I got the chance to interview the wonderful author Felicity Heaton about her writing, The Eternal Mates series, and the newly released Tempted by a Rogue Prince.
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.
If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:
With the new surge in popularity of paranormal and paranormal romance books, how do you feel that your books compete/compare to others in the genre?
I like to think they stand out. I do my best to write fascinating new worlds and give readers a really rich and detailed world that they can picture in their minds, and I do the same with my characters too. I always set out to write a different take on the usual paranormal species, adding a few twists of my own to keep them fresh and new. I work hard to avoid writing anything like other authors and love to give readers something different, and that’s why I added dark elves to my list of paranormal species last year, giving my readers something fresh to read about that hadn’t been done in paranormal romance before I launched the Eternal Mates series.
What specific type of “monsters” are you the most interested in writing or reading about? e.g. vampires, demons, incubi, angels.
It really varies depending on what I’m writing. The Eternal Mates series that we’re talking about in this interview is packed with all of those species you mentioned as examples. It has sexy dark elves who are the forefathers of vampires, incubi and succubi, witches and sorcerers, fallen angels and angels, demons and hunters, and almost every type of shifter you can imagine, whether that’s dragons, cats, wolves, or bears. I really love that huge world of creatures in this series as it adds so much interest to each book and each new character. I get to write so many new takes on species. I love having that whole smorgasbord of species available to me, and I think I’m the same when I read books. I like to mix and match between shifters, vampires, angels, demons, fae. You name it, I’ll read it and I probably write it.
Dark elves are my current favourite. They were lacking in the world of paranormal romance, with little or no presence at all in the genre when I introduced them with the first book in my Eternal Mates series, Kissed by a Dark Prince, in Nov 2013. I’ve put a whole new spin on them in my series and it’s great to see that my readers enjoy what I’ve done with them.
Why paranormal romance instead of “normal” romance and what first caught your attention about the genre?
The big appeal of paranormal romance to me is the possibilities are endless and if you set your mind to it, you can create something unique that stands out from the other books out there. You can make whole worlds of your own and pull readers into those worlds. Plus, I find the characters in paranormal romance are often more detailed, more real, and ones who will stay with you and make you care about them.
I was drawn to the genre because of my love of everything that goes bump in the night that I’ve had since I was very young. I was always reading books about vampires, monsters and witches as a young child, and as I grew, I continued to read about fantasy worlds. I loved the adventure and the escape that a more fantasy based world provided. Again, perhaps it was the fact that the possibilities seem endless in paranormal romance. Anything goes!
Who is your favorite character in the Eternal Mates series or in Tempted by a Rogue Prince?
Vail is by far my favourite character in the series and he’s also the hero in Tempted by a Rogue Prince. Since beginning the Eternal Mates series with Kissed by a Dark Prince in November 2013, I have fallen deeply in love with Vail. He’s broken and tormented by the things he has done, but not beyond redemption. I’ve been looking forward to writing this book and giving him a brighter future with his fated mate, setting him on the path towards being healed and leading a normal life again. Writing his book really was everything I had expected it to be—a very emotional journey. He made me cry a few times, and readers have blamed me for a tissue shortage in their houses because of this book. Now, I’m looking forward to catching up with him in future books in the Eternal Mates series.
If you could rewrite one of your books in the Eternal Mates series now, would you change a major aspect in any of them or about any of the characters?
No. I wouldn’t change a thing about the series, the characters or the books. I absolutely love this world that I’m writing and I feel the characters in it are rich with detail and that makes them very real, just like the world. I’m really enjoying writing these books and these characters. I feel it’s my best series so far and I’m so in love with it, and so are my readers, that I’m writing four new books for it right now that I’ll be releasing one after the other close together in the New Year to give readers a huge fix!
In most romances the hero and heroine always seem to be perfectly matched even if they can’t see it in the beginning. How do you create the personalities of two people who will fit together without making one seem weak and just an add-on? Do you find it easier to create a male of female character?
In most of my romances, it’s more like the hero and heroine balance each other in some way. They tend to be quite opposite to each other, and as they come to know each other, they find they actually balance each other out. Light to darkness. Darkness to light. They help each other through their struggles and it brings them together. I write strong heroes and even stronger heroines, but while their personalities might clash, they always find a way to fit together, without losing those vital parts of themselves or compromising in any way that might dramatically change them. The heroines remain strong, despite the fact that I write a lot of very alpha heroes. If anyone changes during the course of the story, it’s often the hero. He tends to discover more about himself and that will change a person, and he also tends to be the one who opens himself up to his feelings, but I do have heroines who take the same journey too.
I find it easier to write the hero. It’s normally the hero who comes to me first and tells me more about the story I’m going to write for him. He’s often the central focus of the book. That isn’t to say that the heroine is doing nothing and has no role in the book. She normally has her own agenda and her own story happening in tandem with the hero, it’s just that main arc of the story is the hero’s.
Are any aspects from Tempted by a Rogue Prince or any of your novels inspired by your own life, even in the little details?
No, not at all. I would probably lead a dark and frightening life if there were. I suppose in a manner of speaking Rosalind, the heroine, and her desire to do good in the world and not take lives, in any form, whether they’re the smallest or the biggest creatures, or even nature, is reflective of myself. I can’t kill anything. I feel as guilty as she does if I do accidentally kill something… even if it’s an ant!
Tempted by a Rogue Prince (Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Book 3) Released Aug. 6, 2014
An elf prince on the verge of losing himself to the darkness, Vail is maddened by the forty-two centuries he was under the control of a witch and forced to war with his brother. Now, he roams Hell seeking an escape from his terrible past and the heads of all who bear magic. When demons of the Fifth Realm capture him, he sees a chance to end his existence, but when he wakes in a cell to a beautiful female, he finds not death but his only shot at salvation—his true fated mate.
Captured by the enemy of the Third Realm when the war ended, Rosalind has spent months in the cells of the Fifth Realm with her magic bound, forced to heal the new king’s demon warriors, and haunted by the lives she has taken. When she’s brought to heal an unconscious man, she discovers her only hope of escape has come in the form of her worst nightmare and the first part of a prediction that might spell her doom—a devastatingly handsome and dangerous dark elf prince.
Unwilling to fall under the control of anyone ever again, Vail must escape before the Fifth King can use him as a pawn in a deadly game of revenge, but he cannot leave without Rosalind, the woman who looks at him with dark desire in her stunning eyes and awakens a fierce hunger in his heart. A witch who drives him mad with need even as the darkness within whispers she will enslave him too.
Can Rosalind escape her fate as they embark on a journey fraught with danger and resist the temptation of her rogue elf prince? And can Vail overcome the memories that madden him in order to seize his chance for salvation and the heart of his fated female forever?
Paranormal Romance Books in the Eternal Mates Series
Kissed by a Dark Prince
Claimed by a Demon King
Tempted by a Rogue Prince
Hunted by a Jaguar - coming in 2015
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