Rambling Book Nerds: Blog Tour: Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Blog Tour: Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga

Kiss of the Royal

by Lindsey Duga

In the war against the Forces of Darkness, the Royals are losing. Princess Ivy is determined to end this centuries-long conflict once and for all, so her new battle partner must succeed where the others failed. Prince Zach’s unparalleled skill with a sword, enhanced by Ivy’s magic Kiss, should make them an unstoppable pair—but try convincing Zach of that.

Prince Zach has spent his life preparing for battle, but he would rather be branded a heretic than use his lips as nothing more than a way to transfer magic. A kiss is a symbol of love, and love is the most powerful weapon they have—but try convincing Ivy of that.

With the fate of their world on the line, the battlefield has become a testing ground, and only one of them can be right. Falling for each other wasn’t part of the plan—but try convincing their hearts of that.

Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: July 3, 2018
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Book Links: iBooks, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Author Interview:

1. To start off this interview I'm going to ask you the age old question, what inspired you to write Kiss of the Royal?

I like that this is phrased as “what inspired you” because to me, that’s actually different than “what is your inspiration”. But, to give you some context, I’ll address both!

The idea came from the common fairytale trope: True Love’s Kiss. This magical kiss changes frogs into princes, wakes up fair maidens from a coma-like sleep, and even turns princesses into ogres (à la Shrek). I expanded on this idea and asked myself the question, what if these magical kisses became so common that eventually the magic of love itself was lost? Then the story started blooming from there.

So that’s where the idea ultimately came from (using one fairytale in particular as the history of the world’s main source of inspiration) but what really inspired me to write Kiss of the Royal was a scene that popped into my head while I was thinking about the concept. It’s a scene between the two leads--Ivy and Zach--in the midst of one of their many heated arguments. I could picture this scene in my head so vividly I simply had to write the rest of the book for the sake of this one moment.

For readers of the book, I’ll give you a hint: they’re by the fireside.

2. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind them?

My female protagonist is Princess Ivy Myriana, a direct descendant of the queen who created the world’s first Royal Kiss. Her power is passed down through her children, allowing all Royals to perform Kisses that break curses and cast spells. Because Ivy is the direct descendant, this makes her the most powerful. And when you’re in a five-hundred-year-long war, that’s a lot of pressure. Ivy wants to live up to everyone’s expectations, but she’s constantly plagued by self-doubt thanks to her mother’s criticisms and the deaths of her princes. Enter Zach…

Zach is the opposite of Ivy in almost every way. He’s barely a prince with hardly any magical blood, but he’s a powerful swordsman--so powerful that Ivy believes that with her magic Kiss they could be the best team the world has ever seen. Only he doesn’t believe in what she believes that leads to...complications.

Ivy and Zach’s individual characters weren’t based off any specific people, but their dynamic was. In the 2008 romantic comedy, 27 Dresses, the two main characters are a woman who believes in marriage and a man who seemingly jaded when it comes to love. Their interactions and arguments were a great source of inspiration for Ivy and Zach. In my book though, the genders are reversed, so the boy is the hopeless romantic while the girl is the logic-minded realist.

3. If you were to watch your favorite book (which hasn’t been turned into a real life motion picture) turn into a movie, which would you choose? Or would you rather keep it stayed as a book?

At the moment my favorite book is a Golden Son by Pierce Brown--the second book in the Red Rising trilogy. Golden Son beat the second book syndrome by a landslide. I happen to think that it was the best of the trilogy. It was incredibly well-written, paced, plotted, and imagined. I can’t describe to you the scenes that Pierce Brown created without drooling--they are that beautiful. That being said, do I worry that Hollywood could ruin a fantastic book like they did with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? (Or the atrocity that dare not be named--Avatar: the Last Airbender?) Yes, of course I worry.

But still. I love this book so much (and others for that matter) that I get excited to hear that it has the chance to be redone in any new medium. Mostly because it gives me a chance to fangirl all over it again.

Generally speaking, I’m always really happy when a book becomes a movie because it gives others the chance to witness its greatness.

4. Sc-Fi or High Fantasy, which do you prefer, and why?

Although I love a good sci-fi any day of the week, I would say my one true love is fantasy. There’s something about castles, magic, and mythical creatures that are able to draw me in unlike anything else. The aesthetic of fantasy is appealing to me, but I think the thing that really makes fantasy exciting is that there can be aspects of your world that defy logic. With science fiction, I feel like, more often than not, you have to explain the technology, or convince the reader that such-and-such is possible because of so-and-so reason. With fantasy, magic exists just because. No explanation or reason necessary. Not to say magic can’t have rules. On the contrary, it has to have rules in order to be believable. But, the core of your fantasy world, the magic system, and all its rules exist in a realm that is unlike anything we can imagine, not because it’s in another part of the galaxy or it’s technology that hasn’t been invented yet, but because it just is.

5. In 5 words please describe your book.

“Weaponized Kisses Versus True Love”

6. To end our interview can you tell us, what your working on next?

I always have a few projects going on at once, so I’ll just go with what I am currently drafting. It is a middle grade sci-fi that is inspired by the recent reboot of Voltron: Legendary Defender on Netflix. The twist? It’s pretty much an all-female cast where the pilots are young girls. In this book, I’m trying to take the all-girl power team trope like Sailor Moon and place them in a setting that’s been dominated by males: space piloting. Think of Gundam Wing for girls!