Mariana and I met via http://www.thenextbigwriter.com and today I’m pleased to feature her book on my blog. I hope you’ll take a moment to check out her novel, Amber Eyes, and read all about her because she’s had an interesting life!

Be sure and read all the way to the end of this post to find out what questions Mariana chose to answer and follow her on social media.

Mariana Reuter is a Cosmopolitan girl. Born French and daughter to a diplomat, she has lived in Paris, London, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and New Jersey. Don’t think it’s been easy! She never learned Portuguese, but otherwise, she mixes English, Spanish, and French up to a point she feels she’ll go crazy and will end up locked in a cushioned room.
As a little girl, she was nicknamed Gazelle (in French, even though the spelling is the same in English) for reason not completely clear nowadays. After living in Mexico, it was translated to Gacela, a nick all her friends and relations use.
Currently working for a worldwide pharmaceutical company, she commutes between Puebla, Mexico, and Raritan, New Jersey, every two weeks. Talk about reasons to end up institutionalized!
Since a little girl, her two passions have been reading and writing. Her favorite stories are Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Montecristo, Romulo Gallegos’s Doña Barbara, Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. In middle grade, she started writing Doyle- and Christie-inspired mystery stories, but, by the end of high school, she discovered that young adult stories were her true inspiration. Her first novel, Amber Eyes, was published in May 2015 on Amazon. Her second novel, Where Heaven and Hell Meet, is due for September 2017.
An active Girl Scout, Mariana loves outdoors and hiking. She has a younger sis and, while in Puebla, she lives with her parents. She currently has no boyfriend, which doesn’t mean she’s not accepting applications for dating!

Alexandra is a teenage tomboy. On the same day on which her mother escapes with her lover, her friend Jennifer asks Alex to be her girlfriend and start dating her, which utterly confuses Alex—she’s never thought of taking the tomboy thing that far. A week later, her stepfather attempts to rape her, but Alex runs away from home in the middle of the night.
Seeking help, Alex travels to her grandmother’s hometown. Unbeknownst to her, the town’s ruinous mansion keeps the key to solving her father’s murder, but the ghouls who keep the secret are not somebody to mess with. The mansion’s old, half demented gatekeeper seems to be only one who recognizes Alex. However, can an old, crippled man save her from her fate?
Alex will fall in love with the wrong chap, which will further confuse her—wasn’t she about to start dating another girl? Despite his efforts to protect her, both will face certain death. Will Alex be able to act fast enough to save them, or will he die in the same cold-blooded way in which her father did?
An epic coming of age tale in which a teenage girl must be brave enough to break with her family’s paranormal past to understand her present. A tender story about a girl who must first discover her own sexuality before falling in love.

Social and buy links
Amber Eyes, purchase in Amazon link: http://goo.gl/b5JSS8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelgaMarianaReuter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Mariana_Reuter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mariana_Reuter

Five on Friday Questions

 If there was one person, real, fiction or fantasy, you could spend time with, who would it be and why?

I would certainly date Edmundo Dantes, the Count of Montecristo. He has such a strong character! Mysterious, a billionaire, charming and elegant, he protects his beloved ones and is merciless with his foes, has traveled the world and been in exotic countries. Wow! He must be the most interesting man on Earth, well above the Dos Equis beer chap!

Ann: That’s a great choice. He has all the qualities a woman wants!!

Do you have any family traditions? If so, what?

Besides Christmas, my family also celebrates Easter with a large family dinner. Or course, there are no presents, but lots of chocolate eggs!

Ann: A girl can never go wrong with chocolate.

 Do you ever write naked?

It’s not my regular way of writing. However, there’s an erotic scene (as erotic as it can be in YA) both in Amber Eyes and Where Heaven and Hell Meet (to be published in September 2017), which I did write naked for greater inspiration. It was fun and sexy!

Ann: Oh my gosh, Mariana! You’re the first person to ever choose to answer this question. I’ve never written in the buff, but I do wear a crown from time to time just to lift my spirit!

 Are the names of characters in your novels important?

I strongly believe in it. A name is a way to represent a person’s psyche. In Amber eyes, the protagonists’ names start with the first letters of the alphabet while the antagonists’ with the last ones. In, Where Heaven and Hell Meet, the protagonist’s second names are city names, e.g., Melissa Denver, Patrick London, while the antagonists’ are Scotch brands: William Lawson, Mr. Buchanan. Clever readers can easily tell the good guys from the bad ones only by their names. I also tend to hide other character traits within the names.

Ann: I love that! Names are a big deal to me also. Since I’m a Texan, I like to stay true to our state choosing unusual names I’ve heard over the years, or, visiting cemeteries to get old names off of tombstones.

 What’s next for you? Any upcoming releases we should be looking out for?

My new YA story Where Heaven and Hell Meet is planned to be self-published on Amazon in September 2017.
This new story is about Athens McLaren, a 16-year-old, high school freshman in a wheelchair after she tried to commit suicide. Suddenly, this mysterious society, The Brotherhood, is after her. They had already killed another girl from Athens’s high school, even though nobody suspects them–well, nobody even knows the society exists. When Athens learns they are looking forward to locating and destroying the reincarnation on ancient she-devil, and that they think she’s such reincarnation, her life turns into a nightmare running for her life.

Ann: Sounds interesting and YA is such a big market these days. And, you’ve used a name I love for your character, Athens. I grew up about 15 miles from Athens, Texas!

Thank you so much, Mariana for posting on my blog today. We’ll keep an eye out for your new book!