Madelyn Ford Virtual Book Tour: The Appeal of Angels in Romantic Fiction
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010Today I have the pleasure of welcoming author Madelyn Ford to my blog, as she stops by on her virtual book tour to talk to us about the appeal of angels in romantic fiction. After her guest post, you’ll find a blurb and excerpt of her latest book, MY AVENGING ANGEL, which is now available at Samhain Publishing.
Be sure to leave a comment for Madelyn, as she’s giving away a $15 Amazon Gift Certificate to one lucky commenter who participates in the discussion during her blog tour!
Now without further ado, I’ll turn things over to Madelyn.
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Angels and Demons. It’s the ultimate struggle of good versus evil that dates all the way back to biblical times. Michael and Lucifer. Brother against brother. And why does this appeal to us so much? Because we want goodness to win, and in romantic fiction, true love to triumph.
Lately, I’ve been reading that angels are the “new vampires” and while I haven’t noticed a surge in angel romances, I can certainly understand the appeal. These beautiful graceful creatures have grasped hold of our imagination because they fight to save mortals from the very evil bent on destroying them, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.
But what truly makes our female hearts patter is with angels comes the notion of soulmates, love at first sight, and happily ever after. The mystical bond that ties two individuals together, with angels, can be soul deep and as readers, we buy into the notion that angels would be able to recognize this connection.
So will angels take over the romance market? I doubt it. But will I continue to have fun writing about them? You can bet on it.
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MY AVENGING ANGEL
To save her life, he must break a covenant—and lose his heart.
An Angels and Demons story.
It’s Victoria Bloom’s twenty-fifth birthday. But is she out celebrating? Oh, no. She’s in a stuffy old attic with the Three Stooges—a.k.a. her so-called spirit guides. There’s a demon who wants her dead, the same one that killed her mother two decades ago. No worries, say the Stooges. All she has to do is summon an angel. What could go wrong?
Well, plenty when you summon the wrong angel. The next thing Tory knows, she’s got one very bad-ass, pissed-off and sexy Archangel on her hands.
Michael, mighty warrior, leader of an elite team of demon killers, is shaking in his heavenly combat boots. Not because he finds all humans distasteful. But because he’d rather face Lucifer himself than the woman his soul has just recognized as his mate. Binding himself to a mortal, one who will eventually die, is the one path he’s sworn never to follow.
It’s too late now; his fate is sealed. With one touch, she becomes as necessary to him as the air he breathes. He will move heaven and earth to protect her—but against a demon as powerful as Asmodeus, heaven and earth may not be enough…
Warning: This book contains one bad-ass Archangel with a fiery, um, sword, a witch who blows things up, one nasty demon who is trying to kill them both, and ghosts who make interfering their mission. Steamy sex is had, even with the voyeur ghosts—though Tory is still blushing.
EXCERPT:
Asmodeus stared down at the sniveling, postulating human, a sneer lifting the corner of his lips. He’d been ripped from his dimension, brought to this godforsaken plain known as Earth and he wasn’t happy about it. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the protection spell the man had woven into the circle surrounding him, Asmodeus would have killed the weakling for his audacity.
“Why have you summoned me, human?” he demanded, taking a step forward to test the barrier. He was delighted to find a slight weakness in his invisible cage. He could work with that.
“I ask your help, my lord,” came the timid reply.
Folding his arms across his wide chest, Asmodeus watched as the man remained on his knees, head bowed to his chin, and found the action mildly mollifying. He might just hear the human out before he killed him.
“You called me forth to ask my help?”
“Yes.” Brown eyes met his briefly before dropping back to the floor. “There is a woman—”
“I am the Lord of Wrath, king of the vengeance demons, not a damn matchmaker. Release me now, human,” he growled, rethinking his earlier plan. He was going to enjoy taking this creature apart piece by tiny piece.
The man’s head shot up, surprise lining his features. “I don’t want her love, my lord.”
“No? Then what is it you seek?”
Eyes narrowing, a look of intense hatred bleeding into those brown orbs, the man growled, “I want the bitch dead.”
“And if I do this for you? What are you willing to sacrifice?”
“Anything. Everything.”
Asmodeus studied the pitiful being for a moment, then a grin slowly spread across his face. Dead he could do. In fact, he would relish every moment of the act: skin tearing beneath his nails, blood oozing forth and the fragrant cries of pain tickling his ears. But he was getting ahead of himself. First there was payment. And then he had to decide if he would kill the human after reaping his soul or just maim him, leaving him alive to do Asmodeus’s future bidding. Oh, so much pain, so little time.
*
With one tiny hand, she brushed sweat-drenched hair from her eyes while she reached out with the other, fingers trembling slightly, to nudge the prone figure on the bed.
“Mommy,” she whispered. Her gaze fell to the empty bottles littering the bedside table and she knew it was a waste of her time. Mommy always got like this after the bad man left. But she had to try. “Please, Mommy. You need to wake up.” She grew louder as her urgency rose. “The bad man is coming back. We have to hide.”
The soft voice in her ear told Tory she was running out of time. Hands swirled out of the mist in an attempt to herd her away from Mommy but she clutched Mommy’s shirt tightly in her fists. Unexpectedly, pain exploded throughout the side of her head, filling her eyes with tears. Mommy had hit her.
“Go back to bed, you little shit,” Tammy Bishop mumbled, rolling away from her. “Get out of here.”
“But Mommy…”
The voices were frantic now, raising the level of terror coursing through Tory’s small frame. Then she sensed him, the bad man, the one Mommy had said was her daddy. But she’d felt the evil rolling off him and knew Mommy had lied. Tory’s daddy was a prince. Or an angel. Or maybe a princely angel. Just not the bad man.
She let the mist guide her into the hall closet and burrowed under a blanket that had been thrown carelessly on the floor. Surrounding her, the mist obscured the blanket and her presence beneath it only moments before the front door of their little apartment crashed open. She slapped a hand over her mouth to conceal a tiny cry, tears beginning to slowly leak down her cheeks. The voices murmured softly, trying to soothe her, but it wasn’t until heavy footsteps went unheeded past her hiding spot that Tory’s immediate panic receded. And then the screams began.
Clasping her hands tightly before her, Tory began to pray to the angels. She didn’t want to die and even though Mommy sometimes called her a baby, she wasn’t. Tory knew if the bad man found her, he would kill her. And so she prayed until Mommy grew silent and the laughter began. The sound, one Tory knew she would never forget, chilled her to the bone. Her prayers were forgotten as pure terror filled her soul, squashing all that was good, all the hope and love within her, leaving her dejected and heartsick.
It called to her, trying to draw her into its evil web, and the only thing holding her back from answering was the mist. They saved her that night, the spirits drawn to her light, not releasing her from their otherworldly grip until all was silent and the veil of evil had lifted. Only then was Tory able to crawl out of the closet.
“Mommy?” she called as she slowly trudged down the hallway.
Coming to a stop outside Mommy’s bedroom, the hands tried to hold her back, but she slipped right through their grasp. Their protection had weakened them and she had to see…had to know.
What filled her vision stunned her for one split second before high-pitched screams of horror were ripped from her throat. And while she shrieked, tears streaming down her cheeks, trails of her mother’s blood slowly trickled down the walls.
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How do you feel about angels in romantic fiction? Let Madelyn know for a chance to be entered in the draw for a $15 Amazon gift certificate!
