the past, she’s been wildly successful…which is why she’s an almost twenty year old spinster when Juliet, her mother, was a mere thirteen when she wed Romeo.)
Of course you know (because you read my books) by chapter two, Rosie’s good luck streak plunges off a cliff and incinerates with a fiery vengeance. She falls in love at first sight with Lysander of the House of Beautiful. She stumbles on the bloody corpse of her latest and much hated betrothed. She deals with swordplay, the large and charming Montague family, and the enigmatic prince of Verona. She’s bold, intelligent, impatient, funny and I love her. I hope you do, too.
You can read an excerpt, the reviews and pre-order A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA here. You’ll note this is an entirely different website than the Christina Dodd website; it’s easy to hop back and forth, look for the link on the menu bar.
You can also join the Daughter of Montague mailing list. Any empty spaces for the A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA Reviewers’ Club will be filled from that, and my publisher for the Daughter of Montague series has some great swag planned (I already know one thing that’s in the works, but I’m sworn to secrecy, darn it!)
Last but not least!
On February 20, 2024, the second full-length stand-alone suspense set in Gothic, FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW, will be out in mass market paperback with a fresh new cover twist and reduced pricing.
The excerpt and pre-order links are here, as well as the reviews.
“…a touch of magic, a dollop of mayhem, a drizzle of psychosis, a large splash of obsession, and just the right amount of sweet romance.” —Publishers Weekly about FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW
Or there’s this one on Amazon, my new favorite: 4⭐ “This book was weird.”
Um…thank you?
😂
Addendum: Because it made me laugh, I posted the review on Facebook and got this back as a comment from Reader Barbara:
“So glad that you have a good sense of humor. I wrote the “weird” review. I buy your books and they are keepers. The Bella Terra series is my favorite. Happy New Year!”
Fair enough. Everyone has their own taste, which is a blessing because I write so many different types of books. Thank you, Barbara, for reviewing my books! It means so much to an author, and this is the 700th review for FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW! 🥳
Finally…
I know what you’re wondering!
What are you working on next, Christina?
HA! I was right, wasn’t I? I’ve finished writing the second Daughter of Romeo and Juliet, it’s been edited, and currently it’s scheduled for July 2025. I’m writing the next suspense and it’s due March 1, just in time for me to travel to the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale AZ for my EVERY SINGLE SECRET autographing!
Let us rejoice. We have a lot of good times and good reading ahead of us. Happy New Year and happy reading!
Christina Dodd
New York Times bestselling author
A DAUGHTER OF FAIR VERONA June 25, 2024
“…A novel to sweep you away and lift your spirits…” — Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestseller
EVERY SINGLE SECRET Coming March 5, 2024
Never whisper the truth. Never reveal the past…
Printable/downloadable booklist sorted by genre, series and in order.
Books by Series with covers and links.
”Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain.
