Best I've Read 2013: Heart of Iron by Bec McMaster

Today I am featuring Heart of Iron by Bec McMaster.  I won a copy of the first book in the series, Kiss of Steel and absolutely loved it.  I have been pimping the London Steampunk Series out to all of my reader friends on Facebook and this blog since I finished the first book.  I ordered Heart of Iron and My Lady Quicksilver months before they came out and I may have done happy dances when each book showed up in my mailbox on release day.  This series is an amalgam of all the things that I love.  There is romance, action, adventure, intrigue, Victorian London, vampires, werewolves, and steampunkery.  It's the perfect storm of books, really.  I haven't been able to read My Lady Quicksilver yet due to my ridiculous blogging schedule and the fact that my kids seem to think they need to be taken to activities after school.  But I hope to get it read over the holidays.  Today I have an awesome interview with Bec McMaster about Heart of Iron and Will, it's leading man!

In the mist-shrouded streets of London’s dreaded Whitechapel district, werewolves, vampires and a clockwork army are one
step away from battle…
NO ONE TO TRUST

Lena Todd is the perfect spy. Nobody suspects the flirtatious debutante could be a rebel against London’s vicious elite—not even the ruthless Will Carver, the one man she can’t twist around her little finger.

Will Carver, is more than man, he’s a verwolfen and he wants nothing to do with the dangerous beauty who drives him to the very edge of control. But when he finds Lena in possession of a coded letter, he realizes she’s in a world of trouble. To protect her, he’ll have to seduce the truth from her before it’s too late.

Award winning author Bec McMaster lives in a small town in Victoria, Australia, and grew up with her nose in a book. Following a lifelong love affair with fantasy, she discovered romance and hasn’t looked back. A member of RWA, she writes sexy, dark paranormals and adventurous steampunk romances. When not writing, reading, or poring over travel brochures, she loves spending time with her very own hero or daydreaming about new worlds.

Her London Steampunk series is available from Sourcebooks, with Heart of Iron (Book Two) being nominated for both Best Steampunk Romance by RT Reviews 2013 and Best Romance 2013 by Library Journal. Visit her website at www.becmcmaster.com or follow her on twitter @BecMcMaster.

Thanks so much to Bec McMaster for being willing to answer my questions and being willing to participate in BIR!

M- What is your favorite thing about Will?

Bec- I think one of my favourite things - and the hardest thing! - about writing Will is that he was so unapologetic about who he was. He is obviously scarred, with a very painful past, but he didn't let that hold him back from pursuing Lena. Despite being a tortured character, with a mother who had sold him into virtual slavery and little experience around women, he was almost naively hopeful of a relationship, even when he believed that his verwulfen status would never allow him to have that relationship. Despite what he believes or says, he wants someone to love him. In Kiss of Steel, it's revealed that he and Blade (a male character) had a moment in the past, where Will was feeling conflicted about relationships and mistook a certain act for a sexual advance. The interesting part, I thought, was that Will wasn't so much asking for sex as asking for tenderness. For a certain closeness that he's never had. Even just for someone to touch him in a manner that is not cruel - a pat on the back, a hug, just a human touch for someone who has been starved of touch for years. Considering that until that point he hadn't been around women very much, or truly trusted them, he had never felt this closeness with a woman, so it was fun to explore that as an author. His relationship with Blade - the eventual understanding that he has a place with Blade and his family, no matter what - is almost as grounding for him, as the love, tenderness and desire that he eventually feels with Lena. 

M- Why did you choose to write a paranormal steampunk series?

Bec- I don't think I chose it, so much as it chose me. *grins* I'm a little bit of a kitchen sink world builder. Once the idea hits me, I just develop it from there, weaving in elements that I like, or that I think will be useful in future installments. It's not like I set out to write a steampunk romance, or a paranormal romance and the results mingled, its simply that I set out to create a dark, grim world, with an alternative history in which certain things had happened. Because I love both sub genres, I think that's why the lines crossed. I will probably always cross genres in a little way.

M- What is your favorite thing about steampunk?

Bec- I love the freedom that writing/reading steampunk offers, the adventurousness of it all. You can create worlds that are so different to a lot of things out there, and the rules are few. Basically steam-driven technology and a certain challenge of the status quo. You can create so much, as an author. And your heroines can be really kick-ass (in a certain way). I love that. 

My Review of Heart of Iron

My Review of Kiss of Steel

Find London Steampunk Series on Goodreads

Enter on the Rafflecopter to win the book of your choice from the London Steampunk Series through Book Depository!  (Must be 13 or older to enter and of course, able to receive books from the Book Depository)

a Rafflecopter giveaway