It’s overdue for me to post an update on where I’m at with writing, publishing, and life. The last couple of months have been busy after the Oaths & Vengeance release. I’m happy to see many people have enjoyed it, and the novel has received some wonderful reviews. Sales and page reads are still not where I’d hoped, but they have been steady. New readers are giving it a try, and I’m still getting occasional late ARC reviews. Better late than never, though!
Someone sent me a screenshot of an email from Amazon this past weekend showing they received a recommendation for Oaths & Vengeance, so I appreciated seeing that. I have noticed a ranking improvement in the last couple of days with more page reads and sales. That might be contributing to it, along with a couple of small ads I’m currently running. If you get an email from them for Oaths & Vengeance, you’re welcome to let me know if you’re inclined. It helps me gauge the visibility of the book.
Below, I’ve included some updates on my life behind the scenes that you can read if you want, or you can skip that to only read the writing updates down the page if that’s what you’re mainly here to see.
If you enjoy enemies-to-lovers romantasy and want to meet a female character who cultivates a wickedly dangerous garden, then this book is for you. Aella isn’t a young, inexperienced girl just discovering her powers. She’s in her thirties with life experience, has a strong handle on her magic, and strains against a system that keeps fae women under men’s control.
Her careful obedience is about to be shattered when she has to ally with a rival lord’s powerful son in secret. If her guardian uncle finds out, he’ll execute her for treason. She’s going to be walking a careful line to survive what lies ahead, but she’s out of options. As for Darrow, he may hate Aella at first, but he’ll soon discover she isn’t at all what he expected. She’ll challenge and taunt him at every turn. Too bad he’s cursed not to love because he may have met his match.
Oaths & Vengeance is available in ebook, hardcover (availability varies by retailer), and paperback (Amazon only). For the ebook, it will only be on the other retailers until August 25th, when I’ll pull it from them to put it into Kindle Unlimited. Be sure to grab your copy before then if you shop elsewhere. The rest of the details are below.
SUMMARY
Darrow has so many secrets that even those closest to him don’t know them all, but she’s about to become his favorite. He is powerful, ruthless, and her sworn enemy. The wickedly good-looking elf is also cursed never to love.
Aella should stay far away from him, especially considering he could kill her from a distance with little effort. Except that someone close to her is dying, and he is the only person in the realm with the means to help. She has strong powers of her own to offer in exchange, but to her dismay, Darrow wants a secret marriage as part of the bargain. Fae marriages are forever, so she’d always be his.
With other factors pushing her toward it, she agrees to a private wedding that the king himself officiates while hiding the ceremony from her disapproving family. Aella suspects there is far more to Darrow’s motives if Zadrya’s monarch is involved. It isn’t long before she discovers that dark forces are circling, and it’s her rare magic they want to use or eradicate by any means necessary. Her new husband has drawn her into a dangerous conflict started centuries ago that could either end in the salvation or destruction of their world. If she wants to survive, she’ll need to trust Darrow with her body, but never her heart.
Note- This novel is an enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romantasy. It contains adult content, including violence, foul language, rough spicy scenes, torture, and a sentient murder garden that you’ll either adore or have nightmares about for years to come. Read Oaths & Vengeance at your own discretion.
Don’t forget to add Oaths & Vengeance to your Goodreads TBR list HERE!
If you’d like to read the first two chapters of the novel, click HERE! Otherwise, I hope you give this new series a chance. It may include many familiar tropes to romantasy, but the world-building is unique and vibrant, so you’ll feel like you’ve truly stepped into a new place you’ve never been before.
I am excited to announce that Oaths & Vengeance is available on Amazon in paperback format. This edition has full-color maps inside, which turned out amazing. For those who are interested, the details are below. For those waiting for the ebook, it will be released this Friday, August 22nd. I chose to make the paperback available sooner, so it would reach readers around the same date as the digital version, depending on where you live (sooner for some, later for others).
While the paperback will only be on Amazon to keep the price lower (they required setting it for $8 higher if I wanted wide distribution), the hardback will be available everywhere because I went through Ingram instead for it, but that format will have the maps in black and white to keep the cost down. Expect to hear more about its availability later this week.
There are plenty of reviews on Goodreads and other book review sites to help you decide if Oaths & Vengeance is for you, thanks to a very enthusiastic response during my ARC campaign. I truly appreciate everyone who took a chance on my new series, most of whom had never read my work before.
The rest of the details are below, as well as a closer look at the book with the video I made to show it:
This is the final version of Oaths & Vengeance for the paperback version. It will be releasing ahead of the ebook on August 19th and includes full color maps! #romantasy#enemiestolovers
Darrow has so many secrets that even those closest to him don’t know them all, but she’s about to become his favorite. He is powerful, ruthless, and her sworn enemy. The wickedly good-looking elf is also cursed never to love.
Aella should stay far away from him, especially considering he could kill her from a distance with little effort. Except that someone close to her is dying, and he is the only person in the realm with the means to help. She has strong powers of her own to offer in exchange, but to her dismay, Darrow wants a secret marriage as part of the bargain. Fae marriages are forever, so she’d always be his.
With other factors pushing her toward it, she agrees to a private wedding that the king himself officiates while hiding the ceremony from her disapproving family. Aella suspects there is far more to Darrow’s motives if Zadrya’s monarch is involved. It isn’t long before she discovers that dark forces are circling, and it’s her rare magic they want to use or eradicate by any means necessary. Her new husband has drawn her into a dangerous conflict started centuries ago that could either end in the salvation or destruction of their world. If she wants to survive, she’ll need to trust Darrow with her body, but never her heart.
Note- This novel is an enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romantasy. It contains adult content, including violence, foul language, rough spicy scenes, torture, and a sentient murder garden that you’ll either adore or have nightmares about for years to come. Read at your own discretion.
I have multiple updates for you all. First, those who have been waiting for the paperbacks to be available on the rest of the Dragon’s Breath Series can finally purchase them. All the novels up to Cast by Flames are up on the retailers. I still need to do Galadon and will hopefully have it ready next month.
Next, I sent Oaths & Vengeance (book 1 of the Realm of Zadrya series) off to the editor this past weekend. It turned out even longer than expected at around 148,000 words, but since it’s a romantasy, that’s not uncommon. I want to thank my beta readers for their enthusiasm for this book and for their helpful suggestions that helped make it shine. It features a dual first-person point of view for the main female and male characters and is more explicit than the main Dragon’s Breath Series (although Galadon was another story). There will eventually be a crossover between the two series, so if you’ve missed the old gang, there will be a chance to see them again. Those who have read the epilogue in Galdon know exactly what I mean.
I’ve worked hard to be ahead of schedule for this one because I plan to have it ready a few weeks before the release date to give out ARCs and get the paperback formatted. With it being the first novel in the series, I want to get Oaths & Vengeance out to reviewers, so the word can spread. I will post more about that in late July, but if you’re interested, you can go ahead and apply to be on my ARC list HERE. In case you missed it, I recently posted the first two chapters of the book and character art so readers can see if this new novel is something they’d like to read.
In the meantime, I’ve started work on the next book in the Realm of Zadrya series. My hope is to have it finished and released in November or December of this year. I should have a solid idea in a couple of months for when to schedule its release date based on my progress. My goal is to keep the gap short between books if possible. Now that my youngest little terrorizer, I mean sweet, innocent little boy, will be starting school this fall, I will have a lot more time to focus on writing without the distractions.
That’s all my news for now, but you are welcome to ask questions below if you have them.
So excited to officially reveal this cover designed by Hannah Sternjakob. She did such an amazing job, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Some of you have asked about what is coming next now that the Dragon’s Breath Series is complete, and I’ve mentioned some details briefly in other posts. Those of you who have read Galadon will have an even better idea.
This is a new romantasy series set in a different world with a fresh set of characters, but there are still some dragons in it, as well as other interesting mythical creatures. At some point, there will be a crossover with the Dragon’s Breath world. That’s all I’ll say about that for now.
Below is the cover for Oaths & Vengeance, retailer links, and other details about the first book in The Realm of Zadrya series. It will release on August 22nd, 2025. I’m very excited about this novel and will share more in the coming months.
SUMMARY
Darrow is powerful, ruthless, and her sworn enemy. The wickedly good-looking elf is also cursed never to love.
Aella should stay far away from him, especially considering he could kill her from a distance with little effort. Except that someone close to her is dying, and he is the only person in the realm with the means to help. She has strong powers of her own to offer in exchange, but to her dismay, Darrow wants a secret marriage as part of the bargain.
Fae marriages are forever, so she’d always be his.
With other factors pushing her toward it, she agrees to a private wedding that the king himself officiates while hiding the ceremony from her disapproving family. Aella suspects there is far more to Darrow’s motives if Zadrya’s monarch is involved. It isn’t long before she discovers that dark forces are circling, and it’s her rare magic they want to use or eradicate by any means necessary. Her new husband has drawn her into a dangerous conflict started centuries ago that could either end in the salvation or destruction of their world. If she wants to survive, she’ll need to trust Darrow with her body, but never her heart.
Note- This novel is an enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romantasy. It contains adult content, including violence, foul language, spicy scenes, torture, and ruthless plants and creatures. Read at your own discretion.
Don’t forget to add Oaths & Vengeance to your Goodreads TBR list HERE!
