Tag: fantasy

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Blog Tour: Malediction’s Embrace – Candice Morris

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Welcome to the tour for Candice Morris’ dark fantasy, Malediction’s Embrace! Read on for more details!

Malediction’s Embrace

Publication Date: July 10, 2024

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Tropes:

Sibling rivalry, shadow magic, abusive parent, dark elves, deal with a devil, necromancy, adventure, vengeance, strong FMC with flaws, morally gray FMC and MMC, personal growth, heroic quest, redemption.

Lynn has spent the last five years of her life tracking down her brother, Xaraan, after he killed their mother, cutting down anyone that gets in her path. Once she finally catches up to him, armed with her sword and the support of her newfound allies, she realizes the stakes are much higher than she anticipated.

Xaraan now wields great power gained through a dark contract with an ancient Lord of Hell, granting him an army of undead that plague the land-but also a power that threatens to undo him. As Lynn and her allies race through the realm to stop the carnage, she is faced with a decision that affects the entire kingdom. She must choose between reforging a connection with her estranged brother and saving his soul or damning him to the same Hell he sent their mother, and she must choose quickly.

The fate of the realm rests in her palm, and the Lord of Hell is trying to enact his own plans…

Content warnings:

Violence, child abuse, emotional abuse, death of a loved one, allusions to torture, spiders, undead

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

About the Author

An English teacher and mother with a passion for languages and tabletop role-playing games. Born in South Africa, Candice has traveled several continents as a child, but spent most of her academic years in France where she attended Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV university to study English literature and teaching. Candice now lives with her husband in Hong Kong. She speaks fluent English and French, conversational Spanish, and beginner level Mandarin.

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BBNYA Blog Tour: The Reanimator’s Heart – Kara Jorgensen

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BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

A reluctant necromancer, a man killed before his time, and the crime that brings them together.

Felipe Galvan’s life as an investigator for the Paranormal Society has been spent running into danger. Returning home from his latest case, Felipe struggles with the sudden quiet of his life until a mysterious death puts him in the path of the enigmatic Oliver Barlow.

Oliver has two secrets. One, he has been in love with the charming Felipe Galvan for years. Two, he is a necromancer, but to keep the sensible life he’s built as a medical examiner, he must hide his powers. That is until Oliver finds Felipe murdered and accidentally brings him back from the dead.

But Felipe refuses to die again until he and Oliver catch his killer. Together, Felipe and Oliver embark on an investigation to uncover a plot centuries in the making. As they close in on his killer, one thing is certain: if they don’t stop them, Felipe won’t be the last to die.

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Goodreads The StoryGraph

Kara Jorgensen (she/they) is a queer, nonbinary oddball with a penchant for all things antiquated, morbid, or just plain strange. While in college, they realized they no longer wanted to be Victor Frankenstein but instead wanted to write like Mary Shelley and thus abandoned their future career in science for writing. Kara melds her passions through her books and graduated with an MFA in Creative and Professional Writing in 2016. When not writing, they can be found hanging out with their dogs watching period dramas or trying to convince their students to cite their sources. 

My thoughts: I really liked this book, I loved Oliver and just wanted to give him a hug, thankfully he has Gwen and eventually Felipe for that.

Investigating a nun’s death is a little awkward, since the church frowns on their kind, but the sister isn’t just a nun, she has a gift and someone was willing to kill her to steal her secrets.

Oliver and Felipe are thrown together by circumstance and then when Oliver accidentally brings Felipe back from the dead, and might be the only reason he’s still alive, they can’t resist the pull between them, so they don’t.

But they’re still on the case, especially after Oliver’s lab is broken into and he and Gwen attacked. But why would anyone want some medical curios?

A fun and clever adventure with a sweet romance at its centre.

*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 Archer’s Amulet – S.A. Heiden

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We love a good fae fantasy so we’re thrilled to share The Archer’s Amulet with you this week!

The Archer’s Amulet: A Fae Reverse Portal Fantasy (The Lumen Legacy Series Book 1)

Publication Date: June 6, 2024

Genre: Fantasy/ Portal Fantasy

✨Strong FMC
✨Broody MMC
✨Fae Magic
✨Forbidden Love
✨Cozy Forest Cabin
✨Reverse Portal Travel

What happens when a fae needs a mortal’s help?

Lucy refuses to accept the life the Fae males in her family have planned for her. She has no interest in smiling coyly to a Fae Lord and wearing fancy dresses when she’d rather be elbows deep in sawdust, creating highly sought after Elderwood bows and arrows for her family business. Unfortunately, her father disagrees and the wedding invitations are already made.

There’s only one way to prove to her family that she’s more than a pawn to be married off: Lucy sets off for The Elderwood on her own. But when the amulet she uses to travel between realms runs low on magic, she’s stuck in the mortal world. What’s worse, her usual contact is gone and she has to convince his handsome but jaded grandson, Micah, to help her while she waits for the next full moon.

Without her trusted friend, the path to The Elderwood is in danger of being destroyed, and with it, Lucy’s hopes of a future she can create for herself. If she can’t convince Micah to help her, the arranged marriage would be a sealed fate.

GET IT HERE

About the Author

S.A. Heiden has been on her writing journey since mid 2022. After years of keeping her stories locked in her mind, she finally found the courage to share them with the world.

Her current work, The Lumen Legacy Series, is a trilogy surrounding the Fae realm of Denora and the mortal realm of Joterra. There we meet the Fae female, Lucy, and the mortal, Micah. This series will be complete in the summer of 2024.

S.A. HEIDEN

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Book Blitz: Grand Romantic Delusions and the Madness of Mirth – Meghan Ciana Doidge

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Congrats and happy release day to author Meghan Ciana Doidge! This looks amazing friends!

Grand Romantic Delusions and the Madness of Mirth, Part 1

Publication Date: July 25, 2024

Genre: urban fantasy romance/why choose

Book cover designer: Alicia McFadzean (@Cheeky Lettering)

  • why choose
  • slow burn
  • shifters
  • mages
  • magic

Still grieving the death of my beloved elder brother, but needing to fortify my newfound position, I’m forced to participate in a matchmaking event.

No matter that I have no desire, or any of the required skills, to hold one of the intersection points on my own, I am now the heir to the United European Nation. My chosen bond mates will be selected from the elite of society. Titled, wealthy, practiced in politics — and accomplished in all the essence-wielding skills I lack.

Chosen bond mates.

Not soul bound, not fated.

A love connection isn’t even a fever dream or a fleeting thought. A glam rock star, my childhood best friend, a staid earl, a bareknuckle fighter turned archduke, or a horse breeder …

I don’t get to choose any or all of them.

Because despite the purple eyes marking me as one of the powerful awry, I am in fact an ineffectual dud. The time to find and fortify any such predestined-by-the-universe connections — if such connections even exist for me — ran out when my brother died.

The Mirth duology is set in the Conduit World. While it’s not necessary to read all the interconnected series, the ideal reading order is as follows.

Awry (Conduit 1)
Grand Romantic Delusions and the Madness of Mirth, Part 1 (Mirth 1)
Grand Romantic Delusions and the Madness of Mirth, Part 2 (Mirth 2)(TBR
[TBR] (Conduit 2)

Adult 18+ While choice vs. duty is a strong theme in the Mirth duology, Mirth doesn’t have to choose between her suitors, and they’re more than happy to lend a helping hand to each other as well. Content notes and a list of tropes can be found on MCD’s website (on the book detail page).

GET IT HERE

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Cover Reveal: Vice and Void – Sadie Hewitt

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We are thrilled to present the cover for Sadie Hewitt’s Vice and Void, the first book in a new series! Visit our Instagram page for a chance to win an exclusive SE hardcover, and don’t forget to pre-order a copy or check out the author’s Kickstarter for special edition details!

Vice and Void (The Savage Wolves Brotherhood Book 1)

Expected Publication Date: November 19, 2024

Genre: Adult Fantasy/ Motorcycle Club Romance

✨Second chance romance
🖤Vigilante motorcycle club
✨Stolen blood magic
🖤Banished gods
✨Science vs. alchemy
🖤Touch her and 💀
✨He has her name tattooed on him

Dakota Montgomery knew she should have steered clear of The Savage Wolves Brotherhood. Now with a promising start to her career, the vow she made twelve years ago to keep her distance remains stronger than ever. But when her best friend suspiciously disappears, and her father dismisses her concerns, Dakota is forced to seek help from the vigilante motorcycle club and its second-in-command: her former flame, Callum Reynolds.

Callum Reynolds, still bearing the scars of nine wrongful years in prison, has his own reasons to assist Dakota Montgomery. A feud for territory with the club’s rival has caused a severe setback: the loss of their distillation warehouse. With Dakota’s Alchemist skills, there’s a chance to restore the stock before the Vanguard Syndicate comes to collect. In return, Callum pledges to use his network to investigate the disappearance of her best friend. However, any connection with Dakota or her Iron Guard father could jeopardize his hard-earned freedom.

The agreement with the Brotherhood thrusts Dakota into a treacherous underworld, where illicit alchemy and experimental magic fuels a dangerous game of depravity and addiction. Dakota must race against time to unravel the mystery of her best friend’s disappearance before it consumes her entirely–or worse, entangles her with Callum Reynolds and the Brotherhood for good.

Set in a modern-day world where the blood of extinct mythical creatures advances the creation of distillations, Sons of Anarchy meets occult science in this second-chance adult fantasy romance.

PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

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Blog Tour: The Veiled Heir – S.T. Fernandez

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I can’t think of a better novel to read than The Veiled Heir this summer, and we’ll be celebrating the release all week!

The Veiled Heir (An Heir of Atlantis Novel)

Publication Date: July 23, 2024

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

🧜‍♀️ Elemental Fae
🧜‍♂️ Fated Mates
❤️‍🔥 He Falls First
🌴 Atlantis Retelling
🌶 Spicy
❤️ Love formed through grief
🦈 Scales
💕 Prophecy
🧜‍♀️ Battling Realms
👑 Queens Rule

Heir to a Fae throne she didn’t know was hers. A daunting task to save humanity. A passionate love nurtured through her grief.

Asherah Delmar led a happy and quiet life. Her career as a marine biologist was about to take off, but her mother, Neleah’s, sudden murder stopped her life harshly in its tracks. When she discovers her mother’s true identity, the world as she knew it begins to unravel.

After escaping Neleah’s assassins, Asherah is thrust into an ancient world she thought to be a myth. She finds herself surrounded by a different type of sea creature unlike any other—the Water Fae. Asherah must step out of her mother’s shadow to become what she never dreamed she could be—the heir to the Queendom of Atlantis. With the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders, an inexplicable connection to the Commander of the Guardians, Draevyn Eliron, may be the only thing holding her together.

In this magical underwater world, Asherah must learn to embrace her Water Fae abilities while fighting for her throne and saving the human race. But not every Fae wants to save the humans. A council seeks to dethrone her, the rebels are determined to kill her, and Draevyn’s hold on her heart threatens to consume her.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

About the Author

S.T. Fernandez (a.k.a. Stephanie) is a Latinx author originally from Orlando, Florida. She lives in the beautiful small beach town of Ventura, California, with her husband and two wiener dogs. Stephanie graduated with a Bachelor’s in English Literature from Saint Leo University outside Tampa, Florida.

An avid reader of all things romance, Stephanie mostly reads books in the fantasy and paranormal romance genres. She enjoys creating stories that readers can disappear into just as much as she enjoys disappearing into a good book. When she’s not writing or marketing like a mad woman, she’s likely out on her patio soaking up the California sun with a book in one hand and a nice glass of red wine in the other.

ST. FERNANDEZ

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Blog Tour: The Sword and the Hounds – A.B. Finlayson

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We’re celebrating the highly anticipated second novel in A. B. Finlayson’s Arthur Crazy Series, The Sword and the Hounds!

The Sword and the Hounds

Publication Date: July 23, 2024

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Parliament House Press

For lovers of Gaiman and Pratchett’s GOOD OMENS, SHAUN OF THE DEAD and THE WORLD’S END comes the exciting sequel to THE BOOK AND THE BLADE.

Arthur Crazy was drunk and seeing ghosts.
Now he’s just drunk. The dead are silent, and Arthur is worried he might be living up to the family name. But after going back to where the Crazy people live and spending months sleeping off hangovers in his childhood bed, it’s finally time to return to the land of the living.
Unfortunately, the dead are not done with Arthur.

The hounds are stirring.
The guardians are moving.
The Shadowmen are watching.

And the sword in Arthur’s possession is calling them all.
They’re on their way, but you know what Britain is like—public transport is a joke. Especially at Christmas, it could take some time.
Some people have skeletons in their closet. Arthur has ghosts in his dreams and a sword under his bed… and everyone wants it! The dead, the living, and those dancing on the edge.

Evil stirs in Yorkshire.
Britain needs a hero.
Arthur needs a coffee.
On the moors, the devil rises.

GET IT HERE

My thoughts: I really enjoyed the first book in this very funny series, and I recommend reading it first (The Book & the Blade) as what happens in this book follows straight on and will make a lot more sense out of this one as characters refer to past events and one character in particular’s back story is needed or it will get confusing (Steve, it’s Steve). 

Arthur has fled York and the horrors he faced there, he’s grieving his lost friends and he wants the safety of home and his parents. It’s Christmas so ghosts are everywhere (they prefer it to Halloween, that’s why there’s so many ghost stories at Christmas – my theory) and even in Arthur’s small village in the moors, terrible things are coming. Hell hounds for starters – just one but it’s huge. 

Luckily help is on the way in the form of a pair of bickering twins in a vintage Jag, a former Queen of England and a small dog called Steve. 

Arthur’s parents are pretty laid back about his new powers and his mum in particular is fairly heroic – no evil monster is taking her son! I loved them, and the other slightly bonkers characters a lot. My favourite though is Steve, the bravest, tiniest terrier in all of Yorkshire!

This series is funny, clever and packed full of recognisable references (the first time Steve says “woof” I instantly shouted “Gaspode!” which any Discworld fan will get) and it’s lots of fun to read – not so much to be Arthur (last name Crazy, not Dent, but still an unlucky name in fantasy).  Can’t wait for the next book!

X: @parliamentbooks @RRBookTours1

IG: @a.b.finlayson @parliamentbooks @rrbooktours

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#rrbooktours #rrbttheswordandthehounds #theswordandthehounds #abfinlayson #fantasy #parliamentbooks #parliamenthouse #paranormalbooks #fantasybooks #booktour

*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: Strangers in Our Hearts – Bri Eberhart

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We’re thrilled to present the cover for Strangers in Our Hearts by Bri Eberhart! Make sure to add this one to Goodreads!

For Fans Of:

The Darkest Minds
Cute Mutants
The Young Elites
X-Men
Heroes

Strangers in Our Hearts

Release date: October 22, 2024

Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy/YA Science Fantasy

Audience: Upper YA 16+

  • Discovering special powers
  • Found family
  • Power and technology
  • Pre-dystopian setting
  • Social and political turmoil

Theo Goodwin is used to running, while Gemma Roberts wants nothing more than to find somewhere to call home—someplace to belong. With the threat of the Authorities looming, despite their strange connection and a shared desire to protect their family, a compromise between fight or flight is no easy feat. As they traverse a new shared life together, they must learn to understand one another for the survival of not only themselves but also those they hold dear.

When a new group swoops in with their own unique powers and motivations that threaten to ruin everything Theo and Gemma have worked toward, the invitation into their broader community has its appeals but equal drawbacks. Tension simmers within their crew, testing their bonds and questioning their unity. As they navigate this delicate balance, they’ll discover the world isn’t what it seems and finally put a word to what they are—mutants. More are found every day, with abilities far beyond what they thought possible. And the Authorities are doing more than hunting them down.

With mutants on the precipice of war with the government, will they decide to join the cause and fight or continue to run and hide?

Add to Goodreads

  • Content Warnings:
  • Death (including on page and off and mentions of previous deaths regarding parent and sibling)
  • Fire/fire injury
  • Hostages/kidnapping (off-page)
  • Grief
  • Panic attacks/disorders
  • Profanity
  • Violence
  • Warfare

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Blog Tour: The Shadows of the Kingdom – Jen Bilton

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The ShadowsoftheKingdom copy

To celebrate the June release, we are touring The Shadows of the Kingdom by Jen Bliton!

TSotK-draft4-adj

The Shadows of the Kingdom (The Light in the Shadows)

Publication Date: June 25, 2024

Genre: YA Fantasy Romance

💀Ancient evil
💀 Relationship struggles
💀 new monsters
💀 Undertaking quests
💀 Kingdom politics
💀 History revelations

After defeating the evil behind the attacks on the southern lands of Caldumn, Wren and Tyran begin to settle into their new life that begs to be calm… or so they thought.

With so many questions left unanswered about the Red Kingdom’s threat, and what they’ll now do after they withstood Rhonin’s advance, they receive a letter from a mysterious magic kind that kept themselves in the shadows with a warning of the Red Kingdom’s motives.

Now the threat won’t just be to the towns, but their world as they know it. Wren and Tyran begin the journey to stop the Red Kingdom at all costs. Faced with conflicting beliefs as to what they should do, their relationship is tested in more ways than they can imagine:

Embrace the shadows or choose a path of light.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

About the Author

Jennifer lives in Southern California with her husband, tiny human, and five cats.

Coming from a background in Content Creation, she and her husband livestream gaming content on Twitch and gaming content on YouTube, where you can find her playing World of Warcraft, and Diablo IV. She loves being out in her garden and tries her best to grow various fruits and veggies throughout the year among any flowers, bulbs, or roots she can get her hands on.

JEN BLITON

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Cover Reveal: The Red Woman and the White Bear – Fern A. Ellis

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Check out the cover for The Red Woman and the White Bear by Fern A. Ellis! Coming this Fall!

Front Cover

The Red Woman and the White Bear

Expected Publication Date: Fall 2024

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

  • Fae courts
  • Enemies to lovers
  • Hurt/comfort
  • Shadow magic
  • Court politics
  • Opposing religions/religion is magic
  • Slow burn forbidden love
  • Hidden identity
  • Morally grey characters
  • Reluctant chosen one
  • Soul-deep connection

It is both the fate and the burden of the Red Woman to bring peace.

The Fae are real—this is a fact that Aisling Morrow has believed with varying degrees of certainty since she was a child. Her late mother’s accounts of their beauty still linger in her mind, but always with the caveat: Do not involve yourself uninvited with matters of the Fae. Aisling has no plans to do so—until she discovers an arcane prophecy which names her the Red Woman, destined to turn the tides of war in the realm of Wyldraíocht by ensuring the fall of the Unseelie Court.

On a quest to understand her role, Aisling ventures into Wyldraíocht. Except Fae prophecies aren’t so easily interpreted, and she is soon ensnared in a dangerous web of political machinations, opposing religions, and dark magic—at the center of which stands the fierce and vengeful Unseelie King.

King Kael Ardhen, a vessel for raw power bestowed upon him by an eldritch god, is consumed by his own unbridled rage—a rage which he would not hesitate to turn on the human woman prophesied to destroy his court. Yet something about the way Aisling calls to his shadows draws him in, at once both granting him control over his violent magic and inviting him to relinquish control over his guarded heart.

As unsettling truths about the world her mother so loved challenge Aisling’s convictions and call into question the true purpose of the Red Woman, the Veil between realms grows ever weaker with the echoes of war. Soon, the crueler sorts of Fae will no longer be confined to Wyldraíocht. With time running out to protect those she loves, Aisling finds herself at the crossroads of fate and choice—and the ultimate price of peace may demand more than she is willing to pay.

COMING SOON

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