A Gathering of Dragons

Happy Book Release to A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane!

Nephele Tempest

A Touch of Stone and Snow by Milla Vane hits bookstores today. This second installment in Vane’s romantic fantasy series, A Gathering of Dragons, catapults you out of everyday life and into a magical adventure. Amazon.com lists it as one of the best romances for July! (Plus, book 1 in the series, A Heart of Blood and Ashes, made the list of best romances of the year so far.) And I have to admit, I’m a sucker for this cover…

A Touch of Stone and Snow

Milla Vane returns to a world of kings, magic, and passion in her exhilarating A Gathering of Dragons series. A great alliance forms to stand against an evil warlord intent on their destruction.

Danger lurks in the western realms. The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge—but there’s no safety to be found when demons and wraiths crawl out from the shadows. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics.

When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile.

Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess’s demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts. Or there will be no future for the western realms…

Find A Touch of Stone and Snow at your favorite retailers, online and brick-and-mortar. Happy reading!

Best Books To Date: Plump Up Your 2020 Reading List

Nephele Tempest

Amazon.com announced their list of the Best Books of 2020 So Far, and so many Knight Agency authors made the cut! We had six represent across the various genres, including my clients Nalini Singh and Milla Vane. Congratulations to all these wonderful writers! Several of the titles sit on my TBR pile already, and I’m excited to read the rest, too.

Knight Agency Books on Amazon's Best of 2020 So Far List

You can check out the entire list of this year’s best books to date over here. You can find the books themselves at all your favorite retailers, either brick-and-mortar or online, including your local indie.

Happy Book Birthday to A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane

Nephele Tempest

A very happy release day to Milla Vane (aka Meljean Brook), whose fantasy romance A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES hits stores today. This book kicks off her A Gathering of Dragons series, perfect for fans of epic sword-and-sorcery adventures. Fair warning: It’s on the violent side, because: Barbarians.

A Heart of Blood and Ashes cover art

A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil—until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents’ murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones—because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…

Find A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES wherever books are sold, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and IndieBound.

 

Friday Links: The Completely Random, Tired-Agent Edition

Nephele Tempest

Welcome to this week’s unapologetically theme-free Friday Links. Work and holiday prep beckon, and my brain refuses to conjure up a creative topic for these babies. Yes, they’re all bookish. Or writing related. But otherwise, they’re just things I stumbled across this week, or recently, and found fun or useful. Themes will return when I’m no longer falling asleep at my desk, likely in the new year.

The December Writing Challenge keeps on trucking. Are you writing every day? Is the challenge proving hard? Or are you setting your schedule and sticking to it? Remember, even a short writing sprint counts. You can do this!

And on that note, I’m off to do a million things before the weekend can start. Have a great one, and happy writing!

This Week’s Links:

The Best Overlooked Books of 2019. – 10 titles Vulture thought got too little press.

Little Women Is a Big, Important, American Masterpiece. Let’s Treat It Like One. – A.N. Devers looks at the history of the novel and its adaptations as we wait for the eighth film version to hit theaters.

How to Spend a Literary Long Weekend in Chicago. – A fun itinerary for bookish visitors to the Windy City. Keep in mind for your next trip!

At a Romance Cover Shoot, There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Wind Machine. – A terrific and wildly amusing look behind the scenes of a recent cover shoot for Milla Vane‘s A TOUCH OF STONE AND SNOW (A Gathering of Dragons, book 2: July 2020).

By the Book: Edelweiss, Edelweiss? Julie Andrews Loves Reading about 18th-Century Plant Hunters. – The actress and author talks about her relationship to reading, books she’s loved, and what’s on her current TBR stack.

Mistakes Writers Make When Submitting to Literary Magazines. – An older post (one I’ve likely linked to previously) with excellent advice, much of which carries over to submitting to agents.