Q & A with Dream Walker series author, Michelle Miles, on her newest universe

AT LONG LAST: prolific author, podcaster and dragon-loving badass MICHELLE MILES returns to the Lair of Dreams! She’s got a new book dropping September 15 and I wanted to chat with her about this new dark paranormal romance spin-off series that features a world close to my heart: the Dream Walker series.

Full disclosure: I’ve already read the book (yes, I AM that lucky!) and it is absolutely a roller coaster of a read. You can read more about it at the end of this interview.

L.E.: This book is the first in a reboot of your DREAM WALKER paranormal romance series, correct? Why did you decide to take up the story of Anna and Kincade once more?

Michelle:

It is! It’s a spin-off set in the same universe. 

I didn’t really decide to take up their story again. Anna and Kincade did. LOL 

I had been thinking about them for a long time. After I finished Light of the World, I really thought I’d given them their HEA. But they had more story to tell and it was darker than I’d ever thought. I opened the beginning draft of the next book, started reading and BOOM, the story came to me and poured out of my head.

L.E.: Talk to me about Anna! What motivates her?

Michelle: Oh, Anna. I love her so much. She has sharp edges, a smart mouth, and she absolutely pushes Kincade to the limits of his patience. She always tries to do the right thing, but sometimes it backfires spectacularly. In Call of the Dark, for example, she makes a deal with the Prince of Greed. That decision comes back to haunt her in a big way in Flame and Fury. That’s very Anna. She makes the best choice she can in the moment and then deals with the consequences later.

In the original Dream Walker series, I think her biggest motivation is simply staying alive. LOL. She’s constantly being thrown into situations she doesn’t understand, discovering new things about herself and her power, and trying to survive long enough to figure out what she’s supposed to do with all of it.

But by the time we get to War of the Brotherhood, that motivation has changed.

For the first time, Anna has something beyond survival. She has Kincade. She has a home. She has people she loves. She’s had a glimpse of the peaceful life they might actually be able to build together. And now she’s fighting to keep it.

I think that makes her even more dangerous, because Anna isn’t just fighting to survive anymore. She’s fighting for a future.

L.E.: In my opinion, Kincade is about the swooniest hero I’ve come across in a long time. What makes him so magnetic?

Michelle: Oh, I love this question. I think it’s because he’s so used to being a weapon that when Anna comes along, and she’s not afraid of him AND she sees him as the man beneath the warrior, he’s like… Wait. Who is THIS? 

She intrigues him. I mean, she pepper-sprays him right in the face in Call of the Dark. For Kincade, he sees her as a challenge and he doesn’t like to lose.

I also think there’s something incredibly sexy about a man who will do absolutely anything to protect the woman he loves. Kincade literally walks through Hell for her. He helps her steal Holy Relics. He fights demons for her. And in the Brotherhood series, the stakes are even higher for the two of them. He proves over and over that he will do ANYTHING to keep her out of the hands of the enemy.

I love that so much about him.

But I think the thing that really gets me is that his deepest wound is also the reason he refuses to let the enemy have her. He knows what it means to be controlled, to be used as a weapon, and to have your choices taken away. And he will burn everything down before he lets that happen to Anna.

L.E.: Where does this new series go that the previous one didn’t?

Michelle: I didn’t want to do angels and demons again—been there, done that, got the jacket. So for this new spin-off series, I wanted the stakes to be higher than ever.

But I also didn’t want to reset Anna and Kincade’s romance. They earned their relationship at the end of Light of the World. I wasn’t interested in breaking them apart just so I could put them back together again. So I had to look at the world I’d already built and the story threads that were still open.

The interesting thing was, I didn’t actually know that much about Kincade during the original Dream Walker books. I only knew what Anna knew. He was mysterious. Dangerous. She knew he was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe, but there was so much about his past and what had made him the man he was that neither of us really understood yet.

And then I couldn’t stop thinking about one question: What if the person you love most is turned into a weapon against you?

That became the core of the entire series, from the opening pages of Dark Night of the Soul to the final page of Immortal Everlasting.

This time, the threat isn’t just something Anna and Kincade have to defeat. It’s deeply personal. It tests who they are, what they’re willing to do for each other, and whether their devotion can survive when the enemy knows exactly how to use that love against them.

I think readers are going to feel like they’ve been on a roller coaster.

And Anna and Kincade will do some terrible things for each other because they love each other. (Let me be clear: terrible things to the bad guys! LOL)

But they never stop choosing each other. They are 100% devoted to each other through all three books. And I think that’s pretty romantic.

L.E.: How are readers going to feel at the end of The Dark Night of the Soul?

Michelle: Traumatized, probably. LOL.

I think readers are going to feel like they’ve been on a roller coaster. Just when they think they know where the story is going, something happens that changes everything. There’s trauma. There’s deep violation. There are some very dark moments.

But underneath all of it is this absolute certainty that Anna and Kincade will always choose each other, no matter what.

They’re also still trying to figure out exactly who they are to each other. Kincade never calls Anna his girlfriend because, to him, that word implies something temporary and there is nothing temporary about the way he feels about her. I love that little detail about him.

More than anything, though, I think readers are going to finish Dark Night of the Soul desperate to pick up Fall of the Forsaken. This trilogy is one continuing story arc, so while each book has its own journey, the larger story, and Anna and Kincade’s story, keeps building all the way through Immortal Everlasting.

So… traumatized, emotionally invested, and hopefully yelling, “GIVE ME THE NEXT BOOK.”

That’s the goal.

L. E.: What happens NEXT in the series?

Michelle:  Oh… so much! Fall of the Forsaken picks up right after the end of Dark Night of the Soul, and the stakes get even higher. The Brotherhood still wants Anna, and when one plan fails, they find another way to get what they want. And Kincade will absolutely NOT let that happen.

You’ll also meet a few new characters who really expand the found-family dynamic at Walker Manor. Especially Gremlin. I love him so much. I just want to hug him! 

Then Immortal Everlasting is the final book in the trilogy, and that one pushes these characters to their absolute limits. Everything Anna and Kincade have been fighting for and everything they’ve survived comes to a head.

It finally answers the big question: Do they burn down the Brotherhood once and for all?

But I think the more important question is whether Anna and Kincade finally get the thing they’ve been fighting for all along. Not another battle. Not another enemy. Peace, a home, and a life together.

Whether I actually give it to them… well, you’ll have to read the book. ;) 

THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL DROPS SEPTEMBER 15

Love made him dangerous.

Devotion will make him unstoppable. 

For centuries, Kincade survived by control.

Forged by the Brotherhood, he learned to bury his humanity, suppress his instincts, and become exactly what they needed him to be—a weapon. Darkness was safer than feeling. Obedience was survival.

Then she changed everything.

When the woman he loves is taken, restraint shatters. The careful balance he’s fought to maintain slips—and the Brotherhood sees their opening. They want the monster he used to be. The weapon they never quite lost.

To save her, he may have to become exactly that.

As ancient secrets rise and factions fracture, the line between protector and destroyer begins to blur. Every step closer to her pulls him deeper into the war he tried to escape—and toward the darkness he swore would never rule him again.

Because this time, love isn’t his weakness. It’s his point of no return.

Dark Night of the Soul is a dark paranormal romance set within the War of the Brotherhood—a high-stakes spin-off arc in the Dream Walker universe. Each book can be read as a standalone romance, while together they tell the story of a war centuries in the making.

Perfect for readers who love:

• Dark, emotionally intense paranormal romance
• immortal antiheroes and devotion-driven stakes
• secret orders, hidden wars, and found family
• love that becomes defiance

“Dark Night of the Soul by Michelle Miles is everything dark paranormal romance should be—intense, emotional, and completely consuming. I devoured it.”

— Michelle M. Pillow, NYT Bestselling Author

Preorder the Dark Night of the Soul ebook direct from Michelle and get exclusive bonus content

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