Love Bytes welcome to their blog author TJ Nichols who is here to talk about new release “Oliver”, part of the order of the Black Knights series by Dreamspinner Press.
Welcome TJ 🙂
Family bonds
I didn’t realize as I was writing Olivier that a running thread through the story is family and how it can shape who you are for better or worse, but also how family loyalty isn’t always a good thing. As children we are all dependant on our family, they are our world. It’s only as we get older that we start to question not only who we are but who are parents are. We might realise that the values of our parents aren’t ours, or that our parents are either too clingy or absent. Not every character will have a great family and not all of them will have a good relationship with the members in their family.
Cody is estranged from his family for several reasons, the main one being that he chose to follow his heart and live his life the way he wanted, instead of following his father’s plan for him—which was to be a lawyer. Living in Las Vegas as a magic shop owner is about as far away from his family in distance and life as he can get. His brother stayed and followed the game plan. Over the years even his relationship with his brother became stretched. When his brother is killed Cody is drawn back into the family drama and while he wants to believe that they are good people it isn’t possible as truths are unburied.
For Olivier his family is everything. He and his sister sacrificed their futures for their mother. He dotes on his niece and would do anything for his sister. He knows he brings trouble and he is coming to hate what he does, but he doesn’t have any alternatives.
As the story progresses, and the curse starts to draw Cody and Olivier together both of them will have to make hard choices when it comes to their family. If Cody had stayed his brother might be alive, but he’d hate his life. If Olivier stopped trying to save people, he wouldn’t be trapped.
While the story on the surface is about a curse and the need to break it or repeat it in the next life, it is also about finding your place and accepting who you are. And maybe even making a new family.
Olivier
Order of the Black Knights
Olivier Merlo works for a dangerous man. He does what he’s told without asking questions because he needs to protect his sister and niece. When someone gives his boss trouble, Olivier does what he does best. It’s a routine hit—until the victim’s brother starts poking around.
Cody Anders left his family behind a decade ago—along with their wealth and influence—to live on his own terms. Still, he knows his twin didn’t die of a drug overdose, and he’ll do anything to find the truth. What he uncovers is a conspiracy that will topple his family and leave him staring down the barrel of a gun.
Olivier must decide if he’s going to obey orders or free himself from the curse that has guided his hand for centuries. Cody, who challenges Olivier’s notion that no one can love him, holds the key to breaking his chains. But when the truth finally comes out, it might be more than Cody can accept.
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TJ Nichols is an avid runner and martial arts enthusiast who first started writing as child. Many years later while working as a civil designer, TJ decided to pick up a pen and start writing again. Having grown up reading thrillers and fantasy novels, it’s no surprise that mixing danger and magic comes so easily, writing urban fantasy allows TJ to bring magic to the every day. TJ enjoys writing novellas and novels and has a series, Studies in Demonology, coming out with DSP Publications.
With two cats acting as supervisors, TJ has gone from designing roads to building worlds and wouldn’t have it any other way. After traveling all over the world and Australia, TJ now lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Website: www.tjnichols-author.blogspot.com
Twitter: @TobyJNichols
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TJNichols.author
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