Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Review: How the Hitman Stole Christmas by Katie Reus

Today, I'm sharing my review of How the Hitman Stole Christmas by Katie Reus!

The story is funny, fast-paced and full of steamy passion!

You can't go wrong with a Katie Reus book!

 


About the Book

Tis the season for a grumpy-sunshine romance with a side of murder and mayhem!

She hates Christmas and everything that goes with it…

Explosives expert Elliana hates Christmas—and the only good thing about this holiday season is that her gorgeous neighbor seems allergic to shirts and clothes in general. She knows because she’s been watching him for months with her drone. She’s never stalked anyone before, but he not only doesn’t seem to mind, he puts on nightly strip shows just for her. When she finally works up the courage to talk to him, she stumbles right into a murder—that he’s committed.

But this holiday is one she’ll never forget…

According to Theo, the whole murder thing is no big deal—the dead guy needed killing. And while her hot neighbor wants her, protecting her is his main priority. So when she’s targeted, this cinnamon roll hitman kidnaps her for her own good. With a deadly threat hunting them and a hot hitman who keeps handcuffing her to him “for her own protection”, Elliana is starting to reconsider her grinchy stance on the holidays. And when everything finally comes to a head, the results are bound to be…explosive.

My Thoughts


How the Hitman Stole Christmas is funny, steamy, inappropriately appropriate and loads of fun! The characters are loveable, the dialogue had me constantly laughing out loud, and the chemistry between Elliana and Theo is explosive! 

You wouldn’t think a hitman would be able to steal Christmas-and my heart-but you’d be totally wrong, in all the right ways! 

I absolutely loved it! And to find out that it’s gonna be a series?!?!?! I cannot WAIT for the next book! 

FTC Disclaimer: I voluntarily read a copy of the book generously provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my thoughts or feelings about the book or the content of my review.




Purchase Link



About the Author




Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Release Day Spotlight & Review: There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh

Happy Release Day Nalini Singh!

There Should Have Been Eight is LIVE! 

We're celebrating today by spotlighting the book, sharing an excerpt and my review. It's pretty short because there's not a lot I can say that won't spoil the book.

I can't wait for readers to dive into There Should Have Been Eight!

Get your copy today!



About the Book

In this chilling thriller from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh, a remote estate in New Zealand’s Southern Alps hosts a reunion no one will ever forget.

Seven friends.
One last weekend.
A mansion half in ruins.
No room for lies.
Someone is going to confess.
Because there should have been eight. . . .

They met when they were teenagers. Now they’re adults, and time has been kind to some and unkind to others—none more so than to Bea, the one they lost nine long years ago.

They’ve gathered to reminisce at Bea’s family’s estate, a once-glorious mansion straight out of a gothic novel. Best friends, old flames, secret enemies, and new lovers are all under one roof. But when the weather turns and they’re snowed in at the edge of eternity, there’s nowhere left to hide from their shared history.

As the walls close in, the pretense of normality gives way to long-buried grief, bitterness, and rage. Underneath it all, there’s the nagging feeling that Bea’s shocking death wasn’t what it was claimed to be. And before the weekend is through, the truth will be unleashed—no matter the cost. . . .




Excerpt

1

. . . around the cache of disturbing images found in the personal laptop of Judge Landis Beale. The judge has refused to speak to the media after his initial statement denying all knowledge of the images and declaring that his system had been hacked.

However, sources close to the investigation state that there is no evidence of hacking, and that it appears the judge has been collecting the images for close to a year.

Major media organizations continue to file appeals against the gag order that prohibits any description of the images.

-Morning News Bulletin

2

But I'm afraid of the dark.

That was all I could think when the doctor looked at me, kind and gentle, and told me that I was going to go blind. A slow, steady road to relentless darkness. There were other words. Things like "best-case scenario" and "limited vision," along with "cutting-edge developments" and "chance to optimize your habits," but it had just been buzz, a swarm of disoriented bees in my head.

It's been a year since that day. I now knew far too much about the genetic time bomb inside me, and my night vision was gone. But I could still see in the light, so I brought the camera up to my eye as the wind whipped my hair back from the open window, and I snapped a shot of one of the myriad waterfalls that cascaded down the fern-covered rocks of this final stretch of the West Coast.

We'd turn soon, going inland and upward as we made our way to the remote alpine area that housed Darcie's family estate. I'd never had reason to visit that specific part of the country, but I'd heard that it was breathtaking, a photographer's paradise. Still, that unknown landscape could never compete with my love for the black sands, rainforests, and jagged cliffs of this coast.

"We're flying south for three days to walk one of the trails, then road-tripping up to the estate," my best friend, Vansi, had said. "You should come! Kaea's already on board and I'm going to ask Aaron and Grace, too."

My love for this region was part of why I'd tried so hard to fly home early, join the road trip. But only a small part. When Darcie's invitation had come and I'd realized everyone had said yes to the idea of a reunion, the key had turned, unlocking the bitter box of questions I'd kept stifled for nine long years.

All of us. Together again.

While I could still see, still judge their expressions.

It was time.

No more avoiding the one subject none of us could bear to talk about.

No more false cheer anytime we reminisced about the past.

No more pretending that Bea wasn't dead.

My chest compressed in on itself, my eyes staring unblinkingly at the landscape beyond the window.

In the end, I'd only made this final stretch of the road trip. I'd needed to see my family, imprint their visages on my brain. Because the disease that had slumbered in my cells all my life was now well and truly awake. It was rare, the doctors had told me, and while they had data from other cases, there were no guarantees when it came to the timeline of progression.

I was a walking case study on its unpredictability: I'd been asymptomatic until I hit twenty-eight years of age. Such late onset was as rare as the disease itself. Most with the same diagnosis only got to keep their sight until their teens, or early twenties at best. I'd made it to almost thirty.

A gift.

More than a quarter century spent in blissful ignorance.

No awareness that there would come a day when my world would go blurry . . . then blink out, leaving me with nothing but ghostly afterimages of the life I'd once lived.

The diagnosis had turned me into a hoarder of memories.

After five days with my parents, brother, and grandparents in the frenetic energy of metropolitan Auckland, I'd made my way to Fox Glacier last night. The cabin I'd booked at the last minute had been low on the amenities front and chilly to boot, but was nestled inside primeval native bushland.

Giant tree ferns had shaded my back door, beyond them a landscape curling with mist. Soft focus provided by nature.

I'd taken more photographs, hoarded more memories-but I'd been ready to go when my friends drove in at ten that morning. The mist had faded by then, the sky ablaze with cool spring sunshine.

Hugs, cries of joy, grins exchanged.

It had all felt so painfully familiar, their voices and faces writ on my very bones. I'd never forget the fine details of any of their expressions, no matter how fast the curtain fell. We'd been part of each other's lives at a pivotal moment, that breath between childhood and adulthood, when the whole world was full of possibility and our minds fearless.

But of course, it wasn't the same.

We'd learned fear. And lived a grief so serrated that the scars ached to this day.

"Do you think we'll ever be how we were again?" Vansi had asked me the night when part of me had gone permanently numb. The whites of her eyes had been red, her voice a rasp, and her skin such an ashen shade of brown that, for a second, I'd thought I was speaking to a mirage, a stealthy shadow of my friend.

I'd stroked the wavy mass of her hair with a gentle hand, hugged her close . . . and held my silence. Because we'd both known the answer to her question. There'd been no need to give voice to the agony of it.

Bea was dead.

Her body erased out of existence.

There was no coming back from that.

3

An hour and a half until we reached the estate where Darcie and Ash waited for us. A shorter time until we left the state highway that hugged the jagged rocks and wild green of this coast with its massive white-capped waves and deadly undertows. Even the plants were eerie at times, so ancient that they appeared alien growths transported from another planet.

Click. Click. Click.

The big SUV hummed alone through the alien wilderness, no other cars on this silent stretch devoid of human settlement, but the sun shone bright, the colors of the landscape vivid. A pop of red berries I barely caught as we rolled by, a shot of golden green leaves against the sooty black trunk of a tree fern, a capture of Vansi's laughing face as reflected in the side mirror.

"You'll have a thousand shots just from the road, Lunes." Kaea bumped my shoulder. "Control yourself." All big shoulders and wicked dark eyes set against glowing brown skin, I'd thought him the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen the first day of high school, when we'd ended up in the same form room.

I'd soon learned that he was also a player. The boy around whom trailed a line of slack-eyed groupies and-once he hit his late-teenage years-whose bedroom had a revolving door that spun so fast it was a health hazard.

Back when I'd shared a flat with him, Vansi, and Aaron during our university days, I'd met so many young women in the kitchen on weekend mornings that I'd given up even exchanging names with them. Poor things always thought they'd be back, but Kaea had an endless smorgasbord from which to pick-and no desire for a steady girlfriend.

"Relationships are too much work," he'd told me once. "I'm here to graduate in the top one percent of my class, get headhunted by a major corporate law firm, and make my way to partner in under ten years. I don't have time to be the doting boyfriend."

Arrogant ass, I thought with an inward grin. Because while he might not do relationships, he was an amazing friend. A friend who'd shipped me a giant order of my favorite local supermarket chocolates after I admitted to being homesick after moving to London-even though, according to him, my love for the cheap chocolates was a "screaming chemical-laced affront to good taste."

Lifting the camera, I snapped a photo of his grinning face.

When I looked at the tiny image on the screen, he was as beautiful and as charismatic as ever, some part of him still the boy on whom I'd had a crush. Thank God that hadn't lasted; he'd have obliterated my heart. "So, no third Mrs. Ngata yet?" I asked, after snapping another shot, this time of the couple in the front seats of the big black SUV that was our ride.

Another rugged vehicle-this one a dark green, per the recent photo in our group chat-hugged the road some three hours north of us.

Driving down as we drove up, our destination the same.

Like me, Aaron and his new fiancΓ©e, Grace, hadn't been able to join the hiking detour the others had organized. We'd link up at the estate. I hadn't yet met Grace, as Aaron's romance with her had taken place while I was out of the country, but Kaea and the others had reported that she was a sweetheart.

"What about his family?" I'd asked Kaea privately. "Any pushback there?" I knew that they'd expected Aaron to end up with someone from the African diaspora.

"I saw a photo he put up of her heading to church with his family. Huge smiles on everyone's faces, and his grandmother was holding Grace's hand. Fact Grace shares their faith will have been a major point in her favor. And she's just like Aaron, you know? Generous and warm, just the kind of person they'd want for him."

Trust Aaron to find a woman with a nature as gentle and kind as his own. Back when we'd flatted together, Aaron had always been the one most likely to organize a pick-me-up if one of us was struggling, or to make dinner for us all. He'd even packed me lunch one semester after he realized I was exhausted from study and work, and as a result was barely eating.

I'd been overjoyed when he called me with news of his engagement.

Not only for the love, but for finding his place in life. Back at the huge high school where we'd come together as a group, where the diverse student body was a matter of school pride, Aaron had still managed to stick out. His parents had been refugees from war-torn Sudan, Aaron one of the first generation born on New Zealand soil. The eldest son, the eldest cousin, the first child born a Kiwi.

He'd carried the weight of his entire family's expectations on his thin shoulders.

"They survived refugee camps and the loss of most of the members of our family to relocate to a place so cold that my haboba's kneecaps creak from it," he'd said in a speech for our senior English class. "The least I can do is make them proud."

I'd never understood whether he was being serious or ironic when he said things like that, whether the words were his or a repetition of those spoken to him by his family, especially his treasured grandmother with the knees that couldn't bear the cold. For all his sweetness, Aaron was in no way an open book.

Quite different from blunt and almost-too-honest Kaea.

"Situation is in progress," Kaea said today. "Wife number three. My soulmate, this time. I know it."

Phoenix snorted from the driver's seat, his voice overriding a radio report about a scandal to do with a high court judge. "Didn't you use that line in your first wedding speech?"

"No." Vansi turned to grin at Kaea. "He said they were destined to be, two hearts in sync."

"Destined for divorce court," Phoenix added dryly as the newscaster began to speculate about the spring weather.

Unabashed, Kaea threw out his arms. "Hey, hate the game, not the player." At twenty-nine, with two divorces behind him, he had the confidence of a handsome and intelligent man who knew women would never be a challenge for him. It was a kind of curse, I'd always thought, the ease with which he could charm lovers. He valued none of them because there were always more waiting in the wings.

"Wait, hear that?" Phoenix turned up the radio.

". . . polar blast. Farmers are concerned about the effect of the late cold snap on the lambing season."

"Only in New Zealand," Vansi said with a roll of the eyes that I heard more than saw. "Sheep news on prime time."

"Wouldn't worry about the weather," Kaea added. "Remember last year they were going on about a polar blast and it ended up a day of cold rain?"

Phoenix nodded. "Yeah, you're right. We'll be safe at the estate regardless. If the place has survived close to a hundred and fifty years in the mountains, it's not going to buckle under a bit of rain." Reaching forward, he switched off the radio. "Signal's starting to crackle anyway. Did Darcie ever answer my question about cell reception at the estate? I forgot to check."

"Yeah-apparently it's usually only available in a single high part of the estate's main house, though she says she gets the odd bar out by the bridge sometimes." Kaea shrugged. "Be a proper break, right?"

Phoenix's profile underwent a subtle shift, his skin no longer as taut. And I realized how hard it must be, to live life tied to the scream of medical emergencies. It was a wonder he'd been able to take this break; maybe the hospital had been forced to give their junior doctors more time off by some health and safety authority.

"Anyway, enough about that." Kaea shifted his gaze to me, waggled his eyebrows. "You never say much about your dating life in London, Mysterious Ms. Wylie. Anyone serious?"

"Just me and my camera." And my oncoming blindness.

A year after the doctors first ended my world as it was, I still hadn't told anyone about the diagnosis. It had a fancy name, but at the bottom of it, it was a time bomb with which I'd been born and hadn't known of until that fateful doctor's appointment. I'd gone in thinking the thin and bald man with brilliant blue eyes was going to tell me I needed glasses, come out to a world that would never be sharp again.

I'd always known I was adopted. Hard not to when my hair was black glass and my skin olive in comparison to my parents' much paler hair and "winter white" complexions-as described by themselves. Complete with my mother's big laugh and my father's deep chuckle.

My ancestry had never been a big deal to me. I'd never felt any desire to go to China, trace my roots. But . . . would I have picked up a camera had I known what lived inside me? The lens that was slowly going dark as tiny crystals formed in the delicate tissues of my eyes.

Excerpted from There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh. Copyright © 2023 by Nalini Singh. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.


My Review

Nalini Singh thrills and chills readers in There Should Have Been Eight. 

Wow. This story is full of surprises, twists and turns and is a slow burning page-turner until the end. There were some parts I couldn’t believe what I was reading! I can’t say much without giving stuff away but I think readers are going to thoroughly enjoy the book. I know I did! 

FTC Disclaimer: I voluntarily read a copy of the book generously provided by the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way influences my thoughts or feelings about the book or the content of my review.


Purchase Links

Penguin  Random House

Nalini Singh Website


About the Author


Saturday, November 11, 2023

Book Sale! Only You by Marie Landry! November 11-13 ONLY!

Happy Book Birthday Marie Landry

On Monday, Only You turns 5 and it's a PARTY! πŸŽ‚πŸŽŠπŸŽπŸ₯³πŸ’πŸŽ‰

Marie has dropped prices on eBook and print copies for THREE days in celebration! This sale lasts ONLY until Monday, November 13, so grab your copy of Only You TODAY! 

The eBook is 99 cents (regularly $3.99) on Kindle, Kobo, Apple, & Nook, AND the paperback is $11.99 (regularly $14.99) on Amazon! The book is also on sale in Amazon Canada & UK! 

Happy Birthday to us!
https://www.marielandryauthor.com/p/only-you-sale.html



About the Book

Ivy's new boss is sexy, Scottish…and comes with an expiration date.

When Ivy reluctantly takes on a new part-time job, it’s a means to an end. Doing this favor for her pain-in-the-neck roommate means Ivy can have her apartment to herself again much sooner. The last thing she expects is for Hugh—the hot Scot who just happens to be her new boss—to ask her out on a date. And then another. And another.

It’s not easy balancing two jobs, maintaining friendships, and dealing with family drama, all while her secret dreams of owning a bookstore take a back burner. But when Ivy is with Hugh, all of that fades away. There’s something about him that makes her want to let her guard down and open up, which would be fine if Hugh wasn’t likely returning to Scotland in a matter of weeks.

Can Ivy learn to live in the moment and have a little fun, even if it means setting herself up for heartache later? 

ONLY YOU is a sweet and steamy standalone contemporary romance about taking chances, unexpected friendships, and holding on to the things—and people—that matter most.





About the Author


Friday, November 10, 2023

Blurb for Archangel's Lineage is HERE!

Hi everyone!
If you know me, you know I am a HUGE Nalini Singh Fan!
If you don't, you're gonna learn today!

Archangel's Lineage is the upcoming book in Nalini's Guild Hunter series and I am so excited to share with you the blurb Nalini JUST released today!

Usually Guild Hunter books were published in the fall but unfortunately, there was some juggling that had to be done in the publishing game and Archangel's Lineage won't be published until April 2024. 

Heartbreaking I know, but trust me, it'll be worth the wait!!!! 
You'll definitely want to get your preorders in! 

And without further ado....

Archangel's Lineage

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s dangerous and beautiful world of archangels, vampires, and mortals has never faced a threat this cataclysmic…

Raphael and Elena are experiencing their first ever year of true peace. No war. No horrors of archangelic power. No nightmares given flesh. Until…the earth beneath the Refuge begins to tremble, endangering not only angelkind’s precious and fragile young, but the very place that has held their most innocent safe for eons.

Amid the chaos, Elena’s father suffers a violent heart attack that threatens to extinguish their last chance to heal the bonds between them and make sense of the ruins of their agonizing shared history.

Even as Elena battles grief, Raphael is torn from her side by the sudden disappearance of an archangel. But worse yet is to come. An Ancestor, an angel unlike any other, stirs from his Sleep to warn the Cadre of a darkness so terrible that it causes empires to fall and civilizations to vanish.

This time, even the Cadre itself may not be able to stop a ticking clock that is counting down at frightening speed…

***

Goosebumps right??? 
Preorder your copy today!!!!

Paperback



eBook







About the Author




Press Release!

Calling all Jane Austen Fans!

Puffin In Bloom has partnered with Rifle Paper Co.'s Anna Bond to create beautiful new covers to breathe new life into Austen’s classics including Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility.

Available on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, these fresh iterations feature gorgeous floral designs from Bond and Austen’s engaging, and heartfelt stories that will make for the perfect collectible or gift. 

Puffin In Bloom is a collective series of classics for coming-of-age readers. Collectors of the Puffin In Bloom set will be excited to add these to their shelves.




Pride & Prejudice (9780593622452): Mr. and Mrs. Bennet live with their five daughters. Jane, the eldest daughter, falls in love with Charles Bingley, a rich bachelor who moves into a house nearby with his two sisters and friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy. Darcy is attracted to the second daughter, Elizabeth, but she finds him arrogant and self-centered. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, she refuses. But perhaps there is more to Darcy than meets the eye. Preorder HERE





Emma (9780593622476): Beautiful, clever, rich—and single—Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protΓ©gΓ©e, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen’s most flawless work. Preorder HERE





Sense & Sensibility (9780593622469): Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby, she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love-- and its threatened loss--the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love. Preorder HERE



About the Author

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon near Basingstoke, the seventh child of the rector of the parish. She lived with her family at Steventon until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother; in 1809, they settled in Chawton, near Alton, Hampshire. Here she remained, except for a few visits to London, until May 1817, when she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on July 18, 1817.

About the Illustrator

Anna Bond is an artist, designer and entrepreneur best known for being the co-founder and chief creative officer of Rifle Paper Co., an international stationery, accessories, and home brand based in Winter Park, Florida, and SoHo, New York. Founded in 2009 with her husband Nathan, the couple organically grew the brand from an apartment-based business to an multi-million dollar brand carried in thousands of stores around the world. Beyond Rifle Paper Co., Anna is enjoys illustration, interior design, and, most of all, trying to keep up with her four young children.



Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Release Day Spotlight: Reign (Kindred: The Fated #3) by Donna Grant

  Happy Release Day Donna Grant!

Reign is the third book in her Kindred: The Fated series and is LIVE!

Get your copy today!



About the Book

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Donna Grant blends the magic of Scottish and Norse tradition in the final installment of her acclaimed Kindred: The Fated series. 

Magic holds both beauty and danger… 

As Lady of the Varroki, Malene was powerful and revered. But after a battle, she awakens in Norway as Dagny, a witch with no memories of her past. Her identity fragmented, Dagny finds herself entangled in a life far removed from the path she once trod and seduced by the lure of power. Until that need shifts to passion for the one who has imprisoned her, hoping to make her remember. 

As a warrior and the Lady’s right hand, Armir will not stop searching for Malene. When he does, she’s not the woman he remembers. Driven by an undying love that transcends the boundaries of time and space, Armir risks everything for her. But enemies lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike. Will he and Malene overcome their pasts to find a future together?




Excerpt

Fall

Armir took a deep breath and looked into the dark depths of the cave. He had used it countless times, but it wasn’t his home. It was a place to rest, to escape. It had also been the location he expected his life to end. Some of his darkest days had been spent within the cold stone walls. He had spent hours roaring his anger and bellowing his grief.

And then, just when he had lost all hope, he felt her magic.

Armir held out his hand as a ball of fire swirled in his palm. He shot it toward the ground. Sparks flared to life in what was left of the ash. He looked down at the flames jumping and dancing. He fought not to look over his shoulder where she lay unconscious. He had held her too tightly, stared too long as he carried her to the cave. But he had thought never to see her again.

He swallowed and checked the area once more. Then he walked through the cave to the entrance. He paused and looked out at the rain as it fell in sheets too thick to see more than a few feet. Armir unsheathed his dagger and cut his forearm. Blood welled and dripped onto the stone. The words of an ancient spell he’d never thought to utter fell from his lips as he walked across the entryway, trailing his blood with him.

When he reached the other side, he pulled out a strip of cloth and wrapped it around the wound. For better or worse, neither he nor Malene would be leaving the cave anytime soon. It was the right thing to do. He had a duty to their people—to everyone—to figure out what had happened to her. Why, then, did it feel as if the weight of the world now rested on his shoulders?

He was weary. Tired of losing hope, tired of the guilt. Just...beat. He’d lived his life for the Varroki, to safeguard Blackglade. It had been the greatest of honors to be chosen to stand beside the Lady of the Varroki—and he had stood beside a few. Yet none had been like Malene.

Armir dropped his chin to his chest. The Varroki were a strong people, their magic unmatched. They had descendants of the Celts and Norse, merging the two cultures into one. Because of that, they had chosen to live in a hidden city.

At one time, their numbers had been great, but strict rules and the war with the Coven had decimated their ranks to the point of extinction. He turned and made his way back to the cavern. Malene was on her side, her long, flaxen hair spread around her. He almost hadn’t recognized her in the breeches, leather, and chainmail covering her. He had taught her battle magic, but what he’d seen when he came upon her and Asa locked in combat was something else entirely. It had been merciless and brutal. She had been cold and ruthless. The opposite of the woman he knew.

Like all the Ladies chosen by destiny or fate, Malene had to be convinced to leave her family, life, and home for Blackglade. It was rare for a Lady to reign for more than five years. Many died within the first. But not Malene. There had been a few times he hadn’t thought she would survive. He had believed her too fragile, too vulnerable. However, her inner strength surfaced when her back was to the wall. She hadn’t just survived, she had thrived.

She had known nothing of magic when he found her. He had questioned why she had been chosen as Lady of the Varroki, but the longer he was around her, and the longer she ruled, the more he understood. She had fought the confines of her role, all the while worrying over the Varroki.

Finally, she stopped fighting her destiny and instead grasped it with both hands. He could still remember how her soft gray eyes had danced with excitement when he agreed to teach her to read. It had been her first order to him. Once she grasped it, she had been voracious, combing through every tome in Blackglade at least once.

That’s how she’d discovered the decrees of celibacy for many positions within the Varroki—including his—that had long stood in their culture. She had overturned all of them in an effort to help grow their ranks once more. Yet years of being forbidden to touch a Lady couldn’t be wiped away with a snap of the fingers. No matter how much he might want to reach for Malene, he hadn’t.

He couldn’t.

Armir didn’t know when he had begun to love her. The emotion was just there one day, and there was no way to put it back into a box. Or ignore it. So, he had silently dreamed and yearned. And hoped.

Just when he was ready to tell her how he felt, they had gone into battle against the Coven. He should’ve told Malene about his feelings before they walked onto that battlefield. Instead, he had chosen to keep quiet and let her focus on the upcoming clash. It had turned out to be his greatest mistake because he lost Malene that day.

Being at Blackglade without her had been unbearable. He hadn’t found a body, so he refused to believe she was dead and set out to find her, intending to comb the Earth. Every day that passed without uncovering a clue had eventually worn him down, hollowing him out and creating a hole in his heart.

Some days, he couldn’t do anything but sit with his memories. Other days, he covered dozens of miles, stopping anyone he came across to ask if they had seen someone matching Malene’s description. And all the while, a sense of dread had grown within him that she was gone. Lost to him forever.

Armir lowered himself to the ground and looked across the fire at the woman who had ensnared him utterly, completely. He stared at her heart-shaped face with her high cheekbones and plump lips. He had looked into her large eyes so many times, captivated by their color and the wisdom staring back at him.

No one was supposed to touch the Lady of the Varroki. But he had. He could recount each time down to the last detail. Somehow, that made his yearning grow until she was all he could think about. He hadn’t wanted her to go into battle because he had feared losing her. She reminded him she was the Lady, chosen to bear the magic of the blue radiance. He knew her power, her strength. It was why he hadn’t believed her dead.

And he’d been right.

Copyright by Donna Grant


Purchase Links

✦Kindle→ https://amzn.to/3ZDrm0F

✦Nook→ https://dgrant.co/439RzXB

✦Apple→ https://dgrant.co/3ZJcTAe

✦Kobo→ https://dgrant.co/43K0UVI

✦Google→ https://dgrant.co/3PPOwOr


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