Tag: fae romance

Updates: Mistletoe and Mages and more!

Hello, fellow readers! I have some exciting news.

Releasing this month

Mistletoe and Mages: A Limited Edition Anthology releases…today! More below or… Download it FREE here.

From the Arcane: Relics of Legends and Lore (IFA Anthology) releases November 14. Preorder here.

Recently Read and Recommended

All Hallows Airship, by Liz Delton – Steampunk with a mystery, a Halloween party and one wonderful great aunt, plus some cute romance and chronic illness representation!

Fae Hunter, by Sarah K.L. Wilson – The whole series is phenomenal and I’ve been absolutely devouring it. Each of the books ends on some kind of cliffhanger so I’m glad I have the omnibus.

The Assassin Bride, by Anastasis Blythe – Releases later this month! I read an ARC and this is my honest, voluntary mini-review. I adored the magical palace setting in this story, the plot twists and the truly immersive world. Plus the love interest was fantastic. Add a dose of true friendship, some extremely high stakes and you’ve got a page-turning read.

On a podcast

Lord of the Hollow Court got the podcast treatment from one of the above authors (just a coincidence, I happened to download her book last year and read it this year!), Liz Delton. Her podcast, The Fictional Bookshop, is immersive story telling, and really relaxing. Every episode features a chapter from another book. Check out Lord of the Hollow Court’s episode here.

New release: Mistletoe and Mages

Mistletoe and Mages is a BookFunnel-only anthology with holiday/winter-themed paranormal romance (PNR) stories, put together by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape.

My addition to this anthology is the dystopian PNR novelette, To Thaw a Phoenix Heart, which is set in a future Cleveland and has forbidden romance, a phoenix shifter MMC and a STEM heroine. The two characters can’t seem to resist each other after meeting in the dead of winter, when survival is anything but guaranteed.

Download Free

This anthology is free, but readers must agree to subscribe to the newsletters of the authors inside it. You’ll get some emails from us telling you who we are (and you can always unsubscribe if it’s not your thing!), and you get stories from…

Arizona Tape

Demelza Carlton

Faedra Rose

Dariel Raye

Lulu M. Sylvian

Samantha Peppercorn

Lavinia Roseknight

C.K. Beggan (me!)

Iris Leigh

Jess Averill

Laura Greenwood

Rosie Wylor-Owen

That’s all from me for now!

Cheers,

CKB

Shift of the Seasons charity anthology is here!

Shift of the Seasons Charity Anthology

I’m pleased to say that the Shift of the Seasons charity anthology is out now! All proceeds go to breast cancer research, a cause that’s extremely important to me. Which is why I wrote a Season of the Fae novelette for it that you can’t find anywhere else!

My story, titled The Prince or the Bard? is an MFM “must choose” romance with a puca shifter narrator. Set in a fae high court in Ireland hundreds of years before the events of Revel at the Court of Claws and Lord of the Hollow Court, queen’s maid Laoise (pronounced LEE-shuh, like Alicia without the first A) finds herself caught up in unexpected romance…including a fake dating trope, a swoony bard and a rakish prince. There’s also intrigue and a glimpse of an underwater court!

A big thank you to author MJ Marstens for organizing this anthology!

Get your copy here

Have a couple moodboards for this story, too!

"You're going to be the center of a romantic scandal, my dear." Moodboard with stone architecture, a horse in water, a mermaid tail, a woman in fall leaves and two handsome men.
Shift of the Seasons: The Prince or the Bard? A Must Choose Season of the Fae Story; A moodboard showing a silhouetted couple by the sea, a horse in water, Irish contryside and a castle, and a woman looking out at ocean waves

And while we’re on the topic, please, please, make sure you and your loved ones are all up to date on their cancer screenings. They truly save lives.

That’s all for now! I’m trying to be a little less negligent with the blog, so you’ll be hearing from me again soon.

Cheers!

CKB

Revel at the Court of Claws, by C.K. Beggan (A Season of the Fae Prequel Novella)

Revel at the Court of Claws is here!

Hi all!

I’m setting an intention to start blogging again more regularly, even if it’s just once a month. But of course I had to do an announcement for today because…

Revel at the Court of Claws is now available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited! Paperbacks are coming later this week, but for right now you can grab the ebook here!

This spicy fae fairy tale retelling (of Sleeping Beauty and Sun, Moon and Talia) is a prequel linked to Lord of the Hollow Court. It started its life as a novelette I gave away as a newsletter subscriber perk.

Now it’s a novella…and VERY steamy.

Besides having new scenes and revisions, Revel has a new cover and synopsis, too! (A big thanks to author Alora Black for the rewrite!)

Revel at the Court of Claws, by C.K. Beggan (A Season of the Fae Prequel Novella)

The synopsis:

The Hollow Kingdom meets The Cruel Prince with a dash of The Host in this spicy, witchy Sleeping Beauty and Sun, Moon and Talia retelling.

Her charmed life just became a cursed one—and then the fae arrived.

Susannah Wright gets what she wants, and what she wants more than anything is to become a powerful witch. So when her initiation into the coven is derailed, she will do anything in her power to reclaim fate’s favor and rid herself of this unwelcome curse. 

Despite meticulous planning, her spell goes awry when she pricks her finger on a piece of flax and the High Fae scent Susannah’s blood on the wind.

Whisked into the Court of Claws by the wicked, cunning, and unbearably beautiful Fae, will she survive their bloodthirsty revel? Or will the intense attraction between her and a High Fae Prince Charming be her undoing?
Fast-paced and sizzling hot, Revel at the Court of Claws is a prequel novella to Lord of the Hollow Court. It is intended for a mature audience.

Start reading now

I hope you’ll support the new version of Revel, or tell a friend who loves ACOTAR and spicy fantasy romances!

Cheers,

CKB

PS: If you’re wondering what’s next on my schedule…I’m putting the finishing touches on an anthology submission, then writing another story for a charity anthology called Shift of the Seasons. More on that later!

The Borderlands Princess review

ReviewTheBorderlandsPrincess

The Borderlands Princess, by Ophelia Wells Langley

(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!

My rating:
4.5/5

Of Smoke and Shadows review

A review of Of Smoke and Shadows, by Ophelia Wells Langley

Of Smoke and Shadows, by Ophelia Wells Langley

(Stone Circles # 0.5)

Spicy Romantic Fantasy, Steamy Fantasy, Prequel Novella

fated mates, fae romance, villain origin story

Note: This story is now available on KU. The version I read was a reader magnet and has some changes based on reader feedback.

This novella has some very steamy scenes towards the end and is for mature readers 18+ only.

This prequel to The Borderlands Princess is like ACOTAR meets The Witcher.

Of Smoke and Shadows is the intriguing backstory of the Fire Fae King in a forthcoming first book, author Ophelia Wells Langley’s Stone Circles series. It’s a series of vignettes of the moments that shaped Achill, beginning as a young, mateless prince afraid of his father. He quickly becomes brutal and has some hard life lessons that make him think twice.

There was spicy open door fae romance near the end, so if that’s your thing, the author has you covered! (And if not, consider yourself duly warned!) I also found Achill’s smoke magic interesting, especially since it’s considered substandard in his court. I’m curious how it will be used going forward.

Though not every period in Achill’s life had a full arc for his developing character (I wondered what happened while training with his uncle that changed him so much), the way the plot drops in on key moments very much reminded me of season 1 of The Witcher. The female characters were especially well-rendered, so I’m looking forward to reading The Borderlands Princess.

My rating:
4/5