Blog Tour- KINGDOM OF ASHES by Rhiannon Walker an Interview and Giveaway!

I am so excited to be hosting a spot on blog tour for KINGDOM OF ASHES by Rhiannon Thomas I loved this series!!!! I have an interview with Rhiannon to share with you today! And make sure to enter the awesome giveaway for a finished copy of the book! 

Haven't heard of KINGDOM OF ASHES? Check it out!

Title: KINGDOM OF ASHES

Author: Rhiannon Thomas

Release Date: February 23, 2016

Pages: 368

Publisher: Harper Teen

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks

Asleep for a hundred years, awoken by a kiss, Aurora’s life was supposed to be a fairytale. But since discovering that loyalty to the crown and loyalty to her country are two very different things, Aurora knows she can only dream of happily ever after. Once the enchanted princess, savior of her people, she is now branded a traitor.


Aurora is determined to free her home from the king’s tyrannical rule, even if it means traveling across the sea to the kingdom of the handsome and devious Prince Finnegan—someone who seems to know far more about her magic than he should. However, Finnegan’s kingdom has perils of its own, and any help he gives Aurora will come at a price.


As Aurora and Finnegan work together to harness her power—something so fiery and dangerous that is as likely to destroy those close to Aurora as it is to save them—she begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding the curse that was placed on her over a century before…and uncover the truth about the destiny she was always meant to fulfill.


Brimming with captivating fantasy and life-threatening danger, the sequel to A Wicked Thing takes Sleeping Beauty on an adventure unlike any she’s ever had before.

Now on to the interview!

 Hi Rhiannon! First I want to say welcome back to Two Chicks on Books! I loved KINGDOM OF ASHES and I’m so happy that you could stop back by for a visit!

Thank you so much! I’m so happy to be here again :)

For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about the A WICKED THING series and the characters? 

A Wicked Thing is the story of what happens after Sleeping Beauty wakes up.

In our “previously on…”, Aurora was cursed by the witch Celestine to sleep for a hundred years, before being awoken by the kiss of the awkward but well-meaning Prince Rodric. While she slept, all the magic in her kingdom faded away. Legend says that once Aurora awakens, she’s going to marry the prince, return magic to the kingdom, and save them all.

Except, of course, that she has no idea how to do that. She wants to help, but everything she ever knew is gone, and she can’t know who she can trust and what she can believe. Rodric is nice enough, but she doesn’t love him, as everyone expects. His mother, Queen Iris, seems cruel and controlling, and Aurora’s attempts to explore on her own just get her tangled up in a group of rebels who also want to use her for their own ends. There’s a foreign prince at court too, Finnegan, but he’s a master manipulator, and she can’t figure out what the price of accepting his help might be.

When Aurora discovers that Celestine is very much alive and wants Aurora to join her, she begins to experiment with her own magical powers, to explore just what she’s capable of, and to find out what exactly her “destiny” is really supposed to be.

Is it really over now I could see the possibility for a book 3? And what are you currently working on?

There’s no plans for a third book right now, although I’d love to write one!

I’m currently finishing a different book, Long May She Reign, which is a fantasy YA novel about a socially-awkward scientist girl who ends up as queen when everyone ahead of her in line is murdered.

I know I asked this last time but things can change…Who was your favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?

I think my answer to both questions is the same – Celestine! It’s so interesting to write a villain character and try to see things from her perspective, to explore why she might think that she’s right and that all the other people in the story are the true villains. But her voice was also really challenging at times. I wanted her to have an ethereal brutality to her, and that’s not something that came easily.

What is your favorite passage/scene in KINGDOM OF ASHES?

Most of my favorites are too spoilerly to share, but one of my favorite moments is fairly early in the book, when Aurora sees a dragon for the first time;

She paused beside the entrance for a moment, her toes clinging to the earth, and then there was a sound like a roar, like a crowd bearing down, filling her ears, echoing through the ground.

A dragon emerged from the cave. Its head appeared first, gleaming with red scales. Its deep-set eyes were red too, like the necklace, full of hunger and vengeance and rage. Black lines ran from its eyes down to its crocodile-like nose. Each tooth was the size of Aurora’s hands. Before Aurora could react, the head snapped past her, revealing a long neck, and then a body that went on and on, red and terrible and burning with heat that would have made her flinch, if only she could move. The dragon unfurled its wings, so close that Aurora could see the webbing between the bones, delicate and strong as a spider’s web, so large that for a moment they were all she could see. Her world turned red.

It was the most terrifying and beautiful thing she had ever seen. Heat pulsed off its skin, heat that settled within her, surging with her blood. The tail flicked past her, covered in black spikes, ending in a narrow point, so thin that she could have caught it in one hand.

Nothing existed except the dragon. She could almost taste its fire. And she knew what Finnegan meant, why his careful smile turned into genuine excitement when he spoke of these creatures. They were magnificent, uncontainable, bursting from the earth itself and refusing to sleep again.

The dragon twisted. It snapped its jaws and looked at her for no longer than a heartbeat. She looked back, her mouth slightly open, unable to breathe. Then the dragon gave its wings one powerful sweep and shot off over the top of the ridge. Aurora turned to follow its progress. A trail of fire burst into the sky, and then the creature was gone.

What kind of research did you have to do for the story?

I did a lot of research of details that probably don’t really matter that much, in the end. I wanted Vanhelm to have a turn-of-the-century feel, and that meant checking things like, when were trams invented? How did they work before electricity? How tall could buildings be before the invention of concrete? How DO skyscrapers work? How quickly can messages travel over long distances?

I also researched dragon legends. Not really because I needed to, but because it was a fun way to procrastinate while pretending to work.

What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?

I’m currently reading Into the Dim by Janet B Taylor. Time travelling adventure! And I can’t wait for Sharon Biggs Waller’s new book, The Forbidden Orchid, in March. I absolutely adored her debut, A Mad, Wicked Folly (artists! Suffragettes! What’s not to love?), and I’m dying to get my hands on this new story from her.

Who is your ultimate Book Boyfriend?

Ahh this is a hard question. Is it cheating to pick Bellamy, from The 100? He sort of exists in a book.

What inspired you to write YA?

Libba Bray. I was very unhappy during my first year of college, and then I stumbled across Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series. Her writing was so perfect. The characters and the themes and the imagery… it just spoke to me, so completely, and helped to make things make more sense. I wanted to be able to write a book like that one day.

And YA is so perfect for writing those sorts of stories. The whole genre really is about girls finding themselves, figuring out who they are, seeing the darkness in the world and still realizing how powerful they can be. Who wouldn’t want to play with that, as a writer, and as a feminist too?

Last time we did some lightening round questions so this time we’ll do some “would you rather’s”

Would you rather have a dragon or be a dragon?

THIS IS TOO HARD. I think I’d have a dragon, assuming it didn’t set me on fire. Maybe a cute shoulder dragon?

Would you rather get up early or stay up late?

Stay up late. Please don’t make me get up early.

Would you rather speak every language in the world or play every instrument?

Speak every language. You could watch EVERY TV show in the world, and read every book without having to rely on translations. And talk to people, although that’s a little scarier than the book and the TV thing. Maybe I’d wish for the ability to speak confidently to people in English first.

Would you rather always have the same song stuck in your head or always have the same dream at night?

Depends… is it a good dream or a bad dream? Do I like the song? I once had the Wombles theme song stuck in my head for about three weeks (thanks, supposed BFF, for causing that in the first place), and it was a nightmare, so I think I’ll pick the dream.

Would you rather live in space or under the sea?

Space! Have you seen anglerfish??

Would you rather take a vacation on an exotic island or in a romantic city?

Romantic city! Exotic island probably = big spiders, and I’m so not about that.

Would you rather live without a telephone or a television?

…am I allowed to watch TV on my laptop? If so, I don’t actually own a TV now. Otherwise, I’d do without the telephone. I hate phone calls, and I can’t miss the next episode of Jane the Virgin.

Would you rather live in the city or the country?

The city. I need to be able to get ridiculously flavored coffee at a moment’s notice.

Would you rather live by the ocean or by the mountains?

By the ocean.

Would you rather be stuck in a house with someone you hate or be stuck in a house alone?

For how long?? Can I bring my cat? I think I’d pick alone, though, as long as it wasn’t forever.

Thanks so much Rhiannon for answering my questions!

Thanks so much for having me!

About Rhiannon:

Rhiannon Thomas is a recent graduate from Princeton University, where she studied English and Japanese, and smuggled bubble tea into the library on a regular basis. She now lives in York, England. 


As well as reading and writing YA fiction, she runs the blog FeministFiction.com, where she discusses TV, books, and all kinds of fannish things from a feminist perspective. 

I don't hang out on Goodreads much, so if you want to contact me, please swing by my personal website or message me on Twitter.

Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

Win (1) of (2) signed sets of A Wicked Thing and Kingdom of Ashes by Rhiannon Thomas (INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the Tour Schedule HERE!