Friends are usually a key part of our everyday lives, whether we work in solitary fields (like most paranormal romance writers), or we have day jobs with an abundance of coworkers. Friends are important regardless of family dynamics or background. So it’s a natural extension that friends matter in the books we read too.
For me as a reader when the characters, setting, and plot come together to form a seamless world, I sink into the adventure, paranormal romance novel, thriller, or historical romance. The book becomes a place I can see in my mind, the characters are people I’d want to meet and hang out with. It’s fun, escapism at it’s best.
Friendships as tools of world building for a paranormal romance novel are vital to connect the character, the setting, and often the plot. In Virginia Kantra‘s latest, Immortal Sea, the lead characters first get together because the friend lets down the heroine – she isn’t where she said she’d be. The heroine makes choices, encounters the hero, makes more choices and the rest of the book deals with the consequences.
Don’t let that dry statement of ‘facts’ deter you – the book is fabulous!
When they meet later they’re both outsiders in Kantra’s established, small island community. As a fan of this series, it’s always great to see a glimpse of characters continuing on in their relationships. But here, it’s more than satisfying reader longing as Kantra uses her previous heroes and heroines to further the series and educate the hero and heroine of the current novel.
Both the hero and heroine are ‘loners’ for various reasons when they are reacquainted on the island. Due to circumstances, they have to befriend each other to cope with changes, choices, and consequences. But more than that, they have to recognize the inherent strength and value of the people around them who have developed bonds and are better for doing so.
Each romantic pair from previous books gives the current couple something to think about, to hope for, to take a risk for the reward of lasting love. It’s one of the finest examples of friendships woven into the very fabric of the world building for a paranormal romance novel I’ve ever read.
Live the adventure!
