Interview with Brigid Kemmerer

 

It is my great pleasure to welcome US-author Brigid Kemmerer to the blog, to chat all things writing, 'Cursebreakers', COVID and what's next ... with many thanks to her Bloomsbury publisher for orchestrating this! 

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Q: Where do story ideas generally start for you? Do you first think of the character, theme, ending? Or is it just a free-fall? 

For me, it always starts with the characters. I would write about my characters going to the grocery store if I could. Before I start writing, I do need a general sense of the plot, so I’ll usually write a really loose outline so I know where I’m going. But a lot of subplots come up organically while I’m writing. 

Q: Vow is the third and final instalment in a trilogy - so I'm curious ... how long have you known that it was all going to end this way? Did you start writing book 1 knowing how book 3 would end, were there any surprises along the way...? 

Oh, I had no idea how the trilogy was going to end up. I just knew I wanted to do a “Beauty and the Beast” trope in my own way, and I was delighted when readers connected to my story so strongly. I didn’t even plan for Grey to take on as big a role as he did. It wasn’t until he showed up on the page that I realized he needed a bigger role. 

Q: Which character did fan-response make you feel the most pressure to deliver a 'Happily Ever After' for? Harper is totally beloved, Grey became a fan-favourite ... was there any one character you really got nervous wrapping it all up for? 

Grey’s story arc was definitely the most challenging, because readers have so many thoughts about him (which is amazing!!), and I never want to let anyone down. 

Q: This story may be completed, but - do you think you'll write more stories set in this realm? More fairytale adaptations, even? 

I would love to tell more stories in this universe! I fell in love with so many secondary characters that I feel like there’s a lot of room to continue the stories. 

Q: I have to ask; do you have any particular interest in trying to tackle a story of COVID-19 in the future ...? Which I also realise is strange to ask, because long before the pandemic; you were writing this story of a curse that locks somebody in their home (okay - castle, but still!) and Prince Rhen is determined to keep himself hidden away to save *other people*. Grey meanwhile, has magic that people are wary of trusting even though it can literally heal them ... do you think fairytales and fantasy can better communicate the trials of these strange times, more so than contemporary? 

What’s especially ironic about this question is that my book Defy the Night, which comes out in September of 2021, deals with a kingdom on the brink of revolution, partly due to a mysterious illness that’s afflicting a large portion of society, and there’s not enough medicine to go around. I finished the first draft in mid-2019, well before anyone had heard of COVID-19, so it’s amazing how much art can imitate life. I do think there’s something very powerful about fiction that makes overwhelming events more accessible … especially when you see characters overcoming insurmountable challenges. 

Q: You're a YA author who has switched genres rather seamlessly - writing paranormal romances, gothic fairytales, and compelling and heartbreaking contemporary YA stories too ... how was it when you first made that genre-transition? And is it a case now of - you're hoping to switch it up every book/series, or can you only follow where an idea leads you? 

This is a great question! I think because I always start with character that it’s been easy to switch genres, because I just love the people, and complex friendships and complicated families are going to fill the pages of any book I write. For authors who want to be able to write in multiple genres, I always recommend building a base in one genre (4-5 books), so that readers learn to trust what you write, and then they’ll be more willing to take a chance on something they’re not sure they’ll like. I’ve had so many people say they only tried my fantasy because they loved my contemporary, and vice versa. For the near future, I only have fantasy on tap, but I do love contemporary and paranormal romance, too! 

Q: What was your favourite bit of fairytale trivia you discovered while researching/getting inspired for your own writing? 

I’m not sure if favorite is the right word, but when I was reading up on “Beauty and the Beast,” I remember reading that it wasn’t really about falling in love with someone’s true spirit, and instead was supposed to be a story to comfort young brides who first met their husband on their wedding night, and they were afraid. Yikes. 

Q: What are you working on right now, and when can we expect it to hit bookshelves? 

Right now, I’m working on a secret project, so stay tuned for details! But readers can look forward to Defy the Night in September 2021. 

Q: Favourite author(s) and book(s) of all time? 

Oh my goodness, I could never answer this one. I will say that Christopher Pike is the first YA author I discovered as a child, and once I started reading his books, I thought, “I want to do this.” 

Q: What are you reading, loving and recommending right now? (I'll also take watching/listening if you've been on more of a TV and podcast binge!) 

I just finished watching Bridgerton, and I loved it! 

Q: No. 1 piece of advice for emerging writers? 

Read widely! Read books by people who don’t look like you, think like you, or write like you. Stay curious about experiences that you don’t expect.

'A Vow So Bold and Deadly' The Cursebreakers #3 by Brigid Kemmerer

Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review 

From the BLURB: 

Face your fears, fight the battle. 

Emberfall is crumbling fast, torn between those who believe Rhen is the rightful prince and those who are eager to begin a new era under Grey, the true heir. Grey has agreed to wait two months before attacking Emberfall, and in that time, Rhen has turned away from everyone--even Harper, as she desperately tries to help him find a path to peace. 

Fight the battle, save the kingdom. 

Meanwhile, Lia Mara struggles to rule Syhl Shallow with a gentler hand than her mother. But after enjoying decades of peace once magic was driven out of their lands, some of her subjects are angry Lia Mara has an enchanted prince and a magical scraver by her side. As Grey's deadline draws nearer, Lia Mara questions if she can be the queen her country needs. 

As the two kingdoms come closer to conflict, loyalties are tested, love is threatened, and an old enemy resurfaces who could destroy them all, in this stunning conclusion to bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer's Cursebreaker series.

'A Vow So Bold and Deadly' is the third and final book in US author Brigid Kemmerer's fantasy 'The Cursebreaker Series' - following on from first book 'A Curse So Dark and Lonely' and second book,  'A Heart So Fierce and Broken'. 

Let me begin by saying; it's a real ~mood~ returning to my long-neglected book blog to review a book thats premise was based on a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth that involved a curse locking someone away in their house(/castle) for aeons ... *whoo boy*

Anyway. I absolutely adored the first two books of Kemmerer's 'Cursebreakers' and I have been anticipating and wanting 'Vow So Bold and Deadly' for what feels like the LONGEST time (but is really just a normal amount of waiting between releases). And I've got to say - it was all worth the wait. 

Second book 'Fierce and Broken' ended on a whopping cliff-hanger of a newly discovered heir, long-lost brother, impending war and a villain seemingly back from the dead. And as well as having to wrap up all those threads, Kemmerer had an even bigger task on her hand in this third and final book of needing to include roughy four protagonist's and their viewpoints - Harper and Rhen who were the focus of Book 1, and Grey and Lia Mara who took over the story in Book 2 ... they all converge in the narrative for 'Vow' and are split down the middle on opposite sides of the battle ahead. So there's effectively two story-steams happening concurrently, and POV split X4 ways. It's no small no feat, but Kemmerer does a brilliant job of interweaving them for high-stakes and adrenaline. 

The characters have all come so far from Book 1, and I think the main goal here in the third and final is to properly, once-and-for-all turn the world on its head and shake things up good and proper. And Kemmerer does that - leaving the finale on a real sense of renewal and rebirth, and in such a way that is a total twist and upheaval of the structures that existed pre-curse; and in that sense, it is made a modern-fairytale. 

I really, thoroughly enjoyed this finale. I tip my hat to Kemmerer for having steered this ship so masterfully, and my one abiding hope now is that we'll return to the world of 'Cursebreakers' in the form of some other modernised fairytale. 

5/5 

‘A Heart So Fierce and Broken’ Curseworkers #2 by Brigid Kemmerer

From the BLURB:

In the sequel to New York Times bestselling A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer returns to the world of Emberfall in a lush fantasy where friends become foes and love blooms in the darkest of places.

Find the heir, win the crown.

The curse is finally broken, but Prince Rhen of Emberfall faces darker troubles still. Rumors circulate that he is not the true heir and that forbidden magic has been unleashed in Emberfall. Although Rhen has Harper by his side, his guardsman Grey is missing, leaving more questions than answers.

Win the crown, save the kingdom.

Grey may be the heir, but he doesn't want anyone to know his secret. On the run since he destroyed Lilith, he has no desire to challenge Rhen--until Karis Luran once again threatens to take Emberfall by force. Her own daughter Lia Mara sees the flaws in her mother's violent plan, but can she convince Grey to stand against Rhen, even for the good of Emberfall?

The heart-pounding, compulsively readable saga continues as loyalties are tested and new love blooms in a kingdom on the brink of war.

‘A Heart So Fierce and Broken’ is the 2020 second book in Brigid Kemmerer’s ‘Cursebreakers’ series – that will have a third book out in 2021, ‘A Vow So Bold and Deadly.’

So; much as it had the traditional problems of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (I don’t want to use the term “Stockholm syndrome” because – surprise sexism alert! – it has a really awful genesis and no grounding in science, which is something I literally learnt yesterday!) I really loved first book ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’. I actually loved first book so much, that when I began reading ‘A Heart So Fierce and Broken’ I was a little bit bummed to realise that this second book is no longer using Rhen and Harper’s alternative POVs, but instead we have King’s guardsman Grey (and recent revelatory heir to the throne of Emberfell) and newcomer Lia Mara, daughter to the rival Syhl Shallow Kingdom as the new protagonists.

Harper and Rhen appear briefly at the start and awfully, in a totally new set-up for their character’s trajectories but then we go off and follow Grey and Lia Mara on their journey to escape increasingly terrible soon-to-be King Rhen and the royal legacies Grey doesn’t want, and Lia Mara has been denied as the first-born daughter who is not the chosen Queen successor.

I was really worried when I started this book that I wouldn’t be able to get into it, and then that’d be all the steam gone out of my sudden reading-surge pulling me out of my slump. But then somebody on Instagram encouraged me that they had enjoyed this second book more than the first, so I put aside my curiosity about what Rhen and Harper were getting up to and actually found myself getting caught up in the on-the-run story of Grey, Lia Mara and co. and the romance that slowly develops between this reluctant usurper and overlooked Princess.

I think the ultimate strength of Kemmerer’s book is that it doesn’t feel like filler, it actually all feels like it’s winding towards a fabulous cliffhanger to then launch us into a really complex third book, ‘A Vow So Bold and Deadly’. And I’ve gotta say – the cliffhanger in ‘Fierce and Broken’ is even better than the one at the end of ‘Dark and Lonely’, and I already thought that was pretty genius.

Third book is coming 2021 (so far AWAY!) and I am really looking forward to whose POV we’ll be getting (my hope and assumption is Rhen and Grey, and if that’s the case I’d actually be super keen to read a little flip in the typical fairytale-retelling that sees the princes and men pull focus and have to learn love and risk-avoidance at a time of potential war.)  

I am so enamoured of the ‘Cursebreakers’ series and what Kemmerer is doing here, with considerable skill and flair. This feels like the freshest take on fairytales that I’ve read in a long while, and a lot of that comes from the gender-flipping and playing that she’s working with and just generally the fact that she’s an A++ storyteller. I cannot wait for Book No. 3 – 2021 has never felt so far away with the way 2020 is going, but I can be patient and in the meantime I might go back and re-read Kemmerer’s ‘Elementals’ series just to keep this ball rolling!

5/5

'A Curse So Dark and Lonely' Cursebreakers #1 by Brigid Kemmerer

From the BLURB:

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’ by Brigid Kemmerer is the first book in her young-adult fantasy ‘Cursebreakers’ series that came out in 2019.

I first started reading Kemmerer back in 2012, with her YA ‘Elementals’ series – and since then, she’s just become a YA-force with a slew of contemporary stand-alones, five books in the ‘Elementals’ overall and now the hugely successful ‘Cursebreakers’ series. And with ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’ you definitely get the feeling that you’re delving into a new world by a seasoned author who absolutely knows her niche and writes to it *exquisitely* well.

Case-in-point is how entertaining and fresh this first ‘Cursebreakers’ is, even through the fact that there have been a *lot* of Fairytale retellings in YA recently and always; from ‘The Lunar Chronicles’ by Marissa Meyer, to the particularly expansive realm of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retellings specifically (‘Beast’ by Brie Spangler, ‘Cruel Beauty’ by Rosamund Hodge, ‘Hunted’ by Meagan Spooner … there are truly *so* many!). ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is an odd beast (sorry) in particular, because it is a beloved Disney-version but also it is an incredibly problematic fairytale (even knowing that all fairytales are misogynistic cautionary tales designed to keep women in check). The best summary I’ve seen of the specific ‘Beauty and the Beast’ issues comes from YouTuber Lindsay Ellis, and her 2017 video ‘Is Beauty and the Beast About Stockholm Syndrome?’ (SPOILER: kinda yes)

Modern retellings have had to really push a boulder up a mountain to counteract the inherently icky aspects of B&B, and the thing is … they still exist in ‘A Curse So Dark and Lonely’ and they are still a problem, but; I still really enjoyed this book regardless, and truly appreciated Kemmerer’s deft hand in this retelling enough to not really care … which could also be linked to my just wanting to fall into a book during pandemic. And this novel 100% achieved a couple nights of taking my mind off the world, so I’m probably feeling disproportionate gratefulness here too, but still – I think this book works!

First of all; there’s a little ‘Enchanted’ (the 2007 film) going on here, in that there’s the magical world of Emberfell lurking behind Washington D.C. where heroine Harper lives a hard life with her brother and dying mother, when she is accidentally abducted by King’s guardsman Grey, and bought to the world of Emberfell which is currently 300-seasons into a curse. Prince Rhen slept with the wrong witchmage and sparked her ire, turning him into a deadly monster at the end of each season until he finds his true love. Grey has been slipping into our world to widen the net of women to bring back to his prince to try and make fall in love with him, and Harper happens to be the unwitting and unlucky latest candidate.

So – yes – abduction still a marker of this series. As is the disgruntled sexy witch who puts a curse on a selfish prince because he dismissed her affections. Kemmerer also somewhat disturbingly introduces a fair amount of suicidal ideation for Prince Rhen, who is truly at the end of his tether when it looks like his 300^th woman is even less inclined to love him, more likely she’ll beat him to death with a rusty pipe … yes, there are problems. See the aforementioned Lindsay Ellis video.

But – there’s a lot to admire here too. Harper is a heroine with cerebral palsy, which is represented here – I think – with a lot of tenderness and spunk. Harper undergoes this transformation to warrior princess in a lot of ways, and I appreciated that she pondered her own ability while delivering action and heroism in spades. My real bone to pick is how many times derogatory terms like ‘cripple’ are used; I’d have much preferred incidental diversity in a lot of ways, and I think Harper’s own ability to prove herself to herself would have been more than sufficient.

I also really did love the dynamic of Grey, Rhen and Harper …. And yes; there’s tension here (was it just me though, who thought Rhen and Grey had a little somethin’-somethin’? I thought *that* would have been a great twist to the fairytale!) and the cliffhanger ending happily suggests that this threesome will become an even bigger story in book #2 (which I am starting ASAP!)

Overall; there were problems. Sure. But like I said – Kemmerer has an uncanny ability to write seamlessly and draw readers in, even to somewhat tired tropes and adaptations. She does it again here, and to great effect – I loved it.

5/5