Archives de catégorie : Romantasy

GAME OF VEILS d’Eva Chase

The Selection meets Catherine the Great in this why choose? romantasy about an ambitious princess, betrothed to a ruthless emperor, who plots to overthrow him with help from sexy courtiers.

GAME OF VEILS
(The Royal Spares Series, Book 1)
by Eva Chase
Ink Spark Press, September 2024
(via JABberwocky)

As the secondborn princess in a kingdom under the thumb of a brutal empire, Aurelia never had high hopes for her marriage prospects. But she is delighted when she is bethrothed to the son of the emperor himself.

Determined to earn better treatment for her country, she sets out to play her part as a loving wife. To her horror, she arrives at the emperor’s decadent palace only to discover the proposal was conditional. The emperor and his heir expect her to compete with several local noblewomen in a series of humiliating trials to prove their devotion. The winner will receive the heir’s hand in marriage; those who fail will be executed.

If facing marriage with a man she reviles and fending off sabotage from her scheming competitors wasn’t enough, her presence has caught the attention of the emperor’s princely wards who are forced to live in the palace as punishment. As far as they’re concerned, Aurelia is a traitor for trying to win the prince’s devotion. And she’s the perfect target for their bottled rage. They’ll do whatever they can to distract her, unsettle her, ruin her…and if they get to cuckold her future husband at the same time, even better.

For all their sharp words and heated glowers, they might be just the allies Aurelia needs. She isn’t merely going to land an emperor-to-be and wheedle minor concessions out of him once he ascends the throne—she’s going to win the entire empire. Over his dead body, if need be.

Eva Chase is an Amazon top 100 bestselling author of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She grew up on a steady diet of magic, mayhem, and romantic angst, and brings plenty of all three to her stories. But no need to fear the dreaded love triangle—Eva’s heroines never have to choose. You can visit her online at www.evachase.com.

LIAR’S KINGDOM de Christine Calella

Can “happily-ever-after” start with a lie?

LIAR’S KINGDOM
by Christine Calella
Page Street YA, January 2025
(via KT Literary)

Ell DeBrun is the girl of the cinders. The girl who’s spent years slaving away for her cruel stepmother and ungrateful stepsisters, dreaming of rescue. So when Prince Bayard — who seems to have difficulty recognizing faces — shows up at her door with a glass slipper in hand, Ell allows him to believe she is the girl he danced with at the grand ball. There’s just one problem: Ell didn’t attend the ball and she’s never met the prince before in her life. But if it’s a choice between being whisked away to the royal palace and staying trapped with her miserable step-family, Ell is willing to concoct any fairy tale that will grant her an escape.

However, Ell finds that fitting into royal life isn’t as easy as sliding into a glass slipper. Bayard’s sister, the crown princess, has gone missing. The king is preparing for war with the sinister army of fae. And Maxim, Bayard’s treacherous (and unfortunately, terribly handsome) best friend, appears to know Ell’s secrets — and is just waiting for the most advantageous moment to call her bluff. As her lies pile up like unwashed plates, she knows they’re only seconds away from crashing down on her head.

Luckily, Ell is used to a little dirty work. If she wants to keep this life she’s stolen for herself, one with creature comforts and companionship she’s only dreamed of, she’s going to have to roll up her sleeves and rescue herself.

Christine Calella is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program for Creative Writing. Her debut YA novel The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray published in April 2024. She lives in New York City.

BEAUTY OF UNWANTED THINGS d’Astrid Scholte

A darkly bewitching, distinctive, romantic fairytale that is perfect for readers of One Dark Window, Uprooted, and For the Wolf.

BEAUTY OF UNWANTED THINGS
by Astrid Scholte
Wednesday Books, Winter 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Thoralea Winyard has been a prisoner her entire life, forced to paint dead animals pushed into her cell each day. For twenty years she has not seen outside her tower. For twenty years she has dreamed of taking revenge on her captors and watching the castle burn.

When one of her dead subjects comes back to life, Thoralea is thrust into the sumptuous world of court life where she can have anything she desires—aside from her freedom. What no one knows outside the castle walls is that the king and queen of Lagonia have ruled for centuries. Their health, and immortality, gifted through the creation of portraits by painters with magic in their veins. Immortality is their one defense in the ongoing battle with Hetchnik: a cursed neighboring realm who seek to bring death and darkness to the land.

Prince Kelter is desperate to join the ranks of the immortal battalion.

Disillusioned with court and his figurehead role, he makes a deal with Thoralea: she will paint the portrait Prince Kelter has been denied by his parents, and he will help her escape the castle. As they grow closer and their attraction intensifies, a deadly secret is revealed, and Thoralea and Kelter will have to put their trust in each other to save the kingdom before the curse comes for them both.

Astrid Scholte is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of Four Dead Queens, The Vanishing Deep and League of Liars. When she’s not writing, she works in film and animation production. Career highlights include working on James Cameron’s Avatar, Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She currently works at Industrial Light & Magic on the latest blockbuster.

REIGN & RUIN de J. D. Evans

She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy. They must find a way to save their people from annihilation—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion.

REIGN & RUIN
(Mages of the Wheel series, Book 1)
by J. D. Evans
Self-published, 2019
(via Ethan Ellenberg Literary)

“All magic is beautiful…and terrible. Do you not see the beauty in yours, or the terror in mine? You can stop a heart, and I can stop your breath.”

She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy.

She is order and intellect, a woman fit to rule in a man’s place. He is chaos and violence and will stop at nothing to protect his people.

His magic answers hers with shadow for light. They need each other, but the cost of balance may be too high a price. Magic is dying and the only way to save it is to enlist mages who wield the forbidden power of death, mages cast out centuries ago in a brutal and bloody war.

Now, a new war is coming. Science and machines to replace magic and old religion.

They must find a way to save their people from annihilation and balance the sacred Wheel—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion. His peace for her tempest, his restlessness for her calm…

Night and day, dusk and dawn, the end, and the beginning.

J. D. Evans writes fantasy and science fiction romance. After earning her degree in linguistics, J. D. served a decade as an army officer. She once spent her hours putting together briefings for helicopter pilots and generals. Now she writes stories, tends to two unreasonable tiny humans, knits, sews badly, gardens, and cultivates Pinterest Fails. After a stint in Beirut, J. D. fell in love with the Levant, which inspired the setting for her debut series, Mages of the Wheel. Originally hailing from Montana, J. D. now resides in North Carolina with her husband, two attempts at mini-clones gone rogue, and too many stories in her head.