Blog Tour, Author Interview and Book Review: After Dark by Emi Gayle

After Dark

The 19th Year

by Emi Gayle

Release Date: October 31, 2012

Target Reader: Young Adult

Keywords: Paranormal Romance

Description
What eighteen year old Mac Thorne doesn’t know will probably kill her. 

In exactly eight months, five days, three hours and thirteen minutes, Mac has to choose what she’ll be for the rest of her life. 

She has no choice but to pick. As a Changeling, it’s her birthright. To Mac, it’s a birthchore. Like going to school with humans, interacting with humans, and pretending to be human during the pesky daylight hours. 

Once darkness descends, Mac can change into any supernatural form that exists — which makes her as happy as she can be. That is, until Winn Thomas, the biggest geek in her senior class figures out there’s more to what hides in the dark than most are willing to acknowledge. 

In this first of the 19th Year Trilogy, Winn might know more about Mac than even she does, and that knowledge could end their lives, unless Mac ensures the powers-that-be have no choice but to keep him around.

About the Author:
 Emi Gayle just wants to be young again. She lives vicariously through her youthful characters, while simultaneously acting as chief-Mom to her teenaged son and searching for a way to keep her two daughters from ever reaching the dreaded teen years.

Ironically, those years were some of Emi's favorite times. She met the man of her dreams at 14, was engaged to him at 19, married him at 20 and she's still in love with him to this day. She'll never forget what it was like to fall in love at such a young age — emotions she wants everyone to feel.


Author Interview:

MGO: In 30 words or less tell us why we should give After Dark a try.

Emi: There's a nerdy, geeky, hot, boy as the counterpart to the overly stubborn, kick-butt girl. And who doesn't love a nerd who can make the beautiful girl swoon? ;)

MGO: How did the idea for After Dark first come to you? Are any of the characters based off of people you know in real life?

Emi: One day I was thinking about how my life and career has changed over time, but what if I could never change my career and worse, had to decide what I'd be for the rest of my life when I turned 19 -- 1 year after i'd become an adult (officially). 

All the people in my life are mixed into my characters. I take bits and pieces of them all to combine into one who then becomes a new characters.

MGO: Who would win in a battle, a vampire, a witch, a reaper, a fae, or a werewolf?

Emi: Oooh ... can Changeling be the answer? Mine in particular because she could be any of those things? Like the rock-paper-scissors game, if she were fae, she could become vampire. Against werewolf, she could become a witch. Against witch, a reaper. Against a reaper, vampire, etc.

MGO: Favorite book of all time?

Emi: I really don't have one. I love so many of the books I've read -- all at different times in my life.

MGO: Which character was your favorite one to write about?

Emi: Suze. So yes, I love Mac and Winn, but Suze ... well ... he's a really fun demon and he has a big role to play throughout the whole trillgy. 

MGO: What do you have planned next for the series?

Emi: Well, in Day After (book 2) we'll see life from the nerdy boy's perspective -- from Winn's. The whole book is written as told by him. And in Darkest Day, we'll see the conclusion to the whole series and Mac's final decision.

MGO: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, which one would you pick?

Emi: Chocolate. 

My Thoughts and Review:
 

I had a feeling before I even started this that it was going to be something different and fun and totally kick butt.

Have I mentioned before, that I love it when I am right?

Mac is a great character, a changeling that knows very little about her past (even if some of that is her own fault for never asking), her parents, her true abilities and even her future. She is so much more that what others have lead her to believe. So much rests on her shoulders and she has to figure out who she can trust, who has her back and most of all, what it all means for her in the end.

She has to decide who she wants to be, what she is capable of, what lies in the mystery of her past and her parents and she only has about 9 months to do it in.

Mac is definitely kick butt, strong, brave, funny and someone I would want as a friend. I loved watching her grow as she discovered who she is and what she really wants out of life and that sometimes, things she thought and felt before, are nothing like she ever imagined them to be.

Winn. Ah the hot nerd with the (hidden) smokin' hot body and a heart of pure gold. How could anyone not love him? I really liked his character. He was so much more than I thought he would be. He was a little bit feisty and stubborn but he was also very loyal and romantic and just a really good guy. Not to mention brilliant and he had Mac's back even when she didn't think he did.

There were some fabulous secondary characters in this one, Zoe, Lucas, Maddie, Suze, Alina, Josie, too many to name. I love when a book has not only a great protagonist but a whole cast of people you would want to know, care about and simply just hang with.

Did I mention we get a whole slew of characters and beings in this one? Witches, fairies, angels, shifters, vamps, demons, gnomes, sirens, succubus, you name it, this book has it.

This was a fantastic read that I thoroughly enjoyed. It will be a long wait until May when the next one comes out, but one, I will happily wait for.

I give this one 4.5 Stars!