Laure Eve: The Graces Blog Tour Q&A + Contest

Today, we’re delighted to be hosting a stop on the official blog tour for The Graces by Laure Eve. To celebrate this upcoming release — which is the perfect pre-Halloween read about teen witches (think “The Craft”) — we’ve got an exclusive Q&A with author Laure Eve, and your chance to win a copy of the book.

For the uninitiated, give us your 140-character “Twitter pitch” for THE GRACES?

It’s The Craft meets The Virgin Suicides meets The Secret History. It’s about obsession, secrets, glamour and magic. Don’t trust everything the main character tells you.

There are so many elements that contribute to THE GRACES; what was the “nugget” the first inspired the book? Tell us the “origin story” of THE GRACES!

It was The Craft, really, and The Crucible – those stories explore the potential darkness of female friendship, and the desire for empowerment at any cost.

You could also say I drew inspiration from my background. I grew up in quite a pagan influenced area and was drawn to those kinds of philosophies and religions as a teen. Still am. I’m also attracted to and fascinated by the darker side of human nature, the things we are capable of in secret. Combine those two things and you have the basics of The Graces 🙂

What do you have planned next for River and the Graces?

A sequel! I’ve just finished the first draft. It’s from Summer Grace’s point of view this time, and it goes in a pretty crazy direction…

I have to ask: who are some of your favorite witches in pop culture?

I grew up with Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer – she’s a fabulous character and I love where she goes throughout the course of the show.

I always secretly loved Jadis, the White Witch from the Narnia books – I particularly love book 1, The Magician’s Nephew, because you get her fascinating origin story. Then in the movie she was played to perfection by Tilda Swinton, who is in fact a goddess, which really cemented my character crush.

Finally I think I’ll pick Esmerelda Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. You do not mess with her. She’s the ultimate.

What are you working on next?

I’m playing around with a couple of ideas at the moment. One is a novel about privilege and nihilism and is a twist on a famous classic. The other is a fantasy world (in very small part) inspired by the Ghibli film Spirited Away. Because that movie is everything.

When a glamorous family of teenage witches brings a mysterious new girl into their fold, they unwittingly nurture a powerful black magic that could destroy them all. This paranormal YA fantasy features intrigue, spells, and a devastating twist. In The Graces, the first rule of witchcraft states that if you want something badly enough, you can get it . . . no matter who has to pay.

Everyone loves the Graces. Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer Grace are captivating, wealthy, and glamorous. They’ve managed to cast a spell over not just their high school but also their entire town—and they’re rumored to have powerful connections all over the world. If you’re not in love with one of them, you want to be them. Especially River: the loner, new girl at school. She’s different from her peers, who both revere and fear the Grace family. She wants to be a Grace more than anything. But what the Graces don’t know is that River’s presence in town is no accident.

This fabulously addictive fantasy combines sophisticated and haunting prose with a gut-punching twist that readers will be dying to discuss. Perfect for fans of We Were Liars as well as nostalgic classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 1996 movie The Craft, The Graces marks the beginning of a new wave of teen witches.

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A French-British hybrid who grew up in Cornwall, a place saturated with myth and fantasy. Being a child of two cultures taught her everything she needed to know about trying to fit in at the same time as trying to stand out.

She speaks English and French, and can hold a vague conversation, usually about food, in Greek.

A random selection of favourite things: Terry Pratchett quotes, characters with questionable morals, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Häagen-Dazs cookie dough ice cream, anything Trent Reznor is remotely involved in even if it only extends to ‘he once touched this artist’s arm’, bad 90s dance music and anything a bit weird (see: Davids Lynch and Cronenberg).

3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE GRACES and Temporary Tattoos. US Only.