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Home » Authors, Giveaways, Guests, Interviews, Laura Kaye

Interview and Giveaway: Her Forbidden Hero by Laura Kaye

Submitted by on June 25, 2012 – 7:00 am89 Comments

Kitt: Hi Laura, we’d like to welcome you back to Paperback Dolls! We’re so happy to have you here.

Laura: Thank you so much, Kitt! I’m always excited to hang out with the Paperback Dolls!

Kitt: This is your second visit to Paperback Dolls, your first was last November when you took our Paperback Proust during your North of Need release, can you tell our readers a little about yourself now and what you’ve been doing since?

Laura: I’d love to! I am in the middle of writing two paranormal series and one contemporary series. The second in the series that began with North of Need releases on July 10 (West of Want, Hearts of the Anemoi Book 2) – and that will be my first book with national bookstore distribution! I’m so excited! I’m also writing a mini-series of novellas for Harlequin called the Vampire Warrior Kings series, and have two out and two more to come. And I’m contracted to write four more stories like my newest release, Her Forbidden Hero, all sexy contemporaries featuring hot alpha heroes – how much fun is that?

Kitt: When did you first start writing? What made you decide – ‘ok, this is it, I’m writing a book’?

Laura: Well, I’ve been a writer my entire adult life. But mostly it was non-fiction. By training, I’m an academic historian and college professor, and so I have scholarly books published in my field of early American history. But, about four years ago, I first tried my hand at writing fiction for publication. I experienced a head injury (similar to my hero, Marco, in Her Forbidden Hero), and when I started to heal, I had the strong urge to all kinds of creative outlets, and writing was the one that most demanded my attention. Within three months, I drafted my first novel, which ultimately became my vampire romance, Forever Freed. I haven’t looked back since.

Kitt: Do you have any authors that you took inspiration from or influenced you the most?

Laura: I grew up reading Stephen King and Anne Rice, and they definitely inspired me with their incredible ability to weave a tail, build suspense, and make you love and root for their characters! More recently, my favorite authors are J.R. Ward and Sherrilyn Kenyon, who both excel and writing male point of view and incredibly vivid, sympathetic and sexy alpha males. I feel inspired by and influenced by all four of these authors in different ways.

Kitt: When you want to get away from your own books and take a break, what do you read?

Laura: Mostly paranormal and contemporary romance, though I can enjoy almost any genre as long as the characters grab me. The two most recent books I read—and loved—were Lisa Kleypas’s Blue-Eyed Devil and Sylvia Day’s Bared to You. Both brilliant.

Kitt: Can you tell us a little bit about Her Forbidden Hero?

Laura: Sure! Her Forbidden Hero is the story of a physically and emotionally damaged prior Army Special Forces soldier named Marco Vieri who struggles to come to terms with how his life has changed—and the fact that he’s falling in love with Alyssa Scott, one of his oldest friends and his best friend/Special Forces teammate’s younger sister. Here’s the blurb:

She’s always been off-limits…

Former Army Special Forces Sgt. Marco Vieri has never thought of Alyssa Scott as more than his best friend’s little sister, but her return home changes that…and challenges him to keep his war-borne demons at bay. Marco’s not the same person he was back when he protected Alyssa from her abusive father, and he’s not about to let her see the mess he’s become.

…but now she’s all grown up.

When Alyssa takes a job at the bar where Marco works, her carefree smiles wreak havoc on his resolve to bury his feelings. How can he protect her when he can’t stop thinking about her in his bed? But Alyssa’s not looking for protection–not anymore. Now that she’s back in his life, she’s determined to heal her forbidden hero, one touch at a time…

Kitt: Are any of your characters, such as Sgt. Marco Vieri, based on other people? Do you have mental images for your characters?

Laura: I’m a very visual writer. I see scenes play out in my head like a video, and I can even move around inside the scene so I can see the characters and the setting from multiple angles. So I always have visual images of my characters. And Italian actor Giulio Berruti and American actress Olivia Wilde are very close representations of the characters as I see them. There’s also a lot of me and my own personal experiences in these characters—my head injury in Marco (though I wrote his consequences worse than mine were), my love of acoustic guitar and guitar playing (though I’m not good LOL), and my alcoholic father in Alyssa (though he was never violent). I also read and watched a lot of interviews with wounded veterans, and based Marco in part on a wounded Navy SEAL I read about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitt: Was there a particular scene or part of the book that was more challenging to write, if so, can you explain?

Laura: These characters had been in my head for about nine months when I finally had the opportunity to write their story. So I really knew them and the story very well when I began and it just poured out (in four weeks). I really didn’t struggle with any particular scene, though I did feel challenged to be make Marco sympathetic and likeable and also let him express his anger and hurt and frustration, and it was sometimes a difficult line to walk.

Kitt: If there is a lesson that each of your main characters need to learn what would it be?

Laura: This is a really interesting question. They both need to learn that it’s not a weakness to admit you need help and ask for it. That’s something I think both have as a character flaw. More specifically, Marco needs to learn that he can’t control everything, and Alyssa needs to learn that she can’t fix everything for everyone else in her life.

Kitt: So, what’s next on your “to-do” list? We know you are busy promoting your new book, but are there any new works in progress we can be anticipating? Or are there any other genres that you’d like to explore?

Laura: Up most immediately is the release of my contemporary fantasy romance, West of Want, book 2 in my Hearts of the Anemoi series. Then will come the follow-on story to Her Forbidden Hero, which will feature the heroine’s brother Brady in his own book in the late summer/early fall. I’ll have at least one more book out in late 2012 as well, and maybe more! Stay tuned, it’s never a dull moment! And I love that!

Kitt: If there were a question that no one has asked you as of yet, and you really wish they would, what would that be? (with answer please!)

Laura: LOL Hmmm…  I think I shared some of this above, but there’s so much of me in this book. I mean, I think that’s always true to some degree. Authors can’t help but put themselves, their views, their thoughts into the characters in various ways. So maybe that would be the question—how are you, the author, reflected in Her Forbidden Hero? And the answer is: I explored the issues related to my head injury with Marco’s character. I explored the fact that I grew up with an alcoholic father (who was largely out of the picture before I was a teenager) and my childhood poverty in Alyssa’s character. I explored my love of music, which has always been a source of solace, pleasure, and companionship for me, not to mention my own fledgling love of and interest in playing the guitar.

Kitt: We want to thank you so much for taking the time to visit us and answer our questions!  We are super thrilled to have you on Paperback Dolls. Best of Luck to you!

Laura: Thanks for having me back! You dolls rock!

About Laura Kaye:

Voted Breakout Author of the Year in the 2011 GraveTells Readers’ Choice Awards, Laura is the bestselling and award-winning author of over a half-dozen books in paranormal, contemporary and erotic romance. Hearts in Darkness is the EPIC eBook Award Winner for Best Novella and HOLT Medallion Award of Merit Winner for Best Romance Novella, Forever Freed is the NJRW Golden Leaf Winner for Best Paranormal of 2011 and is a finalist for two GDRWA Booksellers’ Best Awards, and North of Need, the first book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, is a finalist for a FF&P PRISM award, was named GraveTells’ Best Book of 2011 and won their 5-STAR Gold Heart Award, and won Sizzling Hot Read of the Year at Sizzling Hot Books. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.

Buy Laura’s Books

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GIVEAWAY!: One commenter who leaves their email address will win A PRINT COPY of Her Forbidden Hero! The book is not available for sale in print, so this is a rare, exclusive opportunity! Open to international! Good luck!

She’s always been off-limits…

Former Army Special Forces Sgt. Marco Vieri has never thought of Alyssa Scott as more than his best friend’s little sister, but her return home changes that…and challenges him to keep his war-borne demons at bay. Marco’s not the same person he was back when he protected Alyssa from her abusive father, and he’s not about to let her see the mess he’s become.

…but now she’s all grown up.

When Alyssa takes a job at the bar where Marco works, her carefree smiles wreak havoc on his resolve to bury his feelings. How can he protect her when he can’t stop thinking about her in his bed? But Alyssa’s not looking for protection–not anymore. Now that she’s back in his life, she’s determined to heal her forbidden hero, one touch at a time…

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Paperback Dolls is made up of women from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds, different tastes and beliefs that were brought together through a love of reading. We like to think of ourselves as a cyber version of "The View" that focuses on books, authors, and reading. We are proof positive that one common love can unite the most opposite of people and form lasting friendships that introduce other ways of life and perspectives to each other.
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