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Mitch Interviews Shiloh Walker About The Ash Trilogy

January 14, 2012 in Author Interviews

After I read and reviewed the first two books in Shiloh Walker’s ash Trilogy, she was kind enough to answer some questions for me about the series and her writing. If you missed the reviews yesterday, go check them out! Then come back and read the interview. Then go buy the books. ;)

How did you get the idea for the Ash Trilogy? Did it start with the characters, or the plot?

Lena. It all started with Lena… by now, it’s not a secret that the heroine of the first book is blind. I kind of kept that quiet because I didn’t want her blindness to define her. It plays very much into the story, I know, but it’s a story about a woman who just happens to be blind…not a story about a blind woman. Her blindness doesn’t define her and I didn’t want that to color anybody’s opinion of her before they started the story.

So it all started with her…and the scream she heard. That was my idea and it all evolved from there.

Ash is like a real town! Do you live in a small town, or have you?

LOL…kinda sorta, yes, no…maybe? I’m definitely familiar with small town life.

Lena is such a strong character! Do you have a blind friend, or did you research blindness to write her?

Well, I spoke to several friends online who are blind. I’m in the Louisville area and close to the Kentucky School for the Blind so I contacted them, asked if I could visit, speak with some of them. They were very helpful…I mentioned the ladies I spoke with in my acknowledgements.

Hope changes so much between the first and second books, it’s great to see her find her strength and identity. Was it hard to create the romance between her and Remy without making it seem like she’d been rushed?

Not really. Certain…incidents forced the change. She was tired of seeing herself as a victim, you see. When you get tired of seeing yourself a certain way, you have to do what it takes to make the change. That’s what she did.

The first two books had dirty cops, and hints near the end of  the second book indicate there’s a very dirty cop in the third book. Was it intentional to make that connection in all of the books?

No comment…you’re trying to get clues out of me…

The killer goes through a sort of transformation, his focus in the second book is different than in the first. Will he change again in the third book?

No comment. ;)

This is the first series of yours I’ve read that has the same bad guy in all 3 books. Is there a reason you decided to connect the stories that way? Was it a challenge to draw out the bad guy and connect him to all of the other plots in each book?

Not at all…the hard part would have been doing it any other way. That’s the way the story needed to be told.

Do you think you might write more series that draw out the way Ash does with the evolving mystery?

It’s entirely possible. It’s fun to get that involved in a series. You get to know the characters more, get to spend more time with them.

I agree!

Anyone who follows you on Twitter (@shilohwalker) knows you’re a Pinterest addict. Any pics you’ve found that might feature in coming books?

Yes…absolutely. If you look at this board, it’s the one that has people that may well end up as characters…

http://pinterest.com/shilohwalker/characters/

Any other secret projects coming up this year that you’d like to share with us?

Secret? Well, if I tell, then they aren’t secret. There’s the next idea I’ve turned into Ballantine, called STOLEN. It’s set in Alaska and it’s…ah. Weird. Yeah. Weird. About a writer. It was inspired by something that happened on twitter.

Shiloh has graciously agreed to answer any reader questions today! (Although she won’t answer anything that might be a spoiler, as you can already see from me trying above.) So if you’re wondering anything else about the series, feel free to ask in the comments. :D

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Mitch ARC Reviews: If You See Her by Shiloh Walker

January 12, 2012 in Reviews

  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • List Price: $7.99
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (January 31, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345517547
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345517548
  • Shiloh Walker’s Website

 

Buy If You See Her at:

A FACE IN THE MIRROR

Hope Carson may not look like a survivor, but she has escaped an abusive ex-husband and recovered from a vicious assault. Now she endures the painful memories and suspicious rumors surrounding her involvement in the attack. Her ex is a cop, so the last people she trusts are law enforcement officials—and she certainly doesn’t trust how the local DA makes her feel inside.

Remy Jennings should know better. He has no business falling for a woman who he suspects may have a deeply troubled mind. And even if he did make a move, she’d bolt like a frightened rabbit. But how can he deny a burning desire that threatens to consume him? As Hope’s past catches up with her in the worst way, Remy is determined to break through her defenses, earn her trust, and keep her safe in his arms—before it’s too late.

 

If You See Her is the second book in Shiloh Walker’s Ash Trilogy. READ If You Hear Her FIRST! This book really won’t make complete sense if you try to read it as a stand-alone.

 

Hope reluctantly moves to Ash to be with her oldest and dearest friend after two years on the run from her abusive ex-husband. She’s just starting to put down roots again when she’s wrongly accused in a beating, and her own suicide attempt. Hope has had an unsteady past, but she didn’t slit her wrists when her friend was attacked.

Now the local DA, Remy, has to decide to follow his gut instincts against the apparent evidence and the word of Hope’s ex-husband. He doesn’t want to believe Hope could do the things she’s been accused of, but he’s not sure if that’s because she’s really innocent or just because he’s been drawn to her from the moment he saw her.

As the police try to figure out who tried to kill Hope, she begins to notice she’s being followed…by her ex-husband. He’s come to town to bring her home and teach her a lesson for leaving him.

The action in this book was great, but so was the psychology as Hope struggled to regain her independence and trust in herself. Shiloh also gives a somewhat terrifying look into the mind of her controlling ex-husband who will do whatever it takes to get her back, divorce be damned.

At the same time there’s Remy, who’s pretty much fallen hopelessly for Hope (heh) from the beginning, but has to hold his desire in check to keep from scaring her off.

I really loved seeing Hope’s confidence rebuild. At first, she hated Remy because of his role as DA, then she couldn’t understand why he would be interested in her, but she finally started to fall for him as hard as he had for her.

One of the most interesting things about this book was the killer, who remained on the run after his exploits in If You Hear Her. He has yet to be identified, but Shiloh gives a few more clues as to his identity (I think I know, but won’t be able to find out for certain until If You Know Her comes out) (Grrrrrrrr!). In this book, however, his interests and motives switch focus. His apparent attraction to Lena in the first book turns to Hope in the second, but his intent changed as he refocused. That probably sounds cryptic, but I’m trying to not spoil anything. I’ll just say it was surprising and intriguing.

 

What I Liked:

  • Seeing Hope regain faith in herself. I love books where people find their strength and value.
  • The interesting changes in the killer. You’ll just have to read both of the books to see what I’m talking about.
  • The ending. It was great! The action was intense and emotions were high.

 

What I Didn’t Like:

  • The ending! Yeah, I know what I just said. I can’t even tell you what I didn’t like, because it’d spoil it. I will say that it’s nothing I didn’t like about the book, I just wish Shiloh hadn’t decided to do a certain something to a certain someone. (Yeah, cryptic again, I know.)

 

Overall, another great book, with everything I look for in a romantic suspense. Again, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a thrilling romantic suspense. I give If You See Her four-and-a-half stars.

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Mitch Reviews: If You Hear Her by Shiloh Walker

January 11, 2012 in Reviews

  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • List Price: $7.99
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books; Original edition (October 25, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345517539
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345517531
  • Shiloh Walker’s Website

 

Buy If You Hear Her at:

A CRY IN THE WOODS

The scream Lena Riddle hears in the woods behind her house is enough to curdle her blood—she has no doubt that a woman is in real danger. Unfortunately, with no physical evidence, the local law officers in small-town Ash, Kentucky, dismiss her claim. But Lena knows what she heard—and it leaves her filled with fear and frustration.

Ezra King is on leave from the state police, but he can’t escape the guilty memories that haunt his dreams. When he sees Lena, he is immediately drawn to her. He aches to touch her—to be touched by her—but is he too burdened by his tragic past to get close? When Ezra hears her story of an unknown woman’s screams, his instincts tell him that Lena’s life is also at risk—and his desire to protect her is as fierce as his need to possess her.

 

If You Hear Her is the first book in Shiloh’s Ash Trilogy, and was also one of my top five reads of 2011!

The small town of Ash, about an hour outside of Louisville, KY, is a safe, quiet town. Everyone knows each other and the biggest trouble is caused by drunks or destructive teenagers. Until Lena hears a woman calling for help in the middle of the night. When a body turns up, tortured beyond recognition, the town turns suspicious. A newcomer to the town, Ezra is one of the people falling under suspicion, but that won’t stop him from doing everything he can to protect Lena as he tries to piece together the deepening mystery around them.

The Ash Trilogy is Shiloh at her suspenseful romance best! The town and its characters are real and compelling and the plot threads starting in one book blend seamlessly into the next.

The hero, Ezra, has moved into his grandmother’s old house for a quiet escape from the city where he ended up in the middle of an investigation into some dirty cops and almost lost his life. His physical wounds are recovering, but he is haunted by the night he killed his partner and can’t seem to get the distance he needs to pull his head back together.

However, even as troubled and uncertain as he is, he finds himself immediately attracted to Lena when he sees her in a bar.

Lena was one of the more interesting heroines I’ve read. She’s blind, but doesn’t let anything stop her. She went to college to become a chef and works at a classy inn, even preparing wedding catering. It’s not that I expect blind people to be helpless, they just don’t feature in romance novels very often, and when they do, well…they usually are at least a little helpless. Lena is as strong and powerful as any other heroine I’ve read and it was amazing looking into her world. Shiloh obviously researched blindness and how blind people interact, and it shows in this book. I loved it!

Because this is a trilogy, all set in one small town, the main characters interacted with secondary characters who will feature in the following two books. Before the end of If You Hear Her I knew who the couple would be in If You See Her, and I couldn’t wait to jump into that book and continue the story.

Also because it’s a trilogy, the mystery isn’t completely solved by the end of the book. Loose ends are tied up, but the future is still uncertain in many ways. I really hate figuring out whodunit too early in a book, so I love that the mystery continues into the next book.

 

What I Liked:

  • The blind heroine. She never seemed helpless, and the hero never saw her as helpless, either.
  • The supporting characters in the town. Shiloh really made her fictional little town come to life. I was eager to start the next book and see everyone’s stories continue.
  • The plot was tied up by the end, but the mystery continues!

 

What I Didn’t Like:

  • This isn’t really the author’s fault, more like my fault, but early on in the book there’s a break, and the format confused me because it was still new to me in the book. For a few pages I was under the mistaken impression that the break signaled a switch in the killer’s point of view. That left me trying to figure out what was going on for a few minutes, because to me it seemed like Lena’s best friend was the killer. Once I figured out he couldn’t be, I looked back and the formatting made sense to me, but for a bit I was lost.
  • Other than that, there was really nothing in this book that sticks out as a negative point to me. There were a few typos, but any book has that. It definitely ranked in my Top Five of 2011.

 

Overall, I give If You Hear Her four-and-a-half stars. If you’re looking for a mystery/suspense, I can’t recommend this one enough!

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Mitch ARC Reviews: Shiloh Walker’s Locked In Silence

September 19, 2011 in Reviews

  • Format: Digital Edition
  • List Price: $4.50
  • File Size: 334 KB
  • Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (September 20, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0057WU6T6
  • Shiloh Walker’s Website

Buy Locked in Silence at:

Dying is hard enough. Coming back to life is brutal.

Grimm’s Circle, Book 5

Vanya has been hunting and killing demons ever since one of them scarred her face and killed her sister. Correction—since she was forced to kill the demon possessing her sister.

Then some sort of angel offers her a deal she can’t refuse—that if she becomes one of them, she gets to kill even more demons. Tonight, she’s made that choice. The death she smells on the air will be her own—and she welcomes it.

Silence feels a darkness is looming. Change—something he has every reason not to welcome. The deeply hidden memories that robbed him of his past, of his own name, render him unfit to teach anyone the ways of the Grimm. Yet here he is in the dankest sex club in town, waiting to assume his charge—after he stands by and watches her die.

When Vanya awakes, their complicated, dangerous dance begins. And so does something else—a searing need that blisters along their unexpected mental connection. Silence shouldn’t be drawn to his student, but once they touch, he can’t think of a reason to stop. Even though acting out their darkest desires puts them in more danger than they realize.

Warning: This book contains sex-starved demons, lonely angels, demon-angel sandwiches, blood, violence, death and a happy-ever-after.

The Grimm’s Circle series is one that I’ve been interested in reading, but it just hadn’t made it up my TBR until Shiloh asked me if I’d like an advanced copy of Locked in Silence to review. While I usually don’t like to read a book in a series if I haven’t read the previous books (just in case there are spoilers about previous books), I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Lucky for me, Locked In Silence does fine as a stand-alone. Reading it made me curious about the previous books, but didn’t spoil anything for me or leave me feeling lost as to what was going on.

The Grimm’s Circle series features guardian angels who live on earth and are tasked with killing various demons that prey on human minds. I’ve read a few angel books lately and am sort of getting worn out on them, but the Grimm don’t have wings or heavenly origins. Although they’re called guardian angels, they’re really just mortals who have chosen to return after their deaths to live as stronger, faster, more powerful beings who are capable of protecting humanity from the demons among them. They’re more guardian than angel.

Also, each of the Grimm’s Circle books is loosely based on a fairy tale. I won’t spoil Locked in Silence by revealing the story behind it, but I enjoyed the tie-in.

The title is a reference to the hero, who can no longer speak because of torture he endured as a child and now goes by the name Silence. Shiloh gives us a few flashbacks into Silence’s childhood and they did an excellent job of showing how and why Silence grew to not trust people or love. He really stole the show for me, although the heroine, Vanya, is a strong and compelling character on her own. She is just changing from human to Grimm at the beginning of the book and we get to see her grow and learn as she is trained by Silence.

Locked in Silence is an erotic romance. I am ashamed to admit I did not know there was a difference between erotic romance and erotica before reading this book. Shiloh was kind enough to explain the difference for me:

“Erotica can have romantic undertones, but the romance doesn’t have to be key to the story, doesn’t even have to end with the happy ever after-with the erotic romance, as hot as they are, the romance has to be as much a part of it as the sexual aspects.”

Now that I know the difference, I have to say that I am a fan of erotic romance. It has the romance story I enjoy, with extra-hot sex scenes, but doesn’t use a lot of the erotica language that usually turns me off (such as overuse of the words pussy and cunt).

So, to sum up…

What I Liked:

  • The fairy tale tie-in. I honestly didn’t recognize what story was being referenced until I was slapped in the face with it, but I enjoyed the connection.
  • The hero. Silence uses American Sign Language to communicate when he needs to, but really prefers to keep to himself as much as possible. It was great seeing him come out of his shell to bond with Vanya.
  • The sex. HAWT!
  • The series. That probably sounds like an impossible statement since I haven’t read the other books, but I still recognized when I was being given glimpses of characters and story lines carrying over from other books. Particularly, I enjoyed the scenes with William, the head of the Grimm, and am now eager to read the previous books to learn more about him.

What I Didn’t Like:

  • Although it’s not really something I didn’t like, I wouldn’t have minded more about Vanya’s past. She has scars (both physical and emotional) from when her sister was possessed by a demon, and I really would have loved some flashbacks to her realizing and dealing with the situation. However, that said, there were a number of flashbacks to Silence’s childhood and I understand how trying to add in flashbacks for Vanya might’ve made things confusing.

Overall, Locked in Silence was a very enjoyable read. Not having read the final version, I won’t deduct for typos (which I otherwise would take off half-a-star for in this case) and I’ll give it four stars. I now need to go back and read the previous books, because I am definitely a fan of the series after reading Locked in Silence.

Books in the Grimm Circle Series:

  • Candy Houses Book 1 (available in eBook, or in The First Book of Grimm)
  • No Prince Charming Book 2 (available in eBook, or in The First Book of Grimm)
  • I Thought It Was You Book 2.5 (in eBook format only)
  • Crazed Hearts Book 3 (available in eBook but coming to print)
  • Tarnished Knight Book 4 (available in eBook but coming to print)
  • All the Time in the World – short story available in The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance

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Mitch Reviews: Shiloh Walker’s Broken

July 30, 2011 in Reviews

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • List Price: $15.00
  • Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (March 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0425232417
  • ISBN-13: 978-0425232415
  • Shiloh Walker’s Website

Buy Broken at:

Quinn Rafferty is working as a bounty hunter for a private detective agency in St. Louis when a new neighbor catches his eye. He’s drawn to her-but he has his own soul to mend before he can worry about anyone else.

Sarah McElyea is on the run, but not for the usual reasons a woman goes on the lam. She has a plan for her future. And as much as she finds herself attracted to her gruff, tough neighbor, she can’t risk telling him the secrets she’s hiding.

But Quinn must get closer to Sarah when she turns out to be the target of his new missing persons case, and both Quinn and Sarah will have to expose their true feelings-as well as their fragile hearts-if their love is to survive.

This was my first ever Shiloh Walker read. Of course, I’ve seen her books around. I used to work in a bookstore, which was about as tempting as being an unsupervised kid in a candy shop. Broken finally tipped my scales into buying her when I read the blurb. …That was about a year ago. Yes, my TBR pile is literally hundreds of books and things can get lost in it quite easily.

However, I finally pulled out Broken and holy cow! Before the first chapter I was totally kicking myself for not mining it out of the book mountain sooner.

The story starts with Quinn as an 11-year-old. His poor childhood is so miserable; I immediately loved him for having the strength to pull through. Lots of books have tortured heroes, but not all of them start with a glimpse of the hero as a largely helpless kid. Quinn’s emotional scars from childhood factor largely into his issues as an adult, so without actual scenes from his childhood, I don’t think he would’ve been as appealing to me as a character. Seeing what a character has been through is much better than just hearing his reflections on it later.

Onto the heroine, Sara. Her story starts in chapter two with remembered dialogue from her past (yes, I know what I just said about seeing is better than hearing, but to see that particular story at the beginning of the book would ruin the suspense). Bits and pieces of the dialogue keep popping up throughout most of the book. They are keys to the mystery, but really, I don’t think you’ll be able to figure it out until about the last third of the book. I thought I knew who was speaking and what was going on, but I was totally wrong (and I usually have at least parts of the idea right when it’s a mystery).

So, Quinn and Sara meet while she’s on the run from her past. Quinn isn’t exactly on the run from his past, but he’s certainly hiding from it, not dealing with the issues he has. They both rent parts of a house owned by an old woman, Theresa. I LOVED Theresa! She was smart and capable but, as Quinn put it, she collects strays.

Theresa has a way of wandering across the helpless and inviting them in to stay while she tries to heal them. Knowing this, Quinn isn’t too thrilled about the idea of getting involved with the complications sure to be presented by Sara, but they both just sort of unexpectedly find what they need in each other and can’t stay away.

When Sara ends up being the missing person Quinn is hired to return home, he must decide what to believe about her, and whether or not to believe his own heart.

Things I Liked:

  • This book did not play out the way I thought it would when Quinn was hired to track down Sara. I thought he’d run off and hide with her, save her, love her. Instead, he carts her up to Chicago to turn her in! Not at all what I would’ve expected, but he has his reasons, and they make sense (you know…in a guy sort of way…).
  • The chemistry between Quinn and Sara was excellent! Okay, they did have hot sex for about three straight chapters, but when they both decided to get out of bed, their interactions were still true and believable to the characters Shiloh created.
  • THERESA! I honestly loved that old lady! She was kind, funny, and smart, a great supporting character.
  • The scene where Sara meets Quinn’s twin. I can’t say much without ruining it, but it made me laugh.

Things I Didn’t Like:

  • After spending most of the book on the run, Sara ends up facing the bad guy, and I’m perplexed as to why she had to wait two years to do it. The information she had on him was old, and I don’t know why it couldn’t have been used to prevent her from needing to go into hiding. Also, when she does confront him, I feel like there are hints that she has a recorder in her bag, but it never says specifically.
  • The bad guy was dispatched of too quickly and too easily. The interaction between Quinn and Sara was excellent, but I feel like as much effort and attention was not put into properly resolving the problems with the bad guy. He ended up feeling like more of a gimmick to put Quinn and Sara in the same place.

Something Else:

  • In chapter 19 (of 21 – a little less than 1/3 of the book to go) we get a huge revelation about Sara. Frankly, it blindsided me and made me rethink much of what I’d already read. I’m not against the confusion and the questioning, because Quinn was feeling the same way, questioning the truth and what he knew about Sara, so it was an affective way to put the reader in Quinn’s shoes. However, I feel like maybe it was a bit too much all at once? I don’t know. Something about it wasn’t quite as smooth as the book up to that point. I’m not sure if I liked or disliked that chapter.

You should also know, this book is second in the Rafferty Series. While it stands alone, reading it tells you how the first book, Fragile, was resolved. While I still read Fragile, reading Broken first spoiled a bit of the surprise and mystery I would’ve had if I’d read Fragile first.

So, although parts of the end frustrated me, after the bad guy was dispensed of and the focus went back to the interaction between Quinn and Sara, I found myself still enjoying the book.

If the bad guy had maybe been drawn out a little more, not dispatched of so easily, I likely would’ve given this book another star, but I still give it three-and-a-half stars.

Additional info:

Shiloh was a guest blogger at WLP for the release of Broken. You can read that post here.

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