Today's Special -- Jennifer Estep

We're pleased to have urban fantasy author extraordinaire Jennifer Estep back with us today. She is the author of the very popular Elemental Assassin series starring Gin Blanco. I've been lucky to have read and reviewed all of the books, most recently the fourth, Tangled Threads. Check out my review here.

Jennifer also writes a young adult series, the Mythos Academy. If that didn't keep her busy enough, Jennifer is also an award-winning features page designer for a daily newspaper. Please join me in giving a warm hello and Romance Dish welcome back to Jennifer.

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Gannon and the other folks here at The Romance Dish for having me back on the blog. Thanks so much, ladies!

So today, I thought I’d talk about, well, romance. LOL. Seriously, though, romance is something that I think a lot about, especially when it comes to my books. I write both adult and young urban fantasy, and I know there’s a lot of crossover when it comes to readership in urban fantasy books. But I always wonder if I’m putting enough romance in the story to satisfy romance readers.

My books are first-person, which means that I’m telling the story through the heroine’s point of view. My books are more about the heroine’s journey – how she uses her brains, magic, and inner strength to defeat the bad guys, stay alive, and save the world all at the same time. I have lots of magic, world building, and fight scenes in my books – but I also like having romance in there as well. After saving the world, it’s nice to have a sexy guy to come home to. ;-)

I know romance readers like seeing the hero’s point of view and thoughts (and I do too). That’s why third-person romances are so popular. But since my books are first-person, all we get to see of the hero are the heroine’s impressions of him and how she interacts with him.

So how do I add more romance to the story? Well, sometimes, I’ll have my heroine eavesdrop and overhear the hero talking about his feelings for her – whether they’re good or bad. Many times, my heroine will talk to other characters about the hero and her feelings for him – whether they’re good or bad. And of course, I have my heroine and hero interact and share their feelings with each other along with some quality time alone together – in between saving the day of course. ;-)

It’s a tough balancing act, but hopefully, I’m giving readers the romance and emotion that they want, along with an action-packed story that’s full of magic, danger, and some seriously nasty bad guys. Fingers crossed, anyway.

What about you guys? Do you like romance in urban fantasy books? Do you think there’s enough romance in urban fantasy books?

Jennifer is giving away a copy of Tangled Threads to one lucky commenter today. (U.S. and Canadian residents only).

Jennifer writes the Ele­men­tal Assas­sin urban fan­tasy series for Pocket Books. The books focus on Gin Blanco, an assas­sin code­named the Spi­der who can con­trol the ele­ments of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing peo­ple and right­ing wrongs, Gin runs a bar­be­cue restau­rant called the Pork Pit in the fic­tional South­ern metrop­o­lis of Ash­land. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vam­pires, and ele­men­tals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

Books in the series are Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, and Venom. Tan­gled Threads, the fourth book, was pub­lished on April 26, while Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book, will be released in Octo­ber.

Jennifer also writes the Mythos Acad­emy young adult urban fan­tasy series for Kens­ing­ton. The books focus on Gwen Frost, a 17-year-old Gypsy girl who has the gift of psy­chom­e­try, or the abil­ity to know an object’s his­tory just by touch­ing it. After a seri­ous freak-out with her magic, Gwen is shipped off to Mythos Acad­emy, a school for the descen­dants of ancient war­riors like Spar­tans, Valkyries, Ama­zons, and more.

The first book, Touch of Frost, will be out in August, while the sec­ond book, Kiss of Frost, will hit shelves in Decem­ber. First Frost, a prequel e-short story to the series, will be out in July. Visit www.jenniferestep.com for excerpts and more.