Spotlight: The Second Time Around by Kelly Collins

Publication date: June 2nd 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

A swoon-worthy second chance romance with all the feels.

Brie Watkins had loved two men in her life. One abandoned her at the altar twelve years ago, and the other died in the war. She is no stranger to loss, but she’s still learning how to move on. When her sick aunt asks her to come back to Willow Bay to help at the family resort, Brie says yes. After all, she’s a southern girl at heart, and a southern girl never turns her back on kin. Brie sells her beloved home, quits her job restoring historic properties, and goes back to the last place she wants to be, only to find her aunt healthy, The Brown Resort thriving, and the man who left her at the altar living next door, looking as handsome as ever. Why can’t life be fair?

Carpenter Carter Kessler left Willow Bay a dozen years ago and never looked back, but he never forgot his first love, Brie. He’s spent the rest of his life regretting his decision to leave her all those years ago. After his father’s death, he reluctantly returns to find his family’s resort a mess. But it is not a total disaster – Brie is next door and as beautiful as ever. He talks her into helping him refurbish The Kessler Resort, but first she lays out the ground rules: they aren’t friends, they’ll never be lovers, and she’ll never stop hating him. As far as Carter is concerned, it’s a start.

But as summer heats up, so does their relationship. As they peel back the layers, what will they find hiding beneath the surface? Can what they started all those years ago be restored, or are some things better left buried in the past?

Find out in The Second Time Around…

Excerpt

She leaned on the suitcase. Even in the moonlight, and despite her frown, she still had the most beautiful blue eyes. Eyes as blue as the bay. The Texas coast wasn’t known for its clear waters. It didn’t have the blue of the Caribbean, but the way the reef protected the shore gave it a unique environment, and it had the bluest water. He’d forgotten how he’d thought of the bay as Brie blue, and paired with her chestnut hair, she was one of the prettiest girls in Texas.

He started back to the porch and his beer, but he caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye, trying to stand. She stumbled over the suitcase and fell on top of it. 

He raced toward her. “How much of that bottle did you drink?”

She looked at it and shrugged. “Not sure. Four or five.”

 “Four or five what? Sips? Gulps? Gallons?” She rose and tottered back and forth. Her back end was high in the air. All these years later, she still had the finest derriere he’d ever seen. “Let me help before you hurt yourself.”

She wagged a finger behind her. “Stay away from me.” She shifted and grunted and righted her suitcase, only to lose her balance again. This time she landed on top of it like it was a lounger. She squeaked, then smiled and let out an “Oh, this isn’t so bad.” She opened the bottle for another drink.

“Is that wise?”

“What do you care?” She laid back and looked up at the twinkling lights of the willow tree. “Did you know when I woke that morning, Mama got me ready? She used an entire can of Aqua Net. I smelled like Ms. Cricket but looked like Miss America.” She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. “I had the prettiest braids going in every direction, but they all came together in the back.” The whiskey bottle fell into the sand, which was probably a good thing. “So pretty.”

“You were always beautiful, Brie.”

“Oh, what would you know? You didn’t even show up.” She blindly searched around for the bottle but gave up quickly.

He sat a few feet away from her. He had a lot to say, but all he’d do was listen.

“You know what the funniest thing of all was?”

“Tell me.” He scooped up sand and let it sift through his fingers. It kind of felt like how life was. It just got away from you.

“Mama wanted me to wear those fancy jeweled shoes. Those heels were four inches high and pinched my toes. I’m telling you, she had me practicing for days, and I was in pure agony. I refused to wear them and hid them at Tiff’s house, because I knew with the humidity, my feet would swell, and I wanted to dance under this tree with you. I didn’t want to have achy feet on my wedding day, so I bedazzled my Keds. I had the perfect shoes for running, and I wasn’t the one who ran.” She turned on her side, showing her back to him.

He thought about how he’d apologize. He wasn’t sure what she knew or didn’t know. It had been so long, and both her parents were gone. Did she know her mother had been unfaithful? Did she believe until their dying days that they’d been hopelessly devoted to one another? Her father had died of a heart attack on a yacht filled with half-naked drunk coeds. Though he’d been gone, gossip traveled fast, and he’d gotten the condensed version every time his mother talked to someone from town.

“Look, Brie, I did what I did for a lot of reasons, but mostly it was to spare you pain and embarrassment.”

“Mm-hm.”

This was going far better than expected. “I’m sorry for hurting you, but if you’d known what I did, you would have been hurt so much more. I was a coward for many reasons. I should have stayed and let the grenade explode. At least then, maybe we could have worked it out, but I didn’t have the maturity to face them or you.” A loud sound startled him, and he scooted closer. “Brie.” He reached out and touched her leg, only to realize she was snoring.

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About the Author

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International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.

Kelly has sold more than a quarter of a million books worldwide, and in 2021 she was awarded a Readers' Favorite Award Gold Medal in the Contemporary Romance category for A Tablespoon of Temptation.

You can learn more about Kelly at www.authorkellycollins.com.

Connect:

https://www.authorkellycollins.com/

https://www.facebook.com/authorkelleycollins

https://twitter.com/kcollinsauthor

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https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kelly-collins

https://www.amazon.com/Kelly-Collins/e/B00H3JAYJ8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1435982615&sr=8-2-ent

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7488895.Kelly_Collins

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Spotlight: Three to Get Ready by Skye Warren

(One for the Money, #3)
Publication date: February 16th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

There’s a ticking time bomb in Finn Hughes’s head.

That means he has to prepare everyone. Eva. The baby. The company, which is in an uproar after the announcement. He needs to get them ready. Because when the curse hits, it will be too late to say goodbye.

Welcome to the Midnight Dynasty… The warring Morelli and Constantine families have enough bad blood to fill an ocean, and their brand new stories will be told by your favorite dangerous romance authors.

WARNING: This book is intended for readers eighteen years old and over. It contains material that some readers could find disturbing. Enter at your own risk…

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About the Author

Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.

Connect:

http://www.skyewarren.com/

https://www.facebook.com/skyewarren

https://www.instagram.com/skyewarrenbooks/

https://twitter.com/skye_warren

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5339130.Skye_Warren

http://www.skyewarren.com/newsletter/

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Spotlight: Teach Me by L. L. Ash

Publication date: February 14th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

From the Bestselling Author of HIM.

Mia

I’ve been trying to get that TA job ever since my senior year at college. I’m in my last semester of my Master’s degree and finally got the job. Only problem is our new professor is a sexy, middle aged, brilliant writer and an even better teacher. He runs the English department and now he’s my boss, my professor, and the center of every last one of my fantasies. There’s no way I should want him this much, but it’s those dang glasses and that smile and that little dimple in his chin. I was swooning the moment I met Professor Harlo, but the moment he opened his mouth, I fell in love.

Owen

This is the last thing I wanted. I’m fresh off a divorce and with two kids and two demanding careers, I don’t have the time or energy for this. Except, this girl sticks inside my brain like ABC gum and I can’t shake her. Doesn’t help that we’re crammed in my office grading papers several days a week for hours at a time. The whole innocent thing she has going on kept me away, but she’s a writer too, and I made the mistake of reading her half finished romance book. Unfortunately for me, the things I love about this girl are her mind and spirit, and those are the two things I can’t say no to.

Excerpt

Writing was my life.

And I’m not joking about that. If I couldn’t write, I would be absolutely useless to society. Some people take antidepressants, or do yoga or hike, or eat really good chocolate ice cream. For me, I write. It’s my therapy, if you will.

So, to say that my creative writing class was my favorite my first year of college was a bit of an understatement. I mean, I'd taken it every year since I started college. When I became knowledgeable enough to become the class’s TA, oh my God, it was like a dream come true.

Sure, being a teaching assistant was mostly just correcting tests, reading papers and doing the grunt work that my professor didn’t have time to do, but I didn’t care. I was going to be learning from some of the best, and my writing was going to benefit. Hell, maybe I’d even try to publish!

Now, the big obstacle ahead of me was getting the job.

I stood outside my professor’s office door, waiting for time to tick by because I was ten minutes early.

“Goddamnit!” I heard from behind the office door and my eyes widened.

Professor Harlo was new, replacing my recently retired professor. A spike of worry shot through me, wondering if the man had a temper.

The door swung open and there Professor Harlo was, over six feet tall, in slacks and a white shirt, deft fingers ripping off his tie.

“Oh, shit,” he whispered, jumping a little when he saw me there outside his door. “You here for the TA job?”

I nodded dumbly, my head bobbing up and down while he dabbed at his shirt. The big brown coffee stain on the front of his shirt finally grabbed my attention.

“Are you ok?” I finally bumbled, grabbing the tissue out of his hand so I could vigorously rub at the stain. “Did it burn you?”

Professor Harlo raised an eyebrow at me and watched me make a bloody fool of myself while I cleaned off my professor.

Oh God…

I finally blinked, realizing what I was doing, and shoved the napkin back at him.

“Sorry, I don’t know what I was…”

“Know how to get this out?” he asked, pointing to the spot and interrupting my apology.

I nodded.

“Good,” he said, waving me into his office as he wandered back in himself.

Those fingers, long and dexterous, started unbuttoning his shirt, starting from the neck down. I watched slack-jawed while he didn’t even bother glancing at me.

“Consider this a trial run,” he said finally, sliding his shirt off his arms before he bunched it against his bare chest.

Uh, yes, bare chest. And what a chest it was! His skin was pale, but there were muscles there that many academic men never bothered to develop. A dusting of freckles sprinkled across his pecs, and a peppering of dark hair trailed down into the band of his slacks.

“Hey,” he called, making the ‘I’m watching you’ motion with his fingers and eyes. “Get this all cleaned up and you’ve got the job.”

I blinked, clearing my mind as he shoved the shirt at me and pulled on an old man cardigan that fit him so well; the horn rimmed glasses on his face accentuating his dark, carmel colored eyes.

“What’s your name, by the way?” he asked once he was dressed again.

I drew my eyes away from the little triangle of chest and neck I was staring at and looked him in the face.

“Mia,” I stammered. “Mia Miller.”

“That’s fun enunciation,” he said with a grunt. “Ok, Miss Mia Miller. I want that back by tomorrow. Can you handle it?”

I lifted my eyebrows and nodded.

“Good,” was all he said before grabbing his leather briefcase bag and moving past me through the door, locking it on the way out. “By lunch tomorrow!”

I watched him saunter off after locking his office door behind us, and felt like my entire world had just imploded in that tiny room.

Once he was gone though, it was easier to breathe, and when I got some oxygen into my brain, I was able to finally convince myself of how idiotic my little instant crush was. Not only was my professor likely ‘over the hill’ and in his forties, but he was going to be my boss. Because yeah, I was getting the darn job, and no amount of coffee stained shirts were going to get in my way.

Shutting off the blood flow to my little love button, I stuffed the shirt into my backpack and hurried to my next class. Math. Yuck.

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About the Author

L.L. Ash is a Washington-born writer who has traveled and lived across the western coast of the US. Ash has been writing fiction since she was a pre-teen, and while her writing has improved since then, her love for literature has not changed.

Oftentimes you can find Ash reading an indie romance or enjoying a historical fiction. Dabbling in culinary arts and music, Ash has been an artist for decades but found her true love and passion in romances.

Connect:

https://llashmedia.com/

https://www.instagram.com/llashmedia

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https://twitter.com/llash14/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23251916.L_L_Ash

Spotlight: Black Foam by Haji Jabir

Dawoud is on the run from his murky past, aiming to discover where he belongs. He tries to assimilate into different groups along his journey through North Africa and Israel, changing his clothes, his religious affiliations, and even his name to fit in, but the safety and peace he seeks remain elusive. It seems prejudice is everywhere, holding him back, when all he really wants is to create a simple life he can call his own. A chameleon, Dawoud—or David, Adal, or Dawit, depending on where and when you meet him—is not lost in this whirl of identities. In fact, he is defined by it. 

Dawoud’s journey is circuitous and specific, but the desire to belong is universal. Spellbinding to the final page, Black Foam is both intimate and grand in scale, much like the experiences of the millions of people migrating to find peace and safety in the twenty-first century.

Excerpt

Excerpted from BLACK FOAM by Haji Jabir

© 2023 Published by Amazon Crossing, February 7, 2023. All Rights Reserved

At the end of his third month in Tel Aviv, Dawit received a letter telling him to prepare to move to his permanent residence in Jerusalem. 

He was just starting to get used to Tel Aviv—to his wild nights with Yaqub and to Neve Sha’anan, the piece of Africa in the heart of Israel. The announcement that he was leaving left him a little downhearted. He wanted to stay in Tel Aviv, in his new circle of safety, in the place where he was able to plunge into the depths instead of paddling around at the surface like he had all his life. Here, he had finally stopped paying attention to the others who’d come on the same flight from Gondar. They could still hurt him, sure. But at the same time, he wasn’t afraid of them anymore. He had beaten them—he was the first to reach the soil of Tel Aviv, to mix with it. 

This feeling put him so much at ease that he even dared tell Yaqub his forbidden story. He told Yaqub how he’d left Eritrea with one name and entered Ethiopia with another before heading out with a third name on the journey to Israel from the Gondar refugee camp. He hesitated, unsure whether to tell his friend that before all this he’d had a fourth name, which had nothing to do with all the others. Yaqub could hardly believe his ears. At some points in the story, his eyes bulged out, and at others he would cry out and clutch his head, while some of the details made him laugh. 

Dawit considered telling his friend the story of Aisha, but then he stopped. That story, he realized, was hidden in the deepest part of him. He could peel away layer after layer, but he would only reach those depths by destroying himself. Still, he wasn’t sure whether he was hiding the story from others or whether he was hiding it from himself. 

“Man, show me how to join you. Should I say we’re brothers? Should I go to Gondar and ask Saba for help? What do you think?” 

Dawit now saw the mess he’d gotten himself into, as he could see his story ricocheting back and creating unforeseen complications. He tried to be vague about it, but his friend intensified his siege and Dawit found no escape except to give his friend the hope he wanted. 

“Maybe if you move to Gondar, sure, you’ll find the right opportunity. Just tell Saba that you’re with me.”

Yaqub’s face filled with joy at what seemed to be the salvation he’d been waiting for. Dawit wasn’t sure how he felt—whether he was happy to be out of his predicament or whether he despaired at having given his friend false hope. But what sealed it, in the end, was that he knew Yaqub’s personality. His friend wouldn’t really do anything more than seek out short-term pleasures. Let him have them, then. The problem would end right here. 

Dawit knew his friend avoided the things he wanted as soon as difficulties cropped up. There was the time he had avoided taking a job, since it would have meant staying away from his woman in Neve Sha’anan for long stretches of time. Also, Yaqub always completely immersed himself in the moment, as if running away from some mysterious thing. 

He still didn’t know how to tell Yaqub that he was leaving for Jerusalem, and he didn’t know how sad it might make him. 

The next time they met, Yaqub was just coming back from his girlfriend’s, euphoric and boasting of a virility that he could not stop showing off. “When I came, she was laughing, and when I left, she was moaning. She couldn’t even stand up to go to the door and say goodbye. I gave her a last quick glance, an air kiss, and left.” 

As usual, the only way Dawit could respond was to show an exaggerated envy and amazement at his friend’s extraordinary abilities, Haji Jabir 118 which ordinary folk surely could not attain. But this time, he fulfilled his role perfunctorily and quickly moved. 

“The order for my transfer to Jerusalem came through. I’ll be there by the end of the week.” 

No sooner had he finished speaking than he noticed, in his friend’s eyes, a shock that quickly faded into sorrow. The talk about his girlfriend and his exceptional virility disappeared, replaced by silence. There was a long moment when Yaqub just hung his head. 

For the next few days, they walked for hours down the streets of Neve Sha’anan with no particular destination. Dawit repeatedly tried to break through Yaqub’s trancelike state, but to no avail. He wanted to cheer up his friend, so he said that he would keep on visiting him— reminding him that it wasn’t far from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv—and telling him how attached he was to Neve Sha’anan and how no other place could take him away from it. But all of these calming niceties evaporated in front of Yaqub’s rigid face, before Yaqub finally said: “Yeah. You’ll go to Jerusalem and find a permanent job. While I’ll stay here to entertain people like you until their lives begin.” 

Dawit tried not to show his shock. He changed his expression to a confused smile, and he gathered up a few words he didn’t really mean. “Who knows. Maybe I won’t like it there, and then I’ll be back here in no time.” 

At that moment, just as he was tossing out these words of consolation, Dawit realized that Tel Aviv had been yet another superficial surface that he’d stood on rather than diving in and becoming a part of it. Was he being too hard on the place? But what are places if not their people?

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About the Author and Translators

Haji Jabir is an Eritrean novelist who was born in the city of Massawa on the Red Sea Coast in 1976. He currently lives in Doha, Qatar, where he works as an Al Jazeera journalist. Jabir’s creative aim is to shed light on Eritrea’s past and present and to extricate his homeland from its cultural isolation. He is one of the most important Arabic-language authors of his time.

Sawad Hussain is a translator from the Arabic whose work has been recognized by English PEN, the Anglo-Omani Society, and the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, among others. She is a judge for the Palestine Book Awards. Her recent translations include Passage to the Plaza by Sahar Khalifeh and A Bed for the King’s Daughter by Shahla Ujayli. She has run workshops introducing translation to students and adults under the auspices of Shadow Heroes, the British Library, the Yiddish Book Center, the National Centre for Writing, Africa Writes, and the Shubbak Festival. She is the 2022 translator in residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation. She tweets at @sawadhussain.

M Lynx Qualey is a literary critic, book editor, and occasional ghostwriter who runs the "ArabLit" website (arablit.org), which won a 2017 London Book Fair “Literary Translation Initiative” prize. She also publishes ArabLit Quarterly magazine and co hosts the Bulaq podcast. Her Kirkus-starred co-translation of the middle-grade novel Ghady and Rawan, co-written by Fatima Sharafeddine and Samar Mahfouz Barraj, is available via University of Texas Press (August 2019).

Spotlight: The Last Dragon Skin Chronicles by Georgina Makalani

The Empty Crown 

The Last Dragon Skin Chronicles Book 1

Genre: Epic Fantasy 

Ana is running for her life. And she has dragged Captain Drayton along, or did he drag her? Either way they are fleeing across the kingdom from visions, a nasty mage and an apathetic lord.

The young Ed Forest is also running. He doesn’t know if he is running from what he knows he can’t be, or towards help to be the man his parents had hoped he would become.

Something has drawn them all to an old man in the mountains. He ran away long ago, and he may not be the willing help that they need him to be.

This unlikely group aim to restore the crown to the boy king, even if he doesn’t want it. Can they survive magic, evil relatives and one enormous dragon? Or is one amongst them a greater danger to their quest? 

Excerpt

As they continued up the mountain, Ana wanted to turn back and look. She could feel it stalking behind them, and with four legs and better grip of the mountain it was moving much faster than she could. Despite her certainty that it was gaining on them, she stopped. Dray turned back at her with a questioning look.

There was something else on this mountain, and she didn’t know if it was worse than the mountain lion or just an unknown. Either way, she knew it was coming. She could feel it in her bones.

Dray waved her forward, but she remained where she was. “Now,” he whispered hoarsely through clenched teeth. He looked far less worried than he sounded, and she sidestepped just as the mountain lion landed where she had been standing.

It growled loudly, but although it was close enough to take Ana’s head from her shoulders, it didn’t move. Dray’s hand was tight around his sword. It wasn’t clear if he was waiting to see if he could move faster than the animal or if it would lose interest first.

The growl in its throat grew louder, and Ana felt it resonate through her. Instead of stepping forward with his sword drawn, Dray stepped backwards. Ana squeezed her eyes closed. She could feel it coming, moving faster than an avalanche down the mountainside. She looked then, in fear it was an avalanche, to see deep red scales as the large head closed around the mountain lion. She blew out a slow breath.

She held up her hand, and Dray lowered the sword he’d had ready to drive into the side of the beast. “Step back slowly,” he said.

“I think if it wanted to eat me, it would have,” Ana said.

“It might be saving you for a treat.”

“What is it?” she asked, reaching a hand towards its warm face. It turned to look at her with the blackest eyes, and steam blew about her, warming her cold frame.

“Are you serious?” Dray snapped, and the beast turned its head towards him.

Whatever the beast was, it was huge. The head alone was the same height as Dray. More steam swirled around her, and she stepped forward to place a hand on its face. Strange images raced through her mind, the world from far above, trees as small dots and villages like toys amongst green fields. Then fighting, swords and men and blood, but she couldn’t see who was fighting whom or what colours they wore.

She pulled her hand back quickly. The animal pulled back from her and folded in large leathery wings that she hadn’t noticed until they rustled with the movement. It was almost as long as the bridge to Sheer Rock.

“Dragon,” Dray whispered. It turned back to him again and then back to Ana.

“Do they exist?” she asked, looking at the bulk before her. It snorted again, and she smiled. Then she frowned. “Why is there a dragon here?”

“Maybe it lives in the mountains.”

“Could you carry us up the mountain?” she asked, and the large black eye blinked.

“What are you doing?” Dray asked, pushing himself between her and the dragon. “Do you want to be food?”

“He seems to like us,” she said.

Dray turned to face her so suddenly that she squealed, and as he put his hand to her face, the dragon nudged him away. She could tell it didn’t intend to hurt him, but it was enough to knock him down.

“What are you doing?” Ana asked, unsure to whom she was asking the question.

The dragon pulled back. Dray sat amongst the rocks and glared at her. “I think you have lost your mind,” he said.

“He could help,” she said.

“Help?”

“I saw something,” she said softly. She hadn’t seen him in the vision she’d had as she touched the dragon, but she knew he was there.

“What did you see?” Dray asked, as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off.

She shook her head. “It wasn’t very clear. Fighting.”

“Who was fighting?”

“I couldn’t tell that either.”

“We need to keep moving,” he said.

She nodded. The dragon slowly turned as she started forward and followed along behind as they moved up the mountainside. Tim had once had a puppy who had followed him wherever he went, and when he grew and the puppy became a dog, it never left his side. They had both cried the day that old dog had died, but as Ana glanced back at the dragon following behind her, she had the same idea. Dray did not appear as happy about their new friend. The dragon made very little noise, other than the trees it pushed over as it walked.

“It came from nowhere,” Dray said.

Ana stopped and looked at him. The dragon stopped with her, and its warm breath washed over her.

“I felt him before he arrived,” Ana said, then took in the look on Dray’s face. “I knew there was something else out there, something scarier than the mountain lion, but I didn’t know if it was more dangerous to us.”

“And?”

“He doesn’t seem to be.”

And then, before she could suggest again that it might help them find a way up the mountain or over it, the dragon took to the air and disappeared.

“You scared him,” she snapped at Dray. He stopped and sighed as he looked at her with disappointment. She looked back at the ground and kept moving. She had no idea of this supposed skill she had, of seeing what others thought. Or was it their skill? she wondered.

“He scared me,” Dray murmured, and she smiled.

The Lost Endeavour

The Last Dragon Skin Chronicles Book 2 

Ana is locked away from both her magic and the world, Ed and Dray are lost amongst the trees and Ende is just…lost.

Losing the magic she only just discovered, Ana fears she will never be what she needs to be to help her friends. While new friends offer support, they might just be helping her to help themselves. Particularly the little dragon who only wants for Ed.

Ed can’t decide if returning to the capital is a good idea, and Dray isn’t as focused on the task as he should be. But there may be little choice in what they do next; something hunts for them in the shadows and the trees may not be enough to protect them.

And Endeavour has far more important things than kings and crowns to consider. But can he ignore the shadows calling forth something even darker? 

Shadows Awaken 

The Last Dragon Skin Chronicles Book 3 

Shadows creep through the kingdom at the will of a young witch, in the aid of a king.

The world is not what it was. Creatures lurk in the shadows of Ilia, controlled by a witch trying to return a crown to a king.
The regent struggles to maintain his hold over the kingdom. As his fear of the witch grows, an increasing number of creatures appear at her side.

The regent is not the only one she scares, but then everything she does is for Ed, isn’t it? Will it matter what she does to help him if he can, once again, hold his father’s crown? 

The Darkened Crown 

The Last Dragon Skin Chronicles Book 4 

The kingdom of Ilia is in darkness, and a new queen rules with fear. She won’t step down without a fight, and it is a fight they can’t win.

Any who oppose the crown are destroyed or turned into shadow soldiers. The king and his allies have no option but to run.

Can they find a way to end the nightmare that Ilia has become, when they have no real plan, a girl who can’t shine, and darkness lurks in every shadow?

The Darkened Crown is the final instalment of this sword and sorcery fantasy series. 

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About the Author 

Georgina Makalani survives life as a servant of the public by hiding in cafes at lunch time with dragons, the occasional crazed faery, a laptop and a little bit of magic.

Georgina and her daughter live in beautiful southern Tasmania, with two crazy cats and a writing desk that overlooks the water. 

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

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Spotlight: The Invisible Sword of Flames by Patricia Okongwu

Christian Fantasy

Date Published: January 29, 2023

An action-packed adventure, Dragon of Darkness, is a fantasy tale of bravery, full of divine power, mystery, and twists! The power of the forever one clashes with the dragon of darkness.

The Followers of the Forever One are destined to defeat the giant dragon of darkness. The group of five brothers and their sister must overcome their fear to conquer the monster while preserving the waning faith of the people following the Forever One. Until Mathias is placed in the line of danger, and he’s forced to defend himself against the threat of peril. Will the Followers prevail and return peace to the land of Perea, or will they fall to defeat? 

In The Invisible Sword of Flames Series one, readers will join the believers on their quest to strengthen the people’s faith and become empowered through the word of the Forever One. An action-packed adventure in Dragon of Darkness, the first installment in a thrilling fantasy series full of divine power, mystery, and twists! Book One of five in The Invisible Sword of Flames Series.

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About the Author

Patricia Okongwu is an author, a teacher, and a school administrator. She has spent the past two decades working with students in and around the classroom.

She studied English Language in the University and completed a creative writing course at the Institute of Children’s Literature. She enjoys creating characters in her classroom with her students through storytelling.

Her book series, A Weekend at Grandma’s is inspired by the bond she sees between her students and their grandparents and how the children’s faces light up with pure joy and excitement when they talk about time spent with their grandparents.

Connect:

Website: https://patokongwu.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076168620255

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriciaokongwu/