Coming September 1st:
Shields and Scales: A Vikings and Dragons Fantasy Anthology will make its debut on Monday, September 1st. With four epic tales (3 novellas and 1 novelette) by authors C.K. Beggan, Nicki Chapelway, Liz S. Maxwell and Makayla Spencer, this anthology will be available as a 99c ebook from your favorite retailers, a paperback from Amazon and a jacketed hardcover through Ingram Spark. Shields and Scales will also be available in many library databases!
Learn more here or…
Nicki Chapelway is the author of This Hollow Heart, the first in a four book multi-author series with Jes Drew, Celeste Baxendell, and C.K. Beggan (me!) called Seasons of Legend. Each novella will release in time with the season it corresponds to, and is a retelling with an enemies to lovers theme and just kisses heat level. This Hollow Heart released on October 1st and is a The Legend of Sleepy Hollow retelling.
After hosting a read along in my Facebook reader group, I had some questions to ask Nicki about This Hollow Heart, her other books and her future plans.
C.K. Beggan: I just finished This Hollow Heart, which of course is the first book in the Seasons of Legend series and your latest release. I have to ask. Will we see more of Evengi and Natasya in a future story?
Nicki Chapelway: Short answer is yes, absolutely! As of yet I don’t have any real plans for them to be the main characters in other books, but there are a good many books set in Ruskhazar and I’m a sucker for crossovers and guest appearances. This is definitely not the last you have seen of Natasya and Evengi. Or any of the Eels.
CKB: What books of yours would you recommend I read next?
NC: Either Bronwyn’s story in Trapped by Magic or The Gods Created Monsters, a story that follows a certain Alya Fyodorov. (If you have read This Hollow Heart, you know who she is.)
CKB: Is the story of how Elwis the Eel got together with his wife in another of your books?
NC: I have plans on writing the story of how Elwis and his wife got together (even have the cover for it) but I don’t know when I’ll be able to officially get around to writing it.
CKB: What was your inspiration for the world of Ruskhazar?
A large part of my inspiration comes from my favorite video game Skyrim. I mean what isn’t there to love about mountains, dragons, and undead things in crypts? I even have a map of Skyrim hanging on my wall next to the map of Ruskhazar. But I also draw heavy inspiration from Viking culture, Medieval Russian myths and legends, and real life places like Norway and Sweden.
CKB: In This Hollow Heart, we see a priest and a necromancer set up as the couple. What did you love about writing the “opposites attract” trope?
NC: I think my favorite part of that trope is when the two opposites go from actively disliking each other to realizing that their differences aren’t too severe after all.
CKB: What made you decide to organize Seasons of Legend?
NC: I was watching Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad last Halloween when I decided I wanted to do my own Legend of Sleepy Hollow retelling. I wanted it to be heavily seasonally themed, but it didn’t seem right to do just one season when I could make a series of it. Problem was, I didn’t want to write four whole seasonal stories so I started talking to my sister and writing partner Jes Drew and she said she wanted to do a winter seasonal story. So I decided to make a multi author series of it and find two other authors to join me in my mad scheme.
CKB: A very cozy sounding inn appears in some of your books. I have to ask, will we ever see a full on cozy romantasy from you?
NC: The thought has occurred to me, but I’m not sure if I could wholly commit to the cozy vibe. I like to sprinkle in a lot of elements including action and peril, monsters and dark magic and whatnot. I’m not sure if I could keep it completely cozy.
CKB: What’s next for you, writing and publishing wise?
NC: My next two releases are To Slay a Knight Boldly, the much awaited sequel to Bound by Knighthood as well as a second Ruskhazar Multi Author Project, both of which will be releasing early next year.
When Hurricane Helene devastated communities in western North Carolina, author E.V. Everest organized a charity anthology with the help of R.L. Perez and a team of authors all willing to pitch in. The result?
Over 2,000 pages of romantasy stories in one volume, with proceeds going to three charities local to the affected area.
Every story in Of Storms and Stardust was donated by an author who wanted to help. I contributed my YA dystopian PNR novelette, To Thaw a Phoenix Heart, about an ice phoenix raised to hate humans and the talented teen architect who just wants a chance to help her community rebuild in a cold, dystopian future.
Of Storms and Stardust is a limited-run charity anthology, so it’s the ONLY place to get To Thaw a Phoenix Heart until it ends in early 2025.
Here’s how you can get it:
All proceeds go to:
Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina
MANNA Food Bank
Samaritan’s Purse
I hope you’ll grab a copy, and if you do, please consider buying direct! Buying direct means a higher percentage of royalties make their way to charities, without the 2-3 month wait to receive them from Amazon. Thanks to direct sales, the Of Storms and Stardust organizers have already been able to make over $1k in donations to the three charities listed above!
Happy reading 🙂
Cheers,
CKB
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
(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.
(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!
(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.
(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!
(The Outrageous Exploits of Jerrell Landish #1)
Humorous Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure
fantasy heist, anti-hero, morally gray hero
Meet Jerrell Landish, the light-hearted version of Kaz Brekker!
An itinerant thief, gambler and flirt rather than a crime boss, Jerrell is still every bit the anti-hero with no compunction about killing. Yet Thief for Hire is the kind of book you read with a smile on the edge of your lips, and frequent head shakes. It’s not often the word “outrageous” is an understatement!
This book won me over. I found it easy to dive in, but all the casual violence (though not overly graphic) made it hard to root for Jerell for a while. As he got into increasingly tight spots, I became invested again and read straight through to the end.
(Stone Circle #1)
Spicy romantic fantasy, fae romance
Note: I received a copy and this is an honest, voluntary review.
I really enjoyed this debut novel from the Of Smoke and Shadows author. The story, though, is just getting started, so expect a bit of a cliffhanger!
The Borderlands Princess pulls a fun switcheroo on readers. At the start, I expected it to be the story of a human Princess betrothed to a fae king who is morally gray at best. While that’s true, it’s so much more than that! It’s really about a princess whose fate was decided long before she was born learning how to reclaim own life. She’s also a mature princess, not at all what I usually read.
The opening chapters were pacey and the plot had plenty of little twists, plus one big moment that I thought was a home run. There was also some clever play with timelines. I did wish it sunk deeper into Connall’s perspective and showed more of what happened on his end, since there was a lot going on in a short period of time. Note that there were also many line editing issues in the version I read, and the pacing lagged a bit in the middle. The last quarter, however, was truly exciting. It absolutely flew by for me.
I’m already looking forward to book two!
