Haunting Coretta Jones
Coretta knows what it means to be haunted. She just doesn’t believe in ghosts.
For sixteen years, Coretta has made a life of finding lost people, buried treasures, and answers no one else can reach—all while staying one step ahead of the stepmother who tried to kill her more than once.
When she returns to her hometown, Coretta takes refuge in the historic Parker House Hotel. But she doesn’t buy into the eerie stories about its supernatural past. Even paranormal investigator Eli Adler can’t change her mind—no matter how charming he is.
Then Eli is attacked, and the hotel’s ghosts are the prime suspects. Coretta is determined to prove that a living person is behind everything that’s happened at Parker House, but the deeper she digs into the hotel’s history, the closer her own past creeps, carrying the grief and betrayal she’s tried to outrun. Soon, the place she hoped would be a safe haven starts to feel like another trap.
With the walls of her own logic closing in on her, Coretta must face the truth she has spent years trying to escape: some ghosts are real, some monsters are human, and even the fairest souls are capable of madness.
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Debut Author - K. B. MacNeille
Her second book is up for preorder, Releasing June 8, 2027!
Venice, 1576 — Severina needs an ally. A human ally. A vampire-hunting cult blames her coven for the plague sweeping the city, and she’s desperate to find the cure that will save thousands of lives and clear her people’s name. But Severina’s experiments require human blood, and she refuses to take it by force.
Trained by his father, the cult’s ruthless leader, Pietro has spent his life learning to kill the undead. But when the plague threatens his family, Pietro gives his blood to Severina’s cause. In return, she gives him something his father’s crusade never could: hope.
As their dangerous alliance deepens into forbidden love, Severina’s cure becomes a chance to prove she is more than the monster Pietro was taught to fear. If she fails, Pietro’s father will put an end to her experiments…and Severina herself.
Venice, 2006 — For four centuries, Pietro has lived without any memory of how he became a vampire. He drinks blood not merely to survive, but to experience the memories it carries, hoping that some blood, somewhere, might unlock the mystery of his past.
After losing yet another job, Pietro joins an archeological dig on one of Venice’s quarantine islands, where a woman’s skeleton has been discovered with a brick forced between her teeth—the mark of a vampire exorcism. His investigation awakens feelings and memories he cannot explain, along with an unsettling connection to Elise, the secretive archeologist working beside him.
As a new generation of vampire hunters closes in, Pietro’s search for his past echoes Severina’s centuries-old fight for the future. Four hundred years apart, both must decide how much of their humanity they’re willing to sacrifice to keep history from repeating itself.
Link to preorder Veins of Venice
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Haunting Coretta Jones is Available September 29, 2026
Tara: So K.B., I would love to hear your Meet Cue for Haunting Coretta Jones. When, where, and how did inspiration first strike?
K.B.: I still remember the moment my husband and I pulled this idea out of nowhere. It didn’t hit me while I was driving or in the shower, like normal ideas do, but it came in response to my desperate plea, “I don’t know what to work on next!” It was late at night, and he was standing by our water cooler probably thinking, “I’d really like to go to bed,” when I started griping about how much I hated a particular fairytale. I won’t share which one, because that ruins some of the fun! But he finally said, “well, if you hate it so much, what would you change to make it better?” It was like a light clicked on over a lonely desk in a dark attic study. To oversimplify, the answer was, “I’d add ghosts.” And suddenly the old fairytale I’d always hated started to take entirely new form. One that I would be obsessed with for years to come.
Tara: I love how you re-shaped the familiar fairytale and I squealed as I was reading when I first realized what it was. (You dropped plenty of clever hints before I “got it” and it was such an aha moment.) I loved that this story was riddled with layers of mysteries—not only about the murders at the hotel, but also about Coretta’s past. Your reader is solving multiple as the story unfolds. I’d love to know your method for plotting and planting all your clues. Do you use sticky notes? A story Bible? Scrivener files? What does your method look like?
K.B.: Oh my. This has been a journey. Especially now that orchestrating my kids’ schedules takes most of my organizational prowess. When I first started planning this book, I had just finished my first reading of Lisa Cron’s Story Genius. In short, her strategy for approaching Coretta’s misbelief played deeply and surprisingly into when and where I would plant each clue. When it comes down to it, Coretta needed to solve the mysteries she’s investigating because they were a part of her. They would drastically affect her third rail (emotional arc). So I tried to carefully place each clue and reveal at the right moment to most dramatically affect Coretta and her arc. Additionally, I would be absolutely lost without the plotting tool Novelio. It’s so good for helping me stay organized as I plot, since I am an avid, dedicated, loyal plotter to my core.
Tara: Story Genius was such a level-up for me, too. You nailed the emotional arc. And it makes sense that you’re a total plotter, because this story could NOT have been tossed off on the fly. Since Coretta is an investigator, I’m curious who some of your favorite fictional detectives are (whether literary or television.) Both are valid!
K.B.: Oh oh! Enola Holmes! I love her personality and the way she approaches investigations!
Tara: I think my favorite characters in the story were Ray and Jeanette, the quirky hotel employees who befriended Coretta and encouraged her in the investigation. They’re such fun and memorable characters. Do you have a favorite character in the story? And why?
K.B.: The quirky ones are always my favorite. I have a special place in my heart for Ansel, the teenage boy with all the vibes of an olden-day Newsie. He’s got enough tactlessness to drop the truth bombs when Coretta needs them.
Tara: One of the big themes this book explores is that line between the paranormal and cold, hard facts—explaining the unexplained. What do you hope your readers will take away from the experience?
K.B.: I often sign my books with the phrase, “Believe more than you can see.” I think that’s ultimately one of my core goals in life. Whether on a spiritual or secular level, this is a trait that carries a lot of weight and motivates a lot of progress. If you believe in more than you can see, is anything impossible? How much can we learn from the things that have the audacity to stay just out of eyesight?
Tara: I love that, and I think you’re absolutely right! Finally, what are you most proud of in this story?
K.B.: This book’s publication was a long time coming. It has gone from pride and joy to shelved for good to polished proof of my confidence in myself. It was produced, start to finish, in one of the busiest, hardest times of my life. I’d have to say I’m proud that it sits on my shelf, reminding me that I can do hard things.
Tara: I love books that took a long time to get to where they are. I think the extra “marinating” time makes them all the sweeter. Thank you again for chatting with me, and congratulations again on your debut!