Lost Angels
As Above, So Below Book 1
by Loren Rhoads and Brian Thomas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
When the succubus Lorelei sees Azaziel across Lost Angels, she knows he’s been kicked out of Heaven, but is not yet Fallen. She resolves to do whatever it takes to bring the angel down.
Unfortunately, Lorelei doesn’t realize that Azaziel has an agenda of his own. Taking her back to a burned-out church, he forces a mortal girl’s soul into the devil girl’s flesh. Then the succubus needs to find an exorcist who can cast the ghost out of her.
With all the supernatural warriors of Los Angeles looking on, neither the angel nor the succubus can imagine how love will derail their plans…
Book Trailer
Angelus Rose
As Above, So Below Book 2
If Romeo had wings and Juliet a barbed tail, could they find happiness in the City of Angels?
After their escape from the ashes of Lost Angels, the succubus Lorelei and the angel Azaziel want nothing more than to enjoy each other's company. Unfortunately, Asmodeus, the Demon Prince of LA, has threatened to devour Lorelei's new-grown soul if she doesn't bring about Azaziel's downfall. Meanwhile, Aza is keeping secrets of his own that threaten the tenuous peace between Heaven and Hell.
Three archangels come to town to try to set things right, but friendships are fracturing. The demon in charge of fallen angels is sniffing around. And Los Angeles is about to be caught between a devil and the deep blue sea.
How I became an author:
My mom was a firm believer in naps. When I was 5, I didn’t
really need to nap, but my 3-year-old brother walked in his sleep and the
doctor suggested maybe he was overtired. So my mother brought us both into her
big bed and laid down with one of us on either side of her. She’d fling an arm
across my brother and a leg over me to hold us still until naptime was over.
Unable to sleep or even to wiggle, I told myself stories to
pass the hours. My favorite book at the time was Peter Pan. I hated
Wendy, who sucked the fun out of everything, but I idolized Princess Tiger
Lily, who would rather be tied to a rock and drowned than betray her friends.
In the stories I told myself, I was Tiger Lily's best friend, standing up to
Captain Hook and flying off on adventures with Peter. I still like those strong
female characters.
Something quirky about me:
I love to visit cemeteries. In addition to my novels, I've
written two books about visiting cemeteries around the world: 199 Cemeteries to
See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. Brian
Thomas (my co-author) and I managed to write 3 cemeteries into Angelus Rose:
Forest Lawn, where they have a huge stained glass replica of Da Vinci's The
Last Supper; Westwood Memorial Park, where Marilyn Monroe is buried; and
Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, which served as a backdrop for the first season of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
If I knew I would die tomorrow:
If I knew I would die tomorrow, I would go out to breakfast
at Louis' Restaurant overlooking the ocean. I'd get a table by the window,
where I could watch for whales swimming by. I'd order waffles drowning in syrup
and get all hopped up on coffee, then I'd walk along the Land's End trail to
the Palace of the Legion of Honor, which stands on the grounds of the former
City Cemetery. The headstones were removed in the 1920s, but most of the bodies
still lie under the grass. I'd sit on the bench in the sunlight and gaze over
the mouth of the San Francisco Bay at the Golden Gate Bridge. I'd just enjoy
the beauty with my husband and kid. That would be the perfect day, whether I
was going to die soon or not.
What can we expect in the future:
My first novel, still unpublished, was about a young witch
named Alondra DeCourval. I've written a bunch of stories about her traveling
around the world and encountering magical creatures from a siren in Venice to a
fox spirit in Tokyo to the monster that lives under the Golden Gate Bridge.
I've collected the stories into a couple of short ebooks on Amazon, but I would
like to publish some novels about Alondra's adventures. I've got 3 books in
various states of done, but I'd like to settle down and finally tell her story.
About the characters in the As Above, So Below books:
The hero is an angel named Azaziel, although he prefers to be
called Aza. The succubus who falls in love with him teases him about his name.
She thinks there ought to be an 'El" in there somewhere. He's missing the
honorific that denotes his Heavenly origin.
Azaziel's backstory in our novels was inspired by a play by
Lord Byron called Heaven and Earth: A Mystery. In that story, Azaziel falls in
love with Anah, one of Cain's granddaughters. When God sends the Flood, Azaziel
tucks Anah under his wings and flies away to another plane.
My co-writer Brian Thomas asked what would happen if Azaziel
outlived Anah but wasn't forgiven -- not necessarily for loving her, but for
stepping away from his duties to be with her. Basically, Aza was faced with a
no-win situation: save the woman he loved or let her drown. He's never forgiven
himself for making a choice. It gave us some juicy stuff to play with.
Our heroine, the succubus Lorelei, was inspired by a woman I
knew at university. Kimmy lived across the hall from me in the dorm. She was
beautiful: large very dark eyes, long mahogany hair, heart-shaped face. She
wasn’t very tall, but she was seriously curvy. I wasn’t surprised to find she’d
done catalog modeling in high school.
Mostly what I remember about Kimmy was her presence. She made
everything more fun. When she came into a room, every head turned toward her,
but she wasn’t obnoxious about it. She didn’t seem to crave attention; she just
accepted it as normal.
Kimmy was always ready for anything. When Playboy came to
town, looking to photograph Girls of the Big 10, she considered it. When she
met another girl who had been contacted by a Greek millionaire who was looking
for pretty girls to come lounge around on his yacht in their bikinis, she
considered it. I think her curiosity about that lifestyle was matched by a
small-town naivety that didn’t really guess what that kind of deal would demand
in return. In consequence, I felt protective of Kimmy. I didn’t want her
trusting nature to lead her into a situation she couldn’t charm her way out of.
Lorelei came directly out of that feeling. I wanted to
explore the possibilities laid out in front of Kimmy, but know that Lorelei
would survive them. I wanted to give Kimmy a happy ending and a boyfriend she
wanted just as much as he wanted her. And I wanted to guarantee she’d never
lose her fearlessness or sense of fun.
How did we come up with the title:
The working title of the original book was Hex Vex Sex. I had
a long-sleeved black t-shirt that I'd bought on Haight Street with the slogan
written down its sleeve. Brian thought the phrase summed up our story, from
Lorelei's initial seduction of Aza, to Aza's possessing Lorelei with a mortal girl's
ghost, then their eventual Happy For Now ending.
Along the way, the book's title changed to As Above, So
Below, which we took from the old magical texts. In fact, the first novel was
originally published under that title in 2013. When we got the rights back, we
changed that novel's title to Lost Angels, which is the name of the bar where
Lorelei works in Los Angeles.
The second book is called Angelus Rose. We talked about
changing it a couple of times, but never came up with anything we liked better.
Loren is the author of The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes, a space opera trilogy set after a galactic war has wiped out much of humanity.
She is also the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. She blogs about graveyards as travel destinations at CemeteryTravel.com.
You won't be surprised to know that she likes long walks in the moonlight and old graveyards.
$25 Amazon card
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Thank you for hosting our book tour!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! :)
DeleteIt will be up on Netgalley on Tuesday, if you're tempted to check it out. ;)
Delete