Author Interview with Emma Mars

Hey everyone! Today is a fun day on the blog. Debut-to-states author Emma Mars and I did an interview you have to check out! Her novel, HOTELLES, just released today with Harper Perennial and I've got all the juicy details on this one. 

This steamy and romantic tale has it all! Without further adieu….

About the Book:

Paris, a hotel room, the middle of the afternoon . . .

So begins the story of Annabelle, a young escort in Paris who has accepted her final proposition before marrying the powerful and generous man of her dreams, media mogul David Barlet. But the mysterious handwritten notes she has been receiving—notes that detail personal fantasies no one could possibly know—don't prepare her for the fact that her new client is her fiancé's brother, Louie. Through visits to the Hotel des Charmes, where each chamber is dedicated to one of French history's great seductresses, Louie awakens Annabelle's body and her psyche, delivering her to heights of ecstasy and fits of passion.He pushes her beyond her limitations to tap into her deep seductive power—and she discovers that true freedom comes only when you fully surrender to desire.

Funny, sensual, candid, and revealing, Hotelles is a titillating novel of mysteries and surprises by a radiant new voice.

 Get Your Copy Today:

Amazon (ppb-trade) | Barnes and Noble (ppb)

Amazon (Kindle) | Barnes and Noble (ppb)

Interview:

RJ: Hey Emma! Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. Firstly, congratulations on the release of HOTELLES (Harper Perennial; Original Trade Paperback; on-sale TODAY: April 8, 2014). You’re a new author for me and this appears to be a debut novel – Mind telling me and my readers a bit more about you as an author and your journey to publication?

EM:You’re right, this is my debut novel in the States, which thrills me a lot. But I already wrote a few books here in France (where I come from), in several genres, and under various pen names.

In a previous professional life, I was a journalist, and a photographer. But It appeared to me that I was more skilled to write my own (fiction) stories than other people's real lives.

RJ: What drew me to HOTELLES was the scandalous and intricate plot line the blurb hints at. It’s also part one of a trilogy. What is the book and trilogy about and where did the inspiration for the stories/characters/settings come from?

EM: HOTELLES is a romance, an erotica and a family saga at the same time. My goal was to mix all that up in a sole story, one thrilling and sensual cocktail. I hope the mix is convincing enough!

Annabelle, my central character, is an aspiring journalist whose mother needs expensive medical care—so Annabelle becomes Elle, a paid escort for one of Paris’s most exclusive agencies. When she meets high-flying businessman David Barlet and he proposes marriage, Elle thinks her problems are over, but they’re just beginning. David’s brother, Louie, is one of Elle’s past clients, and he’s not above blackmailing her. Meanwhile, someone is sending Elle anonymous erotic notes.

RJ: Escorts and fiancés brothers- Sounds pretty risqué! How/what was the research process like and did you learn about anything particularly outrageous you can share?

EM: I read and watched a lot about casual escorting and prostitution, which is a growing phenomenon in Europe, especially amongst young female students. Rental fares are so high nowadays that some of them do not find other solution to make ends meet each month. But I also found it interesting that Annabelle might have some romantic reason (she wants to offer a luxurious engagement watch to David) to do such thing for the very last time.

RJ: What do you value in a good novel and what sort of characteristics do you like to find in the protagonists?

EM: I value pace and cliffhangers, but most of all I need to feel that characters are not only puppets made up in a convenient way to fit in my script, but real personalities who live and feel the situations they are stuck in, just like we could live them you and me.

RJ: What is the best and worst part about living in France?

EM: France is a wonderful place to live… If you manage to forget that it is full of French people! I'm kidding, but some people here are very pessimistic, and grumpy, so sometimes it is hard to stay as open and as positive you'd like to be. Sometimes I think that I was born at the right time period, but not under the good latitude. If I live again, I think I would rather pick some place in North America !

RJ: What projects are you currently working on and what do the readers (and me!) have to look forward to next from you?

EM: I’m working on an historical drama, set during WWII, mostly taking place in Poland. Less fun than Hotelles, but also very thrilling, I hope. My other releases in the US this year are the two following volumes of the Hotelles trilogy.

RJ: Final Question: What is something shocking or interesting about you that the readers may not know?

EM: I smell everything. I’m mad about smells I like, whether this is a perfume or a natural flavor. I could kill to smell again something that I smelled only once, even years before.

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RJ: I would like to thank Emma for taking the time to sate my curiosity and whet the appetite for her delicious read! Check back tomorrow for my review!