Question: Is Tear Down the Throne a YA book? What about the other books in your Gargoyle Queen and Crown of Shards series?

Answer: No. No, no, no, no, no. My epic fantasy books are NOT YA books.

I feel like I have been shouting this from the social media rooftops for years now, ever since Kill the Queen, Crown of Shards #1, came out in 2018, but I will say it again:

MY EPIC FANTASY BOOKS ARE NOT YA BOOKS!!!

I don’t know how I can make this any clearer, and yet I still see lots of reviews/comments labeling Capture the Crown, Gargoyle Queen #1, and the three books in my Crown of Shards series as YA books. Once again, these are NOT YA books. They are adult books that contain violence, cursing, romantic scenes, and other adult themes.

In Capture the Crown, Gemma Ripley is 29 – she is most definitely an adult. In my Crown of Shards series, Everleigh Blair is 27 – she too is most definitely an adult.

So why the confusion? I’ve seen some comments saying that Gemma’s and Evie’s voices sound/read like YA voices. Maybe that’s how folks are reading it, but that’s not how I’m writing the characters. To me, both Gemma and Evie have a little more of a grandiose epic fantasy voice than Gin Blanco from my Elemental Assassin series with her gritty, modern, Southern drawl – but it is NOT a YA voice.

I’ve seen other fantasy authors having the same problem – readers are labeling their adult books as YA books and then complaining about the language and romantic scenes in those books. So why the trend? An author friend suggested that many people just assume that if a female author is writing fantasy books, then they must be YA books. I think there might be some truth to this, and it makes me really angry, frustrated, and sad.

Every once in a while, I will get a rude/mean/nasty email saying that I need to take out the cursing and romantic scenes because they aren’t appropriate for YA books. Please don’t do that to me or any other author. Just because you pick up a book thinking it’s one genre or kind of story doesn’t mean that the book is actually that genre or kind of story.

I also find it extremely ironic that I never – NEVER! – get any complaints about the violence in the books, even from folks who think they are YA books. For example, there are pages – PAGES! – of violence/massacre in Kill the Queen, and yet, I never get any complaints about those scenes.

So long story short, Tear Down the Throne is not a YA book. The characters are adults, and they do adult things. If you ever have a question about what to label a book, check out the author’s website and see what they say about it.

I hope everyone enjoys Tear Down the Throne when it is released. Thank you for reading.

Other authors — do you have this problem with your adult fantasy books?

Tear Down the Throne will be released May 3 at all the usual retailers, and the book is available to pre-order.

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