Month: April 2021

Spotlight ~ One of Us: The City of Secrets by M.L. Roberts

Spotlight ~ One of Us: The City of Secrets by M.L. Roberts

by Christina ♥ 1 Comment

The witch wants her dead, the fae want her alive, the police want to bring her in for questioning. High school should not be this way.

Olivia knows the rules: study hard, never lie, do unto others, but when a witch makes the rules and the others are fae, telling the truth will get her locked up.

Last month she saw the impossible, now she sees it again. She tells herself it’s all in her head. How else explain a shining man who fell out of nowhere or a student who died but still lives?

She carries on with her usual activities: volleyball, pop quizzes, a favor for Mom, but denial won’t make it go away. When she thinks it can’t get any worse, it does.

Friends, enemies, the police, someone is lying, but who? If not one of them, one of us.

Book Blitz + Giveway: Reclaiming Ryda by Rachel Rossano

Book Blitz + Giveway: Reclaiming Ryda by Rachel Rossano

by Christina ♥ 3 Comments

Reclaiming Ryda
Rachel Rossano
(Once Upon a Duchy, #2)
Publication date: April 20th 2021
Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Romance
Rydaria lives as a prisoner in a tower library. Captured as a child, her past is a mystery. Maintaining the literary treasures within her care, she studies the world through books that give her a glimpse of the freedom she craves.

A scribe by trade, Crispin has devoted the last three years of his life seeking the lost heir of Avalene. He travels to Worthenave’s famed library in hopes of finding the key. Instead, he discovers a new mystery, a beautiful librarian who is locked in with her books every night.

As the days pass, Crispin must choose. Rydaria’s precarious situation is deteriorating. Meanwhile, his duty demands he leave before the Duke of Worthenave uncovers his quest. Still, the scribe can’t bring himself to abandon the captive in the library tower, even if it costs him his mission.

Inspired by Rapunzel and East of the Sun West of the Moon

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

Crispin

A large circular room greater than thrice my height in diameter lay beyond the gate. On all sides from the floor to about two feet below the ceiling, which was well beyond my reach, were shelves laden with all manner of written records. Binders, scrolls, bound volumes, drawers, boxes, and files lined each shelf. Small tags hung from many of them—each card covered in neat writing. Over them, a wooden ladder hung by hooks on a rail that ran the circumference of the room. Above the track, small rectangular windows nested in the thick stone walls between the top shelves and the carved ceiling. In the center of the rotunda lay a thick round carpet. On it sat a large wooden table that had clearly been made to match the shelves and five padded chairs.

I crossed to the table and set my scribe’s bag on the polished surface. As I surveyed the shelves wondering where I ought to begin my search, I came up short. Someone was singing—a woman by the sound of it.

Leaving my bag behind, I turned around searching for the source of the voice, which was how I discovered the stairs. Tucked behind the shelves opposite the gate by which I entered, they could not be seen from the entrance. The narrow steps led upwards, following the curve of the stone tower wall. In the niches where the straight wooden boards of the stairs didn’t quite match the curve of the stone, someone had tucked all kinds of odd things, like clay jars, colorful baskets, and crocheted blankets.

As I climbed, I struggled to focus on the singer’s words. The words weren’t from my native tongue. However, the melody sounded familiar. I came to a halt on the landing just outside a second room almost precisely like the one below, the sounds fell into place.

She was singing in Saruthian.

Pale as the moon all still and lovely,
The maiden’s heart longed for his touch.
Still, the moon hung quiet, unresponsive,
Cold and unfeeling despite her love.

Her honeyed voice washed over me. Blinking in the glow of the late-morning light pouring in the octagonal windows above the shelves on this level, I studied the singer as she continued her work. She was perched halfway up the ladder against the shelf with a bag full of tomes strapped to her hip and a long golden-brown braid falling down her back like a thick rope. I couldn’t help thinking of the ancient Saruthian tale of the captive of the rampion witch.

She was definitely fetching enough to play the role of the captive. With the long length of hair, the color of honey, the hue falling between the alfalfa and buckwheat honeys my bees produced at home, she could snare any man. Her form appeared pleasant as well, slender and curved in all the right ways.

As she reached the last of the verses in the poem, I fully expected her to stop. Stepping into the room, I prepared to introduce myself.

But she didn’t stop. As she set the second-to-last book in place, she began to sing a verse I had never seen in any of my references. My mind scrambled to translate it as she sang. Then she turned around.

A soft squeak escaped her, followed by a heavy thud as the last book fell from her suddenly lax fingers and hit the floor.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

Author Bio:

Rachel Rossano specializes in clean romantic fiction set in historical-feeling fantasy worlds. She also dabbles in straightforward historical romance and not-so-strict speculative fiction. A happily married mother of three children, she divides her time between mothering, teaching, and writing. She endeavors to enchant, thrill, entertain, and amuse through her work. A constant student, she seeks to improve her skills and loves to hear from readers.

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Spotlight: DreamRovers: Price of Deliverance by Christie Valentine Powell

Spotlight: DreamRovers: Price of Deliverance by Christie Valentine Powell

by Christina ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Amazon|Goodreads

Indra has lived inside of dreams since her mother’s execution. It’s a lonely life, but it keeps her safe and connected to her mother’s memory. Joining other dreamrovers would tether her to reality, but she’d gain the family she always wanted—if they survive long enough.

Walker was one of the king’s personal bodyguards, but he escaped court life after his family was executed for dreamroving. Helping other rovers build a new home might make up for his past mistakes, especially his actions that ignited the dreamrover prejudice.

Fifteen-year-old Norma lost everything when her village discovered her family’s abilities. When her sister insists that dreamrovers are evil, Norma must decide between her dreams and her family

As persecution grows, all three struggle to defend their new family. Hatred runs deep, and escape is no longer an option—not even through dreams.

Spotlight: Torren’an (Chronicles of Dystota Book 1) by Molly Leasure

Spotlight: Torren’an (Chronicles of Dystota Book 1) by Molly Leasure

by Christina ♥ 1 Comment
Amazon|Goodreads

Like all Torrens, Heirath Halis was born as two entities: a human and a symbiote. Now he just wants to be left alone—left human. He—like all those that meet a Torren for the first time—believes in one simple assertion:

All Torrens are monsters.

Natia Grey has heard this statement repeated by her nation since she was young. But she has never believed it is that simple. After falling in love with the Prince of Torren’an, Heirath, she has come to her own conclusion: the “monstrous” Torrens just need help. And Natia wants nothing more than to help Heirath and his people.

Heirath’s decision to travel to have his symbiote removed puts him in opposition with his brother and Torren’an. In the aftermath of an encounter with his people, Heirath is left vulnerable to Natia’s nation, who capture and brutally torture him. The torture only causes his symbiote to gain more control over their body resulting in them both taking an irreversible step towards being the monster Natia’s nation so fears.

Blaming her nation for Heirath’s condition, Natia and her family try to escape with him. Because he is not a monster, and he never will be. She won’t allow him to be. But as Heirath continues to lose control Natia faces a difficult decision: keeping him at her side or letting him go.

Seven upcoming books I want to (eventually) read

Seven upcoming books I want to (eventually) read

by Christina ♥ 1 Comment
A fae beast. An enchanted forest. A beauty destined to break the curse upon them…

As town greenwitch, Aster’s spent her whole life defending her people from the nightmarish fae of the forest. Yet despite her best efforts, each year a girl is taken by the fae Beast who rules the Folkwood, sacrificed to the ancient faerie magic of the Tithe.

And this year, the Beast claims Aster.

When he whisks her away to his lavish woodland Court, Aster finds herself prisoner in a cursed mansion laced with enchantments and filled with hordes of wicked faerie servants. Not to mention there’s the Beast himself, whose savage beauty and dark magic never fail to remind Aster of his predatory fae nature.

But when the Beast realizes Aster is more powerful than she ever could have guessed, he offers her a deal. Her freedom in exchange for her help breaking the curse on his Court.

As feelings blossom between the two of them, their faerie bargain will force Aster to choose: her people or her heart.
Peasant girls don’t mingle with dragons, princes, and beastly curses…or so Felicity thought
After a lifetime with a grief-stricken father and a self-absorbed brother, Felicity isn’t daunted by sacrifice. But when protecting her father means falling afoul of the curse that has swallowed the Summer Castle, and Prince Justin along with it, her own safety is not all that’s at stake. The prince’s monstrous form is the least of her concerns—the whole castle has been trapped by his pride, and his absence from the capital is driving the kingdom to ruin.
Justin was born to be a king, not a beast. Between the inhuman coldness he learned from his father, the humiliation of his cursed form, and his powerlessness against his hidden enemies back in the capital, laughter is the last thing on his mind. But even though she’s a prisoner, nothing seems to dampen the intruder’s maddening cheerfulness. Justin has to break his curse, and he needs someone like Felicity to do it. But as she begins to thaw the ice around his heart, he discovers her past is not what it seems.
With time running out, not just for the castle’s inhabitants, but for the kingdom of Albury, they will need more than the help of a dragon to break the curse and prevent disaster before it’s too late. But for all Felicity’s warmth and laughter, even she could never look at Justin and like what she sees.
Could she?
I, Elya Pavlovna, am a horribly wicked and unfortunate girl.

After her governess is fired for teaching her to read, Elya writes in a secret journal to continue her lessons on her own. Though, as an unwanted scullery maid, she doubts she will ever have much to say.

But when a charming stranger answers her private messages, Elya’s world turns upside down. He calls her sweet. He calls her strong. He challenges her to come to a palace celebration and leave her abusive past behind.

Each small push reveals more risks and hidden heartache. Will the magic of their words be enough to rewrite their story together, or will it all fade away at midnight?
Books whisper to Beatrix Alba. But they aren’t the reason she has never fit in. Bullied at home and school, she keeps a secret—a power of violence and darkness.

When the spell that keeps her hidden fails, she’s catapulted into the Zweeshen, a realm where all tales live, and her dream of meeting her favorite characters comes true. But wishes are tricky, and behind its wonder and whimsy, the Zweeshen is under attack. A character is burning bookworlds in pursuit of a weapon to rule both stories and storytellers. To succeed, he needs a riddle in Beatrix’s keeping.

Now he’s hunting her down.

Joining forces with William, a cursed conjurer, Beatrix must face an enemy who knows her every weakness in a realm where witches play with time, Egyptian gods roam, and Regency heroines lead covert operations. And with her darkness as the only weapon, she may have to sacrifice everything to save a world that rejects her.
Daria has spent her whole life caring for others, so when she’s rescued by traveling merchants while fleeing for her life, she’s more than happy to work for them in return for her safety. But danger follows her, as does Prince Percy. Daria thought she’d left the complications of balls and royalty behind her, but she can’t hide as a servant forever—not when whole kingdoms are at risk.
Faerie is forever changed.

Prince Brannick is still determined to become High King of Faerie but doing so will require support from the other courts. Many fae are still hesitant to back him because of the sins of his mother. He will have to offer favors and bargains that put him in danger.

He wants to fight for his rightful place as High King. He wants to end his conflict with the queen of Fairfrost for good. But his heart might be too broken to do anything.

Mortals in Faerie always bring trouble.

The cost this time might be too high to pay.

Crown of Bitter Thorn is Book 3 in The Fae of Bitter Thorn. Don’t miss the other books in this enchanting fantasy series!

When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella turns into a dragon.

Prince Charming vows not to marry her, but to kill her. Cinderella’s only hope? Sikandar, a sorcerer banished from a faraway land, who promises to break the dragon curse. Even at her most beastly, he finds beauty within her. But he’s hiding his own dark past, and saving Cinderella might be his last chance of redemption.

Together, Cinderella and Sikandar must untangle dangerous secrets and deadly magic before happily ever after is forever out of reach.