The Montanari Universe

My third book with Varus Publishing is now available! CurseLocked is book three in the Montanari Universe series.  Each novel in the series is connected by the character of Dante Montanari, a four-hundred-year old dragon shifter. When I came up with the idea for the series I intended to use Dante simply as a spark to ignite each story.  I liked the idea that we all make waves in the world and we don’t know what shores they will reach.  So as Dante moves through the world his actions have impact on individuals in both positive and negative ways.

The Series So Far

In Heart’s Curse, Dante puts his employee Lucas Kane in charge of the Lucky Heart Hotel & Casino.  Lucas has one goal—make the Lucky Heart a success and prove to Dante that he’s capable of being in charge of the Vegas portfolio.  Unfortunately for Lucas – the Lucky Heart is cursed and only Charlotte Auvray, a witch with no powers, can save him.

In Forged in Flame, Dante’s nephew Dalton Rosetti doesn’t want to go to Hawaii for the wedding of a business associate—until Dante forces him to go. Dante needs someone to follow up on the daughter of an old associate.  But when the wedding rehearsal dinner goes disastrously wrong, Dalton ends up meeting his mate, only to find out that she’s being hunted by dragon slayers.

And now in CurseLocked, Dante’s acquires an ancient dragon-crafted jade key is stolen by one of his employees—Rose Ashfield.  But Rose is desperate, hunted, and cursed.  But when Dante sends his top tracker Jace Kormos after her, Rose and Jace discover that they may be fated mates.

Dante Montanari

But as the series has continued, I have discovered that Dante’s character is far more interesting than I had originally intended. And I’ve also started having to keep a timeline document as the stories start to overlap.  Being a mystery writer has helped with this portion because I have a good deal of practice keeping track of timelines and clues.  And with all those dangling threads and overlapping storylines there (of course) needed to be an info graphic.

I can also tell that at some point Dante will require his own book because with a lifetime that stretches centuries there are a lot of adventures to share. So with each book I share a little more of Dante’s personality and past and I hope that everyone will enjoy reading the easter eggs and clues that I reveal. Or perhaps they will simply wonder how this dragon guy got involved in their perfectly good love story.

What do you think? Is it fun to have a linking character in a series or do you prefer each book to truly stand alone?