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THE WINGS OF WAR Series

     A dark and gritty YA paranormal romance series

                                                       By Karen Ann Hopkins

 


Building my Characters by  Karen Ann Hopkins

 

 

All three of my series have strong central female characters. It’s pretty easy to develop those personalities as I can pull from my own life experiences. And I like to write in first POV, making my relationship with my characters very intimate. But many of my books are told in multiple POVs, with male players. I’ve found writing the guy’s POV to be much more challenging. When I speak to creative writing classes, my best advice is to stay as close to what you know as possible. Sometimes it means doing a lot of experiential research and interviews with people who closely resemble your character. I’m not shy about stopping in the middle of a chapter and picking up the phone to ask someone how they might react to a certain situation, especially when I’m writing male characters. That personal intervention can mean the difference between a truly believable character or one who sounds made up and forced. I’m also very open to suggestions from my editors and beta readers. If they say a character doesn’t ring true in a particular scene, I’ll go back and rework it. As a final note on character development, I believe it’s extremely important, even when writing in the YA genre, that characters do grow up and change in some significant way as the series goes on. Growth and change is a part of life and most readers enjoy seeing the characters they love survive difficult times and come out more mature and solid in the end.

 

The Wings of War, is an epic YA paranormal/urban fantasy series about Ember, whose normal life ends abruptly when her parents are killed and she discovers she’s a descendent of angels. Still coping with her strange powers, Ember finds herself — and her heart — in the middle of a centuries-old war in this “compulsively readable” novel (Kirkus Reviews).

 

                                                                                        About the Books:

  EMBERS (The Wings of War #1)

 

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure/romance about a seventeen year old girl who discovers that she’s immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt’s boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember’s exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she learns that she’s a Watcher, a descendant of angels.

While Ember is instructed about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two teenagers who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the young men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it’s cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war that’s been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil, and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She may be one of the few champions willing to make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is the first novel in the dark and gritty YA paranormal romance series, The Wings of War.

An impending apocalypse provides a compelling backdrop for romance in this page-turning first installment of a new YA series. Hopkins expertly weaves her plotlines together in this compulsively readable teen romance story…Hopkins delivers many successful elements of young-adult romance—appealing lead characters, high-voltage chemistry, repressed sexuality—which will win her ardent followers.” Kirkus Reviews

Embers is the start of an action-packed paranormal YA series. Ms. Hopkins draws the reader immediately in with her richly drawn prologue that introduces the lurking evil in a breath-taking manner. A must read for YA, paranormal, fantasy and suspense fans. Make that a delight for any reader!” Morgan Stamm, Ind’Tale Magazine

              GAIA (The Wings of War #2)

 Watchers and Angels are at war. Which side will Ember choose?

Humankind is on the precipice of the apocalypse.

As the Demons grow bolder and the walls between the planes of existence weaken, Ember is forced to develop her powers as quickly as possible, and she seeks out a powerful earth Watcher to continue her supernatural lessons. Her glimpse of the future demands she fight the dark forces spreading across the earth.

But her new mentor has his own agenda, making her question everyone and everything she ever trusted.

When Ember is thrust into the world of the Watchers, she learns of their plans—ones that defy the scripture and make them enemies of the Celestial Host. Ridding the world of evil gets complicated when it becomes impossible to take sides.

As Ember struggles with morality, she soon discovers that there’s something more frightening than anything she’s faced before.

  TEMPEST (The Wings of War #3)

 

Ember must stop the apocalypse from happening, but at what cost?

The Angels of destruction have arrived, and only Ember stands in the way of their mission to carry out God’s wrath and annihilate His enemies.

When the barrier between celestial creatures and humans beings is broken and Angels descend to Earth, Ember soon learns there’s a fine line between good and evil. As she faces a world full of monsters and magic, a terrifying darkness rises and threatens to destroy everything she’s fighting for.

In the riveting third installment of The Wings of War series, Ember and her friends embark on an epic journey, where unlikely allies are forged and age-old beliefs crumble to dust. And just when Ember accepts love in her life, it’s ripped away from her in the most terrifying way possible.

  ETERNITY (The Wings of War #4)

 

READ FOR FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!

The final battle has begun, and Sawyer fights for the enemy. Will Ember be able to save him?

Lucifer has broken free from his bonds as the Angels gather their armies for the battle of Armageddon. Ember and her friends must tread carefully as they unravel the truth about the final judgment and the chaos that is coming. Can they stop the apocalypse from happening? The battle between good and evil isn’t as straight forward as Ember had hoped, and now that her lover fights for the enemy, does she even want to take part in the war to come?

Eternity is the breathtaking conclusion of the epic Wings of War Series, where loyalties will be tested, lives shattered, and prophecies fulfilled.

 

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About The Author

Karen Ann Hopkins resides in northern Kentucky with her family on a farm that boasts a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Karen’s main job is home schooling the kids, but she finds time to give riding lessons, coach a youth equestrian drill team, and of course, write. She was inspired to create her first book, Temptation, by the Amish community she lived in. The experiential knowledge she gained through her interactions with her neighbors drove the story of the star-crossed lovers, Rose and Noah. Their story continues in Belonging, where their families and cultures threaten to tear them apart, and with Forever and Deception, where we find out once and for all if love is enough for them.

Karen grew up about a mile from Lake Ontario in Upstate New York. She was bitten by the horse bug at the age of five, and after diligently taking riding lessons for several years, was rewarded with her first horse at the age of eleven. The feisty horse’s name was Lady, a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross, who became Karen’s steadfast companion. Through the years, the constant force in her life was horses. Eventually, she found her place as a riding instructor herself. Before accepting her fate in the barnyard, she worked a short stint as a paralegal, traveled abroad, and guided tourists on horseback riding tours in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Karen is currently working on her bestselling Amish mystery series, Serenity’s Plain Secrets, along with the YA paranormal/fantasy series, the Wings of War. Karen is also excited to announce there will be more books in the Temptation series.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive one set of signed print copies of the entire 4 book series, open to US, Canada, Australia and Great Britain.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/1/2019- A Dream Within A Dream– Excerpt

4/2/2019- Introvert Booklover– Excerpt

4/3/2019- Lisa Loves Literature– Spotlight

4/4/2019- BookHounds– Interview

4/5/2019- Lone Tree Reviews- Excerpt

 

Week Two:

4/8/2019- Novel Novice– Excerpt

4/9/2019- Books Coffee and Repeat- Guest Post

4/10/2019- Reese’s Reviews– Review

4/11/2019- Savings in Seconds– Review

4/12/2019- Taking It One Book at a time- Review

 

Week Three:

4/15/2019- Bookroom Reviews– Guest Post

4/16/2019- Book-Keeping– Review

4/17/2019- Viviana MacKade Excerpt

4/18/2019- Kelly P’s Blog– Excerpt

4/19/2019- Tyto Forest- Excerpt

 

Week Four:

4/22/2019- 4covert2overt  A Place In The Spotlight – Excerpt

4/23/2019- Smada’s Book Smack– Review

4/24/2019- D. Books and Reviews– Review

4/25/2019- Treestand Book Reviews– Review

4/26/2019- Novel Nerd Faction- Review

 

Week Five:

4/29/2019- 100 Pages A Day– Review

4/30/2019- Lady Amber’s Reviews– Review

Visits: 416

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Book Room Reviews BOOK ROOM REVIEWS - BOOK REVIEWS & WRITING TIPS | VISIT NOW Copyright (C) http://www.bookroomreviews.com. Read more at... http://www.bookroomreviews.com/ .