Guest Author: Julie Leto

Hey guys. I "met" Julie Leto online when I guested with Plotmonkeys. So happy to have her here with us today, so please give her a warm, Rider welcome!!

Wow, that’s cool...what is it?

One of the key tenets of marketing in the book business is that an author should be able to “sum up” their “hook” in a few words or less. Some people borrow from the film industry, which famous uses comparisons like “Star Wars meets Gone With the Wind” to pitch new ideas to producers who can only think in terms of what’s been done before.

I’d love to be able to do that. I did, actually, when I wrote my Marisela Morales action-adventure series for Pocket, which was pitched as “Dirty Harry meets the Dirty Girls Social Club.” (If you don’t get that reference...well, the editors got it, bought it, then promptly replaced my clever hook with “Love her, love her handcuffs.”Probably better.

But my new series is really hard for me to classify. Is a romance? Absolutely, first and foremost, both books are romances. PHANTOM PLEASURES, which was released in April, featured a hotel heiress and a British nobleman from the 18th century. I suppose “Ivanka Trump meets Mr. Darcy” is the best I can do. The second book stars an action-hero heroine named Lauren Cole with an 18th century soldier. “Xena meets Colonel Brandon,” perhaps? But that doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The books are romances. Contemporary romances in that they are set in the contemporary world, though my heroes, who have been cursed into historical artifacts by a dark and mysterious Gypsy curse, are from the past. So, I suppose that sort of makes them Time Travels, with the characters coming forward instead of going backward to the past.

The books are also paranormal. Each hero, by nature of the curse, possesses the magic that ensnares him. In PHANTOM’S TOUCH, Aiden can use the cursed magic to read Lauren’s mind, to appear and disappear at will and to make love to her while invisible, which is a whole heck of a lot of fun. But the magic comes with a price. As the magic is evil, every time the hero uses it, he is overcome with lust. Luckily for my heroines, they’re around to take care of things.

The upside of writing a series that contains so many different elements is that I can answer, “Yes!” to so many questions.

“Is it a sexy romance?”

Oh, yes...super hot. That’s the most important aspect of the entire series. Hot, sexy sex with hot, sexy men.

“Is it a paranormal?”

There are these phantoms who are cursed by Gypsy magic and who must fight a cult who wants the power for themselves.

“Is it a historical?”

In a manner of speaking, yes! I certainly had to do a lot of research to make my heroes, their experiences and their thought processes authentic.

“Is it a contemporary?”

Very much so. My heroines, in particular, are modern women who can hold their own and then some in the 21^st century.

“Is there suspense?”

Definitely a suspense threads through each of the books, with a pair of intelligent, ruthless villains in both book that will stop at nothing to get their hands on the power.

“Are the men Alpha and hot?”

How could they not be? They’re from a time when men were men and sex was decadent and delicious (though I’d personally like to think that hasn’t changed over the centuries!)

So the Phantom series, staring with PHANTOM PLEASURES and now PHANTOM’S TOUCH (in stores now!) and continuing with KISS OF THE PHANTOM (out next June) has a little something for everyone. Or at least, that’s what I hope!

Are there any elements in this series that appeal to you? What are your favorite “mix” kind of books? Do you like the straight forward or the blended books like these?