What is the title of your latest release?
SAFARI MURDER PARTY
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Fletcher Spence is an overworked, underpaid executive assistant to manages to snag a spot on her company’s corporate retreat to a private island safari only to arrive and discover her boss has been eaten by lions and wills his multibillion-dollar publishing company to whoever can survive the week, so she has no choice but to team-up with his insufferable son (and her personal nemesis) Waylon Cartwright to outlive her bloodthirsty colleagues in this wild battle royale.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The premise of the book required a few key elements: a remote island; an outrageous, zoo-like safari; and the ability to manipulate the terrain to accommodate a variety of species. So, creating my own fictional island was a no-brainer!
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
One thousand percent! Fletcher would be the type of friend who always carries a purse with everything you could possibly need. Plus, I feel like she’d be the type of friend to make sure that the brunch always makes it out of the group chat.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Ambitious, prepared, and overachiever
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
So much of Fletcher’s emotional journey is about self-advocating, and I found myself growing a stronger spine, more willing to ask for what I want, after having written her story. (Plus, I know, like, way, way more about jungle foliage than I used to.)
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I can’t stop myself from editing as I go! I’m constantly reading back over things, picking apart the phrasing, trying to find the best rhythm for a sentence. I’m also notoriously indecisive, so I sometimes have to go back because I’ve changed my mind about something I wrote three weeks ago. (Oops!)
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I’ll quite literally never say no to au gratin potatoes. It’s an impossible ask.
Describe your writing space/office!
I have a lovely writing office with tons of natural light, an adorable pink desk chair, and color-coded bookshelves—aaaaand I almost never write there. More often, I’m hunched over the kitchen counter or I’m on the couch with a cat curled on my lap.
Who is an author you admire?
Only one? Impossible! A few whose books have changed my brain chemistry include Ally Carter, Ali Hazelwood, Emily Henry, Kate Golden, Christine Riccio, and Leigh Bardugo.
Is there a book that changed your life?
I always credit ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins for being the book that convinced me I not only wanted to write books but could.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
For this book, going out on submission was a whirlwind. We had editor chats lined up less than a week after sending the book out, and three weeks later, we had an auction! This was a complete 180 from the slog that was submission experience with my 2023 debut.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Rom-coms! I’m a sucker for it. Contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi—I don’t care, as long as there’s a strong romance hook and a happily ever after.
What’s your favorite movie?
I have a wonderfully silly short list of favorites. From this century: Your Name, Free Guy, and Anyone But You. And some throwbacks: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Encino Man, and Son in Law.
What is your favorite season?
I’m a spring girl through and through.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I love being absolutely pampered, so I’m known to schedule a spa day. I also love going to dinner with my loved ones and blowing out the candles on a homemade key lime cheesecake.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The live action adaptation of One Piece is so unbelievably good, and I’ve been obsessed with campaign 4 of Critical Role.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
If I have to choose—Italian! The same people gave us cacio e pepe and tiramisu. I’m forever in their debt.
What do you do when you have free time?
When I’m not writing, I love playing video games (I’ve recently been loving Coral Island and Baldur’s Gate 3!), taste testing all the flavored syrups at my local coffee shops (for science, obviously) and getting outside for some fresh air.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m writing another comedy/thriller/romance that will publish with Berkley as we speak, and I can’t wait to tell you more about it!
In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.
Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.
After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great...until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.
So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.
To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and...marketing executives? Oh my.
While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.
Romance Suspense | Romance [ Berkley, On Sale: May 19, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780593954539 / eISBN: 9780593954546 ]
Rachel Moore is the author of high-stakes, genre-blending novels. She currently lives in Tennessee with her husband and two cats she’s violently allergic to. (The cats, not the husband.) On the rare occasion she isn’t writing happy endings, you can find her collecting dictionaries, drinking entirely too much coffee, and drifting through the library stacks.
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