Tag: fantasy romance

Charity Anthology: Of Storms and Stardust

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.

Of Storms and Stardust Charity Anthology

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:

Order Direct
Order from Amazon
Order Now (Universal Book Link)

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

Bound by Blood roundup: The Stars and the Stage, The Hawk and the Nightingale and The Magnolia and the Bleeding Heart

As co-organizer of the Bound by Blood spicy vampire romance series, I’ve been a bit delinquent in telling you about our latest releases! All of the published books are available in Kindle Unlimited (KU) or for $2.99. (If you snag them before they release, they’re 99c.)

Below, you’ll find queer romance, second chance romance (a popular trope in our series!) and the fiercest of female main characters!

The Stars and the Stage, by D.N. Bryn

The Stars and the Stage, by D.N. Bryn

The Stars and the Stage is a kinky, queer second chance vampire urban romance, and a prequel to D.N. Bryn’s beloved vampire romance series. And it has quite the hook line!

When their traitorous ex begs forgiveness ten years too late, what’s a vengeful vampire to do but make him bleed?

Read it in KU

The Hawk and the Nightingale

The Hawk and the Nightingale, by Jennifer Allis Provost

Veteran author Jennifer Allis Provost has this short, spicy vampire romance between a vampire who’s more than she seems and a noctural night club owner, set in Prague. The tag line?

The voice of an angel. The heart of a devil.

Read it in KU

The Magnolia and the Bleeding Heart

The Magnolia and the Bleeding Heart, by River Bennet

I’m so pleased to say that this sapphic second-chance romance, set in Texas, is author River Bennet’s debut! River has an ongoing story on Kindle Vella and a full-length novel, Heroines of Olympus, coming soon, but this easy to read FFF mafia romance is her first published book, and it had me hooked as a beta reader. Here’s the hook line, and boy is “risk” an understatement for narrator Jesse:

What would you risk for a second chance at love?

Read it in KU

The next release will be from another debut author, Alora Black, with the FFM Sleeping Beauty retelling The Nettle and the Nightmare. For more on the series, please visit boundbybloodseries.com.

Cheers!

CKB

Snow-Swept is here!

It’s Valentine’s Day, so you know what that means…

Snow-Swept moodboard: Hope flies in on a gargoyle's wings. Sweet Fantasy Romance. (Images of winter, night, and winter clothing.)

It’s release day for Snow-Swept!

This no-spice fantasy romance novelette is now available on Kindle Unlimited.

Featuring hearts in need of healing, grief, and a sweet romance that blooms alongside a gargoyle’s protective instincts, I can’t guarantee this little story won’t make you cry!

Read Now
Snow-Swept: A Gargoyle Romance Novelette, by C.K. Beggan (pale wings, snowflakes and intricate lacy designs over a background the color of night)

Visit the book page for Snow-Swept for more info!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cheers,

CKB

Snow-Swept is up for preorder!

I have a Valentine’s Day surprise for you all. Snow-Swept, a sweet, no-spice fantasy romance between a gargoyle and human, is arriving on Amazon (and KU!) February 14, 2023.

The novelette is available for preorder from Amazon for 99c.

Order Now

Check out the pretty cover!

Snow-Swept: A Gargoyle Romance Novelette, by C.K. Beggan (pale wings, snowflakes and intricate lacy designs over a background the color of night)

To learn more, please visit the book page for Snow-Swept.

And since word of mouth marketing is so powerful for an indie author like me, don’t forget to tell a friend or share on social media!

I came up with the idea for this story in a weekend and I’m so excited to share it with you all. This may just be a novelette, but it’s jam-packed with heart and emotion. I really hope you’ll love it!

Cheers!

CKB

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?

Potions & Passions Kindle Vella BookFunnel Promo January 8-February 7, 2023
Potions & Passions (Kindle Vella) inaugural promo

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).

Check out the Promo

That’s all for now!

Cheers,

CKB

Cursed review

A review of Cursed, by Callie Pey

Cursed, by Callie Pey

(A novella of The Dryad Chronicles)

Steamy fantasy romance, The Little Mermaid retelling, fantasy novella

Note: I received an ARC and this is an honest, voluntary review. This book is a steamy open door fantasy romance for mature readers 18+ only.

It’s so nice to be back in Voreios, a land of mythology and community. It’s also a place where multiple mates are both fated and common, giving us another steamy MMF romance.

What I love most about Callie Pey’s work is the loving spirit each story contains. It keeps all the steam from feeling tawdry, with love scenes that often celebrate the bond. Cursed really captures the joy of finding who you’re meant to be with after wondering if you’d always be alone.

There are also The Little Mermaid-retelling vibes! The undersea world was interesting and made for a great climax to the story. Since this story ties into the Dryad Chronicles, there are some series spoilers, so be forewarned!

I enjoyed reading this novella and getting to know its characters.

My rating:
4.5/5
Cursed, by Callie Pey: A mockup surrounded by leaves and a cinnamon candle

Of Heists and Hexes review

If you like your fantasy romances extra spicy, my Of Heists and Hexes review is here! This is the first time I’ve read anything by S.L. Prater, and she certainly knows how to turn on the steam. Read on!

Of Heists and Hexes review graphic

Of Heists and Hexes (A Witch’s Ever After #1), by S.L. Prater (steamy fantasy romance, fairytale retelling; April 19, 2022)

Note: I received a free copy and have voluntarily written this honest review. Contains steamy open-door scenes, disturbing violent content and depictions of capital punishment.

Noah is an honest, likable sheriff. Robin is a witch and a thief on a mission to feed the people of Arm. The two are fated mates thanks to their magic, though Noah knows he should arrest her. The last thing he wants is for his young sister Marian and his nan to get caught up in Robin’s rebellion against the political status quo.

I loved the world-building, the witches and the cat and mouse game between Robin and Noah. Seeing Robin thwart him is genuine fun, and the tension, between them and throughout the kingdom, make it binge-worthy. There is a very serious side, too, as Noah brings depraved criminals to justice (the crimes are heartbreakingly real). Combined with depictions of poverty, these scenes show how broken their society is, because Noah and the witches are practically the only ones to do anything about it. With all he has to face, it is a challenge for Noah to be an honest law man.

Of Heists and Hexes book cover

I wish there’d been more in-person emotion between the two love interests. Much of the heart is in the form of notes, and when together they’re all heat (and yes, the heat level is VERY high). I was waiting for an emotional breakthrough to back the fated romance between these two that I never quite got, though they sometimes came close. I also thought the climax came up suddenly. Though the ending didn’t disappoint me, I’d invested enough in the characters that I wanted the epilogue to be longer, so I could learn the particulars of what they did next. And really, is that such a bad problem to have?

My rating:
4/5

To learn more about this author, visit streetwitch.net.