Month of Love Q&A and Giveaway: Fairy Tales series by Eloisa James
Everyone please welcome Eloisa to Paperback Dolls! Eloisa just released the third in her , , this past December! To learn more about Eloisa James, the first two books in her Fairy Tales series – and – or her other works, please visit her website here. To learn more about Month of Love and who is visiting you can go here.
PBD: What was it about the Romance genre that made you choose to write love stories?
EJ: I love happy endings. I’ve always loved the romance genre best, even when I was just a girl. Romance has a rhythm and a promise to it that appeals to me. I know the world is a tough and cold place; I’ve lost my mother and I have a child with a chronic illness. But—and this is a big but—I also know that love and joy make all the difference. Romance reminds me that if there’s a pattern to the universe, it’s one shaped around and by love. We can all use that reminder now and then.
PBD: Your next book is a retelling of The Ugly Duckling… Any tidbits you can share?
EJ: The challenge for me in rewriting The Ugly Duckling was dealing with the challenge of the duckling’s transformation into a swan. I knew that I didn’t want a physical transformation (ie, heroine loses weight thereby adhering to society’s ideal). My heroine, Theo, is definitely not pretty-in-pink: she’s got a mannish face and a lean body, and those attributes aren’t going anywhere. So what kind of transformation are we talking about? Oh, I had fun planning Theo’s transformation! All I’m going to say is that she takes society by storm. And here’s a fun tidbit… Ugly Duchess is my first pirate book!
PBD: How about first loves and soul mates?
EJ: I do believe in soul mates, though I don’t think the constitution of the “perfect person” is a mystical question, but rather one of nature and nature. I first met my husband Alessandro at a party during grad school. He had a mop of black curls, a ravishing Italian accent and a swimmer’s body… I thought he was about as unlike my father (a Minnesota poet) as could be imagined. Picture my surprise when the years passed and I realized that Italian or American, it doesn’t really matter: they are both wildly creative, thoughtful, decent and loving men who have so many similarities that I can’t even count them.
PBD: Have you ever broken anyone’s heart?
EJ: Oh, I wish I could say yes, but I don’t think so. I tend to stay friends with my exes. I did have my heart broken once—and then a while ago I ran into the heartbreaker himself, and he told me that was one of the worst decisions of his life. That made me very happy!
PBD: For a romance heroine, do you prefer a timid flower, a scorned & scarred fatalist, an optimistic romantic, or the one always ignored or passed over?
EJ: I like shaping women whom I would want to be my friends. I’m not timid myself, and I don’t admire it much as a trait. So I create heroines who are strong in themselves (though they may have tough times, of course), and who have close relationships with other women—because that’s what I see all around me. Women have a great gift for friendship, and I’ve always wanted to depict that. I don’t have a favorite heroine: they live very brightly for me while I’m writing them, and then I move on with equal affection to the next. I guess I’m a serial dater when it comes to heroines.
New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James writes historical romances for HarperCollins Publishers. Her novels have been published to great acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa’s very first book that she “found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar”; later People Magazine raved that “romance writing does not get much better than this.” Her novels have repeatedly received starred reviews from Publishers’ Weekly and Library Journal and regularly appear on the best-seller lists.
After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got an M.Phil. from Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and eventually became a Shakespeare professor, publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press. Currently she is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York City. Her “double life” is a source of fascination to the media and her readers. In her professorial guise, she’s written a New York Times op-ed defending romance, as well as articles published everywhere from women’s magazines such as More to writers’ journals such as the Romance Writers’ Report.
Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she’s betrothed to a Beast.
Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.
Linnet is not just any woman.
She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.
Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.
If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?
Wow, this series looks interesting. Will try to find a copy here.
Suzi, I read the first and it was fabulous! You should really give them a try!
I read and loved ‘The Duke is Mine’. Now it looks like I missed a couple more books that need to be added to my TBR pile =)
Always happy to help your TBR pile grow! lol
I like dark romances, but even then I was the HEA. I don’t want to end a book feeling depressed. There is enough unhappy in the real world which I can not control. I can control the happy in the imaginary romance worlds I chose to enter :) thanks!
I completely agree! There is enough darkness in RL, there’s no need to add it to our escapes.
I agree with Emily! I loved The Duke is Mine. I have read several of Eloise’s books but somehow missed her fairy tale books. I will have to hunt them down.
I agree with Eloise’s responses. I think the reason I read romance novels is because of the happy ending. In my life, there is nothing but non-stop craziness. I am simply waiting for my happy ending, until then I will read romances. I also tend to stay friends with my exes. It makes life easier. Sure it hurts when someone leaves you especially when they make the decision but usually it turns out for the best in the long run.
I’m so glad we could help, Carey! Happy Reading!
Have been loving your columns and posts lately, Eloisa! And I always love your books, of course. ;o) Nice site, ladies!
Thank you, Bobbi! We hope you’ll continue to visit us!
Love the interview and the giveaway! =) and i´m a sucker for a fairy tale with a HEA *sigh*
best wishes, Linda xo
Me too, Linda! *double sigh*
Two of my good blogger friends who are HR lovers kept singing the praises of Eloisa’s Fairy Tales series, so I had to add them to my wishlist ;-)
Thank you for the chance to get to know Eloisa a bit better and thank you Eloisa for making the giveaway open worldwide and not excluding us your international readers!! :-D
Let me be one more to sing Eloisa’s praises! We absolutely love her and her books here. If you look around, we have a few reviews to back that up. lol
I love all of Eloisa’s stories so I am very excited to get my hands on WHEN BEAUTY TAMED THE BEAST.
Good luck, Renee!
I love retelling of fairy tales. They were my favorite stories as a child and the grown up versions as even better. I can’t wait to read this one.
The Duke is Mine was wonderful, I stayed up half the night reading when I bought it! Cannot wait for the ugly duckling story. Love Eloisa James books, always know I am buying a good book.
Don’t you love that? Finding authors with book after book of awesomeness that you always know what you’re getting will be fabulous!
I have learned that my hubby, rough biker dude, is so much like my Dad, clean cut business man, that it is scary.
I enjoyed When Beauty tamed the Beast but I have to say that my favorite Eloisa book is A duke of her own. Really like Eleanor in the book….
LOVED A Duke of Her Own!
Thanks for the fantastic post and giveaway! I’ve always wanted to read this author and this book sounds fabulous :)
Eloisa is one of my favorite authors and Beauty & The Beast has always been one of my very favorite Fairy Tales & definitely the most romantic. Just watched the Disney version again last week & the television series with Ron Perlman was a favorite (loved his voice in that show). It’ll be fun to find out how Eloisa’s Beauty tames her Beast.
Beauty and the Beast is my most favoritest Disney movie! I have to watch it over and over. It never seems to get old!
I love your books Ms.James I just got your book “The Duke is Mine” and I love it:)
I recently added the Fairytales series to my wish list. I read Winning The Wildflower and I was hooked. I have When Beauty Tamed the Beast in my TBR pile (it’s one of the next 50 books or so ;)).
Oooo I just bought Winning the Wallflower myself!
The Ugly Duchess sounds like it will be an entertaining book. I love pirate books and The Ugly Duckling is a particular favourite fairy tale of mine.
I like to read about strong heroines. The timid, wallflower type are often so insipid .
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
I love the cover of this book! It’s so eye-catching! Awesome interview and giveaway as well! Thanks for that :D
I love fairy tales with happy endings. I would love to read this book. Please enter me in contest.
This book looks great!
I recently bought Potent Pleasures and WOW!!! I loved it! I need to get the rest of the series and of course this series as well. Thank you for writing such amazing books. :) xx
Love your books Eloisa!
I love books by Eloisa James^^
she’s great historical romance author :D
I love your books, this book look great. I can’t wait to read it!!
I love the cover of this book! Thanks for awesome interview and giveaway as well!
Really wanna read this historical romance for Beast and beauty… :D
Curious!
Paranormal is my favorite. The book I’ve enjoyed the most this past year: Archangel’s Consort by Nalini Singh.
Those are sitting on my bookshelf right now!
Hi Eloise, I really enjoyed your interview. I love your books and can’t wait to read When Beauty Tamed The Beast. A modern day Beauty and the Beast was a great idea. Thanks for stopping by to chat and share with us.
[...] author of Head Rush – Badass Book ReviewsEloisa James, author of The Ugly Duchess – Paperback DollsGena Showalter, author of Dating the Undead – Dark Faerie Tales, All Things Urban [...]
woww cool love eloisa james so much. This is one of the perfect valentine gift ever, happy valentine to you. Thank you for the giveaway:)
love to win eloisa’s book ;)
I enjoyed the interview. The book sounds very good.
Fun interview! I loved When Beauty Tamed the Beast and I’m looking forward to read more from her.
This series looks really interesting, although I haven’t read any of them I will definitely add them to my TBR pile.
Book looks interesting and I love the title!
I like the re-telling of fairy tales in the new series.
You cover is amazing. Do you have someone you know do them?
Mary
Great interview and I do so love retelling of the Disney classics.
Such a great interview! Thank you PDB and Eloisa James
I would love to win a copy. Thanks for the wonderful post.
I do enjoy Beauty and the Beast type stories.
Beauty and the Beast is my all time favourite fairy tale and I am always in the lookout for a good retelling of this story.
I have read a couple of Eloisa’s books and I love it. This book title quite interesting to me, it reminds me of Beauty and the Beast. And the cover is awesome. Hope I can win it.
Thank u for this giveaway
I am such a sucker for fairy tales. I loved The Duke is Mine, great characters that brought humor and love. Can’t wait to see what comes next!
all of the books.. eloisa its great.
hope can win it. :D
I love fairy tale stories. I haven’t read this book yet, but I have heard nothing but great things!
Can’t wait to start on these books!!!! Thanks for the chance to win
[...] Romance author Eloisa James Website Interview and Giveaway Winner of When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James: Maureen [...]