What is it about the paranormal and steamy, sexy romance that goes together so well? Take a look at booksellers like All Romance eBooks and you’ll find werewolves, vampires, ghosts, witches...
Part of it is the fight or flight response. Danger makes the adrenalin pump. The heart beats faster, senses are heightened – just as they are in a good, steamy romance. And a large part of it is the crossing of boundaries to explore the forbidden, and the attraction of the wild, the bad boy. What’s more alphamale than a vampire, after all? Vampire stories have always had that sexual undercurrent, even where they are not explicitly erotic or romantic: the innocent young woman tempted almost irresistibly to give herself to the vampire; the act of penetration, after which she is totally his; the temptation to live on the outside rather than live a life that is ordinary.
Hell, I’m there. Give me a bad boy, any day!
My own paranormal fiction takes a slightly different approach. Again, I think part of the attraction is the crossing of boundaries, giving yourself at least briefly to the other side, but in my short novel The Touch (published last year by James Grieve Press) it’s the women who hold the upper hand, as the story is set in a village controlled by witches. The more I think about that book, though, the more I see it as very much in the vampire tradition. Instead of male vampires dominating submissive women, we have female witches dominating men who will always end up submitting; it really is another form of domination and submission. Where it gets interesting for me is where the characters break even these rules, so this is the story of one young witch who has to find a balance between the power games and her attraction to a young man who visits the that’s a really heady mix: dominance, submission and danger. It’s something that runs through my other writing, too. In particular, my new novel The Object of His Desire (published on the 1st of July by James Grieve Press) is a thriller, a steamy romance full of danger and intrigue as old scandals re-emerge to create murderous intrigue in the steamy world of the super-rich: lots of danger and bad-boy alphamales. If I’d made them vampires the story would have worked just as well – one of the main characters is even described as having “predator eyes”. In fact here’s an early passage rewritten as a vampire. That was when it happened. My Jane Austen moment. My cliché, .My attention was snagged by movement in the chapel doorway and I turned, thinking Ethan must be emerging and now was the time for me to go and hug him and sweep away the distance that had Instead, it was a guy I’d never seen before. He was in a tux, this newcomer. He was about six foot, and his shoulders were square, almost as if he was wearing a quarterback’s shoulder pads. He was either an athlete or he spent far too much time looking after himself in the gym. So: first impression was okay, but nothing to write home about. And then... that Jane Austen moment. He peered around, as if lost, and then his eyes fell upon me. It was almost as if he recognized me, as if he’d been waiting all his life for me... but then realized he was mistaken, he didn’t know me at all – exactly that kind of double take.
He looked away, and then glanced back.His eyes were dark, but when they settled on you it was as if you’d been fixed by a hawk. A raptor, I shook myself, made myself look away. I couldn’t believe I was actually blushing. Eyes meeting across a crowded gathering. It was a cliché. I was flustered by my late arrival and by the tense undercurrents of the occasion. And yes, perhaps I protest too much.
He really could be a vampire, eyeing up his prey for the first time. Okay, I’ll admit it: I didn’t rewrite that at all. I had planned to, but then when I re-read it again from this perspective I realized I didn’t need to: my bad boy hero could so easily be a vampire! He’s not, of course, but I don’t think I’ll ever see him the same way again...
Writing under other names, PJ Adams is a successful novelist, with several novels published by
major publishing houses and optioned for movies. As PJ Adams, she writes in the genre closest to
her heart, erotic romance - love stories with that added heat, including Four Temptations and her new novel The Object of His Desire. As Polly J Adams she writes more explicit erotica, including the
paranormal novel The Touch, and the collection of ghost stories Raising the Dead.
The Object of His Desire by PJ Adams
A passionate erotic romance, where scandals buried away in the past lead to murderous intrigue in the present, in the intensely steamy world of the super-wealthy and powerful.
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHPP0J6/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DHPP0J6/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21
... and other ebook formats.
Also available in paperback:
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1483964884/ref=as_li_tf_tl?tag=pollyjadams-20
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1483964884/ref=nosim?tag=pollyjadams-21
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