I’m a zombie-bitten vampire…
I’m trapped on a ship belonging to my worst enemy, the Warwolves. They’re sailing my two humans and I to unknown lands and new terrors. If I don’t drink human blood, I’ll die. If my humans are feasted upon by the Warwolves, they’ll die. If we don’t play nice with the crew, we’ll all die. If none of those things happen, we’ll eventually make landfall and who knows what the Warwolves will do to us then?
So, yeah. We’re screwed.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Meets World of the Gateway
Abused and neglected for nearly a decade, Tarja Titan always longed for a home…
…But she didn’t anticipate the reception she’d receive upon her return to a world she thought only existed in fiction
For starters, everyone in Elemental Society knows her name. Even if she has no recollection as to why. For another, she’s going to a university to hone a rare supernatural ability, or abilities, she’s never heard of.
Everywhere Tarja goes and everyone she speaks to, new secrets emerge. Like the fact she was murdered as a child and somehow here she is, as alive and well as her new classmates.
And this school has more secrets than Tarja could imagine. It has hidden rooms, corridors, and yeah, resident spirits love hanging out here. And they’re not shy about sharing a few stories. Even if her newly-discovered godbrother is.
Calling all fans of E.E. Holmes’ World of the Gateway and Carissa Andrews’ The Windhaven Witches. If you like strong heroines, elemental magic, complex plots, and young adult fiction, or better yet YA+, given the more mature subject matter, you will fall in love with Tarja Titan.
It’s the last Saturday in April, which means it must be time for some Saturday Snippets!
Freewoman Dalm, she thought, whatever you think this thing around my neck is, I can assure you it is definitely not a treasure.
One month after her childhood friend Gilbert appeared on the doorstep of her library seeking help in fleeing from the Blue Crescent Brotherhood, Lenna Faircloth – librarian, self-proclaimed dormouse, and lover of all things alcoholic – finds herself in the unlikeliest of situations: roughing it in the forest with her mother’s people, the Freewomen of Laur.
With his dying words Gilbert bequeathed to Lenna one of three powerful artifacts, dubiously named the Godjewels, and it had formed a unique psychic bond with her that only the wards of the Freewoman settlement could mask from the other parties interested in acquiring her gem.
As for Lenna? She’s just interested in taking a bath, having a tall glass of wine, and forgetting the last month ever happened.
Apprentice continues the tale of Librarian and follows the adventures of a young woman forced to confront and discover what it means to be a hero (albeit a sometimes tipsy one), a friend, and a person with far too much power at their ready disposal.
Lenna Faircloth thought she was content enough to be a junior librarian at one of the grandest libraries on the Continent, so long as at the end of the day she can enjoy a glass (or two) of wine and some decent shut-eye. Reticent and unconcerned with trivial matters, Lenna is almost laughably nonplussed the day her childhood friend, Gilbert, appears at her door, asking her to help smuggle stolen goods across national borders.
When unfortunate circumstances leave a bizarre, out-of-place artifact in the sole custody of Lenna, she is forced to question her own wants, the source of her withdrawal from others, and how to survive in a world sullied by what she sees as random loss and turmoil – all the while being the target of numerous political factions longing to possess the strange item bound to her by a child’s promise.
Librarian is the first part of a young woman’s journey set in an alternate and sparsely-populated world, comprised of four nations and two independent political factions. Between the Krevlum Empire, a militarist country reviving ancient technology to expand its borders, and a shadowy arcane Brotherhood, the librarian finds herself pursued by powerful enemies who would spare nothing to acquire the object of which she would gladly rid herself.
I was Culled at age five into the Bastille Military, the World of Rondure’s superpower…
…Having lived on-base for thirteen years, military life taught me two things: Mastery of the Smoke Element and to never apologize about using it on enemies
Now that I’m awaiting a sure life sentence for the crime of exposing Bastille’s true crimes, they’ve left me with no choice. When they try to extradite me, I will call upon my Sword of Smoke and escape this predicament, using every combat technique they taught me against them.
Then, I’ll take it upon myself to finish a mission I started years ago; to unplug the People of Bastille and let them know who the real enemy is: their home nation and its Capital City of Paramount.
As I go rogue, every authority figure with money, power, and influence in the Bastille Empire will want me dead. Thanks to them, I’m one of the most powerful Smoke Masters in the World of Rondure. And I’m ready to break the spell the people of my nation have lived under for over a century.
wastanley.com 