The Immortal Rules Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be featuring a book from one of my favourite authors on the blog today as part of the UK blog tour. I'm sure many of you have heard of The Immortal Rules and its author, Julie Kagawa, by now. After entrancing so many of us with her Iron Fey series, Julie Kagawa unleashed another one on us, and this time, about vampires. For the few people who aren't yet familiar with The Immortal Rules (and I'm not sure you people even exist), here is a little more about the book...

Title: The Immortal Rules
Series: Blood of Eden (Book 1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
UK Publisher: MIRA Ink
US Publisher: Harlequin Teen

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike. But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads


INTERVIEW

1.       The Immortal Rules is a very different book to your Iron Fey series. What was it like to have the opportunity to create a whole new story world?

I loved every minute of writing The Iron Fey series, but after four books and two novellas, I was ready to move on to something different.  I'd been wondering if I could write something a little darker, and The Immortal Rules was the perfect opportunity for that. 

2.       The first thing I noticed when reading The Immortal Rules was how unique a take this was on the vampire genre. We all know how prominent vampires have been in YA fiction in the past, so how difficult was it to create something readers haven’t seen before? 

          Vampires have been popular since before Bram Stoker's Dracula, so creating something completely new and unseen was pretty much impossible.  When I did decide to write about vamps, I didn't want to go down the well-tread upon "girl meets vampire, falls in love" route.  Though there have been many stories lately about moral, good vampires, I wanted to bring them back to their original roots as scary, bloodthirsty killers.  I didn't want my humans to think they could befriend or have a romantic entanglement with a vampire.  These vampires were monsters; I wanted them to be feared.  

3.       Allie, the main the character, is truly kick-butt. How much of yourself did you put into her character? Or how far do you two differ?

I am far more similar to Allison then I am to Meghan Chase.  We're short (as in, not tall), we like reading, we're not afraid to fight, and we have somewhat of a short temper (or I did, back when I was a teenager, lol).  Out of all my characters, Allie is probably my favourite female because of her snark and her katana. 

4.       Your fans already know how brilliant you are at creating a love interest (you gave us not one, but TWO boys to fall for in the Iron Fey books). How easy or difficult was it to create Zeke’s character? 

Lol, I guessed readers would be looking for another bad-boy love interest (ala Ash) in The Immortal Rules, but I had many reasons for making Zeke the complete opposite of a bad boy.  The first is Allie herself.  Her character is so cynical, pragmatic, wary, and even violent, that a bad-boy just wouldn't fly with her.  She needed someone to show her that there is still goodness in the world, that people can still care without being weak.  Zeke was, to put it in cheesy movie terms, the light to her darkness, and she needed that to start changing on her own.  So in that respect, creating Zeke was fairly easy, though I was careful not to make him TOO perfect.  He still has his flaws, but he struggles to overcome them, and I think that is what makes someone admirable

5.       I can’t imagine you would choose to live in a post-apocalyptic world with ruthless vampires, but if you HAD to swap places with one of the characters (excluding Allie), who would it be and why? 

Excluding Allie?  Aw.  Well, in that case, probably Zeke.  Zeke doesn't give up, doesn't lose hope, and looks out for everyone even in the worst of times.  He's looking for the vampire-free city of Eden, and never loses faith that they will find it.

6.       A lot of readers are now hoping to hear more information on the sequel to The Immortal Rules…

I'm in the middle of writing the sequel now, and all I can say is that Allie will meet new and old faces, fight her Hunger, and discover a monstrous enemy who has dark plans for her and the entire world.

Thank you to Julie for the interview! I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a vampire story that stands out from the rest. I posted my review a few weeks ago with my full thoughts. If you missed it, click here. Do you like the sound of this book? Or have you read it already and want to own a copy? Enter the giveaway below to be in with the chance of winning the book...

GIVEAWAY

To enter to win a copy of the UK edition of The Immortal Rules, follow the instructions below. Giveaway is INTERNATIONAL. Good luck!

Make sure you answer this question for your entry to count: If you could turn into a vampire character from any book, who would it be and why? 


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