Spotlighting the Round One books I enjoyed that did not advance to Round Two.
Showing posts with label epic fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label epic fantasy. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2026
Friday, July 24, 2026
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
The Write Reads Blog Tour Spotlight: The Wraith Returns by Paul G. Zareith
Alien vampires, trapped in a time warp, find themselves being hunted by an immortal assassin of their own creation.
Guided by the will of the erased tree god, a warrior who should have never existed emerges in a world he no longer recognizes.
A Centurion races against time to save her brother from a dying world, but the only man who could unlock the cosmic prison was buried alive two hundred years ago.
An exiled alien prince plots to reclaim his throne, but in his path stands an enemy whose actions threaten the future of the entire Sultenate.
An ambitious researcher is willing to stake the lives of millions to become the next great power.
A celestial reconciler is ready to wipe out entire civilizations to restore space-time continuity.
Who will survive? And at what cost...
Discover in this grimdark epic saga.
Friday, June 5, 2026
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
BBNYA2025 Blog Tour Spotlight ~ 4th Place Finalist: The Child of Vanris by Nikki McCormack
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a child of the enemy.
Everything changes when mercenaries arrive hunting for Kasiel. The last people he expects to come to his rescue are Vanrian soldiers, one of whom claims to be his spirit brother, whatever that means. They plan to take him across the war zone to deliver him to his real father, a man whose name strikes terror in his enemies.
With his secret exposed, Kasiel can’t return to his old home. This is his chance to find out who he was supposed to be. It means traveling to a foreign land where they have unusual psychic abilities he may share. It also means leaving behind everything he’s ever cared about. If he is to survive, he will need to learn their language and culture and earn his place in their society.
Meanwhile, the man who cut Kasiel’s ears will do anything to keep him out of his true father’s hands, even if it means killing him.
Friday, January 16, 2026
Monday, November 17, 2025
The Write Reads Blog Tour Spotlight ~ The First Sin by Cheyenne Brammah
In the sweeping expanse of the Årdrakin Empire, the people fight and die for honor as elite warriors of the galaxy. But long ago, a prophecy was spoken that presaged the apocalypse. Everyone knows and fears the truth: one day, the empire will fall.
Tårik is a guard for small, independent Clan Tsinna. Instead of pondering the end of his civilization, Tårik’s greatest concern is maintaining his honor while escorting a group of impertinent dignitaries across the treacherous Barren Gale. When the Mother Goddess speaks a passage from the prophecy to him, he has the good sense to be frightened, but he doesn’t heed the significance of Her visit.
Then disaster strikes, and Tårik is branded as an exile, leaving him with no home, no honor, and no future. Forced into a desperate struggle for survival, all Tårik can focus on is living just one more day until luck—or maybe fate—gives him the opportunity to join a new clan. But even this is fraught with danger and uncertainty, and it takes him to an inhospitable world far from the empire where survival seems all but impossible.
Faced with new challenges, including trying to navigate first contact with the low-tech locals, Tårik believes the prophecy can’t reach him. Yet it continues to loom, signaling that his fate and the fate of the empire are irrevocably entwined.
This is a dark, spicy, adult science fantasy set in a world that includes war, violence, and other mature themes that some readers may find disturbing. Reading guidance can be found at the beginning of the book or on the author's website.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Cover Reveal ~ Arvia: Fangs of the Frost by D.H. Willison
Being sent on a quest to save an entire city and granted the city’s full resources is a grand honor. Unless that city is Xin, with no resources to speak of.
A magical secret from Xin’s past threatens the city’s future, and Darin must lead a rag-tag group to a frigid city at the end of the world to save it. Their dilapidated old trade schooner may be haunted, but it survived conversion into the world’s first harpy aircraft carrier. And more importantly, it was cheap.
Can a misfit crew of humans and monsters overcome creepy creatures, mysterious magical phenomena, and the whims of the Empress of the Ice? How does a couple get alone time on a ship, when one of them is the size of the ship? And will Darin and Rinloh finally put the naughty in nautical?
Join Arvia's most eclectic heroic duo for adventures on the high seas! Caution: may contain questionable relationship advice, gratuitous human + nonhuman cuddle sequences, and/or singing.
Friday, January 31, 2025
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
TWR Blog Tour Spotlight ~ Fallen Knight by Ceril N. Domace
The first is because the Templesbane wiped out his home and family among the Knights Vigilant when he was a child, destroying everything he knew and loved in one night. The second is to help him sleep when the memories of the first overwhelm him.
But he can’t avoid his past forever. His mercenary work has brought him back to Mezeldwelf, the city he fled to after the downfall of the Knights Vigilant, and to his estranged father just in time to get embroiled in a scheme that threatens the very foundation of the city. A scheme that could see Mezeldwelf, its people, and its gods handed over to the Templesbane.
To protect the city and man that adopted him, Leon will need to confront the ruins of the life he left behind and the horrors that threaten the life he’s cobbled together since then.
Thursday, December 26, 2024
2023 BBNYA Book Round Up
These books were the 2023 Winner and Finalists that had
BBNYA Blog Tours this year.
FFS is the Friday Featured Spotlight that has ALL the tour
posts from that particular tour.
Thursday, December 5, 2024
The Way By by Holly Walters ~ TWR Tour Spotlight
Fairies are real. Or they ought to be, at least, according to Madame Bel Carmen's best hypotheses. Her problem, however, is that after searching the world over for the lore to prove it, she hasn't uncovered anything that someone didn't already know. Out of options, she knows her only chance to prove the existence of the Fae is to find someone who's met them, and she's just heard tell of a reclusive scholar who has reportedly done just that. This folklorist is more than just withdrawn; she's nowhere, an academic ghost known only by a few obscure writings.
Friday, November 29, 2024
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
BBNYA2024 Semi-Finalist Spotlight ~ The Sparrow and the Oak Tree by Jamie Jackson
Unicorns don't exist, and dragons aren't real, but the Fae are. And they are to be feared.
Or so the tales say.
As the sole sorceress within the Lion King's court and kingdom Isolde is valued for her power, provided she fulfills the king's commands.
Her task? Deal with a child who has emerged from a forest no one has returned from in over one hundred years.As Isolde works to fulfill her order, accompanied by her nameless guardian, she'll encounter a creature she's only heard of through myth and legend...
When he kidnaps her.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Kavithri by Aman J. Bedi ~ Tour Spotlight
Meet Kavithri. Outcast. Underdog. Survivor.
Kavi is a Taemu. Her people, once feared berserkers and the spearhead of a continent-spanning invasion, are the dregs of Raayan society. Their spirits crushed. Their swords broken. Their history erased.
But Kavi has a dream and a plan. She will do whatever it takes to earn a place at the secretive mage academy, face the Jinn within its walls, and gain the power to rise above her station and drag her people out of the darkness.
Except power and knowledge come at a cost, and the world no longer needs a Taemu who can fight. So they will break her. Beat her down to her knees. And make her bleed.
But if blood is what they want, Kavi will give them blood. She will give them violence. She will show them a berserker's fury.
And she will make them remember her name.
Monday, November 18, 2024
BBNYA2024 Semi-Finalist Spotlight ~ The Exile of Zanzibar by Daniel Maidman
Claire built a device to fold space and time. It had a flaw...
When the smoke clears, she finds herself halfway across the world, thousands of years in the past, and no device in sight.
In bronze-age Florence, war has lasted for generations. All Claire wants to do is get home, but she’ll need help from the locals. She wins an ally in Marcus Diophantus, a pickpocket turned soldier turned general, who hopes to turn into something more than just her champion. Together, they broker peace between Florence and its enemy.
If Marcus is going to help Claire, he’ll have to survive. Peace has upset the balance of power in the capital city. The king stands increasingly alone against: the Constantines, a commercial enterprise as much as a clan, who aim to profit from peace as they have from war – the warrior nobles, descended from the founders of Florence and quick to turn against a weak throne – and Reburrus, the high priest of Florence, convinced Claire answers to hostile foreign gods. As the city comes to a boil, Claire and Marcus – and Marcus’s formidable army – will have to decide where their allegiance lies.
Claire becomes a reluctant participant in a savage campaign. While Marcus leads the battles, she tries to gain control of the unimaginably powerful Ctesiphôn – a ghost tower in the heart of Florence, shrouded in magic and myth.
When the smoke clears, she finds herself halfway across the world, thousands of years in the past, and no device in sight.
In bronze-age Florence, war has lasted for generations. All Claire wants to do is get home, but she’ll need help from the locals. She wins an ally in Marcus Diophantus, a pickpocket turned soldier turned general, who hopes to turn into something more than just her champion. Together, they broker peace between Florence and its enemy.
If Marcus is going to help Claire, he’ll have to survive. Peace has upset the balance of power in the capital city. The king stands increasingly alone against: the Constantines, a commercial enterprise as much as a clan, who aim to profit from peace as they have from war – the warrior nobles, descended from the founders of Florence and quick to turn against a weak throne – and Reburrus, the high priest of Florence, convinced Claire answers to hostile foreign gods. As the city comes to a boil, Claire and Marcus – and Marcus’s formidable army – will have to decide where their allegiance lies.
Claire becomes a reluctant participant in a savage campaign. While Marcus leads the battles, she tries to gain control of the unimaginably powerful Ctesiphôn – a ghost tower in the heart of Florence, shrouded in magic and myth.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
BBNYA2024 Semi-Finalist Spotlight ~ Stone & Sky by Z.S. Diamanti
From across the sea, a shadow rises. A lone survivor may be the kingdom’s only hope against annihilation.
Orin is a sworn protector. As a stalwart member of the Griffin Guard, he’s proud to protect the kingdom against a dreaded nation of orcs. But when the fires of war burn bright from the north, his entire squadron falls to deadly wyvern riders, leaving the devastated Orin bloody and alone.
With his squad dead, Orin has his mind set on saving others from the same fate.
Teaming up with a local huntsman’s family, Orin and his new friends must push themselves past their limits to face mysterious dangers and ancient magics. Shocked to discover the orcs’ secret weapon, the lone guardian’s last chance to save his home could require the ultimate sacrifice.
Come fly away on griffin-back!
Fly off to the world of Finlestia in this epic fantasy story for readers looking for adventure, magic, and just plain fun; a tale where friendships must overcome insurmountable odds and remind readers to never lose hope.
Saturday, July 13, 2024
Thursday, July 4, 2024
The Story of Evil ~ Volume I: Heroes of the Siege ~ Spotlight
During an entertaining jousting tournament, a mysterious villain attacks the capital with his army. Three young adults decide to fight back against insurmountable odds despite knowing their slim chances of survival.
Follow Stephen Brightflame, a nineteen-year-old who aspires to become a knight, Tyrus Canard, an arrogant warrior, and Kari Quinn, a Halfling archer in this first volume in the five-part series, "The Story of Evil." It has been raved for its “intense action scenes,” “riveting twists,” and a conclusion that “leaves you on the edge of your seat” (SPR and US Review of Books).
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