Blog Archives

Lex Chase’s Bayou Fairy Tale Blog Tour

Hello everyone! I’m Lex Chase and I want to thank Nina and the crew here at Gaylist Book Reviews for letting me come in and invade their space. (Don’t worry, folks. That’s a joke.) I’m here for the Bayou Fairy Tale Blog Tour with a super awesome double-feature post extravaganza!

Bayou is the long awaited sequel to Americana Fairy Tale. It’s only been a…somethingsomethingyearsomethingsomething. Bayou continues the tale of fuck-up fairy tale princess dude Taylor Hatfield and his true love a jackass redneck huntsman by the name of Corentin Devereaux. But there’s more than one princess to this tale. Taylor’s brother, Atticus Hatfield.

He’s got…um… issues. Yeah. Totally. Let’s meet this charming individual shall we?

Isn’t he just a chipper, happy guy? You get to meet his true love Idi the Witchking down below in this double-feature extravaganza and he’s just a true delight!

For those of you who have read Americana, it was as much as Taylor’s origin story of who he would become just as much as Atticus’s fall from grace. We learn Atticus is Snow White, and Snow’s origin isn’t exactly all flowers, rainbows, and cleaning up after seven dwarfs and whistling while working. The princesses are in fact defenders of their kingdoms against the forces of evil, and Snow is their leader. The Fairest of Them All is seen as a savior to some, and a butcher to others. Since the days of the Enchanted Forest, Snow White was judge, jury, and executioner against all the princess had deemed evil.

And those other Enchants were not necessarily evil. Snow was up to some pretty crooked shit, all the while looked upon as a hero.

Why can’t he just do something cute? Like…Talk to sweet baby birds?

In the Fairy Tales of the Open Road series, I take the fairy tale characters we all know, stick them in a blender, and press frappe. Some are a mix of different stories, some are a completely different take. Some are semi-sorta-somewhere in the ballpark literal.

For Atticus in particular is a combination of Snow White and the Snow Queen. All my Enchants possess magic, and Atticus gets his from the Snow Queen story with having control over ice. He can do some pretty crazy business with it. And like all princesses, they have some total innocent, fluffy name for it.

Atticus’s ultimate power is called the Tranquil Frost. That sounds awesome right?

No.

It’s an ability where he can bury vast swaths of countryside under snow and freeze people to death to have “peace and tranquility.”

That’s a big bucket of nope right there.

There ain’t no “Letting It Go” in this mess.

Atticus is also an interesting character to me in a lot of ways. When I was creating his story in Americana, I wanted to be sure he was just as interesting as Taylor. Because ultimately the story is about Taylor and Corentin. But I still wanted readers to be just as engrossed with Atticus’s journey and development as the primary antagonist of the series.

Well, I guess that totally worked, because Atticus has a very devoted fanbase called the Precious Snowflakes. I love them, and I love how invested they are in Atticus’s evolution. In fact, it was the Precious Snowflakes that inspired me to create a series just for him.

Atticus may not be a huge focus in Bayou Fairy Tale, and I had planned for him to have another side story with the book. But it was just too much, too spoilery, and laying way too much out on the table. And with Idi at his side who knows what chaos they can cause together. How about we meet him too?

Previously in Americana Fairy Tale, Taylor and Corentin went toe to toe with the most fearsome foe in all the world. The very force of chaos, Idi the Witchking. Even though Taylor and Corentin were determined to stop him, there are two sides to every story. And Idi’s story should explain. Maybe?

Well.

Ain’t he a charmer?

Despite being evil incarnate, I didn’t set out for Idi to be evil for the sake of being evil. He’s complicated and has layers himself. He’s my Jareth the Goblin King of Labyrinth.

He’s single-mindedly in love with Atticus, and Idi will do anything, anything at all to prove his love and devotion. Even kill for it. But there’s a reason.

In the case of Enchants like Taylor, Corentin, Atticus and the whole lot, they die and get reborn, again and again, throughout the generations. They may be men, they may be women. They may have a gay or lesbian relationship, they may have a heterosexual one. Their personalities may be completely different. But one things remain is will always be soulmates.

Idi? He doesn’t get to die. He’s a force, he’s the very representation of the human Id. His gift is to inhabit various bodies of unsuspecting men and occasionally women when needs be. He has inhabited countless people throughout time. He’s found Snow White, loved his princess, watched his princess pass away, and wait for his princess to be reborn again.

But he is what he is, he is a truly terrible and feared monster among the Enchants. And the Enchants make a stand against Idi getting to Snow White and corrupting his princess to his ways. In his eyes, he’s not corrupting, he’s making his princess understand the truth. That they are truly meant to be.

But this doesn’t go well for him. It never goes well. And throughout time, he’s failed in having Snow at his side again and again. This would make anyone insane. Idi, instead of giving up, he got angry. How could they not understand that Snow was his? If they just let them be, everything would be okay.

In the course of Americana Fairy Tale, Atticus does come around to Idi’s charms, and understands his destiny. Many readers back then had asked me if Atticus does get redeemed and find his prince in the end. Though some readers don’t want to believe it, Idi is his true love.

And you better hang on for the ride of their intense love affair, because it’s only just the beginning.

So tell me what you think! Do you think that through it all, do you think love can melt the coldest heart? Let me know in the comments and leave your entry for the giveaway!

Genre: Urban Fantasy Fairy Tale
Series: The Screw-Up Princess and Skillful Huntsman Trilogy: Book Two (A Fairy Tales of the Open Road Novel)
Length: Novel
Published: October 19, 2015
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
ISBN: 978-1-62798-499-7
Buy: Paperback or eBook

Blurb:
Modern day fairy tale princess Taylor Hatfield has problems. One: he’s a guy. Two: he’s Sleeping Beauty, the most useless princess in existence. Throw in his true love, Corentin Devereaux, a huntsman descended from child-eating witches, and Taylor’s younger brother, Atticus—this generation’s Snow White—who tried to kill him. That didn’t go so hot.

For two years, Taylor and Corentin live their Happily Ever After. But Corentin’s cursed to lose his memory every seven days, including his life with Taylor—a painful reminder that he can’t provide for the man he loves. Taylor insists Corentin has the strength to succeed, and when Taylor discovers a way to break the curse, he is more than willing to pay the cost.

When an enchanted blizzard devastates Corentin’s hometown of New Orleans, Taylor is convinced Atticus is to blame and grows desperate to find him amidst the Big Easy turned frozen wasteland. Corentin believes Taylor is chasing a ghost while he chases the ghosts of his own past. Old tensions scratch open scars, leaving both to wonder if they have each other’s best interests at heart. The clock is ticking until Corentin loses his memory, and the rabbit hole goes so deep they may never come out.

About the Author:

Lex Chase once heard Stephen King say in a commercial, “We’re all going to die, I’m just trying to make it a little more interesting.” Now, she’s on a mission to make the world a hell of a lot more interesting.

Weaving tales of cinematic, sweeping adventure—and depending on how she feels that day—Lex sprinkles in high-speed chases, shower scenes, and more explosions than a Hollywood blockbuster. Her pride is in telling stories of men who kiss as much as they kick ass. If you’re going to march into the depths of hell, it better be beside the one you love.

Lex is a pop culture diva, her DVR is constantly backlogged, and unapologetically loved the ending of Lost. She wouldn’t last five minutes without technology in the event of the apocalypse and has nightmares about refusing to leave her cats behind.

She is grateful for and humbled by all the readers. She knows very well she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them and welcomes feedback.

You can find in the Intarwebz here:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LXChase
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Lex_Chase
Tumblr: http://lexiconofkittens.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lexachase
Site: http://lexchase.com

I’m having a Down on the Bayou Giveaway where one lucky winner will walk away with a magical fairy tale prize pack! From Corentin’s mini journal, to a delicious bottle of Disney’s Snow White perfume, Lex Chase swag annnndddd….

This lovely necklace!

US residents only please, but for International residents, you’ll get a lovely 20 dollar Amazon Gift Card!

Don’t forget about the multiple ways to enter! Not only do you need to comment, you can tweet! Use the hashtag #BayouFairyTale! Or enter via Instagram!