I received a wonderful review from The Romance Reviews for my novel A Rose to the Fallen. They named it a Top Pick. The reviewer Maria Rya loved the story and gave it 5 stars! I’m glad she enjoyed my book so much. I’ve updated the Reviews page with a snippet from her review and added their Top Pick button to the sidebar.

After all the bad news I’ve been getting lately, I needed something to make me smile. What better way to brighten my mood than sexy, male eye candy. I found these new photos of German model, Lucas Buchwald. He’s the young man whose face graces the cover of A Rose to the Fallen. There are only a few people in this world that I think have perfect faces and Lucas is definitely one of them. His body is pretty flawless too!

I received an email from a reader named Kimberley who told me she enjoyed my novels A Rose to the Fallen and The Howling Heart. She’s an aspiring romance author, and asked me what I like and don’t like the most about being an author.

What I Like the Most:

Inspiring other people. My work has inspired a book, role-playing game, fanart, fanfiction, song lyrics, poetry and fanvideos. I’m especially flattered when someone tells me I’ve inspired them to start writing. I was inspired to write after reading other authors’ stories, so I’m happy I’m able to do the same for someone else. I’m glad I made the decision to make my mark—as small as it may be—in the publishing business so I can continue to inspire others in the future. If I can do anything in this world, it’s to spark someone else’s creativity in a positive light.

What I Don’t Like the Most:

Critics with a sense of entitlement who lie about you, but feel you shouldn’t defend yourself or you should kiss their ass, and like-minded individuals who support them. Some anonymous readers are under the delusion that if they buy your book, that gives them the right to not only criticize it, but also lie about you and you have to accept it. I don’t read books as much as I used to, but when I did, I never entertained the idea of telling disparaging lies about an author in a review because I didn’t like their work. I definitely agree with those who say the Internet is a coward’s haven.

I don’t know if some of you are aware, but the guy on both the old and new covers of A Rose to the Fallen is a professional model from Germany named Lucas Buchwald. Two years ago, I mailed him a signed copy of my book and he sent me photos of himself with it. I spoke to him through email and he really is a sweetheart. He’s funny too! Anyway, I found a new photo of him still looking as gorgeous and “Tristan-y” as ever!

Yes, it’s true…although my critics probably don’t believe it. Years ago, when I was on LiveJournal, I met author Jamie McGuire. She read my novel A Rose to the Fallen and it inspired her to write her own bad boy/good girl love story. In an interview with The Busy Bibliophile, Jamie mentions my book as the inspiration for her novel Beautiful Disaster.

Where did you come up with the idea for Beautiful Disaster? What about Providence?

I was reading “A Rose to the Fallen” by April Bostic and the bad boy/good girl storyline seemed fun. I sat down to write, and “C’mon, C’mon” by the Von Bondies came over my laptop speakers, and the first scene was born.

If Jamie ever reads this post, I want to tell her I’m glad I was able to inspire you. Your book is doing a hell of a lot better than mine, but I’m happy for you. Keep writing, girl!

The e-book version is on sale at the Google ebookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Google is selling it the cheapest for $3.03, and Amazon and B&N are selling it for $3.19. The retail price is $9.99. Take advantage of the low price if you haven’t read the book yet!

There will be spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t read A Rose to the Fallen and don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest you stop reading now.

Before I get to the point, I want to say to those of you who understood or liked the paranormal weaved throughout A Rose to the Fallen, this post isn’t addressed to you and you don’t have to read it. I’m directing my comments to the people who:

- Don’t get it.
- Think the paranormal didn’t work in the story.
- Think I just threw it in there as an after-thought.
- Think it didn’t make sense that Tristan is an angel. Read more »

Author and screenwriter Anastasia Blackwell posted a list on her blog from surveys of popular romance forums for Most Dangerously Jealous, Obsessive, Possessive Alphas in Romance Novels. My Tristan from A Rose to the Fallen made the list. According to her, “Crazy in love, jealous, obsessive, possessive males make intense romance heroes.” Well, Tristan’s friend Marco doesn’t call him a “psycho Brit” for nothing, and his brother Jake was spot on when he called him out for being obsessed with Bridget. I know the list is in random order, but it’s nice to be #1. She also mentioned Tristan last month in a list for Top Ten Jealous Alpha Males in Romance Novels. Yeah, I know Tristan has major issues. I like to think of him as a flawed diamond—beautiful and perfect on the surface, until you look inside and see all the ugly imperfections. I love my beautiful, flawed psycho Brit, and wouldn’t write him any other way.

I recently read this discussion on Amazon where people started talking about A Rose to the Fallen. I was actually surprised. The most common gripe was about Tristan being bisexual, and the sex scene between him and Justin. This includes the claim that Bridget was acting out of character. In between people complaining about that, they had issues with the ending, the paranormal aspect, and the editing. I popped in for a quick minute to thank one person who did enjoy my book. She wanted to read more from me, as long as the hero was straight, so I told her about The Howling Heart. Riley is a 100% heterosexual werewolf. Anyway, the whole point of this post is that reading the discussion reminded me of an earlier post I wrote in response to readers’ comments about the gay sex in my book and Bridget’s actions. I wanted to just copy and paste it into the discussion, but then I thought, That’s just too much text. Oh well.

I haven’t done one of these in a long time. I recently read a post on Tumblr from a reader named Hanie. She says A Rose to the Fallen is her favorite novel and she loves Tristan. He’s her ideal man and she wants to meet her own Tristan. If she reads this… Hanie, I’m glad you enjoyed my book so much that it’s your favorite. It’s makes me feel good to know my book is someone’s favorite because there’s A LOT of books out there. And I’m happy my character has made an impact on you. I hope you meet your own Tristan one day. Thanks again!