Winnipeg-based author, Toni Anderson, has been shortlisted in the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers category with her novel, Cold Silence, for the United Kingdom’s Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

COLD SILENCE(Publisher: Toni Anderson Inc.)

A white-hat hacker and a member of the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team race against time to stop a serial killer who is auctioning his dark deeds in cyberspace.

Website: http://www.toniandersonauthor.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@toniannanderson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toniandersonauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toni_anderson_author/

 

Dani Atkins –  Six Days

Image credit: Hannah Couzens

Hertfordshire author, Dani Atkins, has been shortlisted in the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers category with her novel, Six Days, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

Dani is the author of nine novels and one novella. Her first book Fractured has been translated into over twenty languages since its publication in 2013. She lives in the Hertfordshire countryside in a 350-year-old cottage, which to her great disappointment is not haunted. She has held a variety of jobs: secretary, interviewer, and Work Experience co-ordinator, but her favourite role was that of mum to her two children who’ve now grown up and left home. Now her days are filled with writing, spending time with her exceedingly patient husband, and trying out dialogue for her books on her border collie Dusty during their morning walks.

She commented, ‘I am honoured and incredibly excited to be nominated in the Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller category. Six Days was a slight departure from my previous books and I loved writing a story with such a strong ticking clock element and an air of mystery. I grew up reading Jackie Collins’ books and the thrill of being nominated for an award in her name is something that younger me would never have believed possible. Sadly I never got to meet Jackie Collins, but being nominated in this category is the next best thing and a dream come true.’

She writes: ‘Had it not been for my daughter Kimberley, my first novel Fractured would still be sitting on a memory stick at the back of my desk drawer. Kimberley took a book I’d never found a home for and put it on Kindle Direct Publishing. It has now sold in the region of half a million copies. Parents often help their children with their career, but in our house things were actually the other way around.’

SIX DAYS (Publisher: Aria (Head of Zeus))

When Finn fails to show up at his own wedding everyone thinks Gemma has been jilted … except her. The police won’t help, so Gemma spends the next six days looking for Finn, uncovering some shocking revelations in her search. How long can she keep her faith when everyone is telling her to let Finn go?

DANI ATKINS’ MEDIA DETAILS

Twitter: @AtkinsDani
Facebook: www.facebook.com/daniatkinsauthor

Image Credit: Niall McDiarmid

Dorothy Koomson – My Other Husband
Award-winning, global bestselling Brighton author, Dorothy Koomson, has been shortlisted in the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers category with her novel, My Other Husband, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

Dorothy is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist whose books have been translated into more than 30 languages. She loves reading and writing, and is passionate about supporting other writers no matter what stage they are at in their career.

She commented, ‘It’s so nice to be nominated for this award, especially as it is in the name of one of my favourite writers, whose books I devoured as a teen.’

MY OTHER HUSBAND  (Publisher: Headline Review)
Cleo Forsum is a writer whose TV series ‘The Baking Detective’ is a huge success. But now she is walking away from it all and divorcing her husband before her past secrets catch up with her. As she drafts the final ever episodes, it becomes clear that someone is trying to frame her for murder. Cleo can’t prove her innocence. Because then she’d have to confess about her other husband . .

Twitter: @DOROTHYKOOMSON
Facebook: @DOROTHYKOOMSONWRITER
Instagram: @dorothykoomson_author
www.dorothykoomson.co.uk

L.H. Stacey – The Serial Killer’s Girl
Doncaster author, L.H. Stacey, has been shortlisted in the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers category with her novel, The Serial Killer’s Girl, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

As well as being the author of eight books, Stacey also works full time as a Sales Director for a stationery, office supplies and office refit company. For many years, she was also a fully qualified scuba diving instructor with her own school and has been known to happily jump in the sea with sharks, without a cage. Following a life changing car accident in 2008, Stacey was left with limited mobility in her arms. Unable to teach scuba diving professionally anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby she’d followed avidly since being a teenager. Stacey’s debut novel House of Secrets was published in 2016 under her full name of Lynda Stacey. Following a change of publisher, her last two books The Sister’s Next Door and The Serial Killer’s Girl were both published by Boldwood Books under her new author name of L.H. Stacey. Her own life story, along with varied career choices, helps Stacey to create stories with challenging and unpredictable plots.

She commented, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to have been shortlisted. I literally saw the email drop into my inbox and screamed. I’ve always been a huge fan of Jackie Collins and to be shortlisted for the Jackie Collins Award is an absolute dream come true and more than I could have ever hoped for.’

‘For years, I was a scuba diving instructor. I spent many years traveling back and forth to Egypt and felt more than happy to jump into the sea, knowing that there were sharks in the water below me.

However, after a life changing car crash, I was left with limited mobility. I could barely lift my arms above my waist, even dressing myself or taking a shower was difficult and quite quickly, it became more than apparent that I wouldn’t be able to continue my diving career and I had no choice but to sell my scuba school.

Eventually, as I always do, I picked myself up and dusted myself down. I had to find something new and equally enjoyable to do. It was at this point that I worked out that I could still type, that my mind was still functional. I turned back to my childhood dream of becoming an author and in 2014, I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme (NWS).

I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. The car crash devastated my life, but I turned the page. I began a new chapter of my life. And six years after first being published, I feel extremely fortunate to be shortlisted for a RONA (a Romantic Novel Award from the RNA). Being a part of the RNA is amazing, and without them and the NWS I truly believe that I’d have never been published. Being an author is what I’m meant to do and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of this wonderful organisation.’

THE SERIAL KILLER’S GIRL (Publisher: Boldwood Books)
Lexi Jakes thought she could run from her past … she was wrong. Because when her biological mother is found dead, with all the same hallmarks of her own serial killer father, Lexi knows someone is out for revenge, and that she and her small daughter, Isla, could be next.

Determined to protect Isla, Lexi travels back to Lindisfarne, the small remote island where she grew up. There, cut off from the mainland, Lexi hopes they’ll both be safe. But as the tide comes in and the causeway slowly closes, Lexi’s greatest fear comes true: now they are trapped with no way out.

Lexi will do anything to save her daughter … after all, she is the serial killer’s girl.

Twitter: @lyndastacey
Facebook: Facebook.com/LHStaceyauthor
www.Lyndastacey.co.uk

Sarah Yarwood-Lovett – A Murder of Crows
Sarah Yarwood-Lovett, has been shortlisted in the Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers category with her novel, A Murder of Crows, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s (RNA) annual Romantic Novel Awards for 2023. The awards celebrate excellence in romantic fiction in all its forms.

After spending sixteen years as an ecologist, crawling through undergrowth and studying the nocturnal habits of animals (and people), Dr Sarah Yarwood-Lovett naturally turned her mind to murder. She may have swapped badgers for bears when she emigrated from a quaint village in the South Downs to the wild mountains of the Pacific Northwest, but her books remain firmly rooted in the rolling downland she grew up in. Forensically studying clues for animal activity has seen Sarah surveying sites all over the UK and around the world. She’s rediscovered a British species thought to be extinct during her PhD, with her record held in London’s Natural History Museum; debated that important question – do bats wee on their faces? – at school workshops; survived a hurricane on a coral atoll while scuba-diving to conduct marine surveys; and given evidence as an expert witness. Her unusual career has provided the perfect inspiration for a series of murder mysteries with an ecological twist – so, these days, Sarah’s research includes consulting detectives, lawyers, judges and attending murder trials.

She commented, ‘I’m beyond delighted that A Murder of Crows has been shortlisted for The Jackie Collins Award for Romantic Thrillers! My series of ecological murder mysteries are woven together with romantic entanglements, because finding love is such a natural instinct – especially in the wake of a gruesome death or two. It’s a genuine and unexpected honour to be listed alongside such talented writers. Thank you!’

A MURDER OF CROWS  (Publisher: Bonnier Books UK)
Dr Nell Ward is an ecologist, not a detective. So, while inspecting an old tunnel near a manor house, in Cookingdean village, she doesn’t expect to overhear a murder, become a prime suspect, or, with her colleague Adam, rely on ecological skills to solve the crime and clear her name …

Twitter: @Sarah_Y_L