It's 2017! (And I'm two weeks late, I know) but I decided last year to call some AMAZING authors that I discovered last year, with some stunning books and I knew I needed to have them on the blog.
So, to welcome 2017 and hope it's an AMAZING year for all of us, I have fourteen authors with some amazing interviews, guest posts and Stacking The Shelves' and of course, GIVEAWAYS of their BEAUTIFUL books, so stay tuned!
For Day 1, I have with me Breeana Shields, debut author of Poison's Kiss, an Indian Fantasy about a teenage assassin that can kill with just a kiss, that I reviewed just yesterday.
WELCOME to A Thousand Words A Million Books, Breeana.
We'd LOVE To Get To Know More About You:
1. What is the last book you read and loved?
I recently finished THE FORGETTING by Sharon Cameron and I thought it was wonderful!
2. What are your favourite TV shows and movies?
My favorite TV show at the moment is Jane the Virgin. The writing is brilliant—melodramatic, Telenovela plotlines that are delivered with a wink at the audience, layered on top of very earnest, relatable characters. It’s so cleverly done and just fantastic. My favorite movie is Pride & Prejudice-- I love many versions, but my favorite is the five-hour BBC mini-series with Colin Firth. I watch it once a year. So good!
3. Authors you'd love to collaborate with:
Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black, Marie Rutkoski, Robin LaFevers, or Mary Pearson---I’d love to be in a working environment with any one of them and just soak up their genius.
And now, moving onto your masterpiece:
4. Tell us about the day you found out you were getting published:
It’s actually kind of an embarrassing story. I was out running errands and decided to grab a quick lunch on the go. I had just ordered a taco at a drive-through when I saw my agent’s number flashing on my phone. She had called earlier in the week to tell me that an editor had expressed
interest, so I suspected this could be THE call, but I couldn’t answer because the car in front of me was pulling forward and I was up next. I guess technically I could have picked up the phone and tried to have an important business conversation while the restaurant employee was asking me if I’d like hot sauce with my order, but that would have been awkward. So, sadly, I had to watch the call go to voicemail. A few minutes later, I was able to pull over and call my agent back. She told me we had an offer on the book and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. But, now that I think of it, I'm not sure I ever did eat that taco.
5. What inspired you to write Poison Kiss?
A few years ago, I was listening to a lecture series on espionage and covert operations when the instructor mentioned a legendary figure in Indian folklore—the poison damsel, a woman fed poisons from childhood so that she gradually becomes immune but is toxic to any man she lures as her lover.
It was just one sentence in an eighteen-hour course, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What a terrible choice to make for a child—sentencing her to a life that she’s powerless to leave and isolating her forever from true human connection. I wondered what would happen to a girl who was turned into an assassin, but wasn’t cut out to be a killer. How would that life affect her? How would it break her?
When I was still thinking about it several months later, I knew I had to write the story.
6. If you could give one piece of advice to your main characters, what would it be?
I’d tell them to be careful who they trust.
Breeana Shields graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in English. Her debut young adult fantasy, POISON'S KISS, will be released from Random House in 2017, with a sequel to follow in 2018. When she’s not writing, Breeana loves reading, playing board games and spending time with her husband, three children and an extremely spoiled miniature poodle. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where it drizzles, rains or pours nine months of the year, but then transforms into paradise during the other three. She’s willing to make the trade-off. Website || Twitter || Facebook || Instagram
Title: Poison's Kiss (Poison's Kiss #1)
Author: Breeana Shields
Publication Date: January 10th 2017
Publisher: Random House Books For Young Readers
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 1/2 of the Poison's Kiss Duology
I Got A Copy Through: Penguin Random House International (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Wordery || Barnes and Noble || Indigo || Kobo || The Book Depository || Google Play Store ||
Blurb Description: A teenage assassin kills with a single kiss until she is ordered to kill the one boy she loves. This commercial YA fantasy is romantic and addictive—like a poison kiss—and will thrill fans of Sarah J. Maas and Victoria Aveyard.
Marinda has kissed dozens of boys. They all die afterward. It's a miserable life, but being a visha kanya—a poison maiden—is what she was created to do. Marinda serves the Raja by dispatching his enemies with only her lips as a weapon.
Until now, the men she was ordered to kiss have been strangers, enemies of the kingdom. Then she receives orders to kiss Deven, a boy she knows too well to be convinced he needs to die. She begins to question who she's really working for. And that is a thread that, once pulled, will unravel more than she can afford to lose.
This rich, surprising, and accessible debut is based in Indian folklore and delivers a story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
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