Author: Emma

Emma Barry is a teacher, novelist, recovering academic, and former political staffer. She lives with her high school sweetheart and a menagerie of pets and children in Virginia, and she occasionally finds time to read and write.

Things I Really Liked in 2022

How is it the end of the year? I mean…how? It feels as if I just wrote one of these, and yet here I am, writing another one. What I can say for 2022 is that I survived it. But it’s been a low-hanging thing, more endurance than thriving. Despite that, my year was brightened by books and television and music, so let’s focus on the sparkles.

What follows is a list of cultural artifacts that I consumed this year and that I thought were pretty cool. As always, this isn’t a best of list because I simply don’t read, watch, or listen to enough stuff to write one of those. According to my Goodreads challenge, I read 56 books in 2022. That’s decent, but I read across genres enough that I don’t think I could–with a straight face–tell you what the best books of this year were. These are the just the ones I really liked. (And the same goes for music, TV, etc.)

If you’re curious, check out my previous year in reviews: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Continue reading “Things I Really Liked in 2022” →

A Goodreads Giveaway!

I’m writing my year end posts, and trying to revise a book, and recording podcasts and writing promo columns for Chick Magnet‘s impending release, but let me just drop a quick post to tell you to enter this giveaway. The lovely folks at Amazon Publishing are going to give away 100 digital copies of Chick Magnet. All you have to do is click.

Also, while I have your attention, The One You Want (the book formerly known as Special Interests) is currently FREE at Amazon. So if you haven’t read it, or you want to recommend it to a friend who hasn’t, click fast. It will revert to regular price at the end of the day on December 27, 2022.

Virtual Event (Me + 2 Superstars!)

If you’d been thinking, “Wow, I need to brighten an afternoon with an event featuring two romance superstars plus, for some inexplicable reason, Emma Barry,” then I have the surprise of a lifetime. Olivia Dade, Therese Beharrie, and I are doing just such an event with Love’s Sweet Arrow at 1 pm CST on November 5, 2022. All the details are at Event Brite, and I would love to see you there.

Housekeeping

First things first, the entire Political Persuasions series is now available on Kindle Unlimited. I know, I know, I’ve done a lot of shuffling with the series this year. I’ve been trying to figure out where it should be to find the most readers, and so I’m giving it a spin in KU. If you’ve read and enjoyed these books, please recommend them to friends who may not have sampled them: The One You Want, The One You Need, The One You Hate, and The One You Crave.

And the auction to support the release of the three-volume Dissent anthology is now live! The proceeds will benefit reproductive rights and justice. So many incredible items are on offer, including a signed ARC of Chick Magnet!

And Chick Magnet is available for review-y types to request on Netgalley.

Chick Magnet Cover Reveal

Y’all, the cover for Chick Magnet is here, and I am in love…with the cover. Not with Will. I mean, not that much with Will. But you can see why I was teasing it as #BringingSexyCoversBack, right??

And here’s the blurb:

From Emma Barry comes a clever romance about a hot veterinarian and a chicken-loving influencer who can’t help but ruffle each other’s feathers.

Nicole Jones needs a fresh start. “Chick Nic” to millions of internet fans, the social media star and her flock of chickens bask in the spotlight—until she’s publicly dumped by a YouTuber for clout. She has no choice but to round up her birds and move on.

But when one of her hens has an emergency, Nic gets her first taste of her new stomping grounds—and it isn’t good. Veterinarian Will Lund is wildly attractive, yes, but he’s also surly. In fact, he comes right out and calls her a menace for parading her chickens on social media.

As neighbors, Nic and Will can’t exactly avoid each other. Then again, maybe they don’t want to. The two can’t deny their smoldering attraction, and it isn’t long before late-night confessions lead to backyard shenanigans.

Is this the start of a neighborly relationship—or could something more be hatching?

It’ll be out in FIVE MONTHS, and you can already preorder it on Amazon and add it to your Goodreads shelves. But for now, I’ll just be taking in those shoulders.

Get Earth Bound for Free

Yet again, months have gone by since you heard from me: I’m so sorry! The good news is that I can offer you one of my best-known and best-loved books for free. Yes, that’s right: Earth Bound is included in today’s RomanceBookworms.com promo, and can be yours for zero dollars. There are more than five hundred other books included, and so the browsing is incredible.

Earth Bound is about two intense engineers who stumble into a secret affair during the 60s space race. I co-wrote it with Genevieve Turner, and by a country mile, it’s book I’ve had the most reader emails about. So if you haven’t read it, or if you’ve been trying to get a friend to take a risk on a historical set in the 1960s, now is the time.

I’ve been just bonkers busy the last few months. I finished drafting the second book for Montlake (and everyone so far has LOVED it), and then I wrote a third of a secret project. For this, I will take any and all good vibes. I was like Leslie Caron in Gigi crooning, “Say a prayer for me tonight” as I clicked send on that email to my agent today.

And we’re getting into the swing of summer here, which somehow feels just as cram-jammed as the rest of the year. So if it’s the same for you, I do hope that Parsons and Charlie for free (did I mention free?) will help ease the sting.

Stuff Your E-Reader

a desktop with an open book and a cup of coffee covered with daisies. the text reads, "stuff your ereader with 750+ free romances. romancebookworms.com.)

I’m briefly emerging from my writing cave to offer you over 750 FREE romances, including The One You Want. Run to Romance Bookworms to get all the links, and click fast because this sale only lasts for one day. I don’t have any plans to discount any of the Political Persuasions titles in the near future (and certainly I can’t do better than free!), so take advantage and tell your friends.

And one last, tiny plea: if you have read The Ones You Want, Need, Hate, or Crave, will you please consider leaving reviews at Goodreads or retailers? It would mean so much to me. xoxo

Political Persuasions Rerelease Day

It’s rerelease day for the books formerly known as Special Interests, Private Politics, Party Lines, and Dispatches. Welcome to the world, Political Persuasions!

These are the books of my heart. While I hope to write dozens more love stories, I can still feel myself finding my voice in this series. I’m so excited to re-release them in an updated form and in paperback. And I cannot adequately express how pretty the physical books are in person; the covers are by the AMAZING Zoe York.

If you’re interested, you can pick up your copies at:

I do have one request–and asking this makes me feel like a dweeb–but if you reviewed the books in their previous forms, will you consider copying your old review into the new entry on Goodreads or at a retailer? When I changed titles and covers, all the old reviews stayed with the original versions, so the new books are just, well, bare. Even a handful of reviews can make a massive difference in terms of visibility and in getting other readers to take a chance on a book. So it would mean the world to me if you’d consider writing a few lines about the Political Persuasions books.

I’m going back to my writing cave now, but I’m so glad that Millie and Parker, Alyse and Liam, Lydia and Michael, Molly and Gavin, Cadence and Graham, Brynn and Drew, and Maddie and Adam are in the world–and on my bookshelves–again. I hope you’ll consider adding them to yours.

Series Cover Reveal: Political Persuasions

The books formerly known as Special Interests, Private Politics, and Party Lines are about to get a new lease on life as Political Persuasions! It’ll take me a bit to fully update my website, but here’s the pretty.

Are they not lovely? Do you not adore them? And they’ll be available in print too for the first time ever!

All this goodness drops on February 21, but if you want to preorder, here are the links:

And I am offering a complete, annotated set in the Romancing the Vote 2022 auction, which you can look at here. Bidding starts on February 14!

The Easy Part Out of Print

Since I received an email from a reader about it, I’ll go ahead and address it in a post: The Easy Part series (aka Special Interests, Private Politics, and Party Lines) went out of print last week. I requested a rights reversion from my publisher, and they granted it. I’ve spent the last few weeks lightly editing the series, and I’ll be rereleasing it–with new titles and covers and a previously unpublished novella–soon. It’ll also be available in print for the first time. Because I have to deal with some behind the scenes stuff related to self publishing, I’m not quite ready to set a firm date. But…soonish (?).

If you want to be the first person to see the new covers (and you do), be sure you’re signed up for my newsletter.