The Darker Side of Kade in A SHIMMER OF ANGELS by Lisa Basso

I wanted to start off this post by saying thank you to our readers. There are probably ten thousand blogs you could be visiting right now, but you’ve come here, so thank you for choosing Darkly Delicious YA—we have a set of highly talented authors to keep you entertained.

Now, down to business—and something I love talking about: dark sides.

For those of you have read A SHIMMER OF ANGELS, you’re familiar with Kade. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, Kade is a mysterious, sometimes sullen Fallen angel hottie who sometimes helps, sometimes torments my main character, Rayna. He’s cool, calm, but never truly open. The doors to his demons are locked tightly behind military-grade steel, but he never leaves them shut for long. Kade’s unpredictability makes him one of my favorite characters to write. I can never tell what’s going to come out of his mouth, or where his actions will lead. In my opinion, it doesn’t get better than that.

As a writer, I’m a huge believer that without fully-fleshed, three-dimensional characters, a story can’t stay afloat. Nothing brings the pages of a book to life like a well-established character—and I enjoy mine with a side of darkness.

And as a reader, I’m a big fan of characters with dark pasts. Some of my favorite examples are Noah in Katie McGarry’s PUSHING THE LIMITS, Sam in Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver series (SHIVER, LINGER, and FOREVER), and most recently, I fell for Cole Holland from Gena Showalter’s White Rabbit Chronicles (ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND and THROUGH THE ZOMBIE GLASS). Now, all three characters are exceedingly different. Sam was dealt a bad hand, Noah let a moment in his past define him, and Cole fought zombies in secret to protect more of his friends from dying. See, different, right? For Kade, one decision, one weak moment, stripped away everything he was and everything he believed in. That set him on a path of destruction—physically and emotionally.

When I first created Kade, he was meant to be an antagonist, a distraction to Rayna, the main character, but the further into the story I dove, I realized there was more beneath the surface than Kade was letting show in his words and actions. So, I broke from writing and worked on developing his character, which for me and my process consisted of him, his voice in my head, relating his story to me so I could put it on paper. When I was done with his backstory, I sat there, breathless, and realized Kade’s story didn’t end when he got pulled into Rayna’s journey in A SHIMMER OF ANGELS, it was just beginning.

We learn a little about Kade in A SHIMMER OF ANGELS, enough to entice—or at least that was the goal. Now that book two in the Angel Sight series is in the final stages of production, I can finally state publically that we will learn so much more about Kade in A SLITHER OF HOPE (releasing April 15, 2014). So, if you’re in the mood for a hot Fallen angel with some seriously dark sides, Kade might just be the guy you’re looking for. 

To learn more about Lisa Basso and her books, click here.