Welcome to author Parker Foye, who’s joining us today to introduce their brand new novel, Mage of Inconvenience, a part of the Dreamspun Beyond house line from Dreamspinner Press!
Hello and thanks to The Novel Approach for hosting me today! Today I wanted to write about something that features strongly in Mage of Inconvenience: tropes.
Before I knew what tropes were, I loved tropes. I read a lot of fantasy and historicals when I was a kid, so if you imagine a world somewhere between Chrestomanci and Sharpe, that’s where I grew up. Off the top of my head, that gives us narrative and character tropes like magical orphans, alternate timelines, alternate worlds, poor kid does good, band of brothers, rich guys are jerks, found family… It’s a rich bounty, is what I’m saying. And I grew to recognise the signs of some of my favourites.
Then I got into romance and discovered a genre with all that deliciousness plus a focus on the development of romantic and/or sexual relationships – and go-to-the-ends-of-earth love with kissing on top. With werewolves.
Be still my heart.
Romance introduced me to new tropes to learn and love, and what’s really neat, for me, is how romance authors embrace—and frequently invert, or play on expectations of—tropes. This is one of the many things I enjoy about the genre as both reader and writer, especially when tired tropes become new as the genre expands to better represent the diversity of the world we live in.
Which brings us to Mage of Inconvenience. As I wrote this story, I imagined it as one of those two-hour long inheritance/crime dramas produced by the BBC in the early 90s (yes, that’s very specific, why do you ask?). Except with werewolves and magic. Mage of Inconvenience has familial machinations, mistaken identities, shady business deals, and—Well, the clue is in the title! A classic marriage of convenience between West, our runaway werewolf, and playboy mage Julian.
I wanted the tropes turned up to eleven for this one, and I hope you agree—and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
About the Book
Can they find the magic in a practical union?
West is on the run from his werewolf pack, but if he cannot renew his magical defenses, he won’t get far. What he needs is a mage….
Julian is part of a wealthy and ancient family, and one day, his legacy will include his mother’s vast library of spell books—and the knowledge he needs to correct his past mistakes. But his inheritance comes with a stipulation: he has to be married before he can collect. What he needs is a husband….
West and Julian can help each other, and at first they don’t want anything further. But as they dodge meddling cousins, jealous rivals, and an insidious drug, it becomes clear that their lives are entwined in ways they never imagined—and they’re in greater danger than they thought possible.
Buy the book at Dreamspinner | Amazon CA/COM/UK | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Parker Foye writes speculative-flavored romance under the QUILTBAG umbrella and believes in happily ever after, although sometimes their characters make achieving this difficult.
An education in Classics nurtured a love of heroes, swords, monsters, and beautiful people doing stupid things while wearing only scraps of leather. You’ll find those things in various guises in Parker’s stories, along with kissing (very important) and explosions (very messy). And more shifters than you can shake a stick at.
Used to living out of a suitcase, Parker is currently of fixed abode in the UK but still travels regularly via planes, trains, and an ever-growing library.