Exile in Darkness by Annalisa Carr Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Exile
in Darkness
by
Annalisa Carr
Genre:
Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Heritage
and magic matter to the London covens.
Aristocratic
witch, Isabella Pethany, has heritage but not magic.
Underworld
powerbroker, amnesiac vampire Maldit, has magic but no
heritage.
Lukas
Sindis, coven sorcerer and famous psychopath, has both.
Isabella
knows her null magic status makes her an embarrassment to her family,
but since Natalie, her sister, was murdered, she is all they have
left. Guilt makes her willing to do almost anything to compensate for
her lack of value, but her grandmother’s proposal to match her with
Lukas, in an attempt to bring strong magic back to their bloodline,
is a step too far.
When
Maldit rescues a strange witch from hunting vampires, his main
concern is to limit trouble in his territory. Everyone knows witches
are troublesome, and this one is no exception. Her proximity slashes
through his damaged memory, allowing him to catch glimpses of his
forgotten past.
Drugs
have suppressed Lukas’s magic for almost twenty years, filling him
with a reservoir of trapped power. When he escapes, his magic flies
free, washing over Maldit and Isabella, and clearing away the spells
paralysing both of them.
The
dark secrets of the London coven are about to explode into the light
of day.
Isabella?
Isabella Pethany?
Whispers
of her own name floated through her mind. She pushed the pillow aside
and sat up, pressing her hands against her ears. It didn’t stop the
insistent repetition of her name. Someone
called to her, but who would do a thing like that at this hour of the
morning? The family would all be asleep by now, and the only servant
awake should be the doorman. Her
imagination was running riot. She lay down, closing her eyes, but the
feeling of being summoned didn’t go away. Isabella.
Isabella. Isabella. Her
name echoed around her skull, louder now. She
sat up abruptly. Next to her, Alfie stirred, growling in his sleep.
She ran the palm of her hand over his shaggy flank and switched the
bedside lamp on, before walking to the window and drawing the curtain
back. Pools
of dim light surrounded the bases of the old-fashioned streetlamps.
Between them, the pavement was dark, and the trees in the square cast
black shadows over the iron railings. She opened the window and
leaned out. “Isabella?”
The voice was a seductive whisper from below. It was definitely real
this time, vibrating through the air, rather than her mind. She
squinted into the shadows. The
vampire from the bar stood on the opposite pavement, his figure
almost hidden in the darkness. Maldit. Her
heart beat faster. His
face tilted upwards towards her second-floor window, green eyes
glinting. “What
do you want?” She pressed two fingers to the point in her neck
where the skin was thinnest. Her pulse hammered against them.
Annalisa
Carr lives in the English Lake District, where she shares a view of
the fells with three cats. She spent the early part of her life
working as a protein crystallographer, a job she found fascinating.
She now spends her time writing, in a variety of genres. Science
Fiction, fantasy and fantasy romance are her favourites.
Interview
Questions
Can you, for
those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and
how you became an author?
I’ve been a
scientist most of my life. As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut
and explore outer space, but unfortunately (or fortunately, as I’m
claustrophobic), I never managed it. Because of this yearning for the
stars, I started out writing science fiction and very bad space
opera, before moving on to fantasy and paranormal romance. As
Annalisa Carr, I’ve published a PNR trilogy with Soul Mate
Publishing. Exile in Darkness is my second self-published novel. The
first was a return to science fiction (dystopian).
Where
were you born/grew up?
I was born in Cumbria, on the edge of
the English Lake District, and lived there until I was eighteen. I
studied in Scotland, at Edinburgh University, and after that, I
worked in London, Oxford and Cambridge. I’m back in Cumbria now –
combining consultancy work with writing.
What are you passionate about these
days?
I feel very strongly that we (as a
species) need to rethink our attitude to the world we live in. At the
moment, we only have one planet, and we should care for it. It’s
not just down to governments, everyone has a responsibility. I think
our way of life has to change, or it will change for us while we
aren’t looking. Maybe I’ve been reading too many post-apocalyptic
novels (and trying to write them), but we have a beautiful world and
we should all try to keep it that way.
What do you do to unwind and relax?
I find it worryingly easy to relax. The
problem is getting back up to speed. In theory, I run, swim and
dance, but in practice, I like to lie on the sofa with my cats,
reading novels and eating chocolate.
What is something unique/quirky
about you?
I don’t drive. It’s probably more
common to be a non-driver in the UK than it is in the US, but it’s
still unusual. I’ve always travelled by public transport and have
rarely found it a problem. Occasionally I reconsider my carless
status and wonder if I should change it. So far, I’ve not bothered.
If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how
would you spend your last day?
Perched on the sofa, procrastinating. I
hope I’d manage to fit something good into the day, but...
What inspired you to write this
book?
I wrote the second chapter of Exile in
Darkness for a competition, and then left it alone for a long while,
almost forgetting about it. In the gap years, I wrote my PNR trilogy.
When I found myself wondering about what had happened to the
characters in Exile in Darkness, I came back to it, and wrote a first
draft. When I rewrote and edited, a large cast of secondary
characters emerged. Many of them are clamoring for their own story.
Who designed your book covers?
Fiona Jayde designed the covers of my
Soul Mate books, and I love them. My sister, Helen Dunning, does the
covers of my self-published books and I think she does an amazing
job.
If you had to do it all over again,
would you change anything in your latest book?
I’m sure I would change many things.
A book never feels complete to me, and I could carry on revising it
forever. I think I share this feeling with many authors. I try not to
think about it.
Have you written any other books
that are not published?
I have a contemporary romance, the
first complete novel I wrote (and it shows), which is now completely
dated. I also have two fairly recent complete novels sitting on my
computer nagging at me. One is a cozy paranormal romance (I’m not
sure whether it’s so cozy it’s boring), and the other is the
sequel to my dystopian novel. I have a complete regency novella (but
I’m not happy with it), and a steampunk novella (lots of things I’d
change in it). I have two first drafts of space operas written (I
quite like them, but they both need serious rewrites), as well as a
plethora of partially written books.
If you could tell your younger
writing self anything, what would it be?
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