Michelle Zink Guest Post and Info about Her New Adult Paranormal Series!

All Grown Up

I started writing YA in 2005. Over the next two-and-a-half years, I wrote six YA novels before selling the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy to Little Brown in 2007. For a long time, YA felt like the most natural thing in the world, and I didn’t really pause to question why I loved it so much or why it came so easily to me.

The thing I’ve always loved most about writing is that I’m never “done.” There’s never a point where I sit back and think, “Yes! I’ve mastered it!” I didn’t feel that way with YA, either (and I still don’t!). But by 2012, I’d written eleven YA novels, and while I still loved it, I began itching for a new challenge. I wanted to feel, well, SCARED again. Scared in that, “Oh, shit, I really don’t know what I’m doing” kind of way, because it’s only when I’m that scared that I feel like I’m really growing.

I’d outlined two companion novels for A TEMPTATION OF ANGELS (March 2012), but my publisher decided not to run with them. I toyed with the idea of self-publishing, but after awhile, I started wondering what a NEW Temptation world would look like. Namely, one set in the modern world with a cast of slightly older characters. I became excited by the possibilities, and when an opportunity to write for Swoon Romance, a small up-and-coming digital publisher, presented itself, I knew right away that I’d be writing a whole new set of TEMPTATION stories with hot guys, danger, intrigue, and the kind of sexytimes that would never fly in YA.

And the fact that I’m a single mother of four teenagers who hasn’t dated in five years may or may not have played a part in my decision to go there. ;)

Still, it was a challenge. I was so used to my YA “voice” that it took me awhile to find my footing. The sex scenes were the hardest (no pun intended - lmao!). It took me two full days to psych myself out enough to write the first one between Scarlet and Rowen in TEMPTATION’S HEAT. When I finally got started, I kept thinking, “Is it okay for me to say this? How about THAT?!”

But after awhile, I really found my groove. I was still a little terrified, still a little unsure, but I was also having FUN. Pretty soon, I was living in my new dark and sexy TEMPTATION world every bit as much as I did when I was writing my YA books.

And maybe, just maybe, hoping for my own Rowen Black.

I hope you guys enjoy Rowen, Kane, and Ivan as much as I do!

Click read more for information about the Shadowguard Series!

Temptation's Heat (Shadowguard Series #1)
By: Michelle Zink
Available now!
Buy Link
Synopsis:
NY Times and USA Today best-selling author of LOSING IT, Cora Carmack says,"Before reading TEMPTATION'S HEAT, I wouldn't have thought it possible to create a paranormal romance with great characterization, interesting relationships, and strong world-building in only seventy pages. I'm happy to say Michelle Zink definitely proved me wrong! Scarlet was the ultimate kick-ass heroine. Rowen Black was nothing short of sinful, and I am so relieved that the Shadowguard world is continuing as a series. To put it simply: Worth. Every. Penny." 

When Rowen Black is assigned to the elite unit of angelic assassins known as the Shadowguard, he thinks his biggest challenge will be overcoming his less-than-stellar reputation. But that’s before he meets his match in Scarlet Montgomery.

Beautiful, strong, and with a temper to match Rowen’s own, Scarlet is focused on the Shadowguard and her possible future as its leader. She’s become an expert at keeping her personal life separate from the Guard, all too aware that as the boss’s daughter, fellow warriors see her not as someone to be respected, but as someone to be protected.

Avoiding entanglements gets a lot harder when Rowen saunters into the room. Rowen puts the bad in "bad boy." Their connection is hot, visceral, and instantaneous.

When the pair are assigned to a joint investigation, they come face-to-face with their undeniable attraction, forcing Scarlet to consider that the connection is not only physical, but a destiny written in the halls of time.

Temptation's Kiss (Shadowguard Series #2)

By: Michelle Zink

Available now!

Buy Link

Synopsis:

Lily Montgomery is perfectly happy taking care of everyone else. That is, until her friendship with Shadowguard warrior, Kane Dawson, begins to blossom into something more.

But Lily has a secret. One that will keep her from ever making her feelings known to Kane. 
One of the Shadowguard’s fiercest warriors, Kane has a soft spot for Lily. A long-standing member of the Shadowguard, he can’t figure out when his feelings for Ambrose Montgomery’s youngest daughter morphed from brotherly affection into desire and an unfamiliar longing that feels a lot like love.

Kane holds himself in check knowing that Lily deserves better. A man in a suit, dinner at six every night, rosy-cheeked children who won’t have to worry that their father might be killed by one of the Legion’s wraiths.
But when the pair are thrown together by a set of circumstances beyond their control, they are forced to confront their growing passion and decide if love is worth the risk of baring it all.

Temptation's Fire
By: Michelle Zink
Synopsis:
Maggie O’ Reilly has her hands full. It’s all she can do to hold down her job at small-town newspaper and pay the nursing home bills for her deteriorating father. But a lead on a story from Ivan Montgomery might be just the thing to win her the promotion -- and raise -- she needs to secure her father’s care. 

Ivan Montgomery isn’t exactly Mr. Popular. As the son of Ambrose Montgomery, head of the Shadowguard, Ivan has a reputation for being surly and confrontational. But somehow Maggie’s spirit and vulnerability make him want to be a better man.

Too bad a future between them is impossible. 

As an outsider, Maggie can never know that Shadowguard Security is a front for the Alliance, a group of angelic descendants who keep mankind balanced between the forces of light and dark. And that means she can never know who -- and what -- Ivan really is. 

But as the pair come closer to solving the mystery of who is framing the Shadowguard for murder, their attraction becomes impossible to deny. When a confrontation with a deadly foe forces them to face their feelings -- and their passion-- they will have to answer the question; can true love survive the ultimate secret?