Spotlight & Giveaway: Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Molly E. Lee to HJ!

Hi Molly and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Ember of Night!

 
Hello! Thank you so much for having me here today!
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

Ember of Night is a young adult paranormal romance about a girl from a broken home that has one goal in life—get her little sister away from their abusive father. If that wasn’t a hard enough task, a hot stranger comes into her life and tells her she’s the key to saving the world from a war between heaven and hell. But the world has never been kind to her, so who says it’s worth saving?
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Even from our position on the roof, the alleyway reeks of cured meats and rain-soaked garbage, the stench curling upward like it’s as desperate to leave this place as I am.
A metallic groan splits the silence coming from below us, and my gaze sharpens as a fainter scent penetrates the rotten odor, almost hidden beneath it—something different.
The door swings open, and a thick streak of yellow light darts across the cracked pavement. A girl shoulders a bag of garbage into the alley, striding quickly toward the dumpster still in the shadows.
“She doesn’t look like much,” Cassiel says from my left, his obsidian wings tucked in tightly behind him. His eyes are as sharp as mine, piercing through the night without difficulty. The girl wrestles the garbage over the lip of the dumpster like the bag’s filled with bricks. “Certainly not enough to tear a hole through the world.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The inspiration for this idea hit me while taking an ancient religions class in college.
• One of my favorite characters was an absolute surprise to me when he walked on the page.
• Harley and Draven have this electric chemistry and banter that constantly had me laughing or raising my eyebrows whenever they got on the same page.
• I cried while writing about six different scenes in this book.
• Researching famous delis in Chicago (and having some of their popular items shipped to me to try) was probably the most fun research I’ve ever done for a book.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Harley’s survival instincts and her not-backing-down attitude first draw Draven’s attention to her. She has every reason to run and hide from the world, but she makes a conscious choice not to, and that makes him want to know more about her.
Draven is more than his stunning good looks (and Harley knows how looks can totally be deceiving) so she’s drawn more to his direct approach in life. He never sugar coats anything and he challenges her constantly. And Harley simply can’t resist a good challenge.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Electric, sharp, consuming, and unflinching.
 

The First Kiss…

The first kiss happens after a build up of tension and battle. The stakes are raised, the risk is high, but they just don’t care. It’s very much like the characters–strong, edgy, and with just the right amount of teeth.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

This is such a hard question since I love this book so much 🙂 One of my favorite scenes to write would have to be where Harley goes to a supernatural night club for the first time while looking for Draven. They have an intense argument and well…

His lips crush against mine, not gently, not timidly. No, he claims my mouth with all the power and hunger that radiates from his skin. He cups my face in his hands, slanting his mouth over mine. Again and again. Drinking me in, devouring my kiss like he can’t survive without it.
More, more, more.
I need more. I fist his shirt, yanking him closer, giving back everything he delivers, relishing the bite at my bottom lip as he presses me against the wall. Danger and desire soar, stealing the breath from my lungs as we crash together.
That taut chain inside me ignites, flames swirling around it in powerful spirals. I don’t know if that internal flame is trying to protect me from him or bind him to me, but either way, it feels so. Damn. Good.
The searing mounts inside, threatening to burn us both to ash.
But I don’t stop.
Can’t stop.
And he doesn’t, either.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

This would be a dream come true, and also, it’s so hard to choose a scene! I think I’d have to say the scene between Harley and her little sister Ray when they’re returning home from one of Harley’s shifts at work. It’s a crucial scene that shows the relationship between Harley and her sister and what all she’ll do to protect her from their abusive father…to help her escape from that life.

Our trailer comes into view as we navigate the small pathways between homes, and I stop by the wooden steps outside our front door. “You ready to play our traditional game of hide-and-seek?”
Ray grimaces. “I’m getting too old for that game.”
I swallow around the rock in my throat. She’ll never be too old for this game.
One more week—we can make it. Maybe he won’t even notice I’ve taken Ray with me.
Acid churns in my gut. I know that’s not true. He’ll notice, and he’ll come after us and ruin my chance at ever legally obtaining guardianship over Ray. I have to play this smart, or I’ll lose her forever.
“Please, Ray. For me?”
She hugs me close. “Maybe tonight will be different.”
It won’t. No matter how many times she says that, it won’t.
Not for me.

Readers should read this book …

I feel like Harley would want readers to experience her journey and take away from it that the only person with the power to label you or define your happiness is you. And it doesn’t matter what you were born as or born into, it’s the choices you make and the actions you take that define you as a human being. Also, for Draven because WHEW that boy is equal parts mischief, danger, and snark.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I’m currently deep into the sequel to Ember of Night! I can’t wait to tell everyone more about it!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: An ecopy of Ember of Night and a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your favorite trope? Enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, etc.

 
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Excerpt from Ember of Night:

 

Something new flares and trembles just beneath my skin, a delicious sort of ripple. I don’t dare look away from him. “If you wanted me dead, I already would be.”
“Half true,” he says.
“And I wouldn’t stand a chance at defending myself against you.” I already feel helpless to fight the thrall he has on me, that connection I can’t deny or shake. And part of me wonders why I like it so much—that feeling.
Because it makes you feel alive.
Draven’s breath shakes as I take another small step closer to him, but he doesn’t deny my words.
I reach my finger toward his hand—
“Don’t,” he says, tracking my movements like a hawk, the primal warning in his tone freezing me.
“I told you, I’m not scar—”
He growls. “You were attacked twice in one night. Do you have no self-preservation skills at all?”
I purse my lips but don’t drop my hand. Instead, I get closer.
“I’m warning you,” he says, his voice going lethally quiet. “Don’t touch me.”
I draw my hand back.
“Fine,” I snap.
Confusion ripples in those amber eyes.
“You touch me, then. Show me what I’m supposed to be so afraid of,” I challenge, my voice stronger than I knew possible. “Unless you’re the one who is afraid?”
That muscle in his jaw ticks.
I stand my ground, chin raised despite the exhaustion traveling through my body. Soon, I’ll wake up from this hellish nightmare and curse my overactive imagination. I’ll roll my eyes at this twisted dream and get back to my normal twisted life.
“It’s my birthday,” I whisper, realization hitting me hard. I survived…I made it to eighteen. The overwhelming odds—especially after what’s happened tonight, if I’m not truly dreaming—make a swirling sense of giddiness rush through me.
So much that a slightly mad laugh bubbles up from my chest.
Something glitters in his eyes, but he squeezes them shut, effectively blocking me out. He rakes his hands through his hair, his eyes snapping open to reveal some internal battle raging just beneath the surface. “You’re eighteen,” he says, another dark laugh ripping from his lips. His eyes scan the length of my body, his head slightly tilted. “How do you feel, Harley?” His tone is more devastated than concerned.
“Fine,” I say. In truth, the cuts on my neck barely hurt anymore. It’s hard to feel anything outside the rushing need flaring inside me.
“Fine? Nothing more?”
I swallow hard, my hand still extended between us in an offer. “Am I supposed to feel something more?”
He eyes my hand but doesn’t move.
“Do you want to make me feel something more?” I challenge, a thrill rushing through me. This…this battle between us…the same one that started the second he stepped into my life, this is better than any adrenaline rush. Distracting and powerful and dangerous and all the things I know I shouldn’t enjoy or want but can’t stop. Not with him.
Something shifts in his eyes, dark and jagged, as he steps closer. “Do you trust me?”
“I rarely trust anyone,” I answer. Then add, “But I trust you.”
Draven tilts his head back, eyes on the ceiling as if he’s silently pleading for help. Slowly, he draws his focus back to mine. “You shouldn’t.”
I turn my palm up and hold it between us.
A challenge.
A dare.
A question.
If he’s so terrifying, I want to feel it. Want it to raze me to the ground until all I can feel is this sensation—this spark I’ve never experienced before.
“Show me,” I say, and Draven flinches.
“No.”
I keep my hand open between us.
His lips turn to a hard line, his eyes darting between my hand and my eyes and back again.
“Touch me, Draven.”
His chest rises and falls quickly as he holds his hand over mine, hovering just an inch above my skin.
The battle is clear in the rigid lines of his body, the way his fingers shake.
But he spans that distance, the resolution clear enough in his churning eyes.
So I lift my hand.
Draven gasps as the pads of my fingers graze his skin.
Once.
Twice.
His eyes fly wide and expectant as they scan my body like he’s searching for some kind of injury. After a few seconds, he grips my hand with a gentle strength that makes heat pulse beneath my skin.
“Harley?” He whispers my name like a question.
“Draven.” I answer him, solid, calm, practically bored. “I’m waiting to be terrified,” I tease.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

I am a weed.

Unloved by my abusive, alcoholic dad. Unwanted by my classmates. Unnoticed by everyone else.

But I’d suffer anything to give my kid sister a better life—the minute I turn eighteen, I’m getting us the hell out of here. And some hot stranger telling me I am the key to stopping a war between Heaven and Hell isn’t going to change that.

Let the world crumble and burn, for all I care.

Draven is relentless, though. And very much a liar. Every time his sexy lips are moving, I can see it—in the dip of his head, the grit of his jaw—even if my heart begs me to ignore the signs.

So what does he want?

I need to figure it out fast, because now everyone is gunning for me. And damn if I don’t want to show them what happens when you let weeds thrive in the cracks of the pavement…

We can grow powerful enough to shatter the whole foundation.
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Meet the Author:

Molly E. Lee is an author best known for her romance novels, Ask Me Anything, the Grad Night series, and the Love on the Edge series. She is a 1001 Dark Nights Discovery Author for 2017. Molly writes Adult and Young Adult contemporary featuring strong female heroines who are unafraid to challenge their male counterparts, yet still vulnerable enough to have love sneak up on them. In addition to being a military spouse and mother of two + one stubborn English Bulldog & an Irish Wolfhound, Molly loves exploring the outdoors around her mountain home, and digging for treasures in antique stores.
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