Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.
Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?
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1) Vampires are a very used-up subject, but you brought an amazing twist into a large market. What gave you the idea for this story?
Lenah - I wanted to write about a character who went from someone irrevocably evil trying to find their way back into the light. I was obsessed with that change . What kind of person would she be?
2) If you could live with 3 fictional YA character, who would they be?
1. Harry Potter
2. Arnold in Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
3. Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in the hope he might want to make out.
3) Describe your book in 3 words.
Break your heart.
4) The love between Rhode and Lenah is unbreakable, mortal or not, but the bond is what brought them together. How exactly does that bond work?
In my vampire lore, when a vampire falls in love with another vampire, magic is formed, bonding those two vampires for their entire existence. It's a curse that can't be broken...that is until the ritual is performed. What's beautiful about Lenah and Rhode's relationship is that she remains in love with him after the ritual is completed and that magic bond between them is broken. She loves him even when that bond is broken. Yes, she falls in love with Justin Enos but it's a different kind of love - not marred by black magic. It's pure, human.
5) Lenah was a pretty evil but successful vampire, do you think if you were a vampire, you'd be the same?
Hell yes. She is bad ass! Oh, woops. Should I say bad a**?
6) You should! How insane was your publishing process and finding an agent?
Pretty insane - I mean, I was rejected 58573759257382493820 times with other projects and ideas. You have to believe in your work, even if it never sees the light of day. The process has to be enough.
Thanks! This was fun!
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Thanks Rebecca, I had fun too! Hope you guys liked it!
Happy Reading!
-Harmony B.
