Exclusive Interview
Ana Huang Spills All About ‘The Defender’ & Teases Next Book Series Lead
What To Know
- Ana Huang’s latest novel, The Defender, centers on the romance between Blackcastle coach Frank Armstrong’s daughter, Brooklyn, and football captain Vincent DuBois.
- Speaking to Swooon, Huang breaks down the book’s central romance and the suspenseful subplot involving Vincent’s stalker.
- The Defender is the second in the three-book Gods of the Game series, with Huang confirming the series will conclude with The Keeper.
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Defender by Ana Huang.]
Back in August, author Ana Huang teased her next steamy Gods of the Game novel to her fans, joking, “When The Striker has a scene in the ballet studio but The Defender has a scene on the football pitch.” Now that The Defender is finally here, we can confirm that the long-awaited sequel to The Striker was well worth the wait.
Taking readers back to the London branch of the Anaverse, The Defender follows Brooklyn Armstrong, a confident sports nutritionist, who ends up living with her best friend’s brother, Blackcastle football captain Vincent DuBois, after a stalker finds his address. Of course, Vincent’s coach just happens to be Brooklyn’s dad, a connection that wouldn’t be an issue if the duo didn’t have immaculate chemistry, which they most certainly do. In her newest, most gripping sports romance yet, Huang delivers on the signature blend of spice, suspense, and swoon, giving nods to King of Pride (We see you, Wilma Pebbles!), King of Envy (Vuk Markovic, the man that you are…), and the rest of her beloved Kings of Sin and Twisted books.
Following the debut of The Defender, Ana Huang sat down with Swooon to discuss Brooklyn and Vincent’s romance in all its spicy glory, the underlying mystery of Vincent’s stalker’s identity, and, of course, what’s next for the Gods of the Game series and beyond, including key details about her next series. Trust us, Anaverse fans, this is one conversation you don’t want to miss!
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The Defender is your 15th novel. How do you find inspiration for these new love stories?
Ana Huang: When you said 15, I was kind of like, “Oh my God.” I don’t know. Like, I kind of find inspiration everywhere, right? I’ll watch movies, and I’ll listen to music when I’m walking around. I live in New York City, so there’s no shortage of people watching there. And, you know, like stories my friends tell me, I just get little inklings of ideas.
I have this full notes app on my phone where every time I have an idea for a story, I’ll put it in there. Sometimes it’s fleshed out, sometimes not. But I think it’s been really helpful to just spur my creative process along and just keep coming up with new ways to tell people stories.
What is it about Brooklyn and Vincent that makes their relationship so unique?
Huang: I think they’re so interesting because they are so similar in certain ways, just in terms of their background, their emotional wounds, even their personality a little bit. But I love their dynamic because these are two people who have been, not necessarily friends, but in each other’s orbit for a while. While they had a little bit of that attraction, I think it really took them being in that forced proximity situation to see the other person for who they really are, and to shed some of the assumptions they had about them, especially on Brooklyn’s part, which I felt like was kind of really true to life and very realistic because I had to do that in the past as well. And so, I think that just made them really hit home for me.
This book is definitely more feel-good than your last book, King of Envy, but we have to talk about Vincent’s stalker, Seth, who works for Blackcastle. When did his obsession with Vincent take a darker turn?
Huang: I think for him, it started when he was younger. Vincent was kind of this idol that he had, and it could easily go the way of a regular celebrity worship stalker situation. But I think in his case, it was unique because it was exacerbated by the fact that he did have this closer relationship with Vincent. He came from a background where he didn’t really have as many close connections with other people. So every kindness that Vincent showed him, he spun that into something maybe a little bit more than it was, and it really fed into this sort of parasocial relationship. And I do think that that is something that celebrities face a lot, maybe not quite to this extent, but I think it is definitely a part of reality, and something really interesting to write about.
And then, what about Mason? Was he just a red herring, or was Brooklyn justified in thinking that there was something suspicious about him, too?
Huang: He was more of a red herring. I think he represented that part of Brooklyn’s old life, that popped up, where she was like, “This guy seems like a guy that I should like.” He’s definitely more appropriate for her on paper than Vincent is. He was a little bit of a foil to Vincent, where she’s like, “Even though this guy is being so perfect on paper for me, I still don’t quite feel for him what I do for Vincent.” Even before she even realized that she liked Vincent that way, right? So he kind of served multiple purposes in the story.
Were there any scenes you had originally written between Brooklyn and Vincent that didn’t make the final cut?
Huang: When they were living together, I had this whole scene where one of them got sick and then the other was taking care of them, and it was like a caretaking storyline, which is one of my favorites in romance books. But when I looked at the story overall, there wasn’t really a place for it in terms of the pacing, so I ended up cutting it. But I’m gonna put it in another book somehow.
When you visited our office, we had you rank the spice level of your books. Where does The Defender land on that list?
Huang: I’m a little torn on it, but I eventually decided to slot it in between King of Envy and Twisted Love. So below King of Envy and above Twisted Love [6 out of 11 overall], which feels right to me because it doesn’t have a ton of spice scenes. But then there are also some pretty kinky scenes in there.
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We’re so excited to read about Carina and Noah in The Keeper. But we need to ask, because he was our favorite character: Will we ever see Adil get his own book?
Huang: I do love Adil. I don’t think he’ll get his own book. This is a three-book series, so The Keeper is actually going to be the final book. As much as I love Adil, I feel like he’s best as a side character. You know what I mean? He has such a big personality that I am not sure how I would create that full romance, necessarily, but I do love him. He’s hilarious.
Both Gods of the Game and Kings of Sin are coming to an end soon. Do you have any plans to extend either series?
Huang: No, I will not extend either series. When they’re done, they’re done. The seven sins get seven books. Gods of the Game is three books. I can’t say much about it, but I do already have my series after those two planned, so I’m excited for that.
Is there anything you can tease about that next series?
Huang: I cannot say much, except for the fact that you will have seen the hero of Book 1 in one of my previous books before.
Is it Adil?
Haung: [Laughs] I cannot confirm or deny.
There’s still hope.
Haung: You know, never say never…
The Defender by Ana Huang is available now.
