k

As the image says, this mythpunk-inspired fantasy features a found family full of disabled and queer rep and a hate-to-love romance.

The story:

No one with half a brain would rob the jungle’s most notorious energy cartel. The vibrations of their power-producing stones are the only thing that calms the mer-snake Cacao’s agonizing sensory condition though—and after being banished from his homeland swamps for similar thefts, he’s desperate.

When his attempt fails stunningly, a chaotic escape leaves him chained to a cartel prisoner: a self-proclaimed hero with a hidden stash of ignits so large, Cacao would never need to steal again. He’s determined to get his hands on it, even if it means guiding her home straight through the mist-laden and monster-filled swamp that exhaled him, with scheming poachers and a desperate cartel leaders on their tail.

But the selfish and the self-righteous can only flee together for so long before something snaps…

Highlights of this incredibly queer and wild ride:

Aggressive bantering

Regular insults becoming affectionate insults

Accidently chained to someone you hate (but are stupidly attracted to)

Soft dad Disney villain ™️ antagonist

Absolutely zero plans

So if you’re looking for more queer, mythology-inspired adventure on your shelf, be sure to pre-order now!

Or save to your TBR with Goodreads, Bookbub, or Storygraph.

Written by our very own @whump-tr0pes!

Length:  Action/dystopian, 375 pages

Summary: After surviving the cruelty of the brutal Stormbeck syndicate, all Isaac and his family want to do is rest. The rebels find themselves on the run again after Tori and Vera escape capture at Stormbeck hands. Gray, the team’s leader, recovers from a grave wound, and they must now leave the fight they lived for so long. The family has a new mission: to make it out of syndicate territory alive. They must head north, where there are rumors of whole regions free from syndicate control. With so many of the family broken, they need to find a safe place to build a new home. Despite this newfound hope of safety, Isaac finds himself reeling from memories of his own torture, and the torture of his family. He’s haunted by his past, and by the family who abandoned him. When a familiar face appears, the team is thrown into a world that could prove to be as dangerous as the one they escaped.

WHERE TO BUY

Amazon

NOTES

Written by yours truly, @abalonetea!

Length: Horror, Poetry, 69 pages, illustrated

Summary:  A collection of poetry that speaks to the inner most fears, the werewolves, the viruses, the claws and the darkest spots of our mind. These twenty spine tingling poems, and ten pieces of haunting art, are sure to make your day more thrilling!These poems, and the pictures that accompany them, cover a wide variety of topics, all with one them - HORROR!

WHERE TO BUY

Amazon

NOTES

I just finished Putrescent Poems by @abalonetea​ and I really enjoyed it! This is a fun creepy read for the month of October, and I’ll definetly be rereading certain poems when I want to set a certain mood for my own writing. I knew Katie was a great writer from her personal work, so it was really cool to read some of her published work too. I think my favorite poem was “Words” (that one was… just… a bit too relatable. ouch.) (in a good way.) Her choices as far as formatting and visual storytelling within the words was really clever and all the illustrations are great too, so I recommend it! 5/5 stars. 

If you can support Katie by buying her book I highly encourage you to do so! For $6 you get a ton of really awesome stories, unsettling vibes, and creepy artwork and I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy october evening. 

[Image ID: A photo of Illthdar: Guardians of Las next to my sketchbook with a fanart drawing of the main five characters (to be described below), laying on a quilted bedspread. End Image ID]

Review for Illthdar: Guardians of Las by Rachel E Garcia

(more info for the book can be found on the blog @illthdar! FeedaRead link.

Rating: 4.5/5

Background: I’ve been following Rachel’s blog for a while now and really wanted to read Illthdar, but kept getting horribly distracted from reading anything by school and covid and stuff. As soon as I finished final exams, I ordered it, and I’m sorry I didn’t earlier because it’s SO GOOD

Things I liked:

The characters! They’re such a wonderfully diverse and somewhat eccentric bunch, and I had a lot of fun reading all of their arcs/developments over the course of the story! I think I related most to Vyxen and her desire to go home and be with her family the most: I have a big family myself and grew up in a rural area (though nothing as extreme as Alaska), so I really felt for her and how desperate and homesick she was to find a portal back. They’re all wonderful though, and I really enjoyed learning all the backstories over the course of the story, meeting the other members of the order and the guys they become friends with, and I was really rooting for their friendships by the end of the story. If I talk about it all this will take all day but I WILL talk about them all if you give me the opportunity. 

“In the world of Rhimn, a Herald is a god’s highest servant, bound to carry out their god’s will until the day of their death.

Raised from the grave and into lifelong servitude by Silamir, a goddess of death and rebirth long thought to have been dead herself, Navaeli the Shadow Herald has never known peace. The knights of the Irongardhe empire hunt her down on the orders of Regent Elaina, the Sunlit Herald whose god killed Silamir in the first place. Unfortunately for Navaeli, Silamir would rather fight her battles with her own two hands — even if she has to steal Navaeli’s body to do it.

Navaeli is resigned to her fate as either a corpse or a vessel for her vengeful goddess…

That is, until she winds up protected (and infuriatingly infatuated) by one Crislie Crimsworth, a handsome hooligan girl with a brawling addiction. As if Crislie wasn’t trouble enough, circumstances force her into an unofficial custody of Meparik, a mute feyrie child with more trust in glamour than kindness.

It turns out that there are some people who are worth staying alive for after all… But can Navaeli break free from the chains of her duty, or will she be the first casualty in the oncoming war between the gods?”

More about Shadow Herald;

Shadow Herald is an LGBTQ dark fantasy novel, available at Kobo, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

But also something I don’t talk about that often: One of THE MOST MOTIVATING things about Writeblr is the fact that I own three (3!!!) incredible writeblr books. Illthdar Guardian’s of Las by @illthdar, Putrescent Poems by @abalonetea and Dreams Shadow by @siarven are all sitting within reach of my desk/on my computer hard drive and It makes me so excited and happy to see them as I’m going about my day. you guys made it!! You have books out! And I cannot wait to get my hands on other writeblr books in the future. You’re the most creative and industrious people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting. People have stopped me while I’m grinning at the page to ask me what I’m reading and I get such a thrill out of answering, “This is my friend’s book!” Not many people get to say that but I do

If you don’t have a book budget, other ways to support creators without spending money are:

Boosting their work with reblogs: this directly shares it with a new audience where it might find interested readers!

Leaving a review, if you already read the book: in a world run by algorithm, only the stuff that gets attention gets boosted to more people. Once books hit a certain number of reviews, sellers like Amazon will start automatically putting it on recommended lists so it can reach a wider audience. It’s free marketing and might convince someone else to buy the book too!

On platforms with algorithm’s, interact: Tumblr doesn’t have one, so reblogs are the best, but in other places like Instagram, the more interaction someone gets the more their work is boosted. Leaving a like or a comment takes 2 seconds but it could have a huge impact

you thought all the default fonts that come with google docs or microsoft word are royalty-free just because they’re default? i thought so too. and we would be WRONG. most of those fonts are free for personal use but not for commercial use, AKA if you plan to sell the book instead of just keeping it, AKA you either have to buy a license or pick a different font

(garamond and centaur are some fonts that are totally free to use)

but it doesn’t end there! sometimes these self-printing websites require you to embed, or essentially bake, the fonts into the documents so they don’t get messed up, and some fonts–in fact, many default fonts–cannot be embedded.

like arial.

And my what a year it's been. From launching in the middle of a pandemic to finding in-person events to the cosplays and amazing reviews and the support from everybody (beta and alpha readers, my cover artist, editors, ARC readers, and event spaces, to name a few!), I've truly enjoyed sharing my sophomore novel's debut with all of you.

Hello! Welcome to the Writeblr Book Fair raffle!

This raffle is free to enter. All you need to do is send me a link to a review that you’ve left on one of the books featured here today! Every review you leave counts as an entry for the raffle; reviews are accepted until the end of May!

If a book receives 50 reviews via Amazon, then Amazon will start to advertise the book for the author for free! If it gets 75 reviews, the book can be included in Amazon’s email blasts!

If a book receives 50 reviews via Amazon, then Amazon will start to advertise the book for the author for free! If it gets 75 reviews, the book can be included in Amazon’s email blasts!