[Blog Tour] Frosted by M.C. Frank – Q&A About the new Regency Enemies-To-Lovers Romance!

It’s my stop with MTMC Tours to talk about FROSTED by M.C. Frank!

With a pitch like “Frozen meets Jane Austen in an enemies-to-lovers Regency novel” I knew I had to have this. (And cannot stop staring at the absolutely gorgeous cover.) This was both a fun and engaging read, featuring two characters who absolutely adore each other and absolutely (for so many reasons) cannot be together. It’s filled with secrets and ice cold interactions, passionate declarations of love and sharp rejections. It’s a story of yearning and loneliness and will keep you guessing whether Stella and Vaughn are perfect for each other —  or if they’ll drive shards of ice into each other’s hearts.

It’s set in the 1800s and the story starts with Stella and Vaughn meeting again after years of bitter silence after Stella left Vaughn with no explanation just before they were meant to marry. Vaughn’s heart was broken and he turned to being a pirate privateer. You know, post-break-up-career-choices 😪 We all would do it. Stella has a request for him but Vaughn is still torn to shreds from being dumped. The chemistry is there, the mystery, the questions — we just need to know why it all went wrong.

The story then goes back in time, and I did liked heading back to their simplistic and carefree teenage-life. It was really sweet 🥺👌🏻watching their accidental courtship. Although it is strewn with unexpected heartache for Stella’s personal life.

Stella also has no fortune and Vaughn is half-French with no family, so they both strike up kinship from feeling their futures are limited. They are perfect for each other. Until — they’re not.

Definitely one to pick up if you love regency romances with high emotional stakes, sweet and bitterness combined, and some scathingly good banter!  

Be sure to head over to my instagram for the giveaway too!

Can two people hate each other more than these two? She has a heart of stone. He is the notorious pirate every lady swoons for. They have vowed never to meet again.
Meeting place: The Frosted Ball.
What follows: Chaos. Noisy ballrooms. Starry skies. White flurries. Hungry kisses. Haughty stares. Frozen lakes. Shaking breaths. The truth. Finally.
Frosted is a heart-wrenching romance about a pirate and an ice-cold lady who seem to have hated each other for years, inspired by winter-themed fairytales like The Snow Queen and The Steadfast Tin Soldier. It is set in a witty, glittering Regency world made up of a little bit of Jane Austen, a little bit of Georgette Heyer, and a lot of a modern heart yearning for romance, passion and a tall gentleman with a smoldering gaze. This is a broken tale of beauty, dark secrets and love lost.

Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads!

ABOUT MC FRANK
M.C. Frank (writer, reader, designer, physicist and teacher, to name a few) has been living in a world of stories ever since she can remember (that’s before she knew how to write). She started writing them down when she could no longer stand the characters in her head screaming at her to give them life, and while those first scribblings weren’t exactly good (nor were they books, although she insisted on calling them that), they were enough for her to discover her passion in life.
She got her university degree in physics a few years ago (yes, she’s like Sheldon, only a bit crazier!) and is now free to pursue her love of reading and writing, as well her free-lance job as editor-in-chief. She lives with her ‘dude’ in a home filled with candles, laptops and notebooks, where she rearranges her overflowing bookshelves every time she feels stressed. Which is often, since (as you might have noticed) she doesn’t pick the easiest subjects for her novels. Website | Instagram | Goodreads | Twitter

Hi M.C.! Thanks for chatting with me today about your novel, Frosted! Can you tell us two things that inspired it?

Hi, Paper Fury! It is a dream come true to be talking to you, and official proof that fairies are real. Here *thrusts cake in your direction awkwardly*.  I have been reading Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s books over and over again since I was 16, so of course they are a major influence in my writing. But Frosted specifically was inspired by 3 Taylor Swift songs (Speak Now, Seven and How You Get The Girl), and 2 period movies that came out in 2019 and 2020 (Little Women and Emma). And and the face of a certain actor who is called Timothée *hides away in shame*.

I hope you are calling me a fairy because I accept 😩🙌🏻Also now we know who to fancast Vaughn as, yes yes? 👀👌🏻So enemies to lovers is definitely one of my favourite tropes. Do you have any other favourite tropes to write?

Great minds think alike, right? I have so many other favorite tropes like girl disguised as boy, childhood friends to lovers, tortured hero and found family, and of course I have written all of these in my books (or they would have yelled at me). But I also love turning tropes on their heads, or gender-bending them. For example, I contrary to the “chosen one” trope, I made one of my protagonists a random girl, which ended up being an important part of the plot. Also, I have my heroines rescue my heroes more often than the reverse ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and I ended up writing a book about a guy who falls for a “ruined” girl, even though we usually read about male protagonists who are ruined. I just think it’s important to change things around, so that we can avoid stereotypes and read stories that actually make us question everything and think for ourselves.

I absolutely agree! I love genderbending typical tropes and heroines rescuing the heroes. We have good taste in tropes here 😌 As the author of many amazing novels, has anything about your writing process changed since you started?

Thank you so much for your kind words, I am NOT crying. (You are.) My process has changed a lot, mainly because I get bored easily, and every book is a different world and I need the process to reflect that. So I began as a ‘vampyre writer’ as I usually refer to myself on my blog, writing only at night well into dawn, but for Frosted I ended up writing during the day mostly. That was because Frosted was my isolation book, (meaning the quarantine ugh), and it helped keep me sane during the day. My job turned into online lessons (don’t ask), so I had extra writing time (yay). Another change is that I outline more and more heavily with every book I write, and I end up with cleaner first drafts. Also, I tend to have less and less hair, as I tear it out with every new book I write.

Ooh I relate to this a lot! With my own writing I went from wild first drafts to outlining really intensely to get those clean drafts. It’s more satisfying, I find? Maybe saves time too 👀🙌🏻 What was your favourite part to write: the beginning, middle, or end? 

So I have this thing with every book I write: The very first idea that comes to me when I get inspired for a new story is a very specific scene. Then I start digging to discover the characters and the plot that brought them to that specific point, and what happens afterwards. I know it’s a pretty backwards way to plot a book, but I am crazy, so what did you expect. Anyway, the specific scene that inspired Frosted is the very first scene in the prologue, with the wedding and the…you know. So I was writing towards that at first, I mean the actual point where it happens in the story, which is in the beginning part of the middle. And then another scene appeared in my head, and it was super piratey, and that is towards the end. So, it was the beginning part of the middle and the ending part of the middle! (what an intelligent answer, now that I’m reading it back *thumbs up aggressively*)

I love this method! Like catching one glimpse through a window and you have to go peeking through keyholes and locks to see the rest of what’s going on. 😍 Can you tell us something you loved about writing Vaughn and Lady Stella?

I loved everything, because once I got to know the characters, I fell in love with them and I just wanted to give them a hug and tell them that everything would be ok. Only it wouldn’t, because…of me. But I did love to write about their brokenness, which was inspired by my own struggles. I have been putting all my pain in my books as a form of therapy (lucky readers). I relate to Vaughn’s loneliness and low self-esteem, and to Stella’s sudden change in circumstances so much that it’s not even funny. I wish I had Vaughn’s caring nature (and musical talent) and Stella’s optimism (and fashion sense), and I enjoyed giving them these attributes. Writing these characters was hard and emotional and cathartic. In the end, I gave them resolution and healing, and isn’t that what we all want for ourselves? That was my favorite part of all.

Writing can be so cathartic and such a good way to process how we feel about life too. Vaughn and Stella are so easy to adore 😩💛 And now lastly! Was any chocolate harmed in the making of this novel? 😌

I would like to say no, but that would be a lie. Tons of chocolate were consumed, because as everyone knows, chocolate is the antidote to tears. And there were a lot of them while writing and publishing this book. A lot a lot. So yes. I am nowhere near as a skilled baker as you, but oh, chocolate was harmed in a major way. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I should stop writing altogether and focus solely on chocolate. Hmm. HMMMMMM.

Look that chocolate went down for a noble cause. And what is a novel if not built open chocolate 😪🙌🏻 Thank you so much for this amazing interview, M.C.!! I had a blast getting to chat with  you! 🤗  

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