Exclusive Interview
Pirates Ahead! Victoria Aveyard Says ‘Tempest’ Is Her Most Romantic Book Yet
What To Know
- Victoria Aveyard’s upcoming adult novel, Tempest, is the first in the Lyrian Sea duology.
- She revealed to Swooon that it is her most romantic work yet.
- Tempest maintains Aveyard’s signature morally gray characters and unexpected twists.
Over 10 years after pulling off one of the most shocking twists in young adult literature with her debut novel, Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard is setting her anchor in adult fiction with her upcoming novel, Tempest. Ahead of the release of the first book in her Lyrian Sea duology on September 8, Aveyard sat down with Swooon to break down what fans can expect from her most romantic book yet.
“While I wouldn’t call Tempest a romance, it is definitely the most romantic book I’ve ever written,” Aveyard revealed to Swooon. “It is very much driven by the relationship between two people.” The novel follows Cat Rose, whose story is told in two different times: Before, when she was Lady Catrine Rose, and After, as the Widow Rose, queen of a pirate tavern.
“I’ve had several heroines who I love dearly because they’re flawed and because they make mistakes, who I’ve heard sometimes, ‘Oh, they’re unlikable,'” Aveyard admitted. “I feel like Cat Rose is my ‘You want to see unlikable?'” Teasing what readers can expect from her newest heroine, she told Swooon, “I really gravitate towards women who choose themselves, and I think that is her core. She will choose herself and choose to survive over all things. She’s probably my most fully formed character, or at least the character that I know the best and I understand the best out of anything I’ve written.”
Tempest finds Cat in the heart of the Meridian Empire, during their quest to reclaim their wealthy colonies and crush the pirate republic for good. That’s why the Empire offers Cat a “devastating choice.” She must bring the Empire the Lyrian Sea’s most elusive pirate, Valerian Kane, or hang. The catch? Valerian just happens to be the only man Cat has ever loved.
“Because of the dual timeline, we see [Cat and Valerian] cross paths quite a lot, in a non-linear order,” she teased. From a writing perspective, Aveyard explained, “Keeping their relationship straight in my head while I was going back and forth was a challenge. I’m glad I did it, but it does require you to know the characters very, very well, and make sure that they show growth in a way that feels natural.”
That said, Aveyard took us behind the curtain (or sail?) for a glimpse of the first time readers meet Valerian. “When you have your male romantic lead, that first scene where you see him, you really have to make it count. I remember my editor saying, ‘This is an adult book. We can linger a little… Describe things a little bit more. You don’t have to keep it moving so fast as you did in YA.’ And so that was a learning curve for me.”
Outside of Cat and Valerian’s time-torn romance, Aveyard told Swooon about two other key players in her new duology. Before she entered the world of piracy, Lady Catrine Rose was “chained to a loathsome lord.” While it is clear there was never any love between Lord and Lady Rose, Aveyard shared, “One thing I’ve discovered in writing Tempest and the sequel is that I love writing awful men. It really is delightful to me.”
She continued, “So, I really let myself be unburdened by everything I try to do with my main characters, where I show that they’re flawed, that they have all of these nuances and intricacies. Her husband is just the worst. And sometimes it’s a terrifying worst, and sometimes it’s used for comedic effect, but it always culminates in the fact that he is this physical manifestation of oppression for her in this world.”
On the other hand, Aveyard teased a naval officer named Jasper Fell, who snuck up on her while writing Cat’s story. “He is kind of a frenemy naval officer who I always knew was part of the story, but as I was writing it, his character was also so strong and vocal and immediately present. I understood him very clearly, so he became more of the story than I thought he would be. I definitely had some moments where I was writing a conversation between him and Cat, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is actually really good banter.'”
Ultimately, Aveyard confirmed that readers who grew up reading her Red Queen and Realm Breaker series will find a lot of similarities between her YA works and Tempest, even though it is adult fiction. “I have a couple of brands and things that people now come to me for, or at least know to expect from me,” she told Swooon. “One of the things I do when I write is, I want to sort of honor those expectations. So I would hope readers know they’re going to get twists. They’re going to get characters who are morally gray and may make the wrong choice, or the choice that you don’t want them to make.”
Tempest by Victoria Aveyard sails into bookstores on September 8, 2026.
