Title: The Sealed Door book four of The Seven Spell Saga
Author : Tessa Stokes
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban fantasy romance
Format: E-book
Tell us the story behind the story. What inspired you to write this novel? Just about everyone I have ever met , the way time steals away from us, the effect of the past on us, even unknown past events, what families can do to each other, the way many of us hanker after a special love in our lives. Coincidence and the form it takes in our lives. These are the inspirations behind the books.
Tell us about the book cover. How does it represent your book? How did you choose the artwork?
I take the photographs myself for all my book covers and use Photoshop to make the cover.
I chose this photograph because it actually is a sealed door in one of the ruined castles that I have visited. I added the Tarrant griffin and the face from a knight’s tomb effigy because the book continues the theme of time travel and the way Oliver, Tristan and Chloe’s lives are destined to intertwine. There is also the hint of the stairs leading to the hunting lodge in the past.
Synopsis:
The Seven Spell Saga series starts with when Chloe McGarry moves from her home in California, to a village and estate in England steeped in history and mystery. She has never been lucky in love, and to her surprise, she meets not one, but two lovely guys. They are both interested in her and become her dearest friends. She falls in love with both of them and they both fall in love with her.
One of them, Tristan Dearing is especially enigmatic. He has been keeping a secret for eight hundred years and as Chloe forms a relationship with him, she helps him unravel his heritage
The stories are about love, resilience, friendship and the influence of the past. Tristan finally reveals his secret to others outside his family; Oliver Tarrant and Chloe get swept up in the 800 year old intrigue, as Tristan learns to trust his new friends. They are put at risk but their love, respect and friendship enables them to face the dangers. They experience unique and exciting adventures.
They learn along with Tristan that their love for each other can encompass different forms.
The stories have an amusing element in that the main characters use humour to lighten situations. There are a number of twists in the stories.
The first three books are written with Chloe as the narrator; she speaks from her experiences, and has a light sometimes humorous viewpoint. She sometimes talks straight to the reader.
Sprinkled with love scenes, magical moments, danger, mystery, surprise, The Sealed Door is the first book in the series of four where we hear the voice of other characters besides Chloe. The Seven Spell Saga takes a different turn.
We find Chloe McGarry still in love with both Oliver Tarrant and Tristan Dearing.
Oliver and Tristan are still in love with her too; they all have a friendship, and deep connection after having a few startling adventures together.
The Sealed Door sees the relationship between Oliver and Chloe become very serious and yet she is still unable to choose between him and Tristan. When Oliver suddenly realizes she will never choose between them.
Chloe finds herself also taking her relationship with Tristan to a new level.
In this book, The Seven Spell Saga gets steamy and there are several love scenes.
Through each book the reader is drawn into the world of the characters ordinary lives which become extraordinary as they are mixed with mystery, fantasy and romance.
As everyday life goes on, we hear from Oliver and Tristan. Oliver describes his experiences and we find out more about how he feels.
The Sealed Door has some interesting revelations about Tristan’s past. He finds himself feeling emotions he never expected to feel. He surprises his friends by his actions; this is not the Tristan we have come to know.
When Tristan asks the archaeology team to open the sealed door found in a tunnel below his house, where Chloe lives, a surprise awaits him.
Trouble is on the horizon from a surprising source. Tristan, Chloe and Oliver think they have encountered enough magic to have grown used to it by now, but they find this latest brush with witchcraft almost too much to bear.
Who is Lily and better still who is Anna?
When yet another experience from the past catches up with Tristan, the only thing that will fix things is yet another time travel adventure.
Where can readers find out more about you and your work? http://www.tessastokes.info
Feel free to include your author pic (attached to email) and short bio.
I am an author writing paranormal genre, mostly paranormal romance presently. I started writing fiction when very young with six page stories that sometimes got me into trouble at school for being too long.
I have written lots of academic and commercial material in the past and was almost desperate to go back to fiction by the time I actually did.
There are four books in The Seven Spell Saga already published for kindle, nook, iPad and they have been a joy to write.
I am currently writing a vampire paranormal romance, which is a blast, because I was not going to allow myself to have vampire characters, but suddenly found myself with this story after visiting an old abbey and castle one weekend on the borders of England and Wales. I was driving back across country and the book was just unfolding in my mind as I drove. I had to do it, I'm nine chapters in after three weeks.
I have also started book five of The Seven Spell Saga, because I left my characters in a situation which I wanted them out of, so had to start that book too.
I write in a room of a house, which has a very large window overlooking rural land with woods in the background. The view is great and the changing of the seasons is wonderfully evident. There is a particular stretch of the woods where a stand of smaller trees have the appearance of animals, a horse is obvious to me and was the inspiration for Cedric one of Tristan’s horses. It's an optical illusion of course but I like to see it emerge as the spring and summer cover the branches with foliage.