Author Interview: Syrie and Ryan James

I am SO excited to announce that today I have an interview with Syrie and Ryan James to share with you today! They are here to talk about their new young adult novel Forbidden! 

In three words, how would you describe Forbidden?

SJ & RJ: Entertaining Paranormal Romance

If you could be anyone from forbidden, who would you be and why?

RJ: Alec, probably, since he has some of the powers I always wished I could have.

SJ: Alec. Totally. He’s a badass action hero with a heart of gold.

How did you come up with the idea of a forbidden love involving angels and the mythical genre?

SJ: Several years back, I had an idea for a book full of suspense, danger, and romance, about a teenage girl who starts getting psychic visions from a mysterious source, who enlists the help of a boy at school to help her figure out who’s sending the messages and why. One day, I was thinking about a screenplay that Ryan and I had written, about a young superhero who was tired of his slayer-like job and dreamt of having a normal life, passing for human. It occurred to me: what if I combined a version of the male character from that story with my psychic girl? Ryan wanted to write the book together. I thought it would be fun to work together again.

RJ: When I was in college I learned about the Nephilim and Grigori, and found them fascinating. So I suggested that we tie together all the supernatural abilities of our characters by involving angels—to have both the girl (Claire's) unusual psychic powers and the boy (Alec's) paranormal abilities come from the same source. We were excited about the idea of creating a whole new mythology with angels that are more like X-men than the traditionally held concept, and the notion that every hero and creature of legend can trace its roots back to angels.

SJ: The main characters’ love being forbidden comes out of the rules of that angel mythology. Claire’s and Alec’s unique natures make their relationship—and Claire’s very existence—absolutely prohibited, and their world becomes increasingly dangerous because of it.

How was working together as mother and son? Was it challenging or easier than expected?

SJ: Writing this novel with Ryan was a wonderful experience. Although the story itself was challenging to create, working together was easier than I expected, and a lot more fun than writing alone. Ryan has a vivid imagination and a great sense of character and story. After creating a detailed storyboard and outline, hashing out characters, plot, and all the details of the world beforehand, we were both totally in sync as we wrote it.

RJ: We often challenged each other to explore new ideas and look at things a different way. I was especially vocal when it came to the paranormal world and the action scenes, whereas Syrie was more adamant about certain things when it came to the romance. Occasionally we disagreed, but we listened and welcomed each other’s input. Looking back, we don’t recall any major disagreements. I more remember how we came to know the characters and the world so well, it was like we were one mind. We often spoke the action and dialog aloud as we were typing, found ourselves finishing each other's sentences, and often cracking each other up.

What do you do when you're not writing?

RJ: I have a day job in the video game industry as the lead editor on Naughty Dog’s upcoming title, The Last of Us. It’s sometimes so all-consuming and exciting that it’s hard to find time to write! But I love working in such a collaborative environment—it’s why I think I especially enjoyed writing the book with my mom.

SJ: I’m always writing. Seriously. Always. The only other things I do are email, exercise, cook, eat, sleep, tweet, facebook, and update my website. Oh, and go to plays and movies. When I turn in a finished manuscript, I celebrate by going shopping. 

What's your favorite book and why?

RJ: Hard to pick one, especially as I love both comics and novels, and ultimately I think I love movies more than either.  For now I’ll say the entire Y: The Last Man series is high up on my list.

SJ: Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion by Jane Austen; Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The characters and stories are timeless and unforgettable, and they have important things to say about people, relationships, the value of self-awareness, and the power of love.

What's your favorite color?

RJ: Green.

SJ: Blue.

What's next?

RJ: As above, day job, though I’m writing something else on the side that I can’t talk about yet.  Hopefully there will be a sequel to Forbidden to pull me away from everything else! There’s so much more story to tell, so keep your fingers crossed.

SJ:  I just finished writing THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT OF JANE AUSTEN, a new romantic novel for Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Books, which I’m very excited about! It will be published in January 2013. I have plenty of other historical fiction novels in mind, but I enjoyed writing FORBIDDEN so much, that I also hope to write more Young Adult fiction, either on my own or with Ryan (we’d love to write a sequel to FORBIDDEN).

Thanks so much for hosting us here today. Please visit us at syriejames.com and illusive-entertainment.com, facebook, and twitter!

Forbidden 

By Syrie and Ryan James

Release Date: January 24, 2012

Summary: She should not exist.

He should not love her.

Claire Brennan has been attending Emerson Academy for two years now (the longest she and her mom have remained anywhere) and she's desperate to stay put for the rest of high school. So there's no way she's going to tell her mom about the psychic visions she's been having or the creepy warnings that she's in danger.

Alec MacKenzie is fed up with his duties to watch and, when necessary, eliminate the descendants of his angelic forefathers. He chose Emerson as the ideal hiding place where he could be normal for once. He hadn't factored Claire into his plans. . . .

Their love is forbidden, going against everything Alec has been taught to believe. But when the reason behind Claire's unusual powers is revealed and the threat to her life becomes clear, how far will Alec go to protect her? ***Check out my review here***

Thank you Syrie and Ryan so much for being here today! If you haven't already, be sure to check out Forbidden! 

Shelf Candy Saturday (30)

Shelf Candy is a meme hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews and every Saturday, bloggers choose a book whose cover really catches their eye. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but I always do, so I'm choosing books whose cover alone made me pick it up. So I hope you enjoy my shelf candy!

I really love it when covers from the same series go so well together. Both of these have the same chilling covers and wispy white font for the titles. And love how the girls on the cover are lounging, yet look so serious. And it's really cool how their upper body is focused while the bottom of the pictures are blurry. I don't even know what these books are about, but they're definitely on my TBR list! I can't wait to see what the next book in the series is going to look like!

Follow My Book Blog Friday (32)

This is a meme hosted every Friday by Parajunkee, where book bloggers answer a question each week and check out how others answered it. It's a cool way for bloggers and viewers to connect and learn more about each other!

Question: What is the longest book you've ever read? What are your favorite 600+ page reads? 

Answer: Hmmm I honestly have no idea. I'd have to say the longest books I've read were the Harry Potter books. The Host by Stephanie Meyer was just over 600 pages and it was awesome! I know people don't like her because of Twilight, but The Host was actually al really good read! Crime and Punishment was up in the 500s and so was City of Glass and both of those are really great books. That's all I can think of! What's so great about Harry Potter, though, is that it brought so many people back into reading and really changed their lives. That series that got up into the 800 page range made a huge difference in reading and if you haven't read it yet, you seriously need to get out of the rock you're living under and pick it up RIGHT NOW!

And you know what? It's friday! And I went to the Hunger Games premiere last night (aka this morning) and I'm just in a great mood (my review of the movie is right here!). So here's a little Joey and Chandler dance to share my happiness right now...

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

Release Date: March 23, 2012

Summary: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.



Review: Holy freaking Hunger Games. This was AMAZING! Seriously, I'm so happy right now that I can't even sleep (it's 3am and I have class at 9:30 in the morning....). I loved absolutely everything about this book, which is really saying something.

Let's start with the actors. Jennifer Lawrence was honestly the best choice I could have ever chosen as someone to play Katniss. She had Katniss's attitude, emotion, look, and bravery, and she never embarrassed the very idea of Katniss's character (like Kristen Stewart did for Bella...). I wasn't that big of a fan of Josh Hutchinson playing Peeta, but in the movie he really held his own. He actually portrayed Peeta as he was in the book; he was vulnerable, yet strong and determined to help Katniss win. Liam Hemsworth was a PERFECT Gale and every time they showed him (which was sadly not very often) I wanted to climb into the movie and eat him right up. The people who played Cinna, Haymitch, Prim, Snow, and Caesar were all perfect too! They were all really great actors and were exactly how I imagined them to be in the book. I couldn't have asked for a better cast!

Onto the movie...it held the perfect combination between action, emotion, and strategy. The games were so intense and I swear there were at least five times I got goosebumps from being so drawn into the story. When the countdown is going on and Katniss is about to enter the games, my stomach dropped and my heart was beating so hard, like I was actually there. I felt like I was actually in the games and I'm still high off of the adrenaline I felt through Katniss and the entire feeling of being in the games. Nothing major was changed, so I'm extremely happy they stayed so true to the book.

What really brought everything together was how they built the entire world of the Capitol and the districts. District 12 was just how I imagined it in the book; it was drab, dreary, and just plain sad. When Katniss and Peeta went to the Capitol, it was as if they entered an entirely new world. Everyone was dressed in insane outfits with weird yet cool makeup/accessories. The control room for the games was crazy and perfect, showing people dressed in white working with touch, futuristic technology to control the games in their favor. It was just awesome. But my favorite part had to be when Caesar was announcing the games and would host the interviews. You couldn't help but be entranced by what he says and the audience was insane, in both how they looked and how many people were there to watch people kill each other. Everything embodied the book and really brought The Hunger Games to life.

All in all, I really can't complain. Yeah, there were some small details I wish were changed, but nothing could ever be perfect. I have to say this was probably as perfect as you're going to get for fans of the book. The movie makes you feel so much emotion (even shed a tear or two) and really brings you deep into the heart of the games. And now I encourage ALL of you to go see this movie! Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Book Review: Kiss Crush Collide by Christina Meredith

Kiss Crush Collide

By Christina Meredith 

Release Date: December 27, 2012

Summary: Kiss 
What Leah did—only she really shouldn’t have—one hot night at a country club party. 

Crush 
What Leah has—only she really shouldn’t have—on the guy with the green eyes, the guy who is not her perfect boyfriend, the guy who does not fit in her picture-perfect life, the guy her sisters will only mock and her mother will never approve of. Not in a million years. 

Collide 
What happens when everything you always thought you wanted—having cool friends, being class valedictorian and homecoming queen—runs smack into everything it turns out you really do want. 

Kiss. Crush. Collide. 
For Leah and Porter, summer is only the beginning.

Review: I really really really wanted to enjoy this one, I mean, just look at the cover! But I should have known I wouldn't enjoy it based on all of the negative reviews. This book held sooooo much potential, but the story just fell flat with dull characters and too much description. 

As the main character, I was really not a big fan of Leah. She's always all "oh I don't have to try for anything and I hate it." I hate people who always get what they want without trying at all, so why would I want to read about one? She complain SO much about how her mom wants her to be like her sisters and she hates her boyfriend. It just got annoying after reading about for 300 pages. 

The other part of the book that didn't work was how everything was written as a description. There wasn't really any action and we just saw how Leah felt when things were going on. I didn't even know what was really happening because all she talked about was how she was feeling. And even then, the feelings seemed to happen wayyyy too fast. It's like two second after she met Porter, she was crazy about him. I really don't like it when there's no build up or at least hesitation to relationships. 

So overall this book really did nothing for me. It was a quick read, but I couldn't connect with the characters and I found myself skimming pages because I didn't want to read so much description about what was going on. I'm just so sad I didn't like this book! I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover...

Waiting on Wednesday (34)

This is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where every Wednesday bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating the release of! 

This Is So Not Happening
By Kieran Scott
Release Date: May 1, 2012

Summary: After their long summer apart, Ally and Jake were hoping for a drama free senior year. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like things will work out that way...again. — It turns out that Chloe is pregnant and says that Jake is the father. Hammond is pissed at his best friend, but mostly can't believe that Ally would stay with Jake. But Ally is tired of being apart from Jake and is willing to make it work. But that is easier said than done when Jake starts blowing Ally off to go to doctor's appointments with Chloe and Ally joins the school play and meets a new cute guy. 

But as graduation approaches, things get more complicated as new secrets come out and Ally realizes maybe Jake isn't the guy she thought he was. After everything they've been through can Ally and Jake get out of Orchard Hill with their relationship intact?

I am seriously SO excited for this book!!!!! It's been way too long since the second one came out and I've been dying to know what's going to happen between Jake and Ally! The last book ended with Chloe claiming that she was pregnant with Jake as the father. Did it really happen? We don't know!!! Ahhhh this is going to be so good. And I love the cover! I don't know how I'm going to last until May! 

Book Review: Kiss of the Vampire by Cynthia Garner

Kiss of the Vampire

By Cynthia Garner

Release Date: February 1, 2012

Summary: Warriors of the Rift

Once a generation, the rift between the paranormal world and the human world opens, allowing supernatural entities to cross. Vampire, demon, or shapeshifter, they can save the world-or send it spiraling into chaos.Half-demon, half-human, Nix de la Fuente is accepted by neither and mistrusted by both. Determined to prove she's more human than not, she devotes herself to solving crimes between the world's mortals and its most unsavory undead. But her latest case brings her face to face with the one vampire she could never resist . . . 

Called in to investigate a string of violent murders, special agent Tobias Caine isn't interested in rekindling his relationship with Nix. Yet one look and the vampire knows his need for her is as strong as ever. Once, their all-consuming passion nearly cost Nix her fragile hold on her humanity. Now, as their hunger for one another intensifies, exposing them to an unimaginable danger, it could cost them both their lives.

Review: Wow, I seriously need to pick up more paranormal romances. Not only are they full of paranormal creatures and awesome romance, they are packed with action and strong characters with attitude. Kiss of the Vampire opens up at the crime scene where a vampire had been brutally murdered. What made this so interesting was that paranormals were known to the world, so they did not have to hide who they were to anyone else. This puts a unique twist on the vampire murders that had been going on; which paranormal creature really did it? 

Nix, a detective who is assigned to work the vampire case, is a half-demon and she's still fighting to keep her demon side in check. But how can she do that when Tobias, a dark and brooding vampire, comes back into her life? I love the history behind Nix and Tobias and how they have to work together again after five years. The book got a little boring when they focused so much on the crime scene and investigation and not so much on the relationships, but the romance was still definitely there. 

Dante was a quirky character, the human helping Nix out on the case, and it was fun to see how he pushed Tobias's buttons. I loved how independent Nix was and how she could definitely hold her own against big bad guys. And Tobias was just awesome. I liked how they were pushed to work together on the case and deal with issues that hadn't been solved five years ago. The paranormal side of things was so cool and I wish there was even more of it! If you're into paranormal romance, check this one out! I know I'm going to pick up one of Cynthia Garner's werewolf paranormal romance books next to get some more of this genre I've been neglecting for far too long!