The last book of the Circus Hearts series is finally here! You can find Ren and Zep’s story at any of these platforms:
A teenage contortionist and a young cardsharp risk danger to right a family legacy of injustice.…
Nineteen-year-old contortionist Ren Putri is committed to circus, study and self-discipline – in that order. But after being rescued from a carnival fire by cardsharp Zep Deal, she’s overwhelmed by some highly disorderly thoughts. Zep has a long history of trouble, and now he’s been suspected of sabotaging the circus that’s become his whole life. Ren is already coping with family, and keeping secrets of her own – but she can’t resist a mystery. Will Ren’s penchant for solving puzzles bring the case against Zep to rights, or will digging further into the bad blood between rival carnivals only put them both in danger?
*
Yay! This book was great fun to write, and I love the combination of sweet and sexy in the relationship between Ren Putri and Zep Deal. The first two books of the series involved characters who already knew each other well, but All Aces takes two people from passing acquaintances to romantic bond – it was fun to write a blooming romance like that, and especially fun to gently push a very ‘proper’ character like Ren out of her comfort zone. Also…cardsharps? I *love* them, and I got totally addicted to watching cardistry vids on Youtube while I was researching all the cool things Zep could do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nroKZMtOMSk
One of the best things about writing Ren and Zep was…finally being able to put my Indonesian language skills to use in a story! Some of you might know that I lived in Indonesia for a long time (about four years – my husband has lived there longer, about 10 years on and off) and I also teach Indonesian language at school. That’s not to say I didn’t need my language checked – I totally did, mainly because it’s been a few years since I lived in country (and language is an organic thing; meanings and words can change) but also because I needed to check the slang (slang is waaay harder to write, of course). It’s not that there’s pages and pages of Indonesian in the book – more that I wanted to make sure that the language I used was right, and I wanted to make sure that Ren was well-repped. For any Indonesian-speaking readers out there, I hope I’ve done it right 🙂
I really hope you enjoy this one! It’s also the end of the Circus Hearts series for now, at least, although I am toying with the idea of another story in this universe… I guess I’ll see how people like the books overall, but I’m planning to write a new short Circus Hearts story for my subscribers for the New Year.
If you’d like a copy of the paperbacks of the Circus Hearts books, they come out on December 1 in bookstores and on Amazon. Personalised signed copies will be available through my local bookstore (you can go to my Books page to find out more), but I’m also planning to visit and sign in bookstores around Australia (Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide) before Christmas – if you’re keen for the paperbacks, talk to your local bookseller about ordering!
Thank you so much to everyone who’s been involved in the creation of the series, to every reader who’s picked up a copy of the books, and to every fan who’s signal-boosted and shared – I’m truly grateful, and so very happy to see people excited about this series! It’s been a long and busy year, and while I’m not hanging up my pen (I’m currently working on another book already! Sheesh), I’m enjoying the break from book releases for a while. Four books in one year is quite enough to be going on with, I think 🙂
I’ll talk again soon about signing dates, but until then, have an excellent week!
xxEllie