Guest Author: Kristine Grayson

KGrayson-Thoroughly KissedI am excited to welcome author Kristine Grayson today as we celebrate her new release, Thoroughly Kissed.

Emma awakens to an entirely different world than the one she lived in a thousand years ago, and although she’s the real Sleeping Beauty, her life is no fairy tale. After parting ways with her supposed Prince Charming, she’s determined to be a normal girl—she hides her magic and swears off kissing strange men.

But her gorgeous boss Michael knows there ‘s something unusual about Emma, and he thinks she’s as infuriating as she is beautiful. Now Emma needs to teach Michael a lesson, which means mastering her magic. She knows she’s flirting with danger, but after one look at Michael’s perfect lips, all she can think is, “What’s another thousand years … ?”

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Stealing The Show: Sleeping Beauty, Utterly Charming, and Thoroughly Kissed

Like everyone else in my novel, Utterly Charming, I was mean to Sleeping Beauty. I put her in a kiss-induced magic coma for 1,000 years, woke her up in a world she didn’t recognize, and let her flail around in our modern times. Granted, I found her a tutor and gave her enough money to survive, but her Prince Charming fell in love with someone else. Worst of all, I let everyone in Utterly Charming privately think her a bit—well, the word rhymes with “witchy.”

She wasn’t. She was scared and lonely and out of her depth. She had a magic spell to help her with the language, but she had to learn the world itself all on her own. She went from the Dark Ages to modern times, from a feudal England to modern America, and managed to survive.

Ten years later, when Thoroughly Kissed starts, she’s actually successful. I believed she would be, because anyone else, anyone with less strength of character, would have died after a few months.

But she was starving for love and companionship, and terrified of it. Understandably. So I paired her up with history professor Michael Found, whose common-sense approach to the world appeals to her, even if his arrogance does not.

(Of course, she’s always liked arrogant men. Her original Prince Charming is so arrogant that reviewers mention it when they comment on Utterly Charming.)

Still, Emma—that’s her real name—gets payback. She stole Utterly Charming, at least from my perspective. I was very interested in her problems and had to work to focus on Prince Charming and his lady love. In Thoroughly Kissed, another character steals the novel—at least for me—and that’s Emma’s cat Darnell.

Darnell ended up with a speaking role. This book involves magic, after all. He doesn’t want a speaking role, nor does he want the responsibilities he gains throughout the novel. He wants to be a cat. Actually he wants to be a lion until he realizes how difficult that can be. And I had to watch myself to keep Darnell from taking over the book.

Unlike Emma, Darnell will not get his own romance novel. He has reluctantly agreed to share Emma with Michael Found. Besides, Darnell doesn’t believe in permanent relationships with others in his species, which makes romance dicey to say the least.

So the next book in the Sleeping Beauty sequence, Completely Smitten, involves Sancho Panza, Prince Charming’s sidekick. (That novel has an e-book edition. The print edition will come later this year.) And the next book with a Charming, Charming Blue, features the most unusual Charming of them all—Bluebeard. That’s coming in September from Sourcebooks.

Until then, I hope Emma’s happily-ever-after tides you over. She and I had a lot of fun, and I can’t tell you how happy I am things turned out well for her. Of all the characters I’ve ever written, she deserves happiness the most.
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Meet Kristine Grayson!

Kristine Grayson always wanted to be a romance writer when she grew up. She became one in the late 1990s with the publication of her first romance novel, Utterly Charming. Since then, she has published five more novels, including Absolutely Captivated and Totally Spellbound. The next novel, Wickedly Charming, appeared in May 2011.

Her work has won the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and she has been nominated for several other awards. Publishers Weekly has called her work “a delight,” and Best Reviews labeled her “the reigning queen of paranormal romance.”

KGrayson-Charming BlueContact Info
Website: website
Blog: Blog
Social Media: GoodReads

Want to purchase Kristine’s novels?
Fates

  1. Utterly Charming at Amazon | Book Depository
  2. Thoroughly Kissed at Amazon | Book Depository
  3. Completely Smitten at Amazon | Book Depository
  4. Simply Irresistible at Amazon | Book Depository
  5. Absolutely Captivated at Amazon | Book Depository
  6. Totally Spellbound at Amazon | Book Depository
  7. Wickedly Charming at Amazon | Book Depository
  8. Charming Blue at Amazon | Book Depository

 

Thoroughly Kissed

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.