Hey guys! I'm super excited to have the author of Angelbound, Christina Bauer, on Books & Beauti today, in which she answers a few of my questions and does character voices from some of her books! Check it out and don't forget to enter the giveaway. You can find the giveaway and a link to other tour stops at the bottom of the post. Happy Reading! :)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Angelbound
Christina Bauer(Angelbound Origins #1)
Published by: Monster House Books
Publication date: December 30th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
*Now an audio book!*
Eighteen-year-old Myla Lewis is a girl who loves two things: kicking ass and kicking ass. She’s not your everyday quasi-demon, half-demon, and half-human, girl. For the past five years, Myla has lived for the days she gets to fight in Purgatory’s arena. When souls want a trial by combat for their right to enter heaven or hell, they go up against her, and she has not lost a battle yet.
But as she starts her senior year at Purgatory High, the arena fights are not enough to keep her spirits up anymore. When the demons start to act weird, even for demons, and the King of the Demons, Armageddon, shows up at Myla’s school, she knows that things are changing and it is not looking good for the quasi-demons. Myla starts to question everything, and does not like the answers she finds. What happened 17 years ago that turned the quasi-demons into slave labor? Why was her mom always so sad? And why won’t anyone tell her who her father is?
Things heat up when Myla meets Lincoln, the High Prince of the Thrax, a super sexy half-human and half-angel demon hunter. But what does a quasi-demon girl to do when she falls for a demon hunter? It’s a good thing that Myla is not afraid of breaking a few rules. With a love worth fighting for, Myla is going to shake up Purgatory.
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GUEST INTERVIEW
WITH CHRISTINA BAUER
My book, ANGELBOUND, tells the story of a part demon girl who falls in love with a part angel prince. This week, I’m doing an author tour to celebrate the launch of ANGELBOUND as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes, and I’ve been asked some interview questions from the fabulous Books & Beauti blog! So without further ado, here are their super-insightful questions and my (hopefully as insightful) answers:
What’s your spiritual inspiration for the series?
I was raised a Roman Catholic, and ANGELBOUND all started with a spiritual question: “What if in the after-life, everyone was pretty much as confused as we are here and now?” In other words, what if angels were only more likely to be good, but they could still have their not-so-great moments? The reverse would be true of demons.
At the same time, I became really interested in the ideas of lust and wrath as sins, especially for women. I realized that there are times when both emotions are completely appropriate, but we don’t really talk about that too much, especially for teenager girls…And that got me wanting to have a teenage heroine who didn’t only have wrathful feelings against evil souls and demons, but one who actually liked “getting her wrath on” and fighting the bad guys. In this scenario, she’s not really evil, so long as she has it under control.
With those questions under my belt, the world building got super-interesting. In the end, I decided to highlight the whole idea of “what’s good and evil” by pairing my heroine with a part-angel Prince who thought that anyone with a touch of demonic DNA must be wicked, through and through. And so, ANGELBOUND was born!
Who are your favorite female leads from other books?
I get a ton of inspiration from myths, especially ones about women. One of my favorites is the original story of Ash Maiden (aka Cinderella). In the Grimm’s fairy tale version, Ash Maiden’s big problem was not household chores, but that she missed her dead mother. Ash Maiden had grief work to do, and for those of you who’ve lost someone, you know what a bitch that can be. Every day, Ash Maiden wept by her mother’s grave. Over the years, her tears sprouted into a tree… And from that tree dropped her gown and glass slippers. Its branches were also the home of a little bird who helped Ash Maiden to find her prince.
So, in this take, it wasn’t housework that held Ash Maiden back, but the mourning that she needed to do for her mother. Once that was complete, our heroine created her own magic in order to change her life. And that, in my opinion, is truly badass.
I noticed that Myla is a very strong female character. What characters inspired you while creating her character profile?
I loved the idea of using brains and brawn in battle. In other words, Myla doesn’t just blast the crap out of her enemies, she learns how each demon works, creates a battle strategy on the fly, and then goes to town. I got that idea from the goddess Athena. She is THE go-to chick for working smarter, not harder.
Here’s one of my favorite examples. One time, Poseidon challenges Athena to a battle of power. Whoever wins gets to have a city named after them. The fight begins. Poseidon takes out his mighty trident, zaps a cliff side, and makes a massive water spout.
Ooh, aah.
Now, Athena is the only goddess who can wield Zeus’s thunderbolt, so she could easily beat Poseidon in the zapping-shit department. Instead, she steps up to the crevasse where Poseidon made a mess, drops in a seed, and makes the very first olive tree. Olives became the mainstay of Greek life, considering how they traded olive oil and built ships from the wood. She totally wins the fight and Athens is instantly named after her. It’s a major goddess fuck-you moment where brains win over brawn. I love it and work an element of it into every battle.
Do you have any favorite bookish things, such as any favorite book related candles, shirts, signed copies and such?
I do collect original versions of books that I love. One of my favorites is a first edition of MYTHOLOGY by Edith Hamilton. I did a total fan girl squee when it arrived in the mail!
Do you create bookish items or designs? An example would be like Julie Kagawa making polymer dragons and characters from her books.
In terms of crafty stuff, I have recorded myself in my basement doing some of the voices from my books. Here’s a pic of yours truly in my basement lair:
I also worked with an amazing programmer from Belarus to animate the cover of ANGELBOUND and turn it into a book trailer. I was especially happy with how the music turned out.
All in all, thanks so much for asking these questions…I had a fun time answering them! In case you think of some more, please know that I’m always up for reader interaction, and more information on how to contact me is listed below.
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Monster House Books is celebrating the launch of the audiobook version of the best seller Angelbound, both on iTunes & Audible! As a result, every launched book in the series is only $1.99, aka more than 50% off…And that includes Angelbound ACCA, which was only released a few months ago!
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You can find my review of Angelbound here:
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AUTHOR
About Christina Bauer
Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers. It is now available as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes.
Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.
Be the first to know about new releases from Christina by signing up for her newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/CBupdates
Stalk Christina on Social Media – She Loves It!
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GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveawayFollow the Angelbound Tour here:
http://xpressobooktours.com/
Thanks for hosting today, Kelly! :)
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