Veronica Jorge: January Featured Author
January 1, 2026 by Veronica Jorge in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Featured author, Reviewed by Veronica Jorge, Veronica Jorge, Write from the heart
Manager, Educator, and former High School Social Studies teacher, Veronica credits her love of history to the potpourri of cultures that make up her own life and to her upbringing in diverse Brooklyn, New York.
Her genres of choice are historical fiction, where she always makes new discoveries, literary works because she loves beautiful writing, and children’s picture books because there are so many wonderful worlds yet to be imagined and visited.
She currently resides in Macungie, PA., but she’s still a Brooklyn girl at heart. How sweet it is!
Veronica’s story “Fiona Malone’s Fesh,” was featured in the Fall 2021 Issue of Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and is archived above.
In addition to her fiction, she has a monthly column, Write from the Heart, here on A Slice of Orange where she writes about writing, life and does book reviews.
Connect with her on Facebook @VeronicaJorgeauthor
Books Reviewed by Veronica
Spotlight on Bella Barwin
December 31, 2025 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Spotlight tagged as Bella Barwin
Bella Barwin writes galaxies ruled by dark dominance, desire, and the sting of surrender. The Alien Masters of A’Llure series features stand-alone romances in an interconnected world, with alien masters and feisty dragon heroines.
Claiming His Dragon:
A Dark Sci-Fi Alien Romance
Alien Masters of A’Llure Book 1
Jenna Barwin
ISBN: 9781952755309
Hidden Press Publishing
2025
My palm itches with the desire to tame her.
Ordered by my A’Llurian clan to choose a mate from the Drag’gon ambassadors, I expect cold negotiations and strategic pairings.
Then I see her.
Elegant. Spirited. With eyes that challenge and lips made for defiance. She awakens something deep inside me—something primal. My laz’zo stirs with the need to claim, to guide, to protect.
But she’s royalty, and royalty doesn’t follow orders or submits. Especially not to a hardened starship commander like me.
She’ll fight. She’ll defy. But I have ways of teaching obedience—lessons I’ll impress upon her slowly, thoroughly.
Until she learns. Not all cages are cold. Not all chains are visible. And love? Love can be the most exquisite restraint of all.
Because in the end, she’ll be mine—bound to me in every way that matters.
Capturing His Dragon
A Dark Sci-Fi Alien Romance
Alien Masters of A’Llure Book 2
Bella Barwin
978-1952755323
Hidden Depths Publishing
2025
She isn’t what she seems…
Standing in my spaceship’s brig, she’s a vision of fire—hair the color of a blood-lit sunset, skin patterns shimmering with edges of molten gold. Breathtaking.
But she’s also a stowaway—a shapeshifting dragon who infiltrated my spaceship, slipped past my crew, and dared to think she could remain unseen.
Defiant. Untamed. A potential enemy spy I cannot ignore.
Yet she stirs every ruthless instinct I keep buried, igniting a hunger as dangerous as it is undeniable.
And soon, she’ll learn that in my world, actions have consequences—consequences that are deeply bound together with desire…
Bella’s Books
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A Review of Merry Belles: A Bluestocking Collection with Friends
December 29, 2025 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Book Reviews tagged as A review, Alina K. Field, Bluestocking Belles, Christmas Stories, new release
Merry Belles:
A Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends
Published by Bluestocking Belles
Print December 7, 2025
Ebook: December 20, 2025
ISBNS:
Print: 978-1965509067
Ebook: 978-1965509050
Authors: Caroline Warfield. Elizabeth Donne, Cerise DeLand, Alina K. Field, Sherry Ewing, Jude Knight, and Rue Allyn
This lovely collection contains seven short Christmas stories set in Regency England. The stories are all entertaining and perfect for a lunchtime or an after dinner read. I appreciated that several of the stories had older heroines and had common people like doctors, housekeeper and soldiers at their centers.
My two favorites were Lady Loughton’s Last Wager by Alina K. Field and Maggie’s Wheelbarrow by Jude Knight. Lady Loughton featured an older widow and a younger rake. I loved how she dealt with her male children (and friends). Maggie was a war bride with two children and little money looking for her soldier husband. Ms. Knight did a good job with amnesia part of the story, which I appreciate as a family member suffers from both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Many authors don’t take such care and that can make reading amnesia stories difficult for me. I really enjoyed her story.
If you enjoy regency romances, you will absolutely enjoy Merry Belles.
Other Books by Alina K. Field
Jina Bacarr Featured Author
December 1, 2025 by Jina Bacarr in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Boldwood Books, Featured Author of the Month, historical romance, Jina Bacarr, New relaase, The Stolen Children of War
About Jina Bacarr
I discovered early on that I inherited the gift of the gab from my large Irish family when I penned a story about a princess who ran away to Paris with her pet turtle Lulu. I was twelve.
I grew up listening to their wild, outlandish tales and it was those early years of storytelling that led to my love of history and traveling.
I enjoy writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by my side. I adore dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. I’ve always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris. The voices of the past speak to me through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines, and worn satin slippers. I’ve always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.
You can follow Jina on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
Goodreads
Bookbub
Jina also has a column here on the 11th of every month: Jina’s Book Chat.
The Stolen Children of War is emotional historical novel from Jina Bacarr, bestselling author of The Orphans of Berlin—available now.
It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris, and nobody is safe. Nobody, except perhaps one small group of people, who’ve always existed outside the law…
At Le Cirque Casini, the trapeze artists still fly. The strong men still perform amazing feats. The sad-faced clowns still make people laugh, even in a city with a broken heart. The Nazis do not trouble them, as long as they keep the people happy and entertained.
But what the Germans don’t know is that there are circus performers with secrets of their own. And when Lia – a performer known for her bravery on the trapeze – finds herself with nowhere else to go but back to the circus she’d left 18 years ago – she does so with two small orphaned Jewish children in tow, who she’s sworn to protect.
As the circus’s numbers swell with people desperate to hide, and threats come not only from the Nazis but from one who seeks to kill someone amongst them, Lia and the other circus-performers know they must do everything in their power to protect the vulnerable.
But who better—than those who would risk their lives every day for entertainment—to save the lives of others?
A gripping, powerful and captivating novel of World War Two, perfect for fans of Kristen Hannah, Fiona Valpy and Dinah Jefferies.
A Few of Jina’s Other Books
Love’s Perilous Road: A Review
November 15, 2025 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Book Reviews tagged as A review, Alina K. Field, anthology, Bluestocking Belles, new release, Regency romance
Love’s Perilous Road
A Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends
Ebook ISBN 978-1-965509-03-6
Print ISBN 978-1-965509-04-3
ASIN B0DZPKDMXV
Publisher: Bluestocking Belles
October 31, 2025
Regency Romance
I’ve been a fan of the Bluestocking Belles’ anthologies for years, probably since Alina K. Field first joined them. I’ve been a fan of Alina K. Field since she first published Rosalyn’s Ring and it won the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best contest. (It absolutely lived up to its reputation.)
So I was pleased to read and review Love’s Perilous Road, a collection of ten Regency Romances all centered around the mysterious highwayman, Captain Moonlight. All the characters have an encounter with the man, and there are brief journal entries from The Casebook of the Principal Office Robert Pierce who is planning Captain Moonlight’s capture—even if he leaves his ill-gotten gains in the chicken coops of young widows with children to feed.
As with all Bluestocking Belles Collections that I have read, all the stories are well written and very entertaining, which is not always the case with anthologies. I appreciate the care the authors take with their stories, adding in the clues to Captain Moonlight’s true identity.
Having said that, I still had my favorites: Charred Hope by Caroline Warfield in which an honorable man returns a miniature and finds a future. Sir Westcott Steals a Heart by Alina K. Field: Sybil Dunsford disguised herself as a boy to protect her brothers but, of course, Sir Westcott Twisden follows her, and hijinks ensue and they get locked in barn overnight. A Duke in Peril by Meara Platt: Lady Florence Swann rescues a wounded soldier from the side of the road near her home. But he’s more than just a soldier.
I’m looking forward to the Bluestocking Belles next collection.
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More Books by Alina K. Field
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