Find your next Kindle Vella read!
The first Potions & Passions Kindle Vella promo is LIVE, my friends, and you can find it here. How excited am I?
This promo runs January 8 – February 7, 2023, and has scifi, fantasy, romantic fantasy and fantasy romance (aka romantasy!) titles. With 18 stories and 13 authors to choose from, the BookFunnel page will help you find your next Kindle Vella read!
You’ll also find my stories Stone Circles: A New Fairy Tale (based on Irish myth) and A Court of Swords and Sugar Plums (which I describe as The Nutcracker meets The Cruel Prince).
This is my first time creating a BookFunnel promo, and I look forward to helping everyone find some new Vella readers. As Vella authors, we’re usually scouring Facebook posts for readers with tokens to burn and interest in what we’re writing, so I think this makes a lot more sense for writers and readers both!
Wondering what the heck Kindle Vella is?
Kindle Vella is an Amazon platform for serial storytelling.
If you’ve never checked out Vella before, there’s a good chance you have some free tokens just waiting for you to claim them. Besides that, the first three episodes of every Vella story are always free to try. Pretty cool, right?
Every episode costs a certain number of tokens, depending on the length. As readers, you can like, follow (and even favorite, if you have paid tokens) the stories you love, so Vella incorporates a bit of social media into its platform in that way. You can still review stories, too!
Vella authors often break their stories up into “seasons,” which they may break up into separate stories (or not). Anastasis Blythe, whom I’ve interviewed and reviewed ARCs from, is a prolific romantic fantasy author on Kindle Vella, but there are LOADS of authors and genres to choose from.
The only downside is that this is still a relatively new platform, so it’s only available to US Amazon users. (I know, I have quite a bit of readership outside the US, but authors always have the option of publishing their stories 30 days after removing them from Vella, which IS my plan).
That’s all for now!
Cheers,
CKB
Potions & Passions Kindle Vella Promo!
Update: Recruitment for this promo is now closed. Be sure to check out our next Vella promo in February!
To view January’s promo, visit the Potions & Passions BookFunnel page.
Attn. Kindle Vella Scifi/Fantasy authors!
I’ve put together this BookFunnel promo that begins January 8, 2023. Entries are due January 7th if you want to join.
(There will also be a February promo hosted by author Ophelia Wells Langley.)
Cheers!
CKB
We’re going on break!
The C.K. Beggan Bookish Blog is going on a break!
I need some time to catch up on some writing projects…plus I plan to migrate the book blog to its own site! (The current blog will become my author blog.) In the meantime, I’ll be taking some time off.
I hope you’ll join me at the revamped blog in 2023.
Cheers to you and yours, and a very Happy New Year!
-CKB
The Lily Gate review
(Fairy Tale Romances #1.75)
YA Short Story, Fairy Tale Retelling, Romantic Fantasy
The Frog Prince retelling, clean fantasy, clean romance
What a cute the The Frog Prince retelling! This story is sweet to its bones and has a classic YA feel, and features non-magical trials for the princess’s hand.
Part of the fun of this short read is how obvious the identity of the frog is…to everybody but the main character. I also appreciated that the couple in this romantic story get time to fall in love, plus all the magical details of the setting. Fans of baking competitions will appreciate all the choux pastries, too!
This was a fun, adorable lower YA read.
My rating:
5/5
Oathbound review
(The Royal Rose Chronicles #1)
YA fantasy, pirate fantasy adventure, romantic fantasy
Favorite quote: “‘Do you see how he looks at her as if he’s found a priceless pearl inside an oyster?’ Heat flooded my cheeks. I had noticed that.”
Note: I received a copy and this is an honest, voluntary review.
This book just got better and better as it went along!
Early on, Oathbound feels like historical fiction more than fantasy. Though it was on the slower side, I felt like I was on the Royal Rose. But the magic was still missing for me. Then came the magical creatures (and one creepy ghost ship) on the high seas. This book became a page turner for me from that point on.
The romance subplot is woven throughout the story and in the “friendship” between narrators Emme and Arn. It’s so lovely and subtle, a true slow-burn that goes beyond two friends having that conversation. With Emme’s distrust of pirates, Royal Rose captain Arn has a lot to prove.
I loved all the side quests and intrusions by magic and ghosts. Emme is also dealing with a congenital degenerative disease, so we see her struggling with mobility. Note that this book ends on multiple wicked cliffhangers. I can’t wait to read book two!
My rating:
4.5/5
Protected: The Fishermen’s Princess Chapter Twenty-Two
Protected: The Fishermen’s Princess Chapter Twenty-One
Naughty List (Mine This Winter) review
(From the Mine This Winter anthology)
steamy Christmas romance novella, open door romance
Note: This is an ARC review specifically of one of the stories in this anthology, Naughty List, by Melanie A. Smith. I received a copy and this is an honest, voluntary review.
The most important thing I could note here isn’t just that Naughty List is everything you’d want from a steamy-cute Christmas romance. It’s how funny this story is! Joanie’s frank and hilarious narration keeps the story rolling and adds so much depth and enjoyment.
Greg is a sweet guy and obviously caring, yet he doesn’t come off as a mismatch for Joanie. His efforts to play it cool can be really amusing, though he does find his footing when matching her naughty banter. Add the best friend and her fiance, plus ample self-aware jokes about Hallmark Christmas movies, and it’s a very well-rounded story even with the shorter page count. I felt like I got to know everybody really well.
This was a fun, short and steamy Christmas romance in a small, snowy town, with just the right number of missteps on its way to an HEA.
My rating:
5/5
Beyond the Filigree Wall review
(Rivenwilde #1)
December 6, 2022
romantic fantasy, interconnected standalone series, fae fantasy, clean romantic fantasy
Note: I received an ARC and this is an honest, voluntary review
Beyond the Filigree Wall is a fast-paced story with a kick-butt heroine—except her only usable weapon is her wits. I really enjoyed this story and its world.
MC Etta is up against her father, the new chancellor Gideon (cue enemies to lovers tension!) and, on top of all that, the fae. But she can’t do anything about the fae until she becomes marshal, a position Etta’s trained most of her life for. Gideon has his doubts about her, however, and single-handedly derails her appointment by the Council.
The romance in Beyond the Filigree Wall develops steadily from a semi-forced proximity situation, with a dash of Pride and Prejudice. I liked that Etta starts as a formidable warrior, but the focus is on her mind, plus she has a bookish love interest. Though the ending was not perfectly tidy (and very complex), expect plenty of fae-worthy secrets, twists and tricks!
