The Shadow Hour Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

Today I'm thrilled to be back action after vacation, welcoming author Melissa Grey to the blog once again as part of the promotional tour for The Shadow Hour, the sequel to last year's The Girl at Midnight. I absolutely loved The Girl at Midnight and have been counting the days until this book released, so I jumped at (or begged for, whichever) the opportunity to ask Melissa a few questions. Be sure and check the bottom of the post as well for all the details on a fantastic giveaway!

Echo is facing innumerable changes in her life now that she's the firebird. If she could return to a simpler time with plenty of hours in the day to read, what are 3 books we might find on her shelves?

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (the omnibus edition so I can count this as one book)

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (another omnibus edition so I can continue cheating and count this as one book)

Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey

If Echo could turn to any YA heroine for advice in dealing with the total upheaval of her life, who do you think she would most want to talk to?

Blue from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater would probably be a good person for Echo to talk to. Blue is exceptionally practical and sometimes, Echo needs someone to pull her back down to earth with a little real talk. 

While dragons and firebirds are pretty spectacular paranormal creatures, what's one other supernatural being you would love to write a story around?

I’ve always been fascinated by the kitsune of Japanese folklore. Foxes are great. Shapeshifting foxes are even better.

There's little better for me than finding a new book boyfriend, especially when said boyfriend just happens to be a dragon prince. What are a few of the characteristics in a book boyfriend that really make you swoon?

I like the strong silent types. A little brooding goes a long way.

Other than the fact that she's the firebird, what is one fundamental way Echo would say she's changed from the girl we met in The Girl at Midnight?

I think she’s a little more cautious these days. At least, she likes to tell herself she’s a little more cautious and looks before she leaps now, but I suppose time will tell on that one.

Thanks so much for stopping by Melissa!

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THE SHADOW HOUR

Everything in Echo's life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace.

The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.

Echo has already lost her home, her family, and her boyfriend. Now, as the firebird, her path is filled with even greater dangers than the ones she's already overcome.

She knows the Dragon Prince will not fall without a fight.

Echo must decide: can she wield the power of her true nature--or will it prove too strong for her, and burn what's left of her world to the ground?

Welcome to the shadow hour.

Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository

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MELISSA GREY

Melissa Grey penned her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn't stopped writing since. As an undergrad at Yale, she learned how ride a horse and shoot a bow and arrow at the same time, but hasn't had much use for that skill since graduating in 2008.

Her debut novel, THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT (Delacorte/Random House), is out now. The second book in the trilogy, THE SHADOW HOUR, will be published July 2016. The third and final book of the series will come out summer 2017.

Website | Twitter |Instagram

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GIVEAWAY

Two lucky winners will each receive copies of both The Girl at Midnight and The Shadow Hour, so fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter! Giveaway is open to US/Canada only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WEEK ONE:

7/4: Reading Teen - Best Snarky Girls

7/5: Fiction Fare - Q&A

7/6: Paperback Princess - Dual Review

7/7: Novel Heartbeat - Review

7/8: Lovin' Los Libros - Review

WEEK TWO:

7/11: What Sarah Read - Review

7/12: Supernatural Snark - Q&A

7/13: Wandering Bark Books - Review

7/14: Bookish Broads - Q&A

7/15: Mundie Moms - Review

Interview: Melissa Grey + The Girl at Midnight

I have the distinct pleasure today of welcoming author Melissa Grey to the blog to answer a few questions about her newest YA fantasy release, The Girl at Midnight. I absolutely LOVED this book, I've been on a fantasy binge for about a year now and this one was everything I could have hoped for (mini review below the interview!). If you guys haven't devoured it yet, I highly recommend it. *attempts to wait patiently for book 2*

To introduce Echo, Caius, Ivy, Dorian and Jasper to those who have not yet had the chance to meet them, please assign each of them a high school-style superlative (best hair, most likely to succeed, etc.).

Echo: Most Likely to Steal the Declaration of Independence

Ivy: Most Likely to Try to Talk Echo Out of Stealing the Declaration of Independence

Caius: Most Likely to Succeed in Winning a Throne But Maybe Not the Best at Keeping It

Dorian: Most Likely to Fall for Someone He Really Shouldn’t

Jasper: Best Hair, Best Eyes, Best Everything

In many ways the colors of an Avicen’s feathers matches their individual personality traits (I’m looking at you Jasper!). If you were Avicen, what color would your plumage be?

Easy. Purple! Like my current hair color.

While we don’t get to see too much of her in this first book, what we do get to see of Tanith has us gritting our teeth and curling our fingers into fists. What would you say are three characteristics that always make for a good villain?

Conviction, cunning, and ferocity. Battling someone who is convinced they’re in the right even when they’re obviously not is pretty daunting.

We get to spend time with a few different characters in The Girl at Midnight. What’s one book written from a single point of view that you wish allowed you into the head of one or more secondary characters?

The Archived and The Unbound by Victoria Schwab. There are so many mysteries in those books that I just want to role around in the PoVs forever. She wrote a story from the point of view of Wesley Ayers (also known as my current book boyfriend) and I’m still haunted by it. I need more. Do you hear that, Victoria? I need more.

Echo and company follow a trail of rhyming clues as they track down the elusive firebird. Looking forward to the next book, could you give us a short rhyme with a hint or two of what awaits?

Magic, and mayhem, and murder, oh my!
Can people stop fighting so Echo can have pie?
Wherever there is darkness, there must also be light,
But will it be bright enough to beat back the blight?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Melissa!

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THE GIRL AT MIDNIGHT

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

MINI REVIEW

The Girl at Midnight is the perfect blend of fantastical adventure and forbidden romance, complete with a stunning cast of secondary characters who all shine in their various shades of gray. We get to spend time with a group of five young men and women, each with layers to their personality we can't wait to peel back and examine more closely as we're carried along with them in their attempt to locate the mythical firebird. The relationships of every individual to each of the others are fraught with tension for a wide array of reasons, and where a larger cast sometimes opens the door for us to pick favorites, each member of the firebird search party earns themselves a special place in our hearts.

Echo and Caius are the two with whom we spend majority of our time, both out of place in their respective worlds and looking for a way to close the gap between the long-feuding Avicen and Drakharin. Theirs is a romance that takes chapter upon chapter to build, two opposing sides uniting in a shared purpose who eventually find their minds and hearts filled with more than just a desire for peace. While things are likely to get more complicated rather than less as their story continues, they're a couple easy to root for in this first installment.

The only minor complaint is with a slightly jumbled ending, the chaos of the final battle cut off quickly in the heat of the moment before we suddenly find ourselves on the final page. Overall though, The Girl at Midnight has humor and romance (on a number of fronts) as well as epic magic and a long-standing war between two mythical species, ensuring we turn the pages with all haste to see what becomes of characters we've quickly grown to love.

Rating: 4/5

Find Melissa & The Girl at Midnight:

Website • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon