Lost Angels
As Above, So Below Book 1
by Loren Rhoads and Brian Thomas
Genre: Paranormal Romance
When the succubus Lorelei sees Azaziel across Lost Angels, she knows he’s been kicked out of
Heaven, but is not yet Fallen. She resolves to do whatever it takes to bring the angel down.
Unfortunately, Lorelei doesn’t realize that Azaziel has an agenda of his own. Taking her back to a
burned-out church, he forces a mortal girl’s soul into the devil girl’s flesh. Then the succubus needs to
find an exorcist who can cast the ghost out of her.
With all the supernatural warriors of Los Angeles looking on, neither the angel nor the succubus can
imagine how love will derail their plans...
Book Trailer
Angelus Rose
As Above, So Below Book 2
If Romeo had wings and Juliet a barbed tail, could they find happiness in the City of Angels?
After their escape from the ashes of Lost Angels, the succubus Lorelei and the angel Azaziel want
nothing more than to enjoy each other's company. Unfortunately, Asmodeus, the Demon Prince of LA,
has threatened to devour Lorelei's new-grown soul if she doesn't bring about Azaziel's downfall.
Meanwhile, Aza is keeping secrets of his own that threaten the tenuous peace between Heaven and
Hell.
Three archangels come to town to try to set things right, but friendships are fracturing. The demon in
charge of fallen angels is sniffing around. And Los Angeles is about to be caught between a devil and the
deep blue sea.
Loren Rhoads is the co-author (with Brian Thomas) of the novel Lost Angels about a succubus who sets
her sights on an angel and ends up possessed by a mortal girl's soul. The sequel, Angelus Rose, came
out in February 2020.
Loren is the author of The Dangerous Type, Kill By Numbers, and No More Heroes, a space opera
trilogy set after a galactic war has wiped out much of humanity.
She is also the author of 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were Here: Adventures
in Cemetery Travel. She blogs about graveyards as travel destinations at CemeteryTravel.com.
You won't be surprised to know that she likes long walks in the moonlight and old graveyards.
GUEST POST
How I became an author:
My mom was a firm believer in naps.
When I was 5, I didn’t really need to nap, but my 3-year-old
brother walked in his sleep and the doctor suggested maybe he was
overtired. So my mother brought us both into her big bed and laid
down with one of us on either side of her. She’d fling an arm
across my brother and a leg over me to hold us still until naptime
was over.
Unable to sleep or even to wiggle, I
told myself stories to pass the hours. My favorite book at the time
was Peter Pan. I hated Wendy, who sucked the fun out of
everything, but I idolized Princess Tiger Lily, who would rather be
tied to a rock and drowned than betray her friends. In the stories I
told myself, I was Tiger Lily's best friend, standing up to Captain
Hook and flying off on adventures with Peter. I still like those
strong female characters.
Something quirky about me:
I love to visit cemeteries. In addition
to my novels, I've written two books about visiting cemeteries around
the world: 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die and Wish You Were
Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel. Brian Thomas (my co-author) and
I managed to write 3 cemeteries into Angelus Rose: Forest Lawn, where
they have a huge stained glass replica of Da Vinci's The Last Supper;
Westwood Memorial Park, where Marilyn Monroe is buried; and Angelus
Rosedale Cemetery, which served as a backdrop for the first season of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
If I knew I would die tomorrow:
If I knew I would die tomorrow, I would
go out to breakfast at Louis' Restaurant overlooking the ocean. I'd
get a table by the window, where I could watch for whales swimming
by. I'd order waffles drowning in syrup and get all hopped up on
coffee, then I'd walk along the Land's End trail to the Palace of the
Legion of Honor, which stands on the grounds of the former City
Cemetery. The headstones were removed in the 1920s, but most of the
bodies still lie under the grass. I'd sit on the bench in the
sunlight and gaze over the mouth of the San Francisco Bay at the
Golden Gate Bridge. I'd just enjoy the beauty with my husband and
kid. That would be the perfect day, whether I was going to die soon
or not.
What can we expect in the future:
My first novel, still unpublished, was
about a young witch named Alondra DeCourval. I've written a bunch of
stories about her traveling around the world and encountering magical
creatures from a siren in Venice to a fox spirit in Tokyo to the
monster that lives under the Golden Gate Bridge. I've collected the
stories into a couple of short ebooks on Amazon, but I would like to
publish some novels about Alondra's adventures. I've got 3 books in
various states of done, but I'd like to settle down and finally tell
her story.
About the characters in the As
Above, So Below books:
The hero is an angel named Azaziel,
although he prefers to be called Aza. The succubus who falls in love
with him teases him about his name. She thinks there ought to be an
'El" in there somewhere. He's missing the honorific that denotes
his Heavenly origin.
Azaziel's backstory in our novels was
inspired by a play by Lord Byron called Heaven and Earth: A Mystery.
In that story, Azaziel falls in love with Anah, one of Cain's
granddaughters. When God sends the Flood, Azaziel tucks Anah under
his wings and flies away to another plane.
My co-writer Brian Thomas asked what
would happen if Azaziel outlived Anah but wasn't forgiven -- not
necessarily for loving her, but for stepping away from his duties to
be with her. Basically, Aza was faced with a no-win situation: save
the woman he loved or let her drown. He's never forgiven himself for
making a choice. It gave us some juicy stuff to play with.
Our heroine, the succubus Lorelei, was
inspired by a woman I knew at university. Kimmy lived across the hall
from me in the dorm. She was beautiful: large very dark eyes, long
mahogany hair, heart-shaped face. She wasn’t very tall, but she was
seriously curvy. I wasn’t surprised to find she’d done catalog
modeling in high school.
Mostly what I remember about Kimmy was
her presence. She made everything more fun. When she came into a
room, every head turned toward her, but she wasn’t obnoxious about
it. She didn’t seem to crave attention; she just accepted it as
normal.
Kimmy was always ready for anything.
When Playboy came to town, looking to photograph Girls of the Big 10,
she considered it. When she met another girl who had been contacted
by a Greek millionaire who was looking for pretty girls to come
lounge around on his yacht in their bikinis, she considered it. I
think her curiosity about that lifestyle was matched by a small-town
naivety that didn’t really guess what that kind of deal would
demand in return. In consequence, I felt protective of Kimmy. I
didn’t want her trusting nature to lead her into a situation she
couldn’t charm her way out of.
Lorelei came directly out of that
feeling. I wanted to explore the possibilities laid out in front of
Kimmy, but know that Lorelei would survive them. I wanted to give
Kimmy a happy ending and a boyfriend she wanted just as much as he
wanted her. And I wanted to guarantee she’d never lose her
fearlessness or sense of fun.
How did we come up with the title:
The working title of the original book
was Hex Vex Sex. I had a long-sleeved black t-shirt that I'd bought
on Haight Street with the slogan written down its sleeve. Brian
thought the phrase summed up our story, from Lorelei's initial
seduction of Aza, to Aza's possessing Lorelei with a mortal girl's
ghost, then their eventual Happy For Now ending.
Along the way, the book's title changed
to As Above, So Below, which we took from the old magical texts. In
fact, the first novel was originally published under that title in
2013. When we got the rights back, we changed that novel's title to
Lost Angels, which is the name of the bar where Lorelei works in Los
Angeles.
The second book is called Angelus Rose.
We talked about changing it a couple of times, but never came up with
anything we liked better.
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