Check out the second book in this YA fantasy series, a fun interview, and enter the giveaway below...
(Heart of Thorns #2)
By Bree Barton
YA Fantasy
Hardcover, Audiobook & ebook, 480 Pages
November 5th 2019 by Katherine Tegen Books
Summary
The electric second book in the Heart of Thorns trilogy explores the effects of power in a dark magical kingdom—and the fierce courage it takes to claim your body as your own.
Mia Rose is back from the dead. Her memories are hazy, her body numb—but she won’t stop searching. Her only hope to save the boy she loves and the sister who destroyed her is to find the mother she can never forgive. Pilar is on a hunt of her own. Betrayed by her mother, and plagued by a painful secret, she’s determined to seek out the only person who can exact revenge. All goes according to plan… until she collides with Prince Quin, the boy whose sister she killed.
As Mia, Pilar, and Quin forge dangerous new alliances, they are bewitched by the snow kingdom’s promise of freedom and opportunity. But with the winter solstice drawing near, they must confront the truth beneath the glimmering ice, as lines between friend, foe, and lover vanish like snowflakes on a flame.
Author Interview
B: Hi Tressa! Nice to see you again. 🙂
T: Ah! I don't think I've had any other author remember when they've visited my site before for an interview. That is just so sweet of you to remember!
Would you tell us a little more about the main characters in TEARS OF FROST?
B: So we’ve got Mia Rose, our scientist and truth seeker: a know-it-all who does not, in fact, know it all. Then there’s cinnamon roll Prince Quin, who’s had a rough go of it but is trying so hard to do the right thing. In TEARS OF FROST we also get to know Pilar d’Aqila, Mia’s nemesis from the first book, who is weighed down by a heavy secret… and ready to claim her revenge. Plus there’s a new trio of characters—Zai, Nelladine, and Ville—who were a ton of fun to write.
T: I love going back to familiar characters, but also have a few new ones to get to know.
For those new to the series, what should they know?
B: Oooh good question. HEART OF THORNS follows a pretty classic three-act fairy tale structure, whereas in TEARS OF FROST, I took a messier, darker approach. Similarly, the magic system is fairly self-explanatory in HoT; it was important to me that I expand it in the sequel. Magic is power, and power is never neatly contained—it’s full of contradictions. The same can be said for my characters. When certain characters felt static or two-dimensional in HoT, I made it my mission to dig deeper. If HoT was plot focused, ToF is definitely more character focused. My goal was to peel back the layers of these people, exploring the angry, empty, broken parts of who they really are.
T: So, this just makes me happy because I tend to love character-driven stories and having well fleshed out characters. This makes me want to read TEARS OF FROST even more!
Were there any particular challenges or interesting things you learned as you wrote this sequel to HEART OF THORNS?
B: Absolutely! TEARS OF FROST required me to bare my soul in ways I never could have imagined when I started writing. That was extremely challenging. This book is a more honest book than HEART OF THORNS, probably because I had to go so much deeper into my own history. It’s an intense journey, which is why I have an Author’s Note at the front and resources at the end. I like to think the book is also funny—I don’t ever want to write anything humourless—so hopefully I struck a balance. On a personal level, I learned the importance of stepping back from a story when it’s too intense. I was struggling with serious depression at several points while drafting, and good self-care was essential. Sleeping, eating, making art, dancing, being with friends: it all helped.
T: I love humor in my books. I feel like most of us human beings naturally create humor in our lives or look for it as a coping strategy so it always feels off to me if there isn't any in a story. I think a lot of us deal with depression and it's good of you to honestly be open about it!
What part of this story do you love the most?
B: The end. Or the almost end: the part where two characters finally have a reckoning and face their past side by side. It took me a year to get there, and during that year there were moments so dark I wasn’t sure I could see light at the end. So when I finally got there, I was so happy and delirious and relieved. I didn’t even cry. I just collapsed in my bed at like 3am.
T: Lol! That's sounds just really intense. Now I'm dying to know what happens!
Where did you find the inspiration for this fantasy world?
B: When I wrote HEART OF THORNS, I derived a lot of inspiration from current events. Everywhere I looked I saw racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny—I was writing “fantasy,” but in some ways I felt like I was pulling headlines from the news and simply adding fur cloaks and swords. The inspiration for TEARS OF FROST was more geographical: during my research trip to Iceland, I walked around in awe and astonishment, feeling like the book was knitting itself together in my mind. On the downside: I did fall into a glacier. That wasn’t particularly inspiring as much as it was cold.
T: Oh my gosh! I do not like the cold, so that would be a very miserable experience, but I supposed also educational.
If we were to get in your car right now to go for a ride, what would be playing on the radio and what do you tend to listen to the most?
B: This is embarrassing, but… This American Life, the NPR podcast. How cool am I? (Answer: not very.) Oh but actually I’ve been doing a lot of traveling this month, and when I got back to LAX last week I cranked up the radio and listened to 80s music the whole drive home. Nothing like some Billy Idol and Eurythmics to make 90 minutes of traffic fly by!
T: There's nothing wrong with NPR or the 80s! Lol! Both some good stuff there. 😉
Do you have any interesting writing quirks or hobbies?
B: I drink an awful lot of tea. I’m very superstitious about that. I’m also picky about my spaces—if I’ve hit a good work stride in a café, I will take my laptop outside and check my email there, rather than sully the writing energy with outside communication. I also do collage (and other kinds of art: lamp-making, fused glass, pottery) as a way to break myself out of writer’s block. Taxidermy was the weirdest of the bunch.
T: This all just sounds cool. I've never done some of these, but I think they would be a blast!
What are you working on next?
B: At the moment, the third book in the Heart of Thorn trilogy, which will take our characters into the glass kingdom with its golden sands and enticing promise of healing. It’s been a healing book to write, for which I am grateful. I’m also working on a middle grade story about an eleven-year-old girl going through her first depression. She finds a magical dictionary and discovers that if she erases words… they vanish from the world.
T: Both sound fabulous! I hope it all goes well for you with much more to come. Thanks so much for answering my questions!
Author Playlist
Other Books in the Series
(Heart of Thorns #1)
By Bree Barton
YA Fantasy
Hardcover, Paperback & ebook, 320 Pages
July 31st 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books
Summary
Inventive and heart-racing, this fiercely feminist teen fantasy trilogy from debut author Bree Barton examines a dark kingdom in which only women can possess magic—and every woman is suspected of having it.
Mia Rose wants only one thing: revenge against the Gwyrach—feared, reviled, and magical women—who killed her mother. After years training under her father’s infamous Hunters, Mia is ready. She will scour the four kingdoms, find her mother’s murderer, and enact the Hunters’ Creed: heart for a heart, life for a life.
But when Mia is thrust into the last role she ever wanted—promised wife to the future king—she plots a daring escape. On her wedding night, Mia discovers something she never imagined: She may be a Huntress, but she’s also a Gwyrach. As the truth comes to light, Mia must untangle the secrets of her own past. Now if she wants to survive, Mia must learn to trust her heart . . . even if it kills her.
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About the Author
Tour Schedule
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2nd Prize: Win a TEARS OF FROST goodies bundle: signed bookplate, HoT bookmark, ToF bookmark, and a customized poem in the style of the epigraph (INT)
Ends November 13th, 2019
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Have you read the first book? Is book two on your list to read?
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