Two of my favorite New Adult authors have written a contemporary YA book together. To say that I’m excited for this madness is putting it mildly. I’m a huge fan of both Jen Frederick and Elle Kennedy so I know that I’m going to love the hell out of Erin Watt’s new series called The Royals.
They are both here today to answer some questions that I had about their new writing adventure. Check it out!
Paper Princess (The Royals #1) by Erin Watt
Releases on April 4, 2016 by EverAfter Platinum
From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself.
These Royals will ruin you…
Ella Harper is a survivor—a pragmatic optimist. She’s spent her whole life moving from town to town with her flighty mother, struggling to make ends meet and believing that someday she’ll climb out of the gutter. After her mother’s death, Ella is truly alone.
Until Callum Royal appears, plucking Ella out of poverty and tossing her into his posh mansion among his five sons who all hate her. Each Royal boy is more magnetic than the last, but none as captivating as Reed Royal, the boy who is determined to send her back to the slums she came from.
Reed doesn’t want her. He says she doesn’t belong with the Royals.
He might be right.
Wealth. Excess. Deception. It’s like nothing Ella has ever experienced, and if she’s going to survive her time in the Royal palace, she’ll need to learn to issue her own Royal decrees.
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Interview
Book Binge: To our knowledge, this will be the first YA book that either of you have written. What made you guys decide to try your hand at writing a contemporary young adult novel?
Erin Watt: Yes, we haven’t written anything YA before. In a flurry of emails, we discovered we both loved Cruel Intentions and Gossip Girl. We agreed that it would be amazing to write something fantastical and over-the-top in the vein of a YA soap with strong romantic elements. The toughest part of writing it wasn’t the story but getting the tone right. We’ve both read a ton of YA romances and they vary in heat level, but we believe it’s in line with Gossip Girl and the Sea Breeze series. We recommend it for the seventeen and older crowd.
Book Binge: Can you share with us what your writing process looked like? Did you guys just swap off chapters or did you write huge chunks of the story and then swap off?
Erin Watt: Our writing process is fairly unsophisticated and done primarily through emails and text messages. About two weeks passed from the time we plotted out Paper Princess to the last word typed in that first manuscript. We would each write approximately 2,000 words. Sometimes, we called dibs on a particular scene that was vivid in our heads. Sometimes we couldn’t stop writing and started exchanging even larger and larger chunks. These characters came alive for us and the words flowed so easily.
Book Binge: What was the inspiration behind The Royals?
Erin Watt: It started with Ella. We knew she’d be tough, but vulnerable. Strong, yet lonely. In order to showcase her, we had to put her in challenging situations. What’s the worse thing you could do to a girl like Ella? Give her a family who she could love that didn’t love her back. Shove a poor girl into a rich society. Make her fall for the most unsuitable guy around. We tortured her, and we suppose, by extension, the readers.
Book Binge: What can readers expect from Paper Princess?
Erin Watt: High drama, a strong emotional hook, messed up characters, and a forbidden romance. Oh, and the best darn heroine we could write. We love Ella.
Book Binge: What’s the plan for The Royals series? How many books can readers look forward to and will this series follow a different couple with the following books or will we get the same couple and different adventures for all books?
Erin Watt: We’re doing three books for sure. If there’s a strong reader response, then we’ll write more. We have a ton of characters that are crying out for their own stories. We’re excited to see which characters the readers want. We aren’t promising we’ll deliver all of them, because we have our own favorites.
As for whether the series will follow a different couple, we think that’s a bit too spoilerish but you’ll definitely have a better idea of where we are taking this series after you read book 2!
Book Binge: …
Series
Giveaway Alert
Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy writing schedules to answer some questions we had about The Royals, I am super thrilled to finally get my hands on the book this week.
Good luck!
Author Links
Jen Frederick: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Elle Kennedy: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
I don’t normally read much YA, but since I like both authors, I’d love to give this a try. It sounds pretty intriguing.
I agree. This book sounds like all kinds of awesome. So much drama. Some much angst. Yay!
I have heard amazing things so far about this book!
Same. I can’t wait to read this book. I’m so freaking excited!
Thanks so much for the giveaway! I used to read a lot of YA, but not recently. Love these authors, so I’m sure this will be a winner!
Same. In the last few months, I’ve read little to no YA when I used to read so much. That’s not going to stop me from reading this one the minute I get my hands on it. I’m so excited!
I am sooooo looking forward to this book!!! LOL.. I read the 3 chapter preview on Wattpad and I’m sooo hooked 🙂 Got my copy preordered just in case!! Thanks for sharing!
There’s a 3 chapter preview? How come I didn’t know about this? I’m not going to touch it though. That will just make me even more thirsty for this book when I only have a couple more days to wait. I can be patient.
Sounds really fun and I find the cover very intriguing! 😀
I cannot wait for this book!!!!! SOOOOO excited!! Heard that it’s amazing!!