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Once Upon a Seduction
Lovely Author Maisey Yates introduces us to her charming Fairy tale inspired mini series Once Upon a Seduction.
Fairy tales have always captivated me. They’re full of magic, beauty, darkness, hope and love. They’re about fantasy worlds, but they appeal to me on a real, deep level. Especially the stories about love. The maid marrying the prince, the beauty awakened by a kiss, the prince climbing the tower for the woman he loves. True love transforming a beast.
It’s no surprise that, loving these stories like I do, I grew up to write romance.
It’s my love of Fairy tales that inspired my new series Once Upon a Seduction.
This trilogy has three sexy, modern retellings of classic fairy tales. There is no magic…technically. Though the power of the love between the hero and heroine feels magical to me.
The Princes’s Captive Virgin
When I was seven years old the Disney cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast came out in theaters, and my dad took me to see it. That was, and still is, my favorite version of my very favourite Fairy tale.
The Prince’s Captive Virgin, Prince Adam Katsaros’s beastly appearance doesn’t come from a literal curse, but from an accident that killed his wife. Since then he’s concealed himself in his castle, and when a paparazzo tries to capture a photo of the disfigured prince, Adam takes him captive. Enter innocent Belle Chamberlain, who offers to take her father’s place as captive. Adam wants revenge, but Belle, and her love, might be the key to setting Adam free.
The Prince’s Stolen Virgin
Doing a Sleeping Beauty retelling was a little bit trickier for me. The prince in that story isn’t as fleshed out as the beast is. In the classic cartoon, she’s being hidden away from Maleficent, and meets the prince in the woods, but knows she isn’t supposed to talk to him because there’s a threat out there, though we know it doesn’t come from him. So, I decided in my story to make him both the prince…and the dragon.
In The Prince’s Stolen Virgin, Briar Harcourt was sent away from her kingdom as a baby, to keep her save from an evil king who wants to steal her and make her his bride when she’s sixteen years old. Not a curse, but definitely not something you want hanging over your head.
Briar doesn’t know she’s a princess. Raised in New York City by a doctor and his wife, who are overprotective of her has made her cautious. So, when a beautiful man approaches her on the streets, she runs away. And is hit by a taxi.
When she wakes up in the hospital, the strange man is kissing her, then claims to be a prince…one intent on taking her back to his country to marry her.
Prince Felipe isn’t evil like his father, but he is willing to do anything to reclaim his kingdom, and to steal the woman his father wanted as his own. Even if that means kidnapping her and forcing her into marriage…
The Italian’s Pregnant Prisoner
For my Rapunzel story I did not take inspiration from a Disney retelling, but from a slightly darker version.
In The Italian’s Pregnant Prisoner, we open on the reunion. Charlotte was kept captive in her crime lord father’s house for her whole life. Locked in a tower room, she had limited interaction with the outside world. But then she meets Rafe, a man who works for her father, and the two of them start a secret love affair. Of course, that ends badly. When they’re discovered, Charlotte is sent away and her stepmother pushes Rafe out of the tower. The accident leaves Rafe blind.
When they’re reunited years later, their chemistry is still explosive…but their one night reunion has very definite consequences, and when Rafe finds out about Charlotte’s pregnancy, he’s not willing to risk losing her again…
These stories were so fun for me, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Don’t miss any of the Once Upon a Seduction books:
The Italian’s Pregnant Prisoner
To see more from Maisey Yates, visit her author page.