Tag: books

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Blog Tour: The Poison Pen Letters – Fiona Walker

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We regret to announce the tragic death of Phoebe Fredericks…

When crime novelist Phoebe opens the post and receives an invitation to her own funeral, she’s horrified. Not least because the date of her death is marked as tomorrow.
Deciding it’s nothing more than a prank from an enemy from her past, she determines to put it to the back of her mind.

But the next morning, when her completely infuriating postman (who likes to think himself her no.1 literary critic) rings her doorbell, a parcel of poisoned pen-nibs explodes in his face. Forced to
confront the fact her correspondence is more RIP than RSVP, Phoeve realises someone must want her dead.

Together with the newly-formed Village Detectives – Juno, Mil and Felix – Phoebe resolves to find out who is behind the poison pen letters before they strike again and her fate is signed, sealed and
delivered!

A totally hilarious, modern cozy crime mystery, from million-copy bestselling author Fiona Walker, perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janet Evanovich and Janice Hallett.

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Fiona Walker is the million copy bestselling author of joyously funny romantic comedies. Most recently published by Head of Zeus, she will be turning to cozy crime for Boldwood. The first in her new Village Detectives series, The Art of Murder, will be published in May 2024.

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My thoughts: This is such a fun series, I love Juno and her determination to be a detective, despite not always getting it right. She wants to help Phoebe so much, but her instincts are not always spot on. As she and Felix hurtle around in her mother’s rather battered old car, including a jaunt to Paris, Phoebe herself is looking a little closer to home.

The Twitter accounts that harassed her once before might be connected to the shocking death of the postman on the doorstep and the horrible things she’s been receiving in the post, but Phoebe reckons it’s someone in the village, it doesn’t feel quite the same to her. What she uncovers is a sad and rather different story than the one Juno and Felix are following.

Lots of fun and all carried out in Juno’s unique chaotic style, with help from her son Eric, and of course the delightful Mil, pub landlord and protector of potential murder suspects.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Magic and Rum – Carly Spade

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We are celebrating the release of USA Today Bestselling author, Carly Spade’s gorgeous new pirate romantasy, Of Magic and Rum! Can we just take a second to appreciate this cover?!

Of Magic and Rum (Beyond a Contemporary Mythos)

Publication Date: November 7, 2024

Genre: Adult Pirate Romantasy/ Calico Jack x Anne Bonny Historical Reimagining

  • Enemies to lovers
  • Touch her and 💀
  • One hammock
  • Morally grey FMC &MMC
  • Sword fight kiss
  • Adventure romance
  • If Jack Sparrow ended up with Elizabeth instead of Will
  • Greek & Scandinavian mythology

When Atlantis throttles Rhode into another place and time, she’s forced to keep her sea nymph identity a secret from unsuspecting mortals. Now fathoms from her realm and threatened by a vicious sea monster, she’ll require a ship to get back home.

The plan is simple: Find a crew. Stow away disguised as a cabin boy. And kill the captain once they reach the Mediterranean Sea. That was the plan. She couldn’t predict how difficult the latter would be as desires blur with needs in a battle for their lives.
Captain Calico Jack Rackham has made a name for himself as a harsh but righteous leader, earning his place at the helm of The Revenge.

Thus far, he’s avoided capture, until a mysterious beauty sneaks onto his ship, ensnaring him with her cunning nature. What starts as a devious plan to use her for his own gain blossoms into mythical discoveries and a journey into territory he never dreamed of crossing—a devotion far deeper than to the sea herself.

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Blog Tour: The Village Killer – Ross Greenwood

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The BRAND NEW Barton thriller from the bestselling Ross Greenwood.

After three years behind a desk, Inspector John Barton wonders if he’s still got what it takes.
An opportunity arises to return to Major Crimes, so he jumps at it, after all he’s been around the block a few times. When he and his team are called in to investigate an attempted murder which seems to be linked to the case of a missing child, Barton is immediately thrust back into the life of a detective – early mornings, late nights and endless pressure to get to the truth.
Then a man dies.

Something deadly is going on behind the high walls and imposing gates of the mansions in the sleepy village of Castor. The locals are keeping each other’s secrets and if Barton doesn’t find out why soon,
the bodies will start mounting up.
The Village Killer knows who’s next, and the clock is ticking…

The book all Ross Greenwood fans have been waiting for – Barton is Back! Ross Greenwood returns to his bestselling series, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham and Ian Rankin.

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Ross Greenwood has had an eclectic career, ranging from financial advisor to Prison officer. The advent of parenthood and the terrifying rise of Spice in prison led Ross to become a stay -at-home parent and a novelist.

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My thoughts: DCI Barton returns to his former team at the MIT to lead them in searching for a missing fourteen year old girl, whose mother seems rather blasé for someone whose only child has disappeared.

There’s also the near miss of a local woman, who thinks someone tried to run her over while she was out jogging. Then her neighbour dies in suspicious circumstances, what is going on in the village of Castor ? Behind their gates, in their fancy houses, there’s secrets that could prove deadly.

Barton slots back into his old team pretty neatly, giving Zander some much needed time off means he’s actually out interviewing and being involved in the case, not just overseeing it from the office. This gives him a way to reconnect with his colleagues. It also puts him front and centre as they try to sort out the incidences in Castor and find a precocious teenager, who might not exactly be in the trouble they think.

Clever, compelling and really enjoyable, the Peterborough MIT team are diligent and dig into the lives of the people who live in these posh houses, and those who work there too. Someone has a vendetta and as lives unravel, Barton and his team of detectives must work to catch a killer and help those who need it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour,but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Sea House – Louise Douglas

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A mysterious bequest and the legacy of a tragic love – only one person can unravel the hidden secrets of the past before it’s too late…

When Elisabeth Quemener dies she leaves a small parcel with the instructions that it must only be opened by Astrid Oake. The trouble is, no one knows who Astrid Oake is…

Elisabeth’s family turn to Touissants detective agency for help but, when Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson try to track Astrid down, their frustration soon mounts. Their only clue is a photo of two
young women holding the hands of a tiny child. The women are smiling but Mila is haunted by the sadness in their eyes. Is this Astrid and Elisabeth and if so, who is the child? And why are there signs
everywhere in Elisabeth’s home that the old woman was frightened despite her living a quiet life with no known enemies?

As Elisabeth and Astrid’s story slowly unfolds, Mila feels the walls of her home The Sea House closing in. And as the secrets finally begin to reveal themselves, she is ever more determined to carry out
Elisabeth’s final wishes. Because what is inside that unprepossessing parcel might just save a life…

Louise Douglas is back in the Brittany seaside town of Morranez with a heart-stopping, heart-breaking, brilliantly written and utterly compelling mystery. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Eve Chase and Lucinda Riley.

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Hello! I’m Louise, author of 12 novels mostly set in the Somerset countryside close to where I live and Sicily. I’m thrilled to have won the RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller award 2021 for The House by the Sea which has sold more than a quarter of a million copies.

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My thoughts: I’ve read some of the previous books featuring Toussaints investigators but you can read this as a standalone.

An unusual bequest in a will leads Mila to the wilds of Yorkshire’s moors in the quest for a woman no one remembers seeing in years. At the same time the results of the DNA test carried out on the body found in a sea cave are due – is it her brother-in-law Charlie? If it is, how will his daughter Ani, Mila’s niece, react?

Travelling back and forth from France to Britain, attempting to trace the life of the missing Astrid Oake and the woman who left her the bequest, Elisabeth Quemener, as well as prepare for Christmas with fiancè Luke, still living in Bristol, means Mila has a lot on her plate. Will something have to give?

Another clever and complex riddle for the team at Toussaints to unravel, how do you find someone who seems to have vanished into thin air? And while dealing with the ongoing tragedy of Sophie and Charlie’s accident at sea. Ani is turning sixteen, and needs Mila both more and less than before, leaving Mila torn between raising her niece and marrying the ever patient Luke.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Arden – GD Harper

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Alice Arden, idealistic and wealthy beauty, burnt at the stake for killing her husband, the former mayor of Faversham in Kent. But was she really the one responsible for the most scandalous murder of the sixteenth century?

William Shakespeare, England’s greatest playwright, born thirteen years after Alice’s execution. Why does his first-ever play, written about this murder, not bear his name?

This is a story of two people – one reviled, one revered – whose fates become linked in a tale of corruption, collusion and conspiracy. Based on historical documents and recently published academic research, Arden unveils shocking new evidence about the murder of Thomas Arden and reveals, for the first time, a remarkable new theory about Shakespeare’s early years.

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I have written four novels in the last eight years under the penname GD Harper.

My last novel, The Maids of Biddenden, the imagined biography of real-life conjoined twins born in 12th-century Kent, was featured on BBC TV News and was the winner of the Next Generation Indie
Book Awards in the historical fiction category, shortlisted for the 2022 Selfie Award at the London Book Fair, and shortlisted or longlisted for five other awards.

It has over a thousand ratings on Amazon UK and Goodreads, with an average score of 4.3. Across the major Amazon markets, it reached number sixteen in overall paid-for e-book sales, number two in historical fiction and number one in medieval historical fiction.

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My thoughts: I am a bit of a Shakespeare nerd, I’ve read most of his plays and poems over the years and studied him at uni. Somewhere I still have an essay on sexism in Hamlet. So I was really excited to read this book which brings the real life murder that inspired his first play and his life as an actor and jobbing playwright to life.

Alice Arden was burnt at the stake for the murder of her husband in Faversham, Kent, and it is this crime and the fact thaat victim and convicted shared the last name of his mother that inspire Will to write his first play, a play only about forty years after the fact, something that wasn’t done in those days for fear of prosecution and being banned by the Master of the Revels from performing it.

But Will persevered, he edited it and published it without adding his name so it could be performed and then his career as a writer began. After the Arden murder, he would delve into history and produce his incredible works, still performed and loved today, something he never could have imagined.

But this is also Alice’s story, that of a young woman essentially sold into a loveless marriage, who found escape in her affair with a tailor, who conspired with him and others who disliked her high handed husband, to kill him and try to make it look like a stranger had, although as he was wearing his slippers and found only metres from his home, badly done.

Alice suffered horribly before she was eventually burnt alive. The other conspirators were also executed, including her lover and the household servants. This fictional Alice is never entirely sold on the necessity of murdering her husband, unhappy as she was, but is talked into it.

Her unhappiness is reflected in that of Will’s wife Anne, raising three children in Stratford, relying on Will making enough money in the theatres to keep them fed and housed.

The author has clearly done an incredible amount of research and brings Tudor England vividly to life along with his characters. I was completely entertained and spotted lots of references and little snippets of the Shakespeares’ history that added to the realism (like his twins being named for his friend Hamnet and wife Judith) that I learnt in my own studies.

I didn’t know about the Arden murder, and it too is really fascinating. Women were chattel and many ended up in lonely marriages like Alice. Whatever her involvement in her husband’s death, she was clearly not willing to just put up with her situation and tried to change things, however misguided.

A thoroughly enjoyable read, I loved the insights into 16th century justice and the world of play writing.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Last Princess – Ellen Alpsten

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Young and beautiful Gytha Godwinson is the envy of England when her father Harold seizes the country’s crown in early 1066. Soon triumph turns to terror as an evil star appears, heralding the end of an era and a new beginning for Britain. Her family seems cursed, but even as she suffers loss, betrayal and humiliation, Gytha is determined to regain what is rightfully hers.

In a stunning re-telling of 1066, international bestselling author Ellen Alpsten has created a captivating new heroine in Gytha Godwinson. While women were limited to their roles as ‘cup-bearer’, ‘peace-weaver’ and ‘memory-keeper’, Gytha dared the unprecedented and writes world history. Lose yourself in a bewitching blend of myth and modernity and join the daughter of England’s true House of Dragon’s fight for freedom.  

Ellen Alpsten was born and raised in the Kenyan highlands and holds a MSc from the IEP de Paris. 

She worked as a News-Anchor for Bloomberg TV London before writing fulltime. 

Her debut novel ‘Tsarina’ was widely translated and shortlisted for numerous awards. 

‘The Last Princess’ is the first book in her new trilogy.’

My thoughts: Going back to Britain just before the Norman Conquest, Gytha Godwinson is the eldest daughter of Harold, later, briefly, the king and most famous for getting an arrow in the eye.

After her father is deposed and killed by the Norman’s, led by William the Bastard (later the Conqueror) Gytha and her brothers Edmond and Magnus flee to their kinsman in Denmark. However things are not straightforward there, as Sweyn, the king and their cousin, has married the widow of one of their father’s enemies, who he killed in battle.

Gytha is treated like a thrall (a slave) and expected to help around the settlement, doing chores and fetching and carrying, despite being a princess.

Life was not easy in 1066 and discovering that Tora (the queen) is actively working against them and against the new Christian religion, Gytha, her brothers and her new friend Amira, must find a way to survive and plan their escape.

Clever and enjoyable, this was a window into the past, and into another world. The first in a new series, I don’t remember Gytha ever being mentioned in history lessons at school so I look forward to learning more about her and her life in the next book.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Cover Reveal: Winter Nights & Christmas Lights – Sofia Rose

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We’re thrilled to present the adorable cover for upcoming novella, Winter Nights & Christmas Lights: A Sapphic Christmas Novella by Sofia Rose!

Winter Nights & Christmas Lights: A Sapphic Christmas Novella

Expected Publication Date: November 15, 2024

Genre: Holiday Romance/ Sapphic Romance

Tropes:

Sapphic, Billionaire Romance, Cozy Christmas Vibes, New Adult, Grad School, Academia, Sugar Baby/Sugar Mommy

Microtropes:

There’s a cute puppy, Meeting on a dating app, Christmas with the family, Set in Ireland, Moving to a new country

When Charlotte moves to Ireland, she has no idea that Aoife will sweep her off her feet just in time for Christmas.

Charlotte has just moved to Dublin for Grad School, hoping for a fresh start in a new city. It’s certainly not like the home in Florida that she’s left behind. While it’s exciting to be in a new city, Dublin is gloomy and rainy in the late fall. That is until Charlotte meets Aoife on a dating app. Will Aoife be the spark that lights up Charlotte’s Irish experience?

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Blog Tour: People Collide – Isle McElroy

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From the acclaimed author of The Atmospherians, a gender-bending, body-switching novel that explores marriage, identity, and sex, and raises profound questions about the nature of true partnership.

“A big project knocking around in a small package, portending even bigger projects ahead.”—New York Times

“A little Kafkaesque, a little Hitchcockian, a little Freaky Friday, but McElroy makes this dizzying story their own.”—Electric Literature

When Eli leaves the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful wife, he discovers that he now inhabits her body. Not only have he and his wife traded bodies, but Elizabeth, living as Eli, has disappeared without a trace. What follows is Eli’s search across Europe and to America for his missing wife—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender and embodied experience.

As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn’t. Will their new marriage wither completely? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive?

A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss, People Collide is a portrait of shared lives that shines a refreshing light on everything we thought we knew about love, sexuality, and the truth of who we are.

Isle McElroy (they/them) is a non-binary author based in New York. Their writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, The Cut, GQ, The Guardian, Vogue, Bon Appétit, and other publications. They have received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and they were named one of The Strand’s 30 Writers to Watch.

In May 2021, Isle founded Debuts & Redos, a reading series for authors who published books during the pandemic. Their first novel, The Atmospherians, was named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times and a book of the year by Esquire, Electric Literature, Debutiful, and many other outlets.

My thoughts: Eli wakes up one morning in the apartment he shares in Bulgaria with his wife, Elizabeth. Only she’s not there. He discovers that he is now in Elizabeth’s body, and she has his. In Paris.

An exploration of how we see ourselves and others, how our bodies are part of our identities, or not. Elizabeth revels in her new masculine form, I did wish there was a little more exploration of the way society treats gender, as Eli has a pretty easy time in his wife’s skin, the story is quite gentle in that regard.

He goes to Paris to find Elizabeth at the behest of his mother, who thinks she’s talking to her daughter-in-law. He has to also present himself as Elizabeth to her parents. They may be in each other’s physical selves but with their own thoughts, experiences and knowledge, so he worries there’s things her parents might say that he can’t answer, because he hasn’t been Elizabeth for long.

The book explores their relationship, when they connect at last in Paris. Elizabeth (as Eli) doesn’t want to return to Bulgaria, or America, she wants to remain in Paris, living a different life in Eli’s body.

But their parents, very different people, pursue them, determined to help “Eli” recover from his apparent wobble, and reunite the couple. This causes its own issues, they married in haste and Eli comes to realise he doesn’t really know his wife at all on a profound level.

A fascinating, thought provoking read, I liked Eli, he’s sensitive and gentle, and in Elizabeth’s body, respectful and kind. She’s a lot brasher and more confident, which is interesting as in a man’s body, that slight arrogance reads differently. Very interesting book.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: If The Crown Fits – Leanè Gilliomee

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Magic forests, forbidden romance and villainous royalty in a tale about an uncommon thief, a soldier prince and a deadly power struggle.

In the kingdom of Everness, the memory of magic only lives on through whispered stories. Lara, an elusive bandit raised in a clan of thieves, makes the mistake of stealing from the tyrannical royal family . . . and getting caught. 

She has no idea how high the price for her freedom will be.

Forced to choose between forfeiting her life or offering her services to the cruel, spoiled prince regent, Lara is blackmailed into retrieving a stolen heirloom from the crown prince of an enemy kingdom. She must pose as his betrothed — a princess of Everness he is yet to set eyes on. 

Bound by a dangerous secret and driven by a desperate need to protect those she loves most, Lara’s path to freedom is rife with treachery and complexity. Most of all, an infuriating and charming prince who can only lead her to becoming an enemy of the crown, or an enemy of her own heart . . .

If the Crown Fits follows an uncommon thief as she fights to survive among ruthless princes while fighting against forbidden desire, injustice and a kingdom of secrets. Perfect for fans of Throne of Glass, The Veiled Kingdom, Powerless, Spark of the Everflame, A Kiss of Iron and The Cruel Prince.

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Leané Giliomee is a romantasy and historical fiction writer from South Africa. She fell in love with writing in high school and has wanted to be a full-time author ever since. If she’s not reading or watching movies, you’ll find her with her cat (and most trusted writing partner), Loki, working on the next novel.

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My thoughts: Lara is tricked into stealing from the palace and finds herself forced to assist the Prince in return for her life. He wants her to pose as his sister, Princess Eloisa, and get to know the Prince of the neighbouring kingdom, who is supposed to marry the Princess.

He’s got a hidden agenda, obviously. But as Lara and Cai get to know one another and become involved in the plan to bring down the monarchy, they join forces to prevent Prince Lance from his plan to use the magical stones to control the country and start a war. 

Lara was raised by her uncle, leader of a bandit clan, and has no memory of her parents, she’s a thief and usually a pretty good one. She’s not very good at playing princess, the gowns are a nuisance in particular. She grows close with her lady-in-waiting and learns about the situation in the palace through the people set to guard her and guide her as she pretends to be the missing princess. But where is Eloisa? 

Cai doesn’t really want to get involved with the internal politics and rebellion that Lara’s uncle is spear heading, but he certainly doesn’t trust Lance either. His men are being held hostage and he will fight for their freedom but once he knows he’s been set up by the Prince, he’s determined to return to his own country. 

These two very different people are drawn together in the prince’s scheme, but they find themselves engaged in a much more dangerous game. Can Lara and Cai find a happy ending or will circumstance force them apart?

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Myth of the Medallion – Marion Mavis

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We’re celebrating the release of The Myth of the Medallion by Marion Mavis. This is the first book in a new series called Ghosts and Gods

The Myth of the Medallion (Ghosts and Gods #1)

Publication Date: November 2, 2024

Genre: NA Fantasy

  • enemies to lovers
  • gods/goddesses lore
  • political rebellion
  • platonic MF friendships
  • quest
  • multiple POVs
  • ancient artifacts
  • family secrets
  • magic
  • strong female characters

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝑔𝓊𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓎 𝒽𝒾𝒹𝒹𝑒𝓃 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇.”

When Thalia Eichel, a nobody from Druin, wakes up on the outskirts of the royal city with her memories lost, it’s safe to say she has a few questions. Only one person can give her the answers she seeks—Alistair, the God of Protection. Her mind may be nothing but a web of fragmented memories, but there’s one thing Thalia does remember. She hates the gods. As if talking to him wasn’t bad enough, he’s come to deliver the most unfortunate news.

Thalia is dead.

But not all hope is lost. Alistair reveals there’s something from centuries past that might have the power to bring her back from the dead. But there are rules she must obey. Reluctantly, Thalia agrees. If she must play the part of a good little mortal, then that is what she will do. She knows it’s the only way she can reclaim her life and, more importantly, put an end to the one who ruined it in the first place.

Thalia was no murderer in her past life, but she’s certainly not afraid to be one in the next.

Meanwhile, Thalia’s best friend, Torin Lehr, finds himself in dangerous situations as he works to uncover the truth of her mysterious disappearance. His choices and rebellious allegiances lead him down a relentless path from which there is no turning back. Corruption oozes from the hearts of the black cloaks, and he manages to get wedged in the thick of it.

All roads point back to King Vitalis, but why? What would the royals want with a family of farmers who, in their eyes, are a bunch of nobodies anyway?

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