Spotlight & Giveaway: The Cursed King by Abigail Owen

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Abigail Owen to HJ!

Hi Abigail and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Cursed King!

 
Thank you so much for having me. Harlequin Junkie is one of my favorite romance book places to visit!
 

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

He will burn. She will rise. Don’t miss the fiery conclusion to Abigail Owen’s award-winning Inferno Rising series featuring dragon shifters, phoenixes, and a whole world to get lost in!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Three months ago…
Angelika Amon stuck to the perimeter of the large training room in the mountain stronghold of Ben Nevis in Scotland, headed for the smaller, human-sized door that led to the platform outside. Jedd would kill her if he knew she was planning to go out there at all, let alone without him.
Then again, he was supposed to be her bodyguard.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The last of the phoenix sisters has no powers. But she won’t be sidelined.
• A dragon shifter who should’ve been king was imprisoned for centuries. Now he’s out. And he’s feral.
• They can’t defeat the false High King alone. They need allies.
• A hellhound will always break your heart.
• This is the epic finale to the award-winning Inferno Rising series!

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

The hero and heroine both see a lot of each other. Angelika is the only one who isn’t afraid of Airk. It’s not that she doesn’t respect the danger he could present, but she’s got a big heart and sees, first and foremost, a man who deserves to be loved. Meanwhile, Airk can understand that, even though she’s powerless, she still wants to be part of taking down the man who wrought such horror on them both personally, and on their people.
 

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

conflicted
confined
combustible
craving
dangerous.
 

The First Kiss…

His expression went blank, and his arms dropped to his sides. “You pity the pathetic creature from the dungeons of Everest. Is that it?”
“No.” She grabbed his hand, driven by her need to make sure that he didn’t believe his own words. “This isn’t pity, dammit. It’s companionship. And…and…”
“And?”
“Chemistry.” She flung the word at him, frustration driving her now.
He frowned. “I do not—”
Angelika went up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. A soft, sweet, barely there touch.
Airk went utterly still at the contact for half a heartbeat, and in that blip of a moment, despair snuck in as she anticipated another rejection. And why wouldn’t he reject her? It would be just one more way she’d failed. She started to pull away. To give up—
He groaned as though in pain, then slipped his hand under the heavy fall of her hair to cup the back of her neck and urge her closer.
Of their own volition, her arms crept up around his neck, and Angelika pressed herself to him as their lips collided, but with such desperate need, it took them a second to line everything up right. The kiss took off from there. They melded and meshed, pressed and released, and came back together with a shocking desperation that overwhelmed her and flooded her senses.
Where did he learn to kiss like this in captivity? Her mind paused at that as he gripped her hips, pulling her harder against him. Who cares, because…damn.

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

My favorite might be the opening scene when our hero is trying to escape a bad situation, and out of no where, the heroine shows up to “help” him. He knows she’s powerless, and his fear for her safety makes him angry that she’d risk herself for him. Meanwhile, she’s not about to let him risk himself if she can do something to help. That push-pull becomes their dynamic the entire rest of the book!

At a tiny movement, he jerked his gaze to the right, and he damn near tumbled ass over head at the sight of her—long, white-blond hair tossed in the winds whipping at the mountain, framing her perfectly heart-shaped face.
She stood hunkered down in a doorway, beckoning him like the siren she was with a tiny wave of her hands, no doubt trying to not also attract the attention of the dragon overhead.
Through the emotionless numb where he usually existed, a gut punch of fury swept through him in a scorching wave at her recklessness showing herself here like that, risking her preciously rare phoenix neck.
Airk didn’t have time to argue with her methods right now, though.
Shoving the emotions down deep where they couldn’t touch him, he kept moving. Five more steps and he ran past her through a rotting wooden door disguised to blend with the rock face and into what had once been a home.
“What in the seven hells are you doing here?” he demanded. No emotions, only logic now.
“Helping.” She shot him a patient smile, though it quickly disappeared behind urgency. “Follow me.”

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

The finale battle. This battle has been building up not only over the four books of the Inferno Rising series, but also over the six books of the Fire’s Edge series. Taking down the false High King is not going to be easy, and it’s going to take everyone.

A cry from all those in the air had her jerking her gaze back upward to find Airk and Pytheios plummeting to the ground, only something was wrong.
Pytheios was on top. He was controlling the fall, driving them downward.
Angelika sucked in sharply, clasping her sister’s hands harder. “Airk,” she whispered, knowing her mate would hear her.
The two thrashing dragons passed out of view behind the peak of the mountain. A second later, a crash of sound louder than thunder preceded a whoosh of wind that flattened trees, threw dirt everywhere, and knocked Angelika and her sisters off their feet.
The air hadn’t even cleared before she struggled back to standing. “Airk,” she called out.
“I’ll send you.”
She whipped around in time to catch Skylar’s shove in the chest. Then all sound and sight blanked out for a moment before she appeared at the edge of a crater.
Dirt and debris still hung in the air, and at first she couldn’t see anything. But her brothers-by-blood dropped down over the space, their wings clearing the air, blowing the dirt away…
To reveal Airk standing over Pytheios’s broken, limp body, teeth sunk into his jugular but not punctured yet.

Readers should read this book …

Do you love plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs? You’ll find it in The Cursed King and the entire Inferno Rising series!

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

My current WIP is an upper YA fantasy which I’m hoping to announce the title, release date, and share the cover soon. It is one of my personal favorite things I’ve ever written.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A $25 Amazon gift card and signed copies of the entire Inferno Rising series – The Rogue King, The Blood King, The Warrior King, and The Cursed King!

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your favorite type of paranormal creature in romance novels?

 
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Excerpt from The Cursed King:

Outside, she paused and closed her eyes and breathed, letting the tension drain away as she stood under the clear, open sky.
“It is not good for you to be out here unaccompanied.”
Angelika stiffened, her eyes shooting open. She knew that voice, though only from afar. Like dark silk or smooth bourbon, low and even. Measured. From a man impossible to overlook. Turning her head, she found Airk Azdajah standing at the precipice, the white dragon shifter’s toes practically hanging over the edge to the canyon below.
“I can take care of myself,” she said. Knee-jerk response. Everyone seemed determined that she was in need of protection.
“You did not even know I was out here until I spoke.”
Unlike most shifters, whose speech changed slowly over time, the same way humans’ did, this dragon still spoke more…formally. She liked it. It made him sound old-fashioned, or chivalrous, even, which was why she smiled a little.
He shook his head in obvious disgust. “Return to the mountain, little wolf.”
Angelika ignored the imperious order. Besides, she was curious. “For someone still struggling to shift, you’re taking an awfully big risk, standing there.”
Though she’d spoken the words with kindness, Airk’s shoulders drew back, his spine going steel-rod straight.
Before he could snap back, she crossed the distance between them. “What are you doing? Trying to force your dragon to emerge? Isn’t that dangerous?”
He turned ice blue eyes on her, quietly intense in a way no man she’d met before came close to. That was saying something, given the natures of shifters, whether wolf and dragon. Probably Airk’s way was a holdover from centuries kept in captivity with few to talk to. The thought of him alone and caged like that made her heart ache.
She expected him to dismiss her again—that or dismiss the danger. Instead, his expression eased. “I am less concerned with falling to my death than I am with releasing a feral dragon.”
He had never released the animal within, according to Skylar, who knew him best, though that wasn’t by much. Not long ago, her sister had been captured by Pytheios and locked in the Red Clan’s prison in Everest…with Airk. He was the one who’d helped Skylar escape, or, more accurately, they’d helped each other.
“Then what are you doing out here?” she asked.
Airk looked down into the deep ravine below before he raised his gaze to the stars, the cool light of the waning moon illuminating his face and setting his white hair aglow. His lips twitched as though a smile was beyond him, unused, stiff and almost shaky. “After centuries inside a mountain…”
He left off the rest, but she caught his meaning.
“I don’t blame you.” Without thinking, Angelika reached over and took his hand, giving it a squeeze.
His fingers twitched in her grasp, and he stared at their clasped hands. “You dare to touch me?”
The question came out not angry or offended but almost…bewildered. She got it. She’d seen how all the dragons in this mountain avoided Airk.
She shrugged. “I’m a hugger.”
He cocked his head and studied her, seeming to be as confused by the words as by her simple action of reaching out. “Most are afraid of me. Or disgusted.”
“They don’t know you.”
He slipped his hand out of hers. “You do not know me.”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Airk Azdajah, the rightful King of the White Clan of dragon shifters, spent half a millennium being tortured by the false High King Pytheios. The only reason he’s alive is a curse— the man to kill Airk will be consumed in his own fire. Which is why Pytheios kept Airk alive, barely, unable to shift in his prison cage, driving the creature half of him into madness. Airk escaped, but he’ll never be truly free. What good is a king who can never let his feral dragon loose, never fly, and never lead his people? He’s better off dead.

Angelika Amon is the last unmated phoenix. The problem? She has no powers. Zip. Zilch. Angelika hates being dormant, especially now that her three sisters are blissfully mated to powerful dragon shifter kings and are very much part of the fight to take down the rotting king Pytheios, their parents’ killer. What good is a useless runt of a phoenix in a battle to save the dragon kingdom?

Desperate to find some way to help, she offers herself to Airk as a mate — just for political leverage. But a dormant phoenix is no damn use to him just like a dragon who can’t shift is no use to her. Until Pytheios sets his sights on Angelika for himself…
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Multi-award-winning author, Abigail Owen, writes adult paranormal romance & upper YA/new adult fantasy romance. She loves plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, spreadsheet lover, eMBA, organizational guru, Texan, Aggie, and chocoholic.

Abigail attempted to find a practical career related to her favorite pastime by earning a degree in English Rhetoric (Technical Writing) and an MBA. However, she swiftly discovered that writing without imagination is not nearly as fun as writing with it.

Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own swoon-worthy hero, their angelic (mostly) kids, who are growing up way too fast, and 2 adorable fur babies.
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