My Favourite Survival Fantasy Stories

So, everyone knows The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was a massive hit when they did the film series adaptation. I read the books shortly after I’d watched all the films and it surprisingly was actually very well adapted – which as we all know after watching so many of our favourite books get mangled (Golden Compass) by film adaptations was a nice surprise.

I usually like to do it the other way around and read the books before the films but I think I hadn’t realised at the time that it was based on books so ended up doing it the ‘wrong’ way around for a change. It was a long time ago or seems like it now. I just remember having a nice day out with a friend at the cinema doing a double film day just because we could.

The release of a new prequel book – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – from The Hunger Games series recently, which I immediately scooped up from the shelves of the Sainsbury’s I saw it in and insta-buyed, (yeah I just said that) and then commenting about it to a fellow blogger who said I should write about it when I’d read it, inspired my muse to come back to my blog after a hiatus. That was a couple of days ago and as I’m in the middle of a re-read binge read of the Templeverse by Shayne Silvers I haven’t started it yet – but I will!

So back to my favourite fantasy survival stories. There has been an uptake in a fair amount of authors doing their own proper fantastical take on it and I’m going to first mention a series I already blogged about around this time last year as an easy way to ease back into this blogging lark.

The Faerie Race by Claire Luana and J. A. Armitage.

The Fantastic Faerie Race is the TV show in the story in which faerie and human contestants compete against and with each other over a series of trials. It happens to officially introduce the humans to the faerie world of Faerwild. Which is over ‘The Hedge’ which is the magical barrier cutting off the Faerwild from Earth which was created in the past by magicians and the faeries to separate the two worlds.

Despite the faerie King Vale Obanstone and TV producers assuring them otherwise it turns out to be extremely dangerous with a sub plot of malevolent intentions making it lethal for some of the players. Some romance and lots of pretty intriguing games of puzzles both physical and mentally and games of fortitude, made this series one heck of an action packed ride to read with a lovely HEA (happily ever after.)

Some beautifully designed covers for this urban fantasy series and unlike when I first wrote about it – the whole trilogy is now out for your reading pleasure.

If you think this sounds like your cup of tea why not join J. A. Armitage in her facebook reader group here and Claire Luana on her facebook page here.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links clicked in this blog post.

Spooky Reads For The Halloween Season – Halloween Academy by Angela Kulig and Angela Sanders

Halloween Academy is a standalone story. Nothing more Halloweeney than something that reminds me of Hotel Transylvania.

The blurb:

Holidays don’t just happen, but the ghouls and girls of Halloween Academy make it look easy.

Witches, warlocks, vampires, and mummies mingle with strange new monsters as they prepare one fantastic night for us foolish morties in the human world.

Secrets and Sorcery pit a good witch, Harper against a brooding vampire, Cordelia early on, but only one can be crowned the Queen of Halloween, and only one of them even want to be. Bodies, boyfriends, and black cats trip the girls up, as they cast spells, carve pumpkins, and complete the classes that mean they’re truly ready for the magic of All Hallows Eve.

You can get this in e-book form on Kindle Unlimited or paperback.

New Release – Shadow Prophet – Book 1 in the Midnight Chronicles by Andrea Pearson

I’ve been on Andrea’s newsletter list for a couple of years now but hadn’t got around to reading her books that have been sat on my tbr for ages.

Then out comes Shadow Prophet, I thought it sounded particularly interesting with it’s gorgeous cover so I decided to take part in this blog tour. I did in fact quite enjoy it and I discovered this is a parallel series to The Koven Chronicles.

The blurb:

Hired to assassinate the woman he loves…

Abel hasn’t seen Lizzie in at least seven years, and his experiences since then have changed him significantly. He’s sure he’s moved past his earlier crush, that he’s immune to her carefree and bubbly personality, but the moment his eyes land on her, he knows he’s still in love.

Instead of a joyful reunion, though, he only suffers agony at being in her presence again.

Because he’s being blackmailed into murdering her.

And there’s no way out. The Shadow Prophet has vowed to kill everyone Abel holds dear if he doesn’t complete the job. Abel has tried everything he can think of to break the contract, but nothing has worked, and he has nowhere to turn.

Complicating things further, he gets recruited by a second client to help Lizzie achieve an impossible mission. One where they must work closely together while hunting immortal demons. One that will either destroy him or force him to kill her before he’s found a way out—before he’s ready to do it.

But how can a man ever be ready to murder the woman he loves?

If you enjoy high-stakes fantasy action, romance with a hint of angst, and fast-moving paranormal stories, you’ll love Shadow Prophet, book one in an addictive fantasy romance series. Grab your copy now!

Special release day price of 99 cent and special download bonuses!

It’s only 99p for a limited time. And as a way to celebrate this new release Andrea Pearson has some special download bonuses that you’ll receive for free if you buy a copy of the book. All the information about the download bonuses can be found in the book.

Add Shadow Prophet do your tbr on Goodreads and follow her Goodreads author profile. You call follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Bookbub, Blog, and facebook pages to keep up to date with news. You can also join her newsletter to get a free box set of Andrea’s stories.

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Shadow prophet Andrea Pearson is running a big giveaway. There will be 9 winners!

– 1 winner will win the Grand Prize which contains 22 of Andrea Pearson’s books in print.

– 5 winners will win a copy of The Glimpses CD

– 3 winners will win a $5 digital gift card to Amazon.com or through PayPal/Venmo

For a chance to win, fill out this form and all details about the giveaway can be found there as well.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links clicked in this blog post.

Spooky Reads For The Halloween Season – The Four Horsemen – Sinister and Tricked : The Halloween Episodes by L.J. Swallow

Just as the reverse harem genre was exploding onto the scene, The Four Horsemen series by LJ Swallow was one of the ones that caught my eye. The promise of apocalyptic action with the series named after these biblical characters and the gorgeous covers drew me in.

These are two of the novellas featuring the horsemen at the Halloween time of year. I could just repeat what the blurb says but I’ll save you reading it twice so here it is;

The blurb:

Two Halloween episodes from the Four Horsemen series world bundled into one book.

SINISTER (2018)

The Four Horsemen and Vee prefer to keep away from the local village residents, but they’ve attracted unwanted attention from more the one.

A group of teens from the village with a vendetta against Xander.

Amelie, the woman with an intense interest in the guys.

And Cinder, the strange black cat who has adopted Vee.

With Halloween around the corner, the group are on high alert for anything suspicious. Three of the guys stumble across something disturbing in the woods near their home, and Vee discovers an unpleasant gift outside their house. The five believe they’re the victims of a Halloween prank by local kids, but is this connected to Amelie, whose behaviour becomes stranger everyday?

To investigate further, the Four Horsemen and Vee reluctantly join in the village Halloween celebrations. But the traditional ‘ghost walk’ reveals more than spooky graveyards and bad Halloween costumes. Somebody’s under a spell. Can they discover the culprit, or are they looking in the wrong places?

The Four Horsemen: Sinister is a special, standalone Halloween episode. This novella has a mystery to solve, a touch of horror, plus some time for fun and romance for Vee and her boys.

TRICKED (2017)

This Halloween the Four Horsemen meet their greatest challenge yet.
Supervising a children’s Halloween party.

Everybody knows when the fae queen asks the Horsemen for a favour, there is no way to say no. So when Portia requests they supervise her young daughter’s Halloween party, the guys and Vee are forced to keep their peace with the fae.

They face many challenges: what to wear, how to avoid party games, teen fae drama… and something deadlier.

In the town filled with family celebrations and trick or treat, not everybody is safe. Something sinister lurks nearby, and Halloween provides the perfect opportunity to strike.

Can the Four and Vee help? Or will they be tricked too?

Tricked was previously published as a standalone story in 2017.

You can follow LJ Swallow on facebook and join her facebook group LJ Swallow’s Readers Group. Add her books to your Goodreads tbr and follow her on twitter and instagram. Visit her website to subscribe to her newsletter.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links clicked in this blog post.

Spooky Reads For The Halloween Season & New Release – Wiccan Queen by Karen Tomlinson

Wiccan Queen is the second book in the Eight Kingdoms series,the followup series to The Goddess and the Guardians. The release date is the 12th of October and Wiccan Queen and book one Blessed King are both on sale for 99p at time of posting. It’s set in the time after The Goddess and the Guardians following two of the supporting characters Lyana and Jack. Blessed King is mostly from the viewpoint of Jack and Wiccan Queen is mostly from Lyana’s. It’s basically an paranormal romance epic fantasy world series. It certainly doesn’t just come under a paranormal romance banner for me.

The blurb for Wiccan Queen:

The witch war is coming. There is no escape.

Fate chose Lyana to be the Wiccan Queen. Now she is being hunted. The veil between worlds is thinning and the Witch princess seeks revenge.

Aided by an ancient spirit, an immortal Wiccan lord and an ancient cauldron, Lyana vows to protect the kingdom she has grown to love. To defeat her nemesis, she must harness the ancient power of the Wiccan Queen, including the astonishing ability to travel the astral plane where time means nothing and existence is merely a matter of perspective.

Jack should kill Lyana for what she is. It is the law. But he is the king and he has the power to rewrite the law. While Stormguaard prepares for war, Jack searches vast forest lands for the woman he loves. Soon he finds himself battling more than one ancient and vicious enemy to survive.

Both Lyana and Jack must face their foes head on. For if the witch princess captures her prize, there will be no going back—for anyone.

This is the second book in the Blessed King duology. Dive into this romantic fantasy, set in a vast magical world. Readers of Sarah J Maas and Holly Black, who love all things fae with a good helping of Witches, Wiccans and magic thrown in, will love the tales of The Eight Kingdoms. This book is written for those who enjoy upper YA romantic fantasy tales

It is a full length 111000 word novel. Wiccan Queen is #2 in the Eight Kingdoms tales and is the conclusion to Jack and Lyana’s duology. Their story contains some mild cursing and sexual content.

There is a release party with giveaways from Karen and a few other authors at this event page on facebook on Saturday starting at 9pm BST. You can follow her facebook author page and join her facebook group Karen Tomlinson’s Silver Guardians for news and updates and the odd giveaway. You can also follow her on twitter and instagram. She’s also got a website where you can sign up to her newsletter and get A Bond of Destiny and Dragons, The Goddess and the Guardians prequel novella for free.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links clicked in this blog post.

Spooky Reads For The Halloween Season – The Gatekeeper’s Curse by Emma L. Adams

An excellent writer of urban fantasy, I will read anything and everything by Emma L. Adams. She has created this extremely believable dystopian world in our future where the faeries invaded from their realm and caused all sorts of destruction and societal shakeup and magic is “out” to humans.

Basically all of Emma’s books are set in this world after the faeries have invaded but there’s some set before and during until most of the characters in each individual story arc end up interacting.

I thought during this month it would be appropriate to post about this particular trilogy – The Gatekeeper’s Curse in the Spooky Reads For Halloween series due to it being based around necromancy.

The blurb:

Ilsa Lynn has made it her life’s goal to avoid the curse that binds her family to serve the Summer Court of Faerie. With her magically talented twin sister given the role of Gatekeeper, Ilsa is content to hide under the radar amongst the regular humans.

At least until a mysterious spell book falls into her possession, granting Ilsa with a sudden and inconvenient affinity with the dead, and dangerous magic that paints a neon target on her head. With her family’s questionable past quite literally refusing to stay buried, the last thing Ilsa needs is an untrustworthy self-proclaimed faerie bodyguard, even if he does come with a deadly skillset of his own.

Dealing with zombies and fae assassins would be difficult enough on its own, but now someone’s out to frame her for murder, too. While dodging enemies at every corner, Ilsa must get a handle on her new powers before the armies of Faerie invade Earth. She might just be in over her head…

This Gatekeeper’s Curse series has just been released as a boxed set at the cheap price of 99p and they’re all in the Kindle Unlimited program as a boxed set and individually if you want to get them that way. They’re also available individually as paperbacks as well.

You can like Emma’s facebook page and join Emma’s Supernatural Lair to keep up with news and updates and get the odd free short story. You can follow her on twitter and instagram as well. She’s got a website as well where you can sign up for her newsletter.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links clicked in this blog post.

Spooky Reads For The Halloween Season – The Cedarstone Chronicles by Sean Stone

I first found Sean Stone through his Arcane Inc series – back in the day when I actually got facebook ads for books I might like to read. So reading the blurb and thinking that sounds cool – wizards and vampires stuff – I read those, then realised whilst reading there was a series before it set in the same area with some of the same characters.

So I finished off Arcane Inc and went back to The Cedarstone Chronicles. Definitely an excellent dark and gritty series set in the town of Cedarstone with warlocks, witches, vampires and werewolves and a good bit of violence. Definitely worthy of being called Dark Fantasy.

The blurb from Cursed – Book One of the Cedarstone Chronicles:

Arthur Winters is out of options and soon he’ll be out of time. The curse that stole the powers from all the sorcerers in town will soon be completed and his coven will remain powerless forever. He’s tried to defeat the council who cast the curse and he has failed numerous times. He has one option remaining. He must wake Nickolas Blackwood. Nickolas Blackwood is an immortal with a notorious reputation. Fifty-four years ago he was trapped in a state of eternal suffering by the coven which Arthur now leads. In order to defeat the council and break the curse Arthur must awaken him and risk adding another name to his already long list of enemies.

There is some interesting history flash backed to in this series with an original take on the Egyptian Gods and out of a lot of fantasy novels that tell a tale of the Egyptian Gods this is definitely one of my favourites.

Join his facebook group for news, updates and weekly member draw from the spooky hat for free paperbacks Sean Stone’s Coven of Stoners. Follow his facebook page then his goodreads page to add his books to your tbr lists. Go to amazon to buy his books now. Visit his website to sign up to his newsletter and get a free book – Warlock in Hiding, a novella from his next series Arcane Inc set after the Cedarstone Chronicles. He also has an instagram page you can follow.

The Neverending Quest To Complete Book Series

I’ve been going through all the hard copies I have of my books and I have a lot of unfinished series which contributes to me not reading them as much.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time going through them making lists and now I’m in the middle of going through book-selling websites to try and get the best prices I can to eventually buy them – and it’s hard. I’ve left it so long for some of them that they’ve gone out of print or have different covers so they will never be uniform on the shelf.

I’ve also realised in the course of moving repeatedly over the course of the last 6 years I seem to have lost some of them, including my Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets old paperback and my hardback copy of Eragon leaving those collections incomplete.

Looking at the running total I think I need to win the lottery if I want to do it quickly.

Anyway, here’s a giveaway to win a signed copy of The Reckoning by Thomas Anthony Lay. You just need to like his facebook page and tag a friend in this post.

New Release – Lawless – Steel Demons MC by Crystal Ash

I’ve been following Crystal Ash and her paranormal reverse harem fantasy stories for a while and Lawless is the beginning of her new series -Steel Demons MC – that releases today which is one of my favourites by her. Especially that gorgeous kickass looking cover.

The blurb:

The Collapse changed everything. Good men became killers. Strong women became property.
And every day turned into a fight for survival.

I once dreamed of becoming a nurse. That dream went up in flames the same day I graduated nursing school, when women were banned from holding any kind of medical license. 

Now as an unlicensed medic, I travel what was once the southwestern United States, trading medical services for food, transportation, and shelter with the hopes of reaching Canada. 

Because the United States is no more. And the lawless land that’s replaced it is a deadly place for a woman.

My worst fear comes true when I’m captured by the Steel Demons MC, the most ruthless biker gang in the Southwest. These men thrive on the violence and chaos brought on by the Collapse, and they’re eager to unleash it all on me. 

It doesn’t even matter that the President’s dog likes me. I’m as good as dead.

Sons of Anarchy meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this dystopian reverse harem adventure! This wild ride is not for the faint of heart and contains adult themes that may be triggering.

Like all her other series, this is a reverse harem series with Mariposa being the main female character.

This is a really interesting imagining of what America could be like if it turns into wars between the states and territory being claimed by different kinds of gangs. There isn’t so much magic apparent in this first book so if you like overly obvious magic straight away you probably wouldn’t enjoy this. Mariposa has only just started to learn about the gang she’s joined up to and hasn’t been informed by them about what exactly their abilities are – though she is starting to realise there’s something not so normal about them by the end of the book.

This is very gritty, and very real and there are a few scenes around abuse that were very realistically written and around women’s real feelings about how strange men make them feel. There isn’t a lot of heat between Mariposa and the guys that are going to be in her harem to start off with which I enjoy because a lot of reverse harem books are more sex and not much story.

You can follow Crystal’s facebook page, join her facebook group Crystal’s Coven or go straight to her amazon profile. Follow her on instagram and twitter then add her books to your goodreads tbr. Then go to her website where you can get her book Her Three Demons – An Unholy Trinity prequel for free.

A Collection Of October Free Fantasy Book Giveaways

Now we all love free books so I decided to go through my e-mail inbox and all the latest e-mails from my subscribed authors to dig out all these links for you.

These are all run through the very reputable bookfunnel website through which you mostly have to subscribe to author’s newsletters to get the free e-book files sent to your e-mail.

It’s a scary thing to sign up to a lot of unknown author’s newsletters but I’ve found a load of new authors that I never would have tried otherwise and just unsubscribe to the ones I don’t enjoy. I’ve been doing this for a good five or six years and it’s a great opportunity to get first dibs on advanced reader copies of books as well as keeping up with their news if you decide to stay subscribed.