Interview with Dana Mentink: Volcanoes, Doritos, and Fire-Fueled Faith in Fire Mountain

Interview with Dana Mentink: Volcanoes, Doritos, and Fire-Fueled Faith in Fire Mountain

Get ready for a fiery adventure as we chat with bestselling author Dana Mentink about her latest romantic suspense novel, Fire Mountain. In this episode, Dana shares how her writing journey began in the quiet moments of early motherhood, how her real-life arson investigator husband inspires her most dramatic scenes (yes, including Dorito fire-starters!), and why themes of forgiveness keep finding their way into her stories. We also dive into the explosive plot of Fire Mountain—complete with amnesia, a surprise baby, and a grumpy-sunshine romance set against the backdrop of an erupting volcano. If you love suspense with heart, this is one you don’t want to miss!

Listen to the episode here.

Meet Dana Mentink

Dana Mentink on the Christian Romance Podcast

Dana Mentink lives in California where the weather is golden and the cheese is divine. Her family includes two daughters (affectionately nicknamed Yogi and Boo Boo.) Papa Bear is retired from the fire department and he met Dana doing a dinner theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit. Ironically, their parts were husband and wife.

Dana writes in two genres, cozy mystery and romantic suspense. She’s a USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon bestselling author as well as a two time ACFW Carol Award winner, and a Holt Medallion recipient. Her suspense novel, Betrayal in the Badlands, earned a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. She is honored to write for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense, Revell, and Poisoned Pen Press.

Visit Dana’s website

Follow Dana

Bible Verse for Encouragement

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

Dana’s New Book: Fire Mountain

Fire rains from above as they fight to discover the truth and stay alive.

In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she’s suddenly in possession of someone’s baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help.

As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he’s the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck. He doesn’t want to get tangled up in the mystery of the beautiful woman with an abandoned infant, but when he sees the bullet hole in the windshield and the bloody handprint on the interior, he realizes that he’s in this thing, like it or not.

When two armed men with ill intent approach, the race is on to stay alive, discover the truth, and find the baby’s missing mother–all while a deadly mountain rains fire from above.

💕 Tropes in Fire Mountain

  • Grumpy/Sunshine
  • Forced Proximity
  • Amnesia
  • Surprise Baby
  • Natural Disaster Survival
  • Woman in Peril
  • Wilderness Survival
  • Found Family vibes (with a baby in tow!)

Get your copy today on Amazon or Baker Book House today!

Get updates on our themed book giveaways

Enter the most current book giveaway on ChristianRomancePodcast.com and sign up for our email list.

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Kelly’s Personal Update

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me during the Kickstarter! I’m so grateful for you!

Finding Forevermore Novel

If you missed out on my debut novel Finding Forevermore on Kickstarter, no worries. You’ll have a chance to get the book at a later time once it officially launches across retailers like Amazon.

I’ll share more updates by joining my free email list and you’ll get all kind of goodies! Visit my website here to sign up

Follow me for updates

Interview with Liz Johnson: Healing Hearts at the Red Door Inn

Interview with Liz Johnson: Healing Hearts at the Red Door Inn

In this episode with Liz Johnson, we dive into the sweet and heartfelt world of Sometimes You Stay, her newest contemporary Christian romance set on Prince Edward Island. In this episode, Liz shares the inspiration behind the beloved Red Door Inn series—a place of safety and second chances—and introduces us to Cretia, a travel influencer who’s lost everything (literally) and Finn, a big-hearted dog trainer with a barn full of rescued animals and one very determined one-eyed cow. We chat about opposites attracting, unexpected love, and the beauty of community and real connection in a digitally distracted world. If you love stories filled with redemption, humor, and hope, this one’s for you!

Listen to the episode here.

Meet Liz Johnson

Liz Johnson on The Christian Romance Podcast

By day Liz Johnson is a marketing manager. She makes time to write late at night—that’s when she thinks best anyway. Liz is the author of more than a dozen novels, a New York Times bestselling novella, and a handful of short stories. She’s a Christy Award finalist and a three-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. She makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona, where she enjoys exploring local music, theater, and doting on her nieces and nephews. She writes stories of true love filled with heart, humor, and happily ever afters.

Visit Liz’s Website here

Check out Kelly’s earlier episode with Liz here.

Follow Liz

Bible Verse for Encouragement

1 John 3:16 (NKJV)
“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Liz Johnson’s New Book: Sometimes You Stay

He was never going to leave the island, and she wasn’t going to stay. But if she walked away, she would always wonder . . .

For digital content creator Cretia Martin, home is wherever her carry-on suitcase lands. And it’s constantly landing in new places as she travels the world. She’s never been interested in settling in one spot–after all, houses are just places that collect junk and tie you down. But when she literally bumps into local dog breeder Finn Chaffey on Prince Edward Island and all the tools of her trade end up in the harbor, she can’t exactly leave until she gets things sorted out.

Finn is horrified by the part he played in the accident and offers to help, arranging for Cretia to stay with a friend at the beautiful Red Door Inn. The longer Cretia is forced to remain in one place, the more she discovers what she’s been missing with life on the road–and the more she wants to see Finn and his business succeed. But helping him means staying put, the one thing she always swore she wouldn’t do, and risking the only thing she’s never put on the line–her heart.

Tropes you’ll find inside Sometimes You Stay:

  • Forced proximity
  • Opposites attract
  • Fish out of water
  • Found family
  • Rescue trope (emotional and literal!)
  • Grumpy meets sunshine
  • Small town charm
  • Pet matchmakers (hello, Joe Jr.)

Get your copy today at Baker Book House or Amazon (or your favorite retailer)!

Get updates on our themed book giveaways

Enter the most current book giveaway on ChristianRomancePodcast.com and sign up for our email list.

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Kelly’s Personal Update

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me during the Kickstarter! I’m so grateful for you!

Finding Forevermore Novel

If you missed out on my debut novel Finding Forevermore on Kickstarter, no worries. You’ll have a chance to get the book at a later time once it officially launches across retailers like Amazon.

I’ll share more updates by joining my free email list and you’ll get all kind of goodies! Visit my website here to sign up

Follow me for updates

Interview with Danielle Grandinetti: Crafting Christmas Suspense and Faith-Filled Romance

Interview with Danielle Grandinetti: Crafting Christmas Suspense and Faith-Filled Romance

In this interview with Danielle Grandinetti we dive into a story-lover’s journey from piano teacher to indie and traditional published author of heart-pounding historical romantic suspense. Danielle shares how God directed her unexpected path to publishing, how her background in music and teaching shapes her storytelling, and why she loves dropping her characters into high-stakes, dangerous situations—especially around Christmas! We also talk about her novella The Neighbor and the Gifts, where a shy librarian faces creepy Christmas gifts from a stalker, and how justice, mercy, and love are woven into every suspenseful chapter. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to write romance with a dose of danger, this episode is a must-listen!

Listen to the episode here.

Meet Danielle Grandinetti

Danielle Grandinetti is an award-winning inspirational romance author fueled by tea, books, and the creative beauty of nature. Her stories combine romance, mystery, and suspense against the backdrop of the 1930s to tell the tale of finding home and hope in hard times. With a master’s in communication and culture and a passion for intercultural communication, storytelling has been her heartbeat for as long as she can remember. Married to her hero, Danielle is a second-generation Italian-American, a dairy farmer’s granddaughter, and a boy mom from Chicagoland who now lives along Lake Michigan’s Wisconsin shoreline.

Visit daniellegrandinetti.com.

Follow Danielle

Bible Verse for Encouragement

Micah 6:8 (NKJV)
“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?”

Danielle’s New Book: The Neighbor and the Gifts

Twelve days. Twelve gifts. One unlikely hero.

Wisconsin, 1930—When Manitowish Waters librarian Olivia “Ollie” Larson finds a package on the library steps, she expects the children’s books she ordered, not a taxidermied partridge. By the fourth gift from her unknown and unwelcome True Love, disappearing to her grandfather’s isolated cabin in the Northwoods is the only way she can escape him.

Deputy Titus Wilburn is happy to escort the lovely librarian to her grandfather’s house on his way to the neighboring Yarwood cabin. After all, he’s been smitten with her since they attended school together, and she needs his protection. However, the plan fails when Ollie’s uninvited suitor discovers her new location.

As the man’s actions become more desperate and his gifts more dangerous, an unexpectedly bedridden Titus decides to free Ollie from this menace, which puts the enemy’s sights directly on him. Ollie refuses to let her injured hero sacrifice himself, but with the days ticking closer to Christmas, she may have no choice but to accept whatever fate her suitor has in store for her if she wants to save Titus’ life.

One cabin in the Northwoods … a decade of Christmas miracles.

Read the whole series!
Prequel: The Sheriff and the Outlaw
Book One: The Baby and the Guardian
Book Two: The Neighbor and the Gifts

Tropes you’ll find inside:

  • Shy heroine & wounded hero
  • Small town / cabin setting
  • Forced proximity (hero falls off a roof!)
  • Childhood friends to more
  • Christmas countdown with a twist
  • Matchmaking grandparent
  • Romantic suspense with a historical twist
  • Gifts from a “not-so-secret” admirer (stalker)
  • Love inspired by danger
  • Librarian heroine

Get your copy today on Amazon or your favorite retailer!

Get updates on our themed book giveaways

Enter the most current book giveaway on ChristianRomancePodcast.com and sign up for our email list.

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Kelly’s Personal Update

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me during the Kickstarter! I’m so grateful for you!

Finding Forevermore Novel

If you missed out on my debut novel Finding Forevermore on Kickstarter, no worries. You’ll have a chance to get the book at a later time once it officially launches across retailers like Amazon.

I’ll share more updates by joining my free email list and you’ll get all kind of goodies! Visit my website here to sign up

Follow me for updates