HAUNTED Blog Tour Continues and other stuff

Thanks to the effervescent Maria Cari Soto for yesterday's interview and giveaway. If you still want to enter to win a copy of both DREAMING ANASTASIA and HAUNTED, then pop over to her blog!

Today Mundie Moms will be reviewing HAUNTED as stop two on the tour. Thank you to Katie!

And tomorrow, I'll be visiting Jen Bigheart's I Read Banned Books and talking about 5 YA books that have impacted me as a reader and a writer. Which ones would you choose?

So lots of fun this week and next!

Because there are three books in the DREAMING ANASTASIA series, HAUNTED will always be the middle child. DA was the miracle book: first book, first published work. ANASTASIA FOREVER, when it arrives in August, will be the finale. HAUNTED does the job of bridging those two and amping up the conflicts in Anne and Ethan's love story. Anne has tried to forget what happened the past fall. She has tried to forget Ethan even though she loves him. But then the rusalka arrives and Anne can't forget anymore.

Readers don't always categorize HAUNTED as a mermaid story, but in part that's exactly what it is. Rusalki (the Russian plural) are sad and malevolent creatures. They've met untimely deaths in or near a body of water and they are doomed to haunt watery locales, luring people-- men mostly-- to their doom. They are beautiful and tragic and can't be released from their rusalka curse until the blood of the person who caused their death is shed. And this rusalka, Lily, is connected very intimately to Anne.

So new questions arise: Who caused this rusalka's death? What does she want from Anne? How does she connect to Ethan and the Brotherhood and Baba Yaga the witch? The answers begin in HAUNTED and come to their conclusion in ANASTASIA FOREVER.

More than anything, Lily seems to want both release and revenge. She wants her story to end differently. And in this epic telling of so many stories (the Romanovs, Anne's family, Ethan's journey, Baba Yaga's tale, Viktor's desires...) Lily's story always feels the most tragic to me. Because underneath it all, she's a mother protecting a child. Or at least she was.

You'll have to read the book to get the rest.

I hope that you do!

And then you won't have long to wait for ANASTASIA FOREVER in a few months.

Exciting news coming on that soon, btw!