 With the recent terrible events in Ukraine, many people have been looking for ways to help. To that end, the team at Romantic Fantasy Shelf has put together two massive limited-edition anthologies, Fierce Hearts and Adamant Spirits. These anthologies are now available, and let me tell you, they are epic! Each volume contains over half a million words of short fiction, novellas and novels, and sneak peeks at forthcoming works by up-and-coming and bestselling authors. All proceeds from sales will be donated to the International Rescue Committee to help the Ukrainian people who are suffering as a result of this war. None of the authors or organizers are receiving compensation for their work on these collections, and all book production and advertising is being covered by monetary donations and volunteer work.  Fierce Hearts is devoted to romantic fantasy and fantasy romance set in "fantasy" worlds or fantasy versions of historical earth. Adamant Spirits contains paranormal romance and romantic urban fantasy (set in the equivalent of modern-day earth) and science fiction romance. Both collections are available at multiple stores in ebook format, with more stores being added as they go live, and will also be available in paperback and special-edition hardcover, coming soon!  My own contribution, in Fierce Hearts, is a newly revised and expanded version of my older story, "A Cure for Nel." I love this new and improved version, which will be exclusive to Fierce Hearts during the time the anthologies are available. When Leya's daughter falls deathly ill, their only hope is the man who abandoned them to follow his dreams of magic. But a deeply corrupted Source and a tower full of heartless wizards stands in Leya's way, and in the meantime she must trust the village witch, who doesn't believe Nel can be saved, and Daris, the gentle blacksmith whose love Leya might never be ready to accept, to keep her daughter alive. I also had the privilege of proofreading some of the stories, and I can tell you there's a lot of wonderful reading in these collections! The fantastic team at Romantic Fantasy Shelf has worked tirelessly over the last month to put these anthologies together, and it's an honor to be a part of this.
Pick up one or both of these epic, limited-time collections, discover new authors or even a new genre, and help people who are desperately in need of help. The authors and admins of Romantic Fantasy Shelf thank you <3 Note: Each collection contains stories in a range of romantic heat levels, from mild to scorching. Heat levels are clearly indicated in the table of contents and on the title page for each story, so you can choose what you want to read.
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I've been so excited to show this off! Here's Esavas and Leshi, finally together on the cover of Sea of Magic, Book 2 of Mage of Storm and Sea:  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka I just love this! The artist did such a great job of capturning Leshi and Esavas's personalities. This is arguably my favorite illustration of all my book couples, along with the new cover for Bad Hunting. And here's the full wraparound for the print edition:  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka And here's a little snippet from the book: “I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I can destroy those demons.” Watch for Sea of Magic, coming soon! To make sure you don't miss out on release news, and to get advance cover reveals, exclusive sneak peeks, and more, including a free copy of Dreams of Magic, the prequel to Mage of Storm and Sea, sign up for my email newsletter.
Here's a rundown of all the book events I'm participating in right now. Check them out and discover a new book, series, author or genre!  1/14-2/28: WIDE Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Permafree Book Fair Free at all stores! A wide variety of science fiction and fantasy, including series starters, box sets, and anthologies. Go on a new adventure today!  2/1-2/28: Epic & High Fantasy Free Book Giveaway Discover new worlds of fantasy! Epic and high fantasy, free to download.  2/1-2/28: Paranormal and Fantasy Romance Feb Book Fair Fall in love with a new book! A breathtaking selection of Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, Scifi Romance, Fairy Tale retellings, and Romantic Fantasy.  2/1-2/28: Boxed Sets: Paranormal, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy Binge on a new series and discover new authors with this huge collection of series and multi-author box sets. Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance.  2/1-2/28: February 99 cents or Free Winter Book Collection Escape to a new adventure with these bargain-priced Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, and Science Fiction books!  2/1-2/28: Portal to Fantasy Free Books Discover a new adventure! Epic fantasy, high fantasy, litRPG, sword & sorcery, fairytale retellings, and portal fantasy, free to download!  2/1-2/28: Love and Enchantment An enchanting selection of romantic fantasy and fantasy romance prequels and series starters, free to download! Fall in love with a new story today!  2/14-3/16: Fantasy Escapes
Escape to a new fantasy adventure for free! Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and more.  I'm very excited to announce that Winds of Magic, book 1 of Mage of Storm and Sea, is now available! I started writing this series more than three years ago, and it's been in my mind for even longer; this is a story I've been wanting to tell for decades. It hasn't been easy. I spent pretty much all of last year wrestling with some major plot problems and rewrites, especially on books 1 and 3. Esavas is the most emotionally complicated hero I've written in a while, probably since Roric in The Lost Book of Anggird. It was hard to pin him down, especially in book 3. But finally, Winds of Magic is out in the world, joining its little brother Dreams of Magic, the prequel to the series. After a terrible mistake in his youth, Esavas Daruvias has found peace and belonging at the secluded Tower as a Master of weather magic, vowed to celibacy, self-mastery, and non-violence. Winds of Magic is available at all major ebook stores (paperback coming soon).
Amazon.com AU | CA | UK Amazon International Barnes & Noble | Google Play Apple | Kobo | Smashwords Books2Read/More Stores Dreams of Magic, the prequel, is not available in stores yet; right now, you can only get it as for free as a Thank You gift for subscribing to my email newsletter. It will be in stores eventually. What's next? Right now, I'm on fine-tuning edits on Sea of Magic, book 2. After that one's out, I'll finish edits on book 3, Storm of Magic. Waiting in the wings is Children of the Wildings, the next series in the Wildings saga, which I'm about ready to start drafting once I feel like I can spare a little attention away from Mage of Storm and Sea. So I was hoping to have Winds of Magic, Book 1 of Mage of Storm and Sea, out right about now. Then two things happened: the cutoff dates for timely processing before Christmas on one of the ebook distributors I use was a week earlier than I'd planned on, and then, halfway through the final proofread, a plot point in the final battle that had been bothering me bloomed into a full-blown plot hole. It was easy to fix, but involved a partial rewrite of the first part of the battle scene and a number of smaller adjustments throughout the manuscript. So after I did that, I decided to just start the final proofread over again. I finished today, and after this I'll format the ebook and have it ready to release the first week of January! To get release news and a free copy of Dreams of Magic, the prequel, sign up for my email newsletter. In the meantime, I also hadn't gotten around to revealing the cover, but now, here it is!  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka This is Esavas, about thirteen years after Dreams of Magic. His life is quite a bit different now from how it was, and it's about to get a lot more different! Here's what Winds of Magic is about (I'm still fine-tuning this; blurbs, argg): After a terrible mistake in his youth, Esavas Daruvias has found peace and belonging at the secluded Tower as a Master of weather magic, vowed to celibacy, self-mastery, and non-violence. Where's the heroine, you might be asking? Leshi makes a few cameo appearances in Winds of Magic, but she really comes into the story in Book 2, Sea of Magic. I'll start fine-tuning edits on Sea of Magic as soon as I get Winds of Magic formatted. The cover for Sea of Magic is probably my favorite picture of any of my couples! Though there's some pretty tough competition, especially with the new covers Yuriko Matsuoka did for Daughter of the Wildings and some of my other books. So watch for that (newsletter subscribers get to see cover reveals first!) and for release news and updates on Winds of Magic and Sea of Magic.
 It's here! Dreams of Magic, the prequel to Mage of Storm and Sea, is now available! Right now, it's an exclusive free book for subscribers to my email newsletter. Later on, after I've got a couple of books in the series out, I'll put it up for sale in the stores, but if you don't want to wait, hop on over to my email signup page to join my list and get Dreams of Magic as a thank you gift. (If you're already subscribed but haven't gotten the email with the download link, check your spam and/or promotions folder.)
Mage of Storm and Sea is set in the same world as the Wildings books, in the Islands where Silas's mage ancestors came from, a couple of hundred years before the Wildings books. (Here's a secret - Esavas, the hero of Mage of Storm and Sea, is one of Silas's ancestors!) Dreams of Magic, a novella/short novel, takes place 12-13 years before the main series begins. Here's the scoop: They called him a war hero. The savior of the common people of the Islands. The greatest weather mage the Islands ever knew. But once, he was a lonely, misfit youth with some impossible dreams. Esavas Daruvias wants two things in life - to become a weather mage and to marry the girl of his dreams. But, bookish, awkward, and misfit, his magical power stunted since childhood, he knows that his hopes are completely out of reach and life as a scholar at the remote, secluded Tower is his only refuge from a society where he doesn't belong. Then his father offers him the impossible, an arranged marriage to the beautiful Pirazina, the girl he's always loved - who barely even knows he exists. Determined to win her heart and admiration, Esavas risks everything - his freedom, his future, even his power itself - to become the mage and man he longs to be and make his dreams a reality. Note: Dreams of Magic is the prequel to Mage of Storm and Sea, an epic fantasy series with a prominent romantic storyline in the later books. There will eventually be an HEA for the characters, but they have to work for it first! In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy getting to know Esavas, the hero of the series. Please note: Contains strong language and mature subject matter, including drug and alcohol use and sexual references. Watch for the cover reveal of Winds of Magic, Book 1 of Mage of Storm and Sea, coming soon! Nearly three years ago, on 14 November 2018 according to my writing log, I started writing the first of the four books in my new series, Mage of Storm and Sea. This is actually a story I've been wanting to tell for much longer than that; decades, in fact. It started with the main character in a book I read in high school in the late 70s, who really captured my imagination. I always wanted to know what happened to him next, but there was never a sequel to that book. I thought of writing my own fanfiction sequel, but that didn't feel satisfying. So instead, what I did was I took the seed, the basic concept, of the story and character, a scholarly wizard who is forced into a war because of a personal connection to the enemy and, while he wins the war, suffers a great personal loss, and completely reimagined it in one of my own worlds with a new hero, a whole new background, and all the what-comes-next I longed to know about. The Mage of Storm and Sea series is set in the same world as the Wildings books, in the Islands where Silas's mage ancestors came from, a few hundred years before the Wildings books, and ends with the beginning of the Island mage migration to Granadaia. It's been really fun to explore more of this world and history and magic system. Some of the things I've learned while writing Mage of Storm and Sea I wish I had known while I was writing the Wildings books! And the Island culture has been a lot of fun to play in. For example, I had a lot of fun with the clothing. Check out this article where I got inspiration for the sharwas, the formal overcoats worn by men of the Islands, from the sherwani and other traditional men's clothing from India. As for Esavas... Arg. I don't think any of my heroes have given me this much trouble since Roric in The Lost Book of Anggird (Lost Book stalled out for more than ten years while I tried to get a handle on Roric!) Esavas is very much his own person, and I had to do a lot of digging and trial-and-error and rewriting to finally get him right. But now, finally, he's about to make his debut as a young 19-year-old guy trying to figure out who he is in Dreams of Magic, the prequel novella to Mage of Storm and Sea, set 13 years before the main series. And here is Esavas on the cover!  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka As always, Yuriko Matsuoka amazes me with her ability to capture my characters. And here's what it's all about: They called him a war hero. The savior of the common people of the Islands. The greatest weather mage the Islands ever knew. But once, he was a lonely, misfit youth with some impossible dreams. Assuming everything goes according to plan, Dreams of Magic will be available on November 1. At first, it will be an exclusive free book to current and new subscribers to my email newsletter. Subscribers will also get exclusive bonus scenes, early cover reveals, sneak peeks, and release news about Book 1, Winds of Magic (including notice about the limited time release price, USD $2.99, reduced from the regular price of USD $3.99). After I've got a couple of the books in the series out, I'll put Dreams of Magic up for sale in the stores too.
This past summer, I got the rest of the new covers for the Daughter of the Wildings series done. While I loved the previous covers by Mominur Rahman, I felt like the series needed a refresh to bring it more in line with covers in the epic romantic fantasy genre. I was thrilled with Yuriko Matsuoka's fresh new envisioning of Lainie and Silas! But the problem with being my own art director is that I don't art very good, and I have a hard time visualizing and describing what I want sometimes. Yuriko did great work on the covers of City of Mages and For the Wildings, but as I updated the book files and sent the covers out into the world, I felt like what I had described to her as far as how to present the characters wasn't quite what I wanted. Fortunately, she was able to make time in her schedule to redo those covers, and now, I'm pleased to present the new updated covers for City of Mages and For the Wildings! I'm in the process of updating the images on the site and uploading the updated book files, so they should go live soon.  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka  Art by Yuriko Matsuoka Stay tuned for the cover reveal for Dreams of Magic, the prequel to my upcoming Mage of Storm and Sea series, and info about the release!
 Time for me to share another book I've personally read and can recommend. (These are not book reviews, just personal recommendations with why I recommend them. I don't do book reviews and I don't take book review requests!)
This time I'm featuring No Man Can Tame (Book 1 of Dark-Elves of Nightbloom), fantasy romance by Miranda Honfleur. Normally, I'm not into elves. Not sure why; partly it's the pointy ears. I just don't do pointy ears. But on occasion I'll make an exception, and I made one for No Man Can Tame because it's an offshoot of Miranda Honfleur's Blade and Rose romantic fantasy series, which I really enjoy. And I was really glad I gave it a try. Though I got a little frustrated with Aless at the beginning because she clearly had a lot of growing up to do, she really came into her own later in the book. And I thought Veron was awesome from the first moment I read him. He was forced into a political marriage with Aless, but he's willing to do his duty and do what's best for his people (a real hero does what's right even when it's hard), and he recognized that Aless was in his same position and had sympathy for her. That was one of the things I especially liked about this book, was that the hero and heorine didn't resent each other for being forced into the marriage but quickly accepted that this was their lot in life so they would go forward together and make the best of it. Another thing I liked about No Man Can Tame is that the "beast" doesn't change his appearance. My sister said about the Disney Beauty and the Beast, when Belle kisses the beast, "And then he turns into a handsome young rock star." 🤣 And I guess in the original versions, he changes back into a handsome human prince. But in No Man Can Tame, he doesn't change his appearance; what changes is the heroine's perception of him. Because, of course, beauty is what's on the inside, not on the outside. No Man Can Tame is available on Amazon for $4.99 (or the international equivalent), though if you're in the US or UK (I think) you can get it for 99 cents through 31 August 2021. The second book in the series, Bright of the Moon, is also out now.  I'm part of a giant indie fantasy book fair going on right now, in connection with the Indie Fantasy Addicts Facebook group summer reading challenge. The challenge and the book fair go through the middle of September, so there's still time to join the group, join a team, and start reading. Discover more books, make new reading friends, play games, and maybe even win prizes! Or you can just browse the book fair and discover books by a whole bunch of indie fantasy authors.
My personal recs from the books in the book fair are the Witch of the Lake trilogy/Feast of the Mother (Witch of the Lake Book 1) by Miranda Honfleur and Nicolette Andrews, Blade and Rose by Miranda Honfleur, and No Man Can Tame also by Miranda Honfleur. But there are also a slew of books I haven't read yet that I want to! There's something for almost every fantasy taste, from epic fantasy to fantasy romance to urban fantasy, dragons, Asian-influence, GameLit, and more. A lot of the books are Amazon-only, but if you're looking for books available at other ebook stores, here's a list I made (not 100% guaranteed; sometimes authors move books in and out of Amazon exclusivity): Gatebreaker - Michelle Wilson; Gisela's Passion - Astrid V.J.; Prophecy Tested - Shannon Pemrick; Finding Fae Artifacts - Isa Medina; Rogue Legacy - Jeffrey L. Kohanek; The Priestess and the Dragon - Nicolette Andrews; The Ancient Realms Collection - A.J. Flowers; Prophecy of Convergence - Shannon Pemrick; Dawn Rising - Lisa M. Green; Celestial Downfall boxed set - A.J. Flowers; Diviner's Prophecy - Nicolette Andrews; Dragon Lake by R.L. Davenor; Rotten Magic by Jeffrey Bardwell; Dorelle's Journey - Hannah Steenbock; Divinity's Twilight - Christopher Russell; Kitsune - Nicolette Andrews; Og-Grim-Dog by Jamie Edmundson; Destiny by Shannon Pemrick. What new book or author will you discover? |
AuthorI am Kyra Halland, author of tales of fantasy, heroism, and romance. Follow me on BookBub
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