About the author

Elle Rease

<p>Raised on a farm, located in the lush greenery of the Agatha Forest Reserve, this South African author has always been drawn to reading thrilling tales.&nbsp; Elle went from a young girl catching fairies every odd Sunday, to a teenager who constantly had her bespectacled nose in a book.</p><p>Constant uprooting added to her life experience and imagination, and caused her to be enthralled by family, peers, teachers and politics.&nbsp; &ldquo;What makes humans tick?&rdquo; she often wondered.&nbsp; &ldquo;How can I find out?&rdquo;</p><p>Inevitably, she ended up resting her fingers against the keys of a very old PC and began to type.</p><p>Her first full-length novel, written in Afrikaans and following the life of a group of high school friends, was incredibly detailed and developed for a girl of fifteen, all 411 pages of it.&nbsp; You&rsquo;ll have to take her word for it, though: one day, in a fit of adolescent anguish and wavering self-worth, she selected the Word file, pressed &ldquo;DELETE&rdquo; and emptied the Recycle Bin.</p><p>She never made that mistake again, which is why she has a folder labelled &ldquo;Unfinished&rdquo; on her hard drive.&nbsp; Ideas were now backed up on a regular basis.&nbsp; If not to be expanded upon individually, then to be incorporated in stronger storylines.</p><p>Although fiction is her most comfortable genre, she often dips her toes in the fantasy realm, dreaming up worlds with fantastical creatures, environments and characters.&nbsp; The urge to add a dash of romance is as irresistible as most of the heroes in her stories, and therefore the many paragraphs she strings together will always contain an undertone of sexiness.</p><p>However, at the root of all her characters remains the question: &ldquo;What makes them tick, and how can the reader find out?&rdquo;&nbsp; Driven by her own emotional development, Elle feels compelled to bring complex personas to life by presenting them with challenging and often heartbreaking obstacles.</p><p>Expect a roller-coaster of emotions, ranging from shivers of delight, to fits of laughter, to tears of sadness.&nbsp; Expect unexpected twists, to be engrossed in these worlds, and to become introspective once you close the book.</p><p>Most of all, expect to become a fan.</p>