Giveaway (US/Int): Laura Kaye’s Russian Vampire King is steamin’ up the screen!
Character Profile: Meet Nikolai Vasilyev
Are you a reader who just loves tortured heroes? If so, we have a lot in common, and I’ve got a treat for you today! Get prepared to get up close and personal with the hero of my dark erotic vampire romance, SEDUCED BY THE VAMPIRE KING, which releases June 1 from Harlequin Nocturne.
1. Where is Nikolai from?
Nikolai is from the area around Moscow, Russia. He lives on his ancestral estate, Vasilievskoe, about an hour’s drive east from the city of Moscow. Vasilievskoe is one of hundreds of abandoned castles and mansions in Russia, and in real life was built in the nineteenth century. In Seduced, it has been in the Vasilyev family since the medieval period.
2. How old is Nikolai?
Five hundred years and counting!
3. What is Nikolai called?
Nikolai is the Vampire King of Russia, although it has been a while since he has recognized the title or served his royal duties.
4. What does Nikaoli look like?
Oh, man, I’m letting Katherine handle this one. Here’s her first impression: “Her vampire was standing before her. Conscious. Healthy. More gorgeous than any man she had ever seen. Those eyes. Those bright sapphire eyes. That’s what she noticed first—not just their incredible color, but their haunted intensity, the way she could almost feel them raking over her in return. Golden-blond hair flowed past his broad shoulders, though it wasn’t braided like that of the black-haired warrior who stood at his side.”
5. What kind of childhood did he have?
Nikolai has always lived the life of a warrior and a leader to his people, and he’s always been the big brother and protector of his younger brothers Kyril and Evgeny, also warriors in his service. That is, until the vampires’ evil enemy, the Soul Eaters, took both their lives in a tragic mission-gone-bad that changed Nikolai forever.
6. What does Nikolai do for a living?
Nikolai is one of the seven remaining vampire kings in the world. But, while he is technically the leader of his people, he refuses to rule, believing himself unworthy. He’s also one of a small but powerful band of warriors fighting the evil Soul Eaters, addicted vampires that steal human souls by draining their victims’ bodies of blood, then eating their hearts. Nikolai continues to fight, but his self-loathing leads him to the recklessness that puts him and heroine Katherine Bordessa in one another’s paths.
7. How does Nikolai deal with conflict and change?
Nikolai is stubborn and tortured and believes he dishonored himself for his role in the deaths of his brothers. The agony of their deaths leads him to deal with conflict aggressively and sometimes recklessly, and he rejects any change that counters his view of himself as unworthy. He’s in a very bad place at the opening of this story. But when Katherine Bordessa not only shows him compassion, but risk her life to save his, she begins to break down his walls. Nikolai fights that fang and nail, but the solace she offers is ultimately too strong to resist.
8. What special powers does Nikolai have?
Nikolai possesses vampiric speed and strength, the ability to mesmerize or charm, superior sight, hearing and smell, and telepathy under certain circumstances.
9. Does Nikolai have a romantic interest in anyone?
Nikolai is tempted by his desire for Katherine Bordessa, a human female who saves his life in a very difficult situation. When Nikolai returns to health, he learns his warriors have taken Katherine prisoner, and that she is related to some very influential humans allied with the vampires. On multiple levels, then, Katherine Bordessa is someone he cannot have and doesn’t deserve, but that doesn’t keep him from wanting.
10. Will we get to see Nikolai in any of the other books in the series?
It’s possible! So far, there will be four stories in the Vampire Warrior Kings series. As the war against the Soul Eaters escalates, there’s more and more chance the remaining kings will come together to fight the Big Bad!
So, I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into Seduced by the Vampire King’s warrior hero, Nikolai Vasilyev. Please leave a question for Nikolai or his author lady—we’d both be glad to tell you more! And, we’ll offer you a GIVEAWAY! – one commenter will receive an ebook of Seduced by the Vampire King!
Thanks for reading!
Laura Kaye & Nikolai Vasilyev
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American exchange student Kate Bordessa has fled to Russia to escape her family’s hopes that she’ll become one of the Proffered, human women who feed and mate with elite vampire warriors. But when she stumbles upon a wounded vampire in the streets of Moscow, she’s instinctively driven to protect him–and feels an undeniable spark of desire.
Grieving over the deaths of his brothers, Vampire Warrior King Nikolai Vasilyev has thrown himself into battling his enemies, focused only on vengeance. Until the attack that brought him to Kate. Their sexual attraction explodes into a night of uncontrolled passion–a night that marks them as mates. Is their connection strong enough to convince them to embrace a destiny neither of them was expecting? |
About the authorVoted Breakout Author of the Year in the 2011 GraveTells Readers’ Choice Awards, Laura is the bestselling and award-winning author of over a half-dozen books in paranormal, contemporary and erotic romance. Hearts in Darkness is the EPIC eBook Award Winner for Best Novella and HOLT Medallion Award of Merit Winner for Best Romance Novella, Forever Freed is the NJRW Golden Leaf Winner for Best Paranormal of 2011 and is a finalist for two GDRWA Booksellers’ Best Awards, and North of Need, the first book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, is a finalist for a FF&P PRISM award, was named GraveTells’ Best Book of 2011 and won their 5-STAR Gold Heart Award, and won Sizzling Hot Read of the Year at Sizzling Hot Books. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day. |
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| Laura’s North of Need was named as one of our 2011 Books of the Year. Read our review of North of Need here! She also received our Silver Heart award for the first novella in the Vampire Warrior Kings series, In the Service of the King, earning a nearly perfect 4.5/5 score. Read our review of ItSotK here!
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Giveaway
To enter to win an ebook copy of Seduced by the Vampire King, leave a question for Laura or Nikolai then fill out the Rafflecopter. Remember, you need to leave your comment on this post itself, not in the Rafflecopter! If you can’t see the comments section at the bottom of this post and are viewing from our main Feed page, click the title of the post or the “See more” button.
| See the rest of the tour stops here! |
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davincikittie
Laura you write about a number of different characters from different genres that I believe from your writing that you have strong feelings for which was the hardest story to write for and why?
Thanks for your question, Erica! The most challenging story I ever wrote is a 110,000-word erotic women’s fiction, which just fought me at every turn! Of my published books, the most challenging was probably my vampire romance Forever Freed, but that might be because it was also my first novel. It took a lot of revisions to get that book where it needed to be!
first you have me falling for zeph.. now you tease me with nikolay. where did your ideas of these hunky prime specimen of male come from? did you create an image of them only by your imagination, or did you have visual aid?
Characters–and usually it’s the heroes–are what come to me first when a story starts to form. I almost always write the character and THEN find a visual image I think mostly represents what I see in my head. Thanks for the question!
This series sounds so good as well as your other one. Which series did you enjoy writing the best or which one was the easiest or hardest to write. Thanks so much for the new series and chance to win
Hi Tanya – my Hearts of the Anemoi series has a more complicated plot, in part because they’re full-length novels, whereas Harlequin’s Nocturne Cravings line, of which these vampire books are a part, is capped at 25,000 words maximum. So I don’t have to (really, I don’t have the space to) do nearly as much worldbuilding in the shorter stories that I must do in the novels. Fun question!
I love Katherine’s discription of Nikolai. It’ so easy to visualize what he looks like while reading about him. Laura’s writing is so discriptive that it draws you into the story and makes you a part of it.
Aw, thank you Susan! I see my stories in my head like a movie, so description has always been one of the easier things about writing for me!
Thanks for all the comments, guys! Good luck!
Laura in Seduced by the Vampire King the setting is Russia , so my question is what makes choose these settings sonce the kings run different parts of the world but the countries and places in particular? In “In the Service of the King” you chose Co.Antrim which i thought was interesting usually the irish setting is Galway or Dublin
But i loved the the Antrim and The giants Causeay setting!
amiee.ryan@yahoo.com
Ooh, I love this question! I decided to choose settings that intrigued me AND had cool (real) historical castles/mansions I could use as the vampires’ ancestral home. Ireland and Russia are two places on my travel bucket list, so they were easy. The places I identified for books 3 and 4 were new discoveries to me, but you can bet they’re on the list now too!
Laura,
I can’t wait to “meet” Nikolai. The Russian aristocracy always fascinated me and if Nikolai is part of a vampire aristocracy even better. I also love languages and foreign cultures, although I don’t speak Russian. St. Petersburg is definitely on my “to do” list. What prompted you to write a book based in Russia? Have you been to Moscow and/or St. Petersburg?
Hi Jenn! Great question! In college I minored in Russian and Soviet Area Studies and took four semesters of Russian (I can’t speak much now!) I planned to go on a summer study abroad but was so poor then I couldn’t get the measly $500 together to pay for my part of it (I had scholarships for the rest–can you believe $500 kept me from 10 weeks in Russia? in 1989, by the way–that Russia no longer exists now..) So I’ve always been fascinated with things Russian. It started when I was a teenager and read a book about Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed her entire life (up until the 1970s) that she was truly Anastasia Romanov, one of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II who was supposed to have been assassinated with the entire Romanov family by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
Do Nikolai’s brothers Kyril and Evgeny have any part in the book?
This book sounds amazing. Cant wait to read it.
Aw, glad it sounds good to you! Nikolai’s brothers are part of his backstory only–they won’t make another appearance!
The sad news is you don’t get to meet Nikolai’s brothers in the book. The happy news is you’ve won the giveaway so you get to read about sexy Nikolai! =)
Congrats!
Nikolai lost both his brothers but will they resurface again? Are they really dead dead?
How is he going to cope with his over protectiveness with Katherine? It sounds like they will be butting heads in this area
Nikolai and Kate do butt heads, but he does know just how capable she is. He just can’t stand the idea something could ever happen to her. They’re working on it… *winks*
(And, yes, the brothers are really dead…)
Thanks so much to Laura for having GraveTells on the tour! These vampire kings are SMOKIN’ HOT! And Nikolai is all tortured and lonely and oh so sexy. This story is just as good as we’ve all come to expect from Laura. Our review will post tomorrow!
That is AWESOME! Thanks so much to you and GraveTells for hosting me!
I already subcribe to Nocturne, maybe the next shipment
the book will be in there, if not I’ll let you know. I don’t have a question just keep the good work!
Laura, congratulations on your book,
Question for Nikolai:
If you had the chance to be something other than a leader and a warrior to your people what would it be?
Thanks for the question, Cassandra! I’ll let Nikolai answer:
Nikolai: *looks serious for a long moment, then his face breaks into a mischievous grin* I’d happily be Katya’s manservant. She is the queen, after all.
Laura: Uh, my lord, I don’t think that’s what Cassandra had in mind.
Nikolai: *narrows eyes at Laura* Very well. It is hard to imagine a life in which I’d have such a choice or make such a decision. This is what I was born to do. It’s all I’ve ever known. I never had the luxury of selecting from among careers, as you humans do.
Laura: Well, Cassandra, there you have it!
Hi, Laura…Congrats on the upcoming release! I loved how Katherine described her first impression of Nikaoli. So, I’d like to ask Nikaoli to give us his fist impression of Katherine…please. GREAT pic, btw!! Thx, Nikaoli!
barbbattaglia @ yahoo.com
Hi Barbara — here’s Nikolai for you:
I was fundamentally aware of Katherine as I lay dying out in that alley. But when I first saw her, I was struck by her strength, her courage, those incredible brown eyes, and the fact that she was covered in so much of my blood I could barely restrain my baser urges.
So, heh, there you have it, Barbara!
The book sounds good. I enjoyed the character profile. Does Nikolai have a favorite place to visit?
Nikolai has always loved visiting the Baltic Sea. It calms him and reminds him there’s a world much bigger than his own troubles.
Have you ever visited or do you want to visit the countries your books take place in?
Keep up the good work, Laura! You are a talented author.
Hi Wendy! First, thank you for the wonderful compliment!
I would LOVE to travel to all the destinations of my books. A lot of my books I set in places I’ve been. But these just called for more exotic settings. Both Ireland (book 1) and Russia (book 2) are places I would LOVE to go (but have never been). So, maybe in celebration of book four, I’ll need to do a four-country European vacation! LOL
Will all the books in this series be set in Russia? I really enjoy your characters & writing Laura!
Nope! Each in a different part of the world!
I love Laura’s books and think this new series is fascinating. I think she is really talented and would love to win sdylion(at)gmail(dot)com
Aw, thank you! xoxoxo
I loved the first vampire king novella. I see some others have beaten me to the questions I wanted to ask so I’ll just say thanks for sharing Nikolai’s interview and I love your books.
You’re welcome!
That ‘s a great pic of Nikolai, very sexy. What do you like to do for fun Nikolai?
Congrats Laura on the next book in the series.
For fun? He likes to do the last couple chapters of Seduced by the Vampire King. Over and over.
Thanks for sharing your inspiration for Nikaoli… very nice indeed:) Can’t wait to read his story!!!
Hi Laura! You have such to-die-for heroes. I think I fall in love with everyone of them when I read your books. You’ve written so many different genres now; would you consider writing a fantasy romance or historical? Those are my fav & I’m intrigued at the thought of what sort of story you’d write!
Thank you so much, Linda! Technically, my Greek god series is considered fantasy romance, although clearly the lines between fantasy romance and paranormal romance are blurry!
I am actually co-authoring a historical right now (I am a historian by training…) and I love it, though it’s probably not something I’ll do a lot of. Thanks for your question!
I loved IN SERVICE OF THE KING and can not wait to read this one too. Your vampires and the Proffered women are very unique and I can’t wait to learn more about them. Nikolai sounds like he is a very tortured, sexy vampire.
Congrats on the release!
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
Woot! Thank you!
Hi Laura
I have a question for Nikolai: if you could go back in time and change something from your life what would it be and why?
Easy. I’d make sure my brothers weren’t on that street they night they died.
Hi Laura,
I’m already a die-hard fan of yours thanks to Hearts in Darkness!
My question is for you… What is your academic background? Do you have a degree in English or Litterature? I love your writing style. All your books are so well written. I can actually visualize the settings, feel all the emotions the characters go through. I just love your writing. It’s hard not to fall in love with the characters you’ve created!
Thank you
Aw, thank you so much Hai-Yen. I have a MA and PhD in American history, so writing has always been a part of my life, even when it wasn’t fiction. I see my stories like movies in my head, so description has always been one of the easier things about writing! Glad you’re enjoying!
Congrats on your upcoming release, Laura! Nikolai sounds like a gorgeous tortured man.
I am adding his story to my TBR!
Since there are 7 vampire kings, will they each have their own story?
Thanks for your comment, Tina! As of right now, only four stories are planned…stay tuned!
Congrats to Joanne B. on winning the ebook of Seduced!
Thanks to Laura for inviting GT to be part of her tour (we <3 these sexy Vampire Kings!) and to everyone who participated!
Now go go go read about Nikolai!