The ability to magnetize and manipulate metal with the flick of her wrist makes seventeen-year-old Lexi Adams a crack mechanic, but it’s a disaster in the making when her stepdad trades her skills to NASCAR team owner Dean Grant for an entire season’s worth of sponsorship ads.
Now Lexi has no other choice but to suck it up and hope she can keep her magnetic impulses under control—that is, until she runs into NASCAR’s hot new rookie, Colton Tayler.
When Carl Stacy, the ruthless team owner of the defending Cup Champion, discovers Lexi’s secret and plots to use it to ruin Dean’s race team for good, Lexi must either expose her ability to save Colton, risking Dean’s career and her own freedom in the process, or watch the only guy she’s ever fallen for race to his death.
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I’m so excited to have my agency sister, Lucy Briand, here today, talking about comic book heroes, racing, and her new release, Magnetic Shift. Lucy was kind enough to answer some of my nosy questions, and since she’s a fellow geek all the way, she fits in just fine. And here we go!
CJ: I love the concept of Magnetic Shift. Paranormal racing romance? Hello! Is it your fondness for NASCAR that inspired you to write this story, or something else?
Lucy: Definitely my love of NASCAR mixed in with my fascination with paranormal abilities. I always love reading stories with paranormal elements in the real world. I’m a big X-MEN fan and anything Marvel related therefore why not mash up the two.
CJ: I want the lowdown on Lexi – was she born with her super-power of magnetizing and manipulating metal, or was it some sort of garage grease accident gone bad?
Lucy: She was actually born with the ability to detect metals, sense them like you and I can sense a change in temperature or that something isn’t right. An unexplained abnormality with her blood iron levels just like her father before her. Only, when she was struck by lightning the day of her mother’s funeral her ability morphed into what it is now. The ability to move the objects she can sense which also wreaks havoc on her blood iron levels.
CJ: What makes Colton Tayler so special?
Lucy: He’s hot…? Lol
Lexi struggled with controlling her ability for a few years, but managed to maintain her secret while secluded at the scrap yard where she lived and worked for her step dad. She was somewhat confident that she could keep it together when she was sent away to work with Colton’s team, but she completely underestimated her ability and its links to her emotions. And for a girl who’s never experienced the intense feelings of falling for someone or meeting anyone worthy of gushing over, well that was a disaster waiting to manifest. What makes Colton so special? He unleashes all those new emotions in her for the first time and all hell brakes lose…
CJ: If Lexi was a comic book heroine, what name would you give her?
Lucy: This is a tough one since Magneto, Magneta, and Polaris are already taken…lol
So maybe “Lodestone” That would be a cool name. Lodestone is one of only two minerals that is found naturally magnetized. Sounds accurate.
CJ: Ooh, yeah. Lodestone. Perfect.
CJ: What’s your next writing venture?
Lucy: I am currently revising an untitled “Fast and the Furious” style paranormal story about a girl who is unbeatable on the quarter mile, but when an apparition starts appearing to her at the finish line all wheels break loose.
I’m also planning a MAGNETIC SHIFT spin off but haven’t worked out all the creative kinks yet.
Favorites flash round:
Walt Disney World ride: Epcot’s Test Track… duh!!
Board game: Shadow Hunters made by Z-Man Games. I like games that keep me guessing who is who and who to watch out for.
X-men hero(ine): Rogue for sure.
Drink: Vanilla Coke, more specifically American Vanilla Coke. The Canadian version they had here a few years ago was gross.
Book boyfriend: Other than Colton…? Lol I’d have to say Daniel from the Fallen Series. Yum! Can’t wait for the movie.
Food: The French Canadian thing to say would be Poutine (fries, cheese curds drenched in gravy), but I’ll have to say an OCCO Kitchen cheese burger with candied bacon. OCCO Kitchen is a local catering place where I live that makes the best gourmet burgers from scratch. They even make their own buns and sauces. And come on…Candied bacon!! SO GOOD!
CJ: How could candied bacon possibly be wrong?
Star Wars character: old school Star Wars – definitely Darth Vader. New School Force Awakens Star Wars – love me some BB8
Movie: Days of Thunder, no wait… Star Wars, no wait… Guardians of the Galaxy, no wait… The Sorcerer’s Apprentice… okay what are you trying to do to me here? lol
Comic book villain: Magneto and Mystique, also Darth Vader if you count the Star Wars Comics
TV show boyfriend: Oliver Queen from Arrow. Met this incredible Canadian Actor once. He’s just as yummy in person as he is on the show. And… he held my hand **Squee**.
CJ: He freakin’ touched you? *Swoon*
Costume you’ve worn to ComiCon: last one I did was a genderbend cosplay of Arrow.
CJ: That’s one awesome costume, Lucy! Thanks so much for joining me today!
Lucy D. Briand lives in Ottawa, Canada with her comic book fanatic husband and her nonchalant Siamese cat. By day she works full time as a public servant for the Government of Canada, but by night her creative mind takes over and conjures up young adult gear-head romance stories with supernatural twists.
When not working, reading, writing, or watching way too much TV, Lucy likes to cosplay, attend ComicCons, go on road trips to Walt Disney World, and play ridiculous amounts of board games. She’s a geek to the core but is also a huge NASCAR Cup fan.
Lucy is represented by Brittany Booker Carter of The Booker Albert Literary Agency.
Connect with Lucy! Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads * Instagram
Oh my gosh. That sounds so fun! I love the setting and that para is brought into a setting it’s not usually seen in romance. How different!
Right?! Such a unique idea, and I love seeing a girl in the race car setting, working with the mechanics.