Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author April Asher to HJ!
Hi April and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A Simple Twist of Fate: A Novel!
Hello! Thank you for having me. I’m so excited for people to come on a trip with me to Fates Haven, Colorado (and you don’t even to wear snow pants to go there…”
Please summarize the book for the readers here:
During the Fates Festival thirteen years ago, plus size witch Harry watched the Blue Willow Wisp lead her best friend to who Harry thought had been HER Fated, her cougar shifter boyfriend. Brokenhearted, she left her magical hometown of Fates Haven w/ a vow never to return.
But now she’s back—with a shifter goddaughter in tow—and needs help from the local Alpha (who is none other than the shifter who once broke her heart). A SIMPLE TWIST of fate is a Gilmore Girls meets Halloweentown rom-com about second chances, found family, forgiveness, and creating your OWN Fate.
Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:
I don’t need a Blue Willow Wisp to tell me that my Fate lies with you
Also, “I’ll give you a fortune-telling tattoo, but don’t come back at me when you end up with a spitting donkey on your ass…”
Please share a few Fun facts about this book…
- When I was drafting A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE, it was first called FATED IN FATES HAVEN.
- I grew up on Gilmore Girls and loved the Halloweentown movies when I was a teenager and always wondered what it would be like if Lorelai was a witch and Rory was a shifter of some kind, and all the community had vampires and demons and angels, etc…
- When writing, I survive on Raspberry Snapple
- When I flirted the idea to my husband about having an erotic bakery named Sugar Tits & Treats in the book, he said, “I don’t think you can do that”, and I said, “Watch me.”…and then preceded to create a whole menu and now readers can get a secret recipe card from Sugar Tits by preordered, LOL.
What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?
Jax is a pure grump and introvert, and the epitome of ‘leave me alone to brood in my rustic cabin’, but when they were teenagers (and NOW), Harry always had the ability to draw him out whether she tries or not.
Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?
So I can’t give a snippet b/c it will totally give away a huge surprise at the end of the book, but let’s just say that at the first Fates Festival Finding Ceremony in thirteen years, the Blue Willow Wisps show up in mysterious (and interesting) ways…and it left me smirking while writing it, and editing, and re-reading it…
Readers should read this book….
- If you love Gilmore Girls or Halloweentown…
- If you adore grumpy male main characters and giggle when their lips ‘twitch’ into a smirk…
- Love fun, quirky side-characters that make you swoon, sigh, and laugh…
- Love witches & shifters & angels & demons & bookish vampires…and Fae
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?
o I’m currently working on my scheduled 2026 rom-com that is paranormal-adjacent (aka, NOT your typical shifter or witch kind of paranormal), and I’m also working on something in a subgenre of romance that I’ve yet to be published in and I’m SUPER excited about!
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
Giveaway: One print copy giveaway of A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE, US Winner only
To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Are you a Follow Your Fate kind of person, or a Create Your OWN Fate?
Excerpt from A Simple Twist of Fate: A Novel:
Cinna-Boob Buns & Erection Éclairs
Steam poured out from beneath Harry’s hastily bought station wagon, the literal bubble gum Band-Aid she applied to the faulty hose connection a few dozen miles ago doing next to nothing to hold it all together. Buying the thing from a guy nicknamed Bargain Ben was the embodiment of a risky move, but time constraints and monetary funds necessitated desperate measures.
The hunk of junk only needed to survive a few more miles.
Literally. Less than one mile away from the outskirts of Fates Haven, and then another two until they reached Pierce House, they’d made over sixteen hundred miles on hope, tears, and gas station junk food.
A lot of gas station junk food.
Her earbuds as firmly implanted as they’d been since leaving New York, Grace scowled from the back seat. “Are we ever getting back on the road? My sweat stains have sweat stains.”
“This should last us until with get to Aunt Nora’s. If it doesn’t, the search and rescue team can use it to track us down.” Harry let the hood drop and climbed behind the steering wheel.
She turned on the ignition and held her breath until the engine coughed back to life. “Practically purrs like a kitten.”
A sickly rattle shuddered through the car, backfiring out the tailpipe.
Harry winced, catching Grace’s eye in the rearview mirror. “So it purrs like a geriatric kitten. It’s still a purr.”
Eye roll one billion and twenty-three was sent her way as Harry pulled back onto the road, this time with the AC turned off for fear of overheating her bubble gum patch up.
A flock of prehistoric pterodactyls attacked Harry’s stomach the closer Fates Haven loomed in the distance. Located along Denver’s outskirts and nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains, the cozy supernatural community announced its presence—and its long-standing position as the global record holder for the highest FMP (Fated Mates Percentage)—with a massive age-ravaged welcome sign.
Become Fated in Fates Haven
Population: 8,584 Living
2,163 Undead and/or Undead Adjacent
“Wow. You take me to all the nicest places, Harry,” Grace deadpanned from the back seat. “We should revisit the ‘conversation’ about how dragging me here isn’t a punishment.”
“It’s not a punishment. It’s—”
“The last hope for the lost cause?” A dark eyebrow lifted toward her hairline. “Got it.”
Harry snapped her gaze toward the rearview mirror. “You are not a lost cause. And Fates Haven isn’t a punishment. It’s a great place to grow up. Why do you think I picked the Haven when my parents gave me the option of growing up here with Aunt Nora, or at one archaeological dig after another?”
“If it’s so great then why did you run away from here as if your ass was on fire?”
“How did you—”
The teenager snorted. “Please. You and Mom are never as quiet as you think you are when you talk . . . especially on Margarita Mondays.”
“If we aren’t quiet, then you should already know why I left Fates.” She shot the teenager a pointed look and got silence in return, counting that a temporary win.
The truth was even Cassie only knew the CliffsNotes version why she’d left Fates Haven thirteen years ago. Heartbreak.
Much more convoluted, the slightly less abridged version consisted of attending the annual Fates Festival Finding Ceremony 100 percent certain that the Blue Willow Wisp would guide her to her Fated, and watching that glowing bastard steer her best friend there instead.
She didn’t blame Elodie, or even Jax. Fate answered to no one but itself; and by participating in the Finding Ceremony, you risked discovering your perfect soul match was your mortal enemy since childhood . . . or worse. That it wasn’t the one you loved with your whole heart.
Knowing—and accepting—the risk didn’t prevent Harry’s heart from breaking or her feet from moving when she watched Elodie’s flame come to a flickering stop right in front of Jaxon.
College, New York City, and her friendship with Cassie helped her heal over time, but sputtering down Fates Boulevard toward Pierce House, her wounds reopened and sent an aching throb through her chest.
Or maybe they’d never healed, her time away having been nothing but a shoddy bubble gum patch job.
The town looked the same except entirely different. Lined with small white lights, Havenhood Park’s garden paths blinked like a fairy wonderland, prepped to indulge the fantasies of the Haven’s youngest residents or the adults simply looking for a momentary escape.
Since it was nearly eleven o’clock, not much remained open, but in the morning, Ezra Carmichael and his husband, Ali, would be sitting outside the barber shop at their usual table, with large cups of untouched coffee; and Genevieve Michaels, with a broom in hand, would sweep the sidewalk in front of her antique store, Timeless Treasures. But there were definitely a few business additions to the boulevard that hadn’t been there when she’d left.
Taking a deep breath to work through the heavy anvil pressing against her chest, Harry stole a glance toward Grace. For the first time during the entire trip, the teen’s face wasn’t buried in her phone as she watched the passing scenery with wary hesitance.
“It’s not New York—” Harry began.
“You think?” Grace snorted. “The sun practically went down a few seconds ago and everything is already closed. What do people do around here for the rest of the night?”
“Sleep?” Her joke earned her a glare. “Seriously, it’s not as bad as you’re thinking. The boulevard shops usually close early when there’s some kind of community event happening.”
“Like what? Bingo?”
“Maybe.” Her lips twitched. “Or there could be a movie night at Havenhood Park or a bonfire at Mystic Lake. Fates Haven isn’t individual people all sharing the same space. It’s one big—and sometime dysfunctional—family. It’s . . . home.”
Folding her slender arms over her chest, Grace slumped back in her seat. “It’s not my home, and they’re certainly not my family. Mine is currently on some pointless quest to find some rando sperm donor that most definitely does not want to be found.”
The teen’s icy words sent another sliver of pain slicing through Harry’s heart. “All I ask is that you try, Grace. Just . . . try. Please.”
Harry’s gaze flickered to the back seat; and in that split second, she didn’t see the snarly teenager but a scared girl doing her best to hide how much she was truly freaked out. Pushing her right now or dare mention anything about emotions, and she’d shut down quicker than the Fates Boulevard businesses on community bingo night.
With every block they passed, more smoke plumes billowed out from beneath the car’s hood. By the time the wagon rolled to a gradual—and permanent—stop down Nora’s long driveway, the engine released one final, ear-piercing death rattle and tuckered out.
Harry felt like the damn car.
Impatient for a shower, food, and to collapse face-first on a soft mattress, she slipped out from the driver’s side and soaked in the sight of Pierce House.
Decorated with colorfully bursting flower boxes that would magically bloom all-year thanks to Nora’s magical green thumb, the two-story captain-style house stood at the end of the street like a massive bookend, basked in a moony, ethereal glow.
Its large, wraparound porch had hosted more than its fair share of Teddy Bear Tea Parties and welcomed countless trick-or-treaters on Halloween nights. Harry had experienced second base for the first time on that very porch swing. It all seemed like yesterday, but the sagging swing and weathered porch’s aged wood planks said otherwise. The slightest weight could probably cave the entire structure.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Aunt Nora?” Harry murmured to herself, a weighty sadness settling in her throat.
“Wow.” Grace stopped next to her, the look on her face unimpressed. “Guess I can check ‘Living in a Horror House’ off my bucket list.”
“Gracie,” Harry warned.
Grace rolled her eyes as Harry tested her weight on the porch’s first step. The second her heel hit the aged wood, Nora’s welcome chimes, hanging from the front stoop, tinkled in a nonexistent breeze.
“You’re invited!” Her aunt’s voice filtered in with the music. “Come join us at Havenhood Park or risk boredom! And if you’re Harlow, know that I canceled the parade.”
Harry groaned. Havenhood Park this late meant one of two things. Either the entire town was present, or it was her aunt’s Craft Coven meeting. The former meant her low-key arrival wasn’t happening, and the latter meant potentially scarring the teenager at her side because her aunt’s crafting buddies were as fond of moonlight skinny-dipping as they were of plaster of paris sculpting.
Unwilling to chance either scenario and willing to do a little breaking and entering, Harry took another step and was met with both an ominous groan of wood and another musical chime.
“Before you go any further,” Nora’s magical voice warned, “you should know that the house is magically booby-trapped. Another step may lead to trapped boobies.”
Behind Harry, Grace snorted. “Is she serious?”
“Unfortunately.” Harry retreated down the steps, glowering at the offending chimes. “We’ll have to find Aunt Nora at Havenhood and get the bypass phrase.”
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book Info:
A witch and a shifter get a second chance at love in this new paranormal romantic comedy from USA Today Bestselling author April Asher.
At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow “Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Festival Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead. With a broken heart, all her belongings, and a vow to never return, Harry did the only thing a heartsick witch could do. Run.
Thirteen years later, she returns to her magical hometown—with her half-human, half-shifter goddaughter in tow—hoping that not only would the town work its magic on the troubled teenager, but that the local Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack could help Grace identify—and control—her fiery abilities.
Jaxon Atwood was a shifter of few words and even less patience… until his mother retired as Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack and left the running of things to him. It’s a headache he didn’t need, and one that brought the witch who’d ripped his heart from his chest knocking on his door.
Ever since the disappearance of the town’s Fate Witch over a decade ago, Fates Haven’s magic has been slowly going haywire. There hasn’t been a Fated Match made in thirteen years, putting the town in serious jeopardy of losing its title of Highest Fated Mates Percentage in the World. But now, something is stirring in Fates Haven, Colorado, and it smells like the past, tastes like change, and looks like A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | Google |
Meet the Author:
USA Today Bestselling Author APRIL ASHER was hooked on romantic stories from the time she first snuck a bodice-ripper from her mom’s bedside table. By day, April dons dark blue nursing scrubs and drinks way too much caffeine. By night, she still consumes too much caffeine, but she does it with a laptop in hand. She pens rom-coms with a paranormal twist, but also writes high-octane romantic suspense as April Hunt. She lives out her own happily-ever-after in Virginia with her college-sweetheart husband and their two children.
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