Sweet Six with author Kimberley Griffiths Little

I'm so excited that award-winning author Kimberley Griffiths Little is dropping by our blog today! You might know Kimberley as a bestselling middle grade author, but she's jumping into the YA pool with her hugely anticipated FORBIDDEN trilogy. The first book comes out in late 2014, and I can't wait. FORBIDDEN is a sweepingly epic and sensuous novel, a story of peer pressure and cults set against the ancient art of belly dance, in which 16-year-old Jayden's faith and character is tested to her limits. Swoon, right? I'm so eager to read this book that I reread THE RED TENT just to tide me over until next fall.

Kimberley Griffiths Little

The Sweet Six:

1) Tell us about your book!

Belly dance, high stakes romance, tribal warfare, goddess temples of the ancient Middle East . . . well, um, here’s a little synopsis:

FORBIDDEN: It’s 1759 BCE in Mesopotamia, and sixteen-year-old Jayden is feeling reluctant about her future. Forced to give away her twin baby brother and sister after her mother dies in childbirth, Jayden, her sister Leila and their father must make the long and harrowing journey across the desert to a new home. But then a mysterious, wounded boy from the Southern lands shows up at their camp. Dark, handsome and seemingly full of secrets, Kadesh has a way of filling Jayden with a passion and longing she never knew was possible. But Jayden is already promised to Horeb, her sinister cousin, whose evil motives of destruction have Jayden desperate for escape. With the thought of her long-lost baby brother and sister hanging over her head, her forbidden attraction to Kadesh growing stronger, and Horeb’s violent approaches haunting her every move, Jayden must make a deadly trek through the unforgiving elements of the desert in order to save the ones she loves.

2) What scene in your book do you LOVE the most?

I gotta pick just one?! :-)

One of the most tense and romantic scene is while Jayden and Kadesh are in the narrow canyon at Petra and end up caught in a flash flood and barely make it out alive. Jayden is trying to push away these incredibly strong feelings for him (she’s betrothed to someone else and they are in a culture and time period when she’s forbidden to marry out of the tribe) and the way Kadesh just speaks her name and touches her hand sends her into orbit. Of course, there’s also the scene where Kadesh is saying goodbye and may be killed, and they kiss for the first time – SWOON HEAVEN!

Those two scenes are also the ones I revised endlessly.

3) If you had to pick a character you LOVE (and not your own!), who would you pick and why?

Bella Swan from Twilight because I can IMPRINT on her – and be loved by a vampire and a werewolf at the same time!!

More seriously, I love the indomitable Jane Eyre, because she always stays true to herself and loves others so deeply.

4) What's the craziest/most memorable valentine you've ever received?

The year my husband proposed marriage - with fortune cookies he baked himself –  inserting his own messages. He’s got a very dry wit and they had all kinds of funny wisdom from Confucius. He kept rearranging the plate of cookies to make sure one particular fortune cookie was the last one I chose. When I finally cracked it open it read: “Rusty say: Will you marry me?” Of course, I gasped, and then I said “YES!”
 

5) If you were a Brach's Heart, what phrase would be written on you?

 

EPIC!!! (Can you tell I have a particular project on the brain?)

 

6)The all-important choice: flowers or candy?

 

A heart-shaped box of caramel pecan Turtles – all to myself!
 

 

Perfect answer! Thanks so much for visiting us today, Kimberley! Readers, you can connect with Kimberley online at the below links. And be sure to pick up your own copy of FORBIDDEN (HarperCollins) in fall 2014.

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