Warrior by Zoe Archer Guest Visit and Giveaway

My name is Zoë, and I’m an adventure-holic.

Maybe it’s because I grew up in a peaceful seaside suburb of Los Angeles, leading a fairly routine life. I was a moderately typical kid (if you count wearing only purple during the 5th grade and bringing my stuffed unicorn to school), with parents that weren’t spies or movie stars. I did a lot of daydreaming. I watched a lot of cable television and music videos on the new MTV. Perhaps it was a result of my own life being so ordinary, but the films I loved the most were adventure stories.

They usually involved a far-away location, a world-weary hero, a sassy (often clueless) heroine, a quest, lots of action, a touch of the paranormal and a whole lot of fun. Sure, Joan Wilder (the heroine of Romancing the Stone) was muddy, scared and uncomfortable through the first half of the film, but by the second half of the movie, she was having a great time. And why shouldn’t she? Her life as a writer in New York had been quiet, uneventful. Now she’s running through the Colombian jungle with sexy Jack T. Colton at her side, outwitting the villains and rescuing her sister.

I’m not a person who takes a lot of unnecessary risks. I don’t seek out danger. Never been bungee jumping, never tried my hand at paragliding. Heck, I don’t even own a bicycle because biking in Los Angeles traffic scares the bejeesus out of me. But that’s exactly why adventure stories are so compelling to me. In the safe confines of adventure stories, I can be daring, brave and even a little bit crazy.

My Blades of the Rose series is non-stop adventure romance, pure wish fulfillment. The locations are exotic: Mongolia, Greece, the Canadian Rockies. The heroes are sexy and tough. The heroines are, I think, an improvement over many of the heroines in classic adventure stories. They don’t shriek, faint or whine. In fact, my heroines are just as capable as the heroes. There’s action, danger, a sprinkling of magic, truly villainous villains, and some extremely hot love scenes (which were oddly missing in many of those great adventure films).

The series kicks off this month with Warrior, and continues every month through December. That’s right—in the tradition of classic serial adventures, there’s a new Blades of the Rose novel each month, featuring different couples having their own breathless, romantic adventure. Scoundrel comes out October 5, Rebel is released November 2, and the whole series wraps up on December 7 with Stranger.

I can’t wait to share the adventure with you!


What are some of your favorite adventure stories? Leave a comment, and I’ll randomly pick a winner to win an autographed copy of Warrior.