Annnd I’m BAAACK! I’ve got book two today! 🙂 I’ve got the author over for a visit and a completely awesome giveaway, let me show you!
Redemption
The Seven Signs, Book 2
Erica Hayes
Genre: paranormal romance, urban fantasy romance
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0425258385
Number of pages: 330
Word Count: 100K
Cover Artist: Kris Keller
Paperback: Amazon BN Book Depository
Book Description:
Japheth the Tainted is on the hunt for a mysterious demon vampire. But meeting her face-to-face might disarm his warrior spirit—and spark an unquenchable passion with apocalyptic consequences.
As a fallen angel, Japheth is determined to make his way back to heaven by staying pure and slaying hellspawn. With a new scourge of vampires unleashed by a blood-drinking demon, the Prince of Thirst, there’s plenty to be done. But Japheth is after one vampire in particular—the one they call the Angel Slayer.
Rose Harley never wanted to be a vampire, but the Prince of Thirst can turn even the kindest soul into a soldier of hell. Feeling abandoned by God, she stalks the West Village taking revenge on his angels—until she meets her match.
When Japheth and Rose encounter each other, the battle is fierce and charged with desire. But when they discover a common enemy—the Prince of Thirst himself—they form a dangerous alliance that could either cost them their eternal lives, or spark a love more powerful than heaven or hell.
My Review:
I will stand by my statement that these angels scare the crap outta me! However, they are oh so bad which is oh so good! 🙂 LOL Things pick right back up in the second book from where one finished, and things are getting all crazy. And way to add a sort of Romeo and Juliet type theme to this as well. Literal enemies supposed to kill each other falling in love. It’s a blast!!
Japheth is the one in the hot seat this time. He is an angel, who is stuck on earth, and he’s literally taken a whole new light to working for redemption. He’s quiet and serious, and is dead set on working his way back into Heaven’s good graces. And you totally catch that there was something going on between Michael-yes the arch angel who is in my opinion one of the complete worst- and Japheth. Michael gives Japheth the order to kill the “Angel Slayer”, except that this slayer is a chick, who is a demon vampire, and I think there’s gunna be hell to pay with her. LOL
Rose has had a seriously bad hand of cards dealt to her. She’s angry and bitter, and really good at what she does, hence the name Angel Slayer. When she meets Japheth, it made me giggle at the one she has picked to try her “deal” with. I had to giggle, because Japheth is one of the last you would expect to be seduced. This was such an interesting relationship building here. It’s so good, you just have to read it.
The secondary characters are back, and some of them are my favorite! And there are some who are bad, who I don’t believe to be completely evil, and some who are good, that should be rotting in hell. It’s such a twist on the Angel concept. The demons are fascinating. And it’s on like Donkey Kong to get Satan out of his “prison”. 4.5 CREEPTASTIC ANGELELIC PAWS!! I can’t wait for book three to come out!
Author Interview:
First, tell me a little about your book :)….
It’s awesome, and you’ll love it!
Oh, you want more than that? Okay… REDEMPTION is a dark apocalyptic paranormal romance, a tale of broken vows, shattered convictions and long-forgotten sins scraped raw. It has fallen angel warriors, evil demons, and a plague of cursed vampires threatening Manhattan. The end of the world is nigh. The sky will rain fire at some point. It has some steamy hot romance. And there’s cool angel stuff. Gotta love hot magical guys with feathers!
You had me at awesome! Do you recall how your interest in writing originated or did you always just know?
It’s just one of those things you do. I wrote for fun when I was a kid, and never stopped. It’s very challenging, and there are always more stories. So it never stops being fun!
What inspired you to write your first book and what was it?
My first published book (SHADOWFAE) was a gritty urban fantasy romance about a succubus, and I wrote it because I wanted to explore the dark side of magical powers. The heroine is a demon’s slave, and he uses her as an assassin to wipe out his enemies by, er, loving them to death… It’s not a very nice life. But she gets rescued by love. It’s a violent, dark, dirty book, but it’s desperately romantic.
But the first manuscript I ever wrote? Will NEVER see the light of day. It was a really bad, epic-fantasy-like thing about a nun who fell in love with a psychotic killer. Everyone died at the end, and they probably deserved it… I’m not sure what inspired that. A fit of madness?
Ooooh I can’t wait to read that series too!!! But how awesome for the nun LOL How do you chose when/which characters die in your books?
Ha ha! We authors have godlike powers, beware our wrath!! You never know when we will strike…
But the real and boring answer is that it’s dictated by the plot. You have to kill people off at the worst possible time. Preferably after you’ve convinced readers to like them. Some characters are created especially so you can whack them. A bit like ‘red shirts’ in Star Trek. There’s a green fairy character named Nyx in my book SHADOWFAE who was born to die. Such a lovely guy, too. Sniffle…
And generally if a character is a villain or some other kind of nasty and deserves a sticky end? Don’t kill ’em until you absolutely have to. Let them wreak their havoc for as long as possible, bwahaha…
LOLOLOLOL That’s one of the best answers I’ve ever had! Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
I’m finding new authors all the time! These days there are so many new books available each week that there’s no shortage of fresh names. I read a cool UF book recently called CHAOS BORN by Rebekah Turner.
Who do you look up to as a writer?
Oh, there are so many. But I want to be Stephen King when I grow up. He’s just brilliant, at plotting and characterization and tension and… well, everything.
Everyone wants to be Stephen King! If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
Ha ha! I think every author would revise until the end of time, if you let them. But eventually, you have to say, ‘enough’, and call it finished. I love the story of REDEMPTION – it’s full of heartbreak and romance and desperate decisions – and I probably wouldn’t change anything significantly.
What book are you reading now? Or what genre?
I just finished a historical paranormal romance called A LADY AND HER MAGIC. Fairies in the Regency. It was pretty cool!
Who designed the cover? And do you help with them?
REDEMPTION, and book 1 in the series, REVELATION, are traditionally published, so the covers are done in-house. I get to offer suggestions, but the final decision is theirs. I really love this cover 🙂 it’s sexy, violent, a little crazy. Just like the book!
I like this one more too! Did you learn anything from writing your books and what was it?
That you can always improve. And that the pictures in my head aren’t always what comes out on the page. No matter how many books you write, it’s really important to get someone else to read it to help you make that happen.
If you could be one of your characters, who would you chose?
Well, romance characters tend to have pretty sucky lives… But it would be fun to have magical powers. Japheth (the hero in REDEMPTION) can cast cool magic spells, set things on fire, that kind of thing. And the heroine, Rose, is a mean fighter. Those things would be fun, but I wouldn’t want the tortured past that goes with it!
Are there any books you think some of us should read, just because?
If you love paranormal romance, you should totally read the Feral Warriors series by Pamela Palmer. Cool plots, hot heroes, heroines who make sense. If you’re an urban fantasy fan, try SINS OF THE ANGELS by Linda Poitevin. A really cool take on the war between heaven and hell – and an excellent, realistic kick-butt heroine!
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you, and I love you all. Seriously. I love writing, but having readers enjoy your books is the best thing ever.
Thank you tons for that completely fun interview! I hope we can do it again soon! 🙂
About the Author:
Erica Hayes was a law student, an air force officer, an editorial assistant and a musician, before finally landing her dream job: fantasy and romance writer.
She writes dark paranormal and urban fantasy romance, and her books feature tough, smart heroines and colourful heroes with dark secrets.
She hails from Australia, where she drifts from city to city, leaving a trail of chaos behind her. Currently, she’s terrorizing the wilds of Northumberland.
http://erica-hayes.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/ericahayes.author
http://www.twitter.com/ericahayes
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2922003.Erica_Hayes
Tour-wide Giveaway:
This giveaway will be a Kindle Fire (or an Amazon Gift Card in the equivalent amount)! WOAH!!! I love my K-Fire- yes I call it that- so you should DEFINITELY enter… HERE!!! Serious GOOD LUCK to everyone!!! 🙂
Thank you everyone for stopping by and to the wonderful Ms Erica who is such a blast! Happy reading everyone and later gators!
Happy Tails and Tales Blog 
Thanks for the giveaway!
Sounds like an interesting book
I think I’m going to have to get up to date by buying an e-reader… If I don’t win this one anyway! Sounds like another cool book Erica 🙂
This looks like a great series. I have put it on my TBR list. I look forward to reading it
p.winmill@hotmail.com
Sounds like an awesome book! Thank you for the giveaway!
I cannot wait to get my hands on this book. I loved the first one and from the interview the second looks to be the same. I loved Japheth in Revelation! Thanks for giveaway! ^_^
Congratulations on the new book! Enjoyed the interview. Thanks for the giveaway.
Wonderful review and interview! I agree with you on angels being scary. They are quite intimidating…like Alphas with unlimited strength/power. Thanks for being a part of this tour! I can’t wait to read this book
This series sounds great. I have only read a couple of books about fallen angels but they were both wonderful. I think it is time to expand my reading of this paranormal area! Thanks so much for sharing with us today.
Best wishes,
Marlena
The Seven Signs and The Shadowfae, that’s 2 more UF/PNr series for my TBR. Redemption sounds like one hell of a ride with sparks, sizzle and steam. But I haven’t red Revelation yet so I have so catching up to do. My TBR sure enjoys being fed 🙂 Thanks for the amazing giveaway!