The Mark of the Tala
The Mark of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy is $2.99! This is the first book in the Twelve Kingdoms fantasy trilogy, which focuses on three sisters, each very different in their personalities. Readers loved the bond between the sisters, though found the pacing to be off at times. In my experience, fantasy pacing can be tricky because of all the world-building the author has to do. It has a 3.8-star rating on GR.
The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.
Andi doesn’t mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she’d thought was no more than legend–until he claims her as its queen.
In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn’t know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.
For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come. . .
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Breaking Danger by Lisa Marie Rice is $1.99! I’ll admit that I’m having a hard time getting a handle on this book. It sounds like romantic suspense, but it also alludes to paranormal element that sounds suspiciously like zombies. Many loved the pairing between a scientist heroine and a soldier hero, but the books do need to be read in order. This is the third and final book in Rice’s Ghost Ops trilogy.
Haven, a community of misfits and geniuses, is one of the few safe places remaining in a world on fire. Run by the Ghost Ops team, three dangerous, fearless, soldiers who were once betrayed and disgraced, will fiercely protect their country and the women they adore from a deadly plague that has turned people into violent monsters.
Beautiful brilliant Dr. Sophie Daniels is trapped in her home with the only antidote to the plague. Former Ghost Ops elite operative Jon Ryan is sent on a suicide rescue mission, brutally fighting his way to her side. Together they must cross treacherous terrain before they can return to Haven, but for them to succeed Sophie must trust this tormented soul and place her life, and her heart, in his hands.
Years of combat training has prepared Jon for this moment-unafraid, nothing is too dangerous now that he’s found Sophie. He will risk everything, fight anyone, for her and a future filled with hope and love.
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The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow is $2.99! On a personal note, I loved her Jill Kismet urban fantasy series, and now it looks like she’s stepping into steampunk. This is the first book in the Bannon & Clare series and is more urban fantasy than a romance. Readers warn that it’s a shaky start to a good series, as the books do keep getting better and better. Any members of the Bitchery care to weigh in?
Archibald Clare is a detective of truly uncanny abilities—a mentath, capable of feats of deduction and logic that border on the supernatural. He is also abruptly, uniquely, the only unregistered mentath left alive in Londoninium. Someone has murdered the others and, if not for the timely intervention of the Prime sorceress Emma Bannon, there would have been no one left to stop… whatever is coming.
Mentaths and sorcerers are dying—or worse, being seduced into betraying Queen and Country. Bannon and Clare must uncover treachery, conspiracy, and sorcery of the blackest hue. And in a Britannia where magic has turned the Industrial Revolution on its head, time is short.
The game is afoot…
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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi is $1.99! This is a YA science fiction romance and is the first in a series of the same name. Reviews on GR praised the characterization while others feel like the book isn’t anything new in YA, though some admit their enjoyment comes from the book being labeled as dystopian when it really isn’t. It has a 4-star rating on GR.
Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.
As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.
They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love – one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.
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I liked the Bannon & Clare books, but they are definitely steampunk and not romance. I would argue that the first book doesn’t even qualify as having “romantic elements.” With that caveat, I enjoyed these books. the competing and incompatible magic and technology systems were interestingly created. Saintcrow’s mentaths are like a Spark from Girl Genius had a love child with Sherlock Holmes.
Thumbs way up for the Bannon & Clare books.
I didn’t care for The Mark of the Tala. The one star reviews on Goodreads are accurate. It reads like an angsty YA ‘cept for the sexy time parts. The heroine may have been tstl and the hero creepy iirc. The other two sisters weren’t likeable or memorable enough for me to continue this series.
For anyone into YA fantasy, Tamora Pierce’s first book Alanna: The First Adventure is on for $1.99 at Amazon & iBooks. Not her best work, but if you want to begin at the beginning…