FIRST CHAPTER FUN

First Chapter Fun – Episode 329 – THOSE EMPTY EYES by Charlie Donlea

About THOSE EMPTY EYES: Alex Armstrong has changed everything about herself—her name, her appearance, her backstory. She’s no longer the terrified teenager a rapt audience saw on television, emerging in handcuffs from the quiet suburban home the night her family was massacred. That image of Alex, wide-eyed and terrified, circulated around the country until the tabloid-created girl named Empty Eyes replaced the teenaged girl Alex had once been. Accused of the killings, Alex fought to clear her name and eventually took the stand during her highly publicized trial that captured the attention of the nation.

Now, ten years later and fully exonerated, true crime fanatics still believe Alex was the one who pulled the trigger the night her parents and brother were killed, and they’ll stop at nothing to track her down. While the freaks and geeks wait for a damning piece of evidence to materialize that will finally prove that Empty Eyes killed her family, Alex is the only one looking for the truth. And she finds it in the unlikeliest of places—smack dab in the middle of the brand-new life she has created for herself.

About the author: Charlie Donlea is the #1 internationally bestselling author of seven thrillers. Praised for his "soaring pace, teasing plot twists" (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that "makes your jaw drop" (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a "bold new writer...on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense" (Publishers Weekly). A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel, THE FIRM by John Grisham, and knew he would someday write thrillers. His books have now been translated into twenty languages across nearly forty countries. He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children.

Connect with Charlie:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CharlieDonleaAuthor

Instagram: www.instagram.com/charliedonlea

Twitter: www.twitter.com/charliedonlea

Website: www.charliedonlea.com

Meet your First Chapter Fun hosts Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan and join us for First Chapter Fun ever Tuesday, live on Facebook and Instagram at 12.30pm ET (or catch up later on this podcast).

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

First Chapter Fun – Episode 328 – NEVER MEANT TO MEET YOU by Alli Frank & Asha Youmans

About NEVER MEANT TO MEET YOU: Self-appointed fixer of other people’s woes Marjette Lewis is uncharacteristically determined to keep to her side of the driveway when it comes to her flawless neighbor Noa Abrams.

Professionally, Marjette has her hands full as she prepares for a new class of kindergarteners and her first year of teaching without her best friend, Judy, as campus “Black-up.” And at home, her son’s budding manhood challenges her expectations, and her vexing ex-husband continues to be a thorn in her side.

But when tragedy strikes Marjette’s street, and an unexpected child shows up on the first day of school with an uncle who has all the class moms aflutter, Marjette is forced to contend with both her neighbor and her own heartache over losing the life she once thought was guaranteed.

About the authors:

Alli Frank is a contributing essayist in the anthology Moms Don’t Have Time to: A Quarantine Anthology. Alli has worked in education for more than twenty years, from boisterous public high schools to small, progressive private academies. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities, Alli lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.

Asha Youmans spent two decades teaching elementary school students. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Asha lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and has two grown sons.

Connect with Alli & Asha:

Facebook: AlliandAsha

Instagram: www.instagram.com/alliandasha

Twitter: www.twitter.com/alliandasha

Website: www.alliandasha.com

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

First Chapter Fun – Episode 327 – IT’S ONE OF US by J.T. Ellison

Listen to internationally bestselling author Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of IT’S ONE OF US by J.T. Ellison, which is available now!

About IT’S ONE OF US: Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can’t be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately  wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she’s at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park.

DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park’s son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don’t have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold—or how many children he has sired...but he has fathered a killer.

About the author: J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries. J.T. lives with her husband and twin kittens in Nashville, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Connect with J.T.:

Facebook: J.T. Ellison

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thrillerchick

Twitter: www.twitter.com/thrillerchick

Website: www.jtellison.com

Join us for First Chapter Fun again next Tuesday on Facebook and Instagram (or here).

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

Listen to bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan read the description and opening pages of ALL THAT IS MINE I CARRY WITH ME by William Landay, which is available now.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/williamlanday

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamlanday/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamlanday

Website: https://www.williamlanday.com/

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

Listen to author Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of TRUTH IS A FLIGHTLESS BIRD by Akbar Hussain, which is available now!

About TRUTH IS A FLIGHTLESS BIRD: Nice, an eccentric UN worker, involved in the dangerous world of her drug trafficking boyfriend in Mogadishu, is kidnapped by Hinga, a corrupt police officer working for drug lords, and Ciru, a complicated woman with a tragic past of her own. Her old flame Duncan, a white American pastor, in an attempt to save her is uprooted from his expat middle-class bubble and forced to navigate the moral complexities of the Nairobi underground fraught with characters fighting for survival. Set against the impending arrival of President Obama to Kenya, Truth is a Flightless Bird, a crime novel, is an exploration of colonialism and current imperial and capitalist structures that create and perpetuate violence.

About the author: Akbar Hussain is the author of "Truth is a Flightless Bird", a Kenya-based novel, which has been optioned for an eight-part television miniseries. Aki is also a successful entrepreneur, co-founding a financial technology start-up while living in Nairobi. He has common and civil law degrees from McGill University. When not writing fiction or running the fintech, Aki can be found walking his Labrador Lucy, with his partner and their three children.

Connect with Aki:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/akithewriter

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Akidovic

Website: www.Akbarhussain.net

Join Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan for Fist Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET on Facebook and Instagram. Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

Listen to Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT by Amber & Danielle Brown, which is available now!

About SOMEONE HAD TO DO IT: Brandi Maxwell is living her dream as an intern at the prestigious Manhattan fashion house Simon Van Doren. Except “living the dream” looks more like scrubbing puke out of couture dresses worn by hard-partying runway models and putting up with constant microaggressions from her white colleagues. Still, she can’t help but fangirl over Simon’s it-girl influencer daughter, Taylor. Until one night at a glamorous Van Doren party, when Brandi overhears something she shouldn’t have, shattering her life—and inextricably intertwining her fate with Taylor’s.

Taylor Van Doren has everything...and is this close to losing it all. Her horrible father—who, as far as she’s concerned, is responsible for her mother’s death—has threatened to donate her entire inheritance to a wildlife charity if she fails her next drug test. And to make matters worse, he’s about to marry someone who’s practically Taylor’s own age, further jeopardizing her stake in her father’s fortune. Taylor wants the money that’s rightfully hers. Wouldn’t it be terrible if something happened to Simon?

All she needs is the perfect person to take the fall for it...

About the authors: Amber and Danielle Brown both graduated from Rider University where they studied Communications/Journalism and sat on the editorial staff for the On Fire!! Literary Journal. Following their degrees, they pursued a career in fashion and spent five years in NYC working their way up from interns to assistants to then managing their own popular fashion + lifestyle blog. Amber is also a screenwriter. They currently live in Los Angeles.

Connect with Amber & Danielle:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amberanddanielle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ambersharelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dani_nicbrown

Website: www.amberanddanielle.com

Join Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan for Fist Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET on Facebook and Instagram. Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

Listen to author Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of BLACK CANDLE WOMEN by Diane Marie Brown, which is available now!

About BLACK CANDLE WOMEN: Generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them.

But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it’s even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies.

Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, the family is set on a collision course dating back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter—where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love…

About the author: Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.

Connect with Diane:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriterDiChick

Instagram: www.instagram.com/diane_marie_brown

Twitter: www.twitter.com/writerdichick

Website: www.dianemariebrown.com

Join Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan for Fist Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET on Facebook and Instagram. Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

Listen to crime author Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of TRUTH IS A FLIGHTLESS BIRD by Akbar Hussain, available now!

About TRUTH IS A FLIGHTLESS BIRD: Nice, an eccentric UN worker, involved in the dangerous world of her drug trafficking boyfriend in Mogadishu, is kidnapped by Hinga, a corrupt police officer working for drug lords, and Ciru, a complicated woman with a tragic past of her own. Her old flame Duncan, a white American pastor, in an attempt to save her is uprooted from his expat middle-class bubble and forced to navigate the moral complexities of the Nairobi underground fraught with characters fighting for survival. Set against the impending arrival of President Obama to Kenya, Truth is a Flightless Bird, a crime novel, is an exploration of colonialism and current imperial and capitalist structures that create and perpetuate violence.

About the author: Akbar Hussain is a successful entrepreneur, co-founding a financial technology start-up while living in Nairobi. He has common and civil law degrees from McGill University. When not writing fiction or running the fintech, Aki can be found walking his labrador Lucy, with his partner and their three children.

Connect with Aki:

Facebook: Akbar Hussain

Instagram: www.instagram.com/akithewriter

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Akidovic

Website: www.Akbarhussain.net

Join Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan for Fist Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET on Facebook and Instagram. Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

First Chapter Fun – Episode 322 – THEY COME AT KNIGHT by Yasmin Angoe

Listen to crime author Hank Phillippi Ryan read the description and opening pages of THEY COME AT KNIGHT by Yasmin Angoe, which is available now!

About THEY COME AT KNIGHT: For elite assassin Nena Knight, eliminating dangerous players on the world stage is part of the job. The Tribe, a powerful business syndicate in Africa, ensures that she has those opportunities. But for Nena, the Tribe is more than just her employer; it’s an organization that supports the African people―until it turns on itself.

As Nena embarks on a new mission, a violent siege by a paramilitary group throws the Tribe into chaos, and mysterious acts of violence plague the Tribe’s territories. As the attacks escalate, Nena suspects a different kind of enemy at play: someone on the inside, determined to undermine the Tribe’s leaders.

As this new threat closes in on her own family, Nena enlists a team to root out the danger. But as she gets closer to the truth, she will have to risk everything to protect the future she holds dear―even if it means facing off with an enemy she never expected.

About the author: Yasmin Angoe is the Anthony-nominated, and first-generation Ghanaian American, author of the critically acclaimed "Her Name Is Knight" and the second of the Nena Knight series, "They Come At Knight." She is the recipient of the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award from Sisters in Crime. Reviews of her work can be found in The New York Times, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly, to name a few, and was listed as Amazon’s “Best Book of the Month” and “Editor’s Pick.” They have also appeared on OprahDaily.com, PopSugar, and in Women’s World and The Guardian. The final of the trilogy, IT ENDS WITH KNIGHT releases September 2023.

Connect with Yasmin:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/yasminangoeauthor

Instagram: www.instagram.com/author_yas

Twitter: www.twitter.com/yasawriter

Website: www.yasminangoe.com

Join Hannah Mary McKinnon and Hank Phillippi Ryan for Fist Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET on Facebook and Instagram. Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Happy reading everyone!

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author's and publisher's permission

First Chapter Fun – Episode 321 – THE HOUSE GUEST by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Listen to internationally bestselling author Hannah Mary McKinnon read the description and opening pages of The House Guest by First Chapter Fun's very own Hank Phillippi Ryan, which is available February 7, 2023!

About The House Guest: After every divorce, one spouse gets all the friends. What does the other one get? If they’re smart, they get the benefits. Alyssa Macallan is terrified when she’s dumped by her wealthy and powerful husband. With a devastating divorce looming, she begins to suspect her toxic and manipulative soon-to-be-ex is scheming to ruin her—leaving her alone and penniless. And when the FBI shows up at her door, Alyssa knows she really needs a friend. And then she gets one. A seductive new ally, one who’s running from a dangerous relationship of her own. Alyssa offers Bree Lorrance the safety of her guest house, and the two become confidantes. Then Bree makes a heart-stoppingly tempting offer. Maybe Alyssa and Bree can solve each other’s problems.

About the author: Hank Phillippi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of 14 psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, five Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also the on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors.

National book critics call her a superb and gifted storyteller; she’s the only author to win have won the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction. Hank hosts CRIME TIME on A Mighty Blaze, and co-hosts First Chapter Fun and The Back Room. She's a founder of MWA University, and a past president of National Sisters in Crime.  She lives in Boston.

Connect with Hank:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/HankPhillippiRyanAuthor

Instagram: www.instagram.com/hankpryan

Twitter: www.twitter.com/hankpryan

Website: www.hankphillippiryan.com

Join Hannah Mary and Hank for First Chapter Fun, live, every Tuesday at 12.30pm ET for the opening pages of a new book on Facebook and/or Instagram. First Chapter Funsters can interact with the authors on the posts during the live readings, enter giveaways and be the first to know about special events.

Please follow your First Chapter Fun hosts on Facebook and Instagram for their latest updates:

www.facebook.com/HankPhillippiRyanAuthor / www.instagram.com/hankpryan

www.facebook.com/HannahMaryMcKinnon / www.instagram.com/hannahmarymckinnon

Happy reading everyone.

Stay safe. Stay kind. See you next time on First Chapter Fun!

Hank & Hannah x

Note: read with the author’s and publisher’s kind permission