Read The Curse Keepers Collection Online
Authors: Denise Grover Swank
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #United States, #Romance, #New Adult & College, #Paranormal, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Romantic, #Ghosts
The Curse Keepers Collection
Other books by Denise Grover Swank:
Rose Gardner Mysteries
(Humorous Southern mysteries)
TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES
TWENTY-NINE AND A HALF REASONS
THIRTY AND A HALF EXCUSES
FALLING TO PIECES (novella)
THIRTY-ONE AND A HALF REGRETS
THIRTY-TWO AND A HALF COMPLICATIONS
PICKING UP THE PIECES (novella)
THIRTY-THREE AND A HALF SHENANIGANS
Chosen Series
(Paranormal thriller/Urban fantasy)
CHOSEN
HUNTED
SACRIFICE
REDEMPTION
On the Otherside Series
(Young adult science fiction/romance)
HERE
THERE
The Curse Keepers
(Adult urban fantasy)
THE CURSE KEEPERS
THE CURSE BREAKERS
THE CURSE DEFIERS
New Adult Contemporary Romance
AFTER MATH
REDESIGNED
BUSINESS AS USUAL
The Wedding Pact Series
Contemporary Romance
THE SUBSTITUTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
“The Curse Keepers” Text copyright © 2013 by Denise Grover Swank
“This Place is Death” Text copyright © 2014 by Denise Grover Swank
“The Curse Breakers” Text copyright © 2014 by Denise Grover Swank
“This Changes Everything” Text copyright © 2014 by Denise Grover Swank
“The Curse Defiers” Text copyright © 2014 by Denise Grover Swank
“This is Your Destiny” Text copyright © 2015 by Denise Grover Swank
“Introduction” Text copyright © 2015 by Denise Grover Swank
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
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E-ISBN: 9781477879191
Cover design by Kerrie Robertson
C
ONTENTS
I
NTRODUCTION
If you ask any parents which of their children is their favorite, they’ll tell you they don’t have one. If you ask any authors which book or series is their favorite, they’ll tell you the same.
But that would be a lie.
I have six children. I love them all the same—I truly do—but some days, I have a favorite. (Shhh . . . don’t tell them this. I’ll swear it’s not true.) My oldest son might surprise me by bringing me lunch from Chipotle; or my youngest daughter will present me with a picture of the two of us in her imaginary world of ponies that she spent an hour drawing. At either of those moments in time, that particular child holds a very special place in my heart.
Books are the same. Or I should say characters. For me, the characters are the heart of my stories. Everything revolves around them. I’ll come up with the ideas, but the characters bring the stories to life.
It was like that with the Curse Keepers series.
The ideas for
The Curse Keepers
lived in my head for nine months before I could write the book. I’d made a trip to Roanoke and my imagination had come up with so many ideas that I wasn’t sure I could hold them in until I started writing the book in December 2012. I’m very much inspired by music and the song “Sahara” by Relient K almost became a mantra. (My children became quite sick of it.) But before I even wrote the first word, I knew that while the series is told from Ellie Lancaster’s POV, Collin Dailey would never stand for being a wallflower. And as I began to compile a playlist—which I did before I started work and then added to while I was writing and editing—I realized most of the additions were Collin-centric. Collin might have had a limited chance to show himself on the page, but he was very present in my mind.
My characters are not perfect. If you find a perfect character in one of my books, you’ll see a character hiding his or her true self. Besides, perfect—or near perfect—characters are boring. I need the imperfection to allow my characters room to grow. In the beginning of the series, Ellie started off naive and immature. For all the trauma she’d experienced in her short life, being stuck on Roanoke Island and living in Manteo, North Carolina, population 1200, helped create a very sheltered life. A life she longed to escape from. But as strange as this might sound, the growth Ellie makes from
The Curse Keepers
to the determined woman she becomes in
The Curse Defiers
fills me with enormous pride. Almost as if she were my own child.
The Collin we meet in the beginning of
The Curse Keepers
is infuriating and surly for no explicable reason. But once you get to know him through the three novels and end with his story, “This is your Destiny,” you realize the impossible situation he was placed in. The facts he thought he knew when he walked into the New Moon and opened the gate to hell and the deceit he uncovered by the end of
The Curse Defiers
profoundly change him.
Neither character is perfect at the end of this omnibus, nor would I want them to be. In my mind and imagination, they are very real people, and I like who they are becoming. I’m proud of the decisions they’ve made, but there’s plenty of room for more growth.
Over the past two and a half years, I’ve lived off and on in the North Carolina Outer Banks, even if it was only in my head. I’ve made three real trips to Roanoke Island, with more planned, and I’ve fallen in love with the area. The town of Manteo has become somewhat of a character on its own. I’ve enjoyed blending real locations into the books and hope I’ve done the area justice. The fact I’ve gotten e-mails from readers telling me they want to visit the Outer Banks after reading my books leads me to believe I’m at least partially successful.
I started this forward discussing favorites, and the Curse Keepers series ranks pretty high on the list, alternating with my Rose Gardner Mystery series on a regular basis. I’m very proud of this series. The amount of research I’ve put into it and the many, many low places I’ve found myself while writing it have made it harder than I expected, but the characters themselves have inspired me to not give up. Ellie, Collin, and I have come a long way, fought some tough battles, and made it to the other side, and we’re all the stronger for it.
To my son Trace, who always believed in the impossible. And still does.
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