Author: Mary E. Pearson
Release Date: August 2, 2016
Hardcover: 688 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, audiobook
Find it: Goodreads |Amazon | B&N | iBooks
Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda and the path before them is winding and dangerous - what will happen now? This third and final book in The Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed.
Bestselling author Mary E. Pearson's combination of intrigue, suspense, romance and action make this a riveting page turner for teens.
Now on to the interview!
Hi Mary! First I want to say welcome to Two Chicks on Books!
THE REMNANT CHRONICLES series is a personal favorite of mine and I can’t wait
to see how it all ends! And am so happy that you could stop by for a visit!
Thanks for having me Jaime!!
For the readers: can you give us a little series recap?
Ha! A little series recap would
take me pages! But luckily there are great sites like Recapitans, that give fairly
detailed recaps of books you’ve read. But
be warned: Do not read these recaps if you haven’t read the books yet! They are
full of spoilers and only meant to refresh your memory if you’ve already read
the books.
Here is the recap for The Kiss
of Deception:
Another useful site is Book
Series Recaps. Here’s the recap for The Heart of Betrayal:
Of course, even recaps can’t
capture every important detail—and
I load a lot of significant details into the stories—so if the story is fairly hazy in your head, I recommend a
reread.
Were any of the characters in the books inspired by people
from your real life?
Yes, all of them in bits and
pieces. Lia is a combination of a lot of girls and women I have known—strong, fierce, with a definite mind of her own.
Who was your favorite character to write? What about your
least favorite?
The three main characters were
my favorites—I loved
switching between the three—but
if I look at the secondary characters, I loved writing Pauline. She was so
different from Lia but very strong in her own ways. In The Heart of Betrayal, I
had so much fun writing the Komizar. He dripped with voice, and attitude, and
confidence. When he was in a room, you knew it.
And I loved he contradictions in him, brutal and humane. He was an interesting character to write. Oh,
and Aster! I loved her. In the last book there were some favorites too, but I
don’t want to give too much away, but I will say, I loved writing Rafe’s men,
Sven, Tavish, Orrin, and Jeb. My heart squeezes when I think about them.
As for least favorites, I really
hated him, but writing about Malich was still intriguing and he always upped
the conflict temperature whenever he was in a scene.
What is your favorite passage in each book?
Hm, let me see. I don’t think I
have one absolute favorite, but here are a few that I really like. This passage
from The Kiss of Deception comes on the heels of a devastating loss for Lia.
She is numb and it seems drained of caring anymore—but compassion still resides deep within her and it is
awakened when Eben’s horse falls to the ground and he is ordered to kill it. We
knew she was strong when she dug graves for those she loved, but I think this
scene brought that strength to a new level when she showed compassion for Eben,
seeing him as a frightened boy instead of as the enemy.
~
I whipped around and spat. “Ena
fikatande spindo keechas! Fikat ena shu! Ena mizak teevas ba betaro! Jabavé!” I
turned back to Eben and he inhaled a sharp breath when I snatched the sheathed
knife from him and pulled the blade free. A dozen bows were raised and arrows
drawn by onlooking soldiers, all aimed at me. “Have you said goodbye to Spirit
yet?” I asked Eben.
He looked at
me, his eyes glassy. “You know his name?”
“I heard you
whisper it in camp. They were wrong,
Eben,” I said, tossing my head in the direction of the others. “There is no
shame in naming a horse.”
He bit his lower lip and nodded. “Then turn around,” I
ordered. “You don’t have to do this.”
~
I talked a little about this
passage from The Heart of Betrayal on Stacee’s blog in July, and how I like how
Lia makes her thoughts known in no uncertain terms to Griz, a giant of a man
who towers over her in no uncertain terms.
It could almost be considered a mission statement for all three novels.
~
I walked up to Griz
and poked him in the chest. “Let me make this perfectly clear to you. Though
some might seek to make it appear otherwise, I am not a bride to be bartered
away to another kingdom, nor a prize of war, nor a mouthpiece for your Komizar.
I am not a chip in a card game to be mindlessly tossed into the center of the
pot, nor one to be kept in the tight fist of a greedy opponent. I am a player
seated at the table alongside everyone else, and from this day forward I will
play my own hand as I see fit. Do you understand me? Because the consequences
could be ugly if someone thought otherwise.”
~
For The Beauty of Darkness I
will have to avoid a passage that is spoilerish, but this one doesn’t give much
away. Here, Lia is in an old abandoned
cottage in the woods, reflecting on some names carved in the door, and thinking
about how a life can turn out so differently that what you planned:
~
Even my father’s name
was carved here. Branson. I ran my fingers over the rough letters. It was hard
to imagine that he’d ever been a carefree child running through the woods, and
I wondered at the way we all change, all the outside forces that press and mold
and push us into people and things we hadn’t planned to be. Maybe it happened
so gradually that by the time we noticed, it was too late to be anything else.
~
I like this passage because Lia
looks at the many shades of change—some we may bring about ourselves, but some creeps up slowly
and quietly and we don’t even know we’ve been trapped by it.
What inspired you to write YA?
I think the teenage experience
is fascinating! Big things happen at this stage or our lives. It is the first
time we are making adult decisions that may affect us for the rest of our
lives. Life-changing decisions.
Another plus is that novels are
based on conflict—that’s what makes the pages turn—and the teen years are ripe with potential conflict as teens
test waters they haven’t dipped their toes into before. I have a lot of
patience for a teen heroine who makes a bad choice but not so much for an adult
who should know better or who screws up over and over again. A teen is trying
to grow up whereas some adults refuse to.
And I have to say, I love
reading YA books myself. They are
surprising, twisty, fascinating, and written with beautiful prose, pace, plot,
and characters. It is a natural fit to
want to write the kind of books that I love.
Lightning Round Questions
What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your
TBR that you’re dying to read?
Right now I am halfway through All
The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (wonderful!) and on my very tall TBR
pile I am dying to get to Bone Gap by Laura Ruby and A Court of Mist and Fury
by Sarah J. Maas.
What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you in?
Hufflepuff. Family comes first, and I am quite loyal.
Twitter or Facebook?
Both, because sometimes we are
short winded and other times we need more than 140 characters. Variety is the spice of social media.
Favorite Superhero?
She’s not a comic superhero, but
one who makes me cheer wildly: Brienne of Tarth.
Favorite TV show?
I have so many favorites but one
I would claw my way home to watch: Game of Thrones.
Sweet or Salty?
I have a terrible sweet tooth—especially when it comes to ice cream.
Any Phobias?
Spiders. I literally just
shivered writing that word. I don’t mind if they stay outside, but I really
don’t like it when they enter my domain. Cue in hunter stance and raised shoe.
Song you can’t get enough of right now?
Remedy by Adele. It’s feeding a lot of inspiration right now.
Movie you’re most looking forward to?
Right now I am looking forward
to the newest Meryl Streep movie, Florence Foster Jenkins, coming out in
August. I love Meryl Streep!
Thanks so much Mary for answering my questions! I can’t wait
for everyone to read THE BEAUTY OF DARKNESS!
Thanks so much for letting me
stop by, Jaime!!
Mary E. Pearson is the award-winning author of The Jenna Fox Chronicles, The Miles Between, A Room on Lorelei, and Scribbler of Dreams. She writes full-time from her home office in California where she lives with her husband and two golden retrievers.
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