SHIMMER BY PAULA WESTON EPIC GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

So if you guys know me at all I am a huge fan of the (Rephaim) series by Paula Weston. The books are absolutely fantastic! here is a summary of Shadows (the 1st book in the series): 

It’s almost a year since Gaby Winters was in the car crash that killed her twin brother, Jude. Her body has healed in the sunshine of Pandanus Beach, but her grief is raw and constant. It doesn’t help that every night in her dreams she kills demons and other hell-spawn. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who’s been appearing in Gaby’s dreams—he claims a history with her brother that makes no sense. Gaby is forced to accept that what she thought she knew about herself and her life is only a shadow of the truth—and that the truth is more likely to be found in the shadows of her nightmares.

In the light of the 3rd in the series (SHIMMER) being released Paula is on the blog today telling us about some secrets and home truths about the characters in her books. From their clothes to their antics! check it out! swoooooon also we have an epic giveaway: 

What inspired you in terms of what the characters in the series wear?
Great question! I must confess, I didn’t put a lot of thought into the characters’ clothing before I started writing the series, but they seemed to dress themselves along the way.

The Rephaim: They tend to spend a lot of time in combat clothing – as in practical clothes that provide plenty of flexibility – so it made sense for them to wear t-shirts and loose-fitting trousers and/or jeans (depending on the climate). I imagine their ‘fight’ outfits would have become quite uniform over the years (all black – a hint of ninja influence!). So much so, that the Outcasts still dress that way, even though they’ve rejected almost everything else about the Sanctuary. It does mean that what they wear when they’re not fighting says a lot about them too, like Daniel with his designer gear and Jude with his retro band t-shirts.

Gatekeepers: These guys don’t want to blend in, so I needed them to always look out of place. Having them with long trench coats – regardless of the climate – helps achieve that. (And then giving them unusual features like long white hair and flaming irises adds to their other-worldliness.) I gave them medieval broadswords as another way of showing how out of place they are in our world.

Hellions: They may be hell-beasts (all muscles, leathery skin, teeth and claws), but because they walk upright (mostly) I wanted them to wear something. I didn’t want the issue of dangly bits if they were naked…So they generally wear baggy tracksuit bottoms, and occasionally chainmail when going into battle.

Immundi: As soon as I imagined what the Immundi would look like (short and spindly, bobble-headed, with talons and pointed teeth), and knew they would move about openly in the human world, I pictured them in suits. Everything about them is sharp, including their outfits.

Monks: I wanted to really embed the sense that the Sanctuary is an ancient monastery, highlighting the contradiction of the place with the very contemporary sensibilities of most of the Rephaim. So the monks there dress very traditionally (think Benedictine monks), reflecting that fact that they behave and the way monks might in any other Italian monastery. Except these brothers serve a fallen angel.

I know that Jude and Rafa are best friends and wondered what are some of the craziest things they’ve done together? 

• They ran with the bulls in Pamplona in 1928 (they couldn’t shift because they were surrounded by so many people, so they actually did risk getting hurt). And then they stole all the bulls before the evening bullfight and released them miles away.
• A few years after they left the Sanctuary, they went heli-skiing in Greenland with a group of professional skiers. Way ahead and out of sight of the group, they shifted and left their skis behind without footprints. Their disappearance sparked a huge search, and lasted two hours before Jude came clean and said it was prank. They’re still banned from skiing in Greenland. And Alaska.
• They gate-crashed Woodstock in 1969, and stayed for four days. Gabe covered for them for the first two, but when Daniel found out where they were, he went to bring them home. Rafa and Jude wrestled with him, held him down in the mud and then told a group of protesters he was pro-Vietnam War, sparking a near-riot. One of the many reasons Daniel still has issues with the pair.

We know Rafa has a few likes but what are his guilty pleasures? 

• He’s a closet fan of comics and graphic novels, but only talks about them with Jude. (He quietly agrees with that the best modern graphic novels are V for Vendetta, Watchmen, and Batman: the Dark Knight Returns.)
• He has a major sweet tooth and loves gianduiotti, the Italian chocolates made in the Piedmont region.
• He had a brief addiction to Pac-man in the 1970s and then, years later, Angry Birds.
• He may have been a little choked up watching ET for the first time in 1982… 

How about a line Rafa says in Shimmer?
My favourite line from Rafa is a bit too spoilerish, but Shimmer opens with a short flashback scene, where he’s checking out the scar on Gaby’s neck (it’s a moment that happened between the end of Shadows and the start of Haze):

‘It doesn’t look too bad. Moisturiser would help, though,’ Rafa says.

‘Moisturiser. And you give Jason a hard time because he can tie a scarf.’

‘No,’ Rafa brushes his thumb over the scar tissue. ‘Because he’s a tool.’

Thank you Paula for this! I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS! Would you guys like to win SHADOWS, HAZE AND SHIMMER? then you can enter here! UK ONLY! comp ends 11th of GOODLUCK! 

 

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