Spotlight & Giveaway: King of the Unblessed by Michelle M. Pillow

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Michelle M. Pillow to HJ!

Hi Michelle and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, King of the Unblessed (Realm Immortal, Book One)!

Hi, and thank you so much for having me at Harlequin Junkie! I am so happy to be here to talk about King of the Unblessed and the brooding, beautiful trouble that is my dark elfin king.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Merrick was born to be good. He was the Blessed prince, all light and pleasure and happiness, until a coronation cursed him into the King of the Unblessed, ruler of mischief and necessary evil. Now he holds the line between his estranged brother’s Blessed kingdom and Lucien, the King of the Damned, who wants nothing less than Merrick’s soul. Before the darkness takes him for good, Merrick wants one last taste of the happiness he lost. He finds it in a mortal woman.
Lady Juliana of Bellemare always dreamed of adventure. She just never expected the shadows to answer back. When her fiancé is murdered and the village children vanish, she crosses into the immortal realm to save them and lands right in the path of a wicked, seductive king who offers her one impossible bargain: surrender to him, or die.
It is Labyrinth meets A Court of Thorns and Roses. A dark, epic romantasy with a morally gray antihero king, a heroine who refuses to be tamed, a fated pull neither of them can outrun, and a slow burn that gets very, very toasty.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“He was fall, winter, death to the land. Without him, the immortal world would not rest. Without him, good would not be.”
I love that one because it is Merrick’s whole tragedy in a single breath. He is the necessary dark, the thing everyone needs and no one wants to love. Building a romance around a hero who believes he is unlovable by design is exactly the kind of torture I live to write.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Merrick’s castle is literally a magical, ever-changing labyrinth. His dark garden is walled in thorns sharp as blades, and the only flowers are crimson and almost liquid, like they might drip to the ground. They bloom only when he is near. I had so much fun making his loneliness into a setting.
• He can only slip into the mortal world in solid form by disguising himself as a bird of prey, which is how he first spots Juliana. A terrifying immortal king, and his big move is turning into a bird to go perch near the girl he cannot stop thinking about. It makes me grin every time.
• This is romantasy at its most indulgent. A morally gray fae king, enemies-to-lovers, a fated pull neither of them can fight, beauty-and-the-beast tension, and a dangerous hero who falls first and falls hard. I leaned all the way into the dark fairy-tale tropes readers are devouring right now.
• I cannot write a brooding, soul-cursed king without an obscene amount of coffee. I also lost my coffee cup twice in the same afternoon during the climax. The cup is fine. Probably.

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

Merrick sees Juliana through his divining water before they ever meet, and what catches him is her longing. She sits by the fire with this look of wanting something more, and it wakes up the very thing he thought the curse had killed in him. He does not just want her. He needs to claim her, and that terrifies a man who is certain he has a dark heart. He falls first, and he falls hard, long before she ever knows he exists.
For Juliana, it is the pull she has been chasing her whole life. She dreamed of adventure and the shadows finally answered, and they answered in the shape of a dangerous, seductive king. He is everything she was warned about and everything she cannot look away from. The line between fear and desire blurs fast, and neither of them is built to walk away.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

Blushing, for sure. There is a moonlit scene where Merrick has spent so long watching Juliana from a safe distance, telling himself he only means to frighten her off, and then he simply cannot stay away. Writing the moment his control finally snaps left me a little flushed. A taste:

“He’d been a fool to think he could stay away as he watched her bathe in the moonlight. Water had beaded on her flesh like stars, glistening in silver trails, calling to him. His intent had been to frighten her, to push her away from him, but as he rose up from the water and she didn’t scream, he couldn’t help but kiss her.”

There is nothing like a powerful, brooding king completely undone by one woman. That is exactly the kind of scene I live to write.

Readers should read this book….

..if you love romantasy with a wicked, morally gray king, a heroine with a spine, a fated pull, dark fairy-tale atmosphere, and enemies-to-lovers tension with real heat. If Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, or Laura Thalassa live on your shelf, Merrick will fit right in. And if you want it in a gorgeous new hardcover, this is the new Tor Bramble edition, which I am beyond thrilled about.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

This is a big season for me. Pan Macmillan’s Tor Bramble just released the whole Realm Immortal series into stunning new audio narrated by Lauren Fortgang (as Tillie Hooper), with hardcover editions coming soon, starting with King of the Unblessed and continuing with Faery Queen and Stone Queen. My Tribes of the Vampire series also just dropped new audio editions, narrated by the wonderful Natalie Naudus (as Victoria Mei). On top of that, I am always building in my Qurilixen World and other fan favorites.
 
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A copy of KING OF THE UNBLESSED by Michelle M. Pillow 

To enter Giveaway, please share this post on your Socials and Leave a comment below to this Q: If a wickedly charming, slightly cursed king offered you one bargain to save the people you love, and the price was everything, would you take the deal? Tell me in the comments. I promise not to tell Merrick.

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Book Info:

Immortality has a way of rewriting fate.
Love doesn’t conquer darkness. It seduces it.
Merrick, the dark elfin King of Valdis, was once heir to all that is good, a prince of happiness and pleasure. Now, cursed as the ruler of mischief and king of necessary evil, he stands trapped between the Blessed kingdom of his estranged brother and the ruthless King Lucien of the Damned, who is determined to lure Merrick’s soul into oblivion. Damnation is winning. Before he is lost forever, Merrick craves one final taste of the happiness he once owned. When a mortal woman awakens an obsession he cannot control, he realizes he doesn’t just want her. He needs to claim her. But the line between fear and desire begins to blur…
Lady Juliana of Bellemare always dreamed of adventure, but she never expected the shadows to answer. When her fiancé is murdered and the village children vanish, she is thrust into a world of lethal seduction and ancient magic. The choice is simple: surrender to him or die. Desperate to save the missing, she crosses into the immortal realm, a land of beautiful nightmares ruled by a king who offers her a single, soul-shattering bargain. Will Juliana yield to the fire between them or burn Merrick’s kingdom to ash?
King of the Unblessed is Labyrinth meets A Court of Thorns and Roses, an epic, dark fantasy romance brimming with brooding antiheroes, seductive intrigue, and enemies-to-lovers heat. Perfect for readers who crave morally gray love stories, wickedly seductive kings, and fierce heroines who refuse to be tamed. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Laura Thalassa, this book will be your next obsession.
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Michelle M. Pillow is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with over 100 published books spanning multiple genres, including romantasy, paranormal romance, mysteries, and paranormal women’s fiction. Her Realm Immortal and Tribes of the Vampire series are available in new audio editions from Pan Macmillan’s Tor Bramble, with the King of the Unblessed hardcover releasing June 16, 2026. Learn more at MichellePillow.com. Or visit her author store at MichellePillowBooks.com
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