Far be it from me to toot my own horn, since I hate pretentious authors (you know who you are, various and sundry Famous Writers Who Shall Not Be Named but who grit my teeth together), but this splendiferous novel came about during the Pandemic. Yes, indeed. I spent many an hour wallowing in depression and attempting to create a world into which I could escape—and get away from such things as riots, people hating each other, and high death tolls.
So I created a world in which there are riots, people hating each other, death threats, and… oh.
Well, there is also a also fire-eater, and adorably romantic and sexy romance between said fire-eater and everyone’s favorite character, Lambert Simnel. (Seriously, people adore my smol bean falconer, probably because he’s so presh.) The usual tension between Sir Thomas Lovell, all-around “secretly a good guy but hopes you don’t find that out, because I have to maintain my villain reputation for street-cred” and his moralistic wife (along with their hot make-out session in the shadows of a Scottish castle — who said arranged marriages aren’t fun?), a bit about falcons, and probably the most hate-worthy jerk in my arsenal of “men who are full of themselves.” The Earl of Northumberland, also known as Percy, could put the most bloviating self-important dolt to shame, as he parades through this narrative drenched in velvet and bedecked in jewels, with a woman on his arm that would probably stick a knife in your back as soon as you turned it. And that’s to say nothing of his wife.
Percy is in the midst of a feud with the peacock-loving Archbishop of York, so their men are often squabbling in the streets, much to Lovell’s General Annoyance. What happens as a result, I leave you to find out—because sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and history likes to bend when I tell it to, because I despise unhappy endings.
Astute Tudor readers will notice specific cameos that set up Future Things in the series, but ignorant ones can just sit back and enjoy the ride—because it’s a whopper, and it includes probably my favorite, nastiest, low-down plot twist right before the end, to give you a good kick in the head.
But I promise, since I am not George RR Martin, it all turns out all right. Mostly.
For those curious, I do write books in an overall series, but also as stand-alones, so you can climb into bed anytime with any of my books and start reading without too much confusion.
Err. As Lorelai Gilmore would say, “OOOH, DIRTY.”
Here’s my butt-kicking cover, in case you’re curious. Notice the FIRE in her eyes. Much wow. For reals. 😉
For those of you kind enough to care, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.
Or if Smashwords is your jam, you can also buy my stuff there.
As always, if you read and don’t hate it, please leave me a review wherever you bought it. It helps!
Congratulations!! Awesome cover! The fire in her eyes is cool. 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading it!
I love that cover. It’s very worthy of such a, dare I say, FIERY heroine. xD
much to Lovell’s General Annoyance
I feel like you could tack this phrase onto the end of every sentence in which you describe something someone does in any one of these books, At any given time. Basically, yup. Someone died, much to Lovell’s General Annoyance. Someone fell in love, much to Lovell’s General Annoyance. Someone made a deal with someone else, much to Lovell’s General Annoyance. Someone killed someone, much to Lovell’s General Annoyance.
It’s my new favorite phrase 😀
Also, this is my favorite of this series so far. Hands down. No question. LOVED IT.
HAH! Yes, Lovell’s patience does get tried rather a lot, and he hasn’t much of it to start off with. I think he would happily have knocked Percy’s head into the nearest wall, if there were not, you know, Politics involved. 😛
Never fear, Lovell. I shall let you do something violent one of these days.
I’m so pleased you loved it, since it was by far the hardest one to write. Stupid pandemic! So it pleases my soul that everyone loves it the most already!
Sometimes the really hard ones to write end up extra good despite the trouble they give us. And sometimes not. Glad it’s getting a warm reception!