Laura Kaye is the author of 25 novels, mostly romantic suspense and contemporary romance, including the Hard Ink series. Her new book, Ride Hard (Avon, April 26, 2016), is the first in the Raven Riders series. Kaye began writing fiction eight years ago, after a traumatic brain injury left her with a new creative urge. Three years ago, she gave up her job as associate professor of history at the U.S. Naval Academy to write fiction full time. She also writes historical fiction as Laura Kamoie, whose debut novel, America's First Daughter, came out in March. Kaye lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters.
On your nightstand now:
I have a pretty varied taste, which these titles reflect. On my nightstand is The Beast by J.R. Ward. This book is in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which is my all-time favorite romance series. There's also That Summer by Lauren Willig, which I adored for its dual timeline and mysterious atmosphere and tone. Finally, there's Ron Chernow's Hamilton biography and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton: The Revolution, which celebrate both my love for the Broadway show and provides great inspiration for my upcoming historical fiction, My Dear Hamilton (William Morrow, early 2018, with Stephanie Dray).
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett are the ones I most remember. I wrote a paranormal retelling of The Secret Garden when I was no more than 10 or 12. I suppose it was fan fiction before I knew what that was!
Your top five authors:
This is always so hard, but I would say Stephen King, Anne Rice, J.R. Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kristen Ashley.
Book you've faked reading:
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni. It's one I'm super intrigued by, but I keep either picking it up and putting it down or deciding to read something else first. I do want to get to it though!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward, because it has one of the biggest redemption stories and character arcs of any book I've ever read. I just adore it. And it deals with some daring backstory elements, which I found courageous in a series based on strong alpha men.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I bought the U.K. edition of Lover Awakened just because the cover was different from the version(s) I already have! I would've purchased it anyway, but the cover of Lover at Last, also by J.R. Ward, was attention grabbing enough that I would've bought it on the cover alone. I also bought Rin Chupeco's The Girl from the Well based on the creepiness of the cover. I grew up on all things supernatural so I've always loved stories like that.
Book you hid from your parents:
My mother was an avid reader--actually, all the women in my family were. I don't remember hiding any books from her. I read Stephen King, Anne Rice and V.C. Andrews as a teenager, which she knew. I remember more her jokingly complaining how hard it was to keep me in books because I finished them so fast!
Book that changed your life:
I feel like I take something away from every book I read, and that sometimes a book changes you more at one point in your life than it would at another. One example would be Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I first read that in my 20s, and remember being very moved and inspired by the life lessons Morrie shared, and I remember the book making me want to look at how to live life fully and meaningfully. And then I re-read part of it after my mother died unexpectedly at the age of 59, and all I could see then was the sadness of Morrie's final days. So a book can change you in different ways with each new re-reading. A book that more specifically changed my life would be Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, because I read that book while recovering from a brain injury and, later, shoulder surgery. As I healed from both, but particularly the head injury, a strong, new creative urge gripped me, and Twilight inspired me toward a particular outlet for that creativity. Soon after reading it, I completed my first novel in just three months' time.
Favorite line from a book:
This is so not easy to pick either! I could pull a dozen just out of the Harry Potter series alone, but one of my favorites is from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:
"You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."
Five books you'll never part with:
I have to go more with series--I have all the books in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Those will always be on my keeper shelf as books that most inspired various aspects of me and my writing.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I would love to read Dark Lover by J.R. Ward, and the whole Black Dagger Brotherhood series again for the first time. I envy anyone just finding those books anew! But I'd also love to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas and most of the books in the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
