Tag: Books

Coming Soon: The Lady Between Thorns

On By cherylmahoneyIn Novel News, WritingLeave a comment

It’s been a long time coming this time around, but my newest book will be out in just a week: The Lady Between Thorns, Book Three of the Thorns Saga.  The Kindle edition is already available for pre-order, and the paperback and hardback will be available on launch day, December 19th.  Get yourself a copy as a Christmas gift!

Book Three was started way back in 2022, so it’s been a few years!  I wrote this one to fill a gap in the series after somewhat accidentally writing what will eventually be Book Four – that story had some references to another adventure that I thought was worth exploring more fully.

Both Books 3 and 4 continue the ongoing story of what happens after the Princess Behind Thorns returns home, but move the focus from Rose and Terrence to give supporting characters their chance to take center-stage.  In this book, it’s Elena and Henry, and it was so much fun to explore them more fully.  I think very quiet Henry has more dialogue in the first chapters of this book than he did in the entire previous two!

Here’s a little more about the story, from the back of the book:

With civil war engaged, this fight for the throne will test even the deepest loyalties.

Lady Elena has been waiting for what feels like her entire life to help her cousin Terrence gain the throne.  Now that goal is almost in reach, but steep obstacles still stand in the way – like the current king who’ll fight to keep his place.  With the war going against them, Elena leads a clandestine mission to seize the capital and turn the tide.

Sir Henry never wanted to go back to war, but this time he believes in the cause, and he definitely doesn’t want his wife going on a dangerous mission alone.  Accompanying Elena to the capital, Henry struggles with the ghosts of his own past, and his fears for the woman he loves in this risky endeavor.

Elena and Henry must work together and rely on each other, to protect themselves and the country, but both are holding important things back.  Certain secrets could jeopardize not just the mission, but the bond between them.

This fantasy romance, the third in a continuing series, shifts focus to a new couple, while continuing the story of Sleeping Beauty and her prince claiming the throne after the curse is lifted.  If you enjoy heroines growing through trials, couples supporting each other, and intrigue in fantasy worlds, this is the series for you.

2023 Reading Round-Up

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

We’re entering into January, so it’s time to look back at my reading from 2023.  I read 120 books this year, which is a nice increase on recent years.  I’ve been trying to do more reading, less phone time, so maybe that’s why!  Here’s a look at the details…

1) Best of…
I’ve been splitting my “Best of” books for the past several years, so that I can highlight the ones that were best in very specific ways.

1A) Best Premise: After Anne by Logan Steiner – I loved the idea of a novel retelling the life of my favorite author, L. M. Montgomery.  And then some parts were excellent and some parts seemed like–very strange choices.  I’m fairly sure Steiner and I have read all the same source material (particularly Montgomery’s journals and Rubio’s excellent biography, The Gift of Wings) but we reached some very different conclusions!  I ended up feeling mixed on the book, but I did love that premise.

1B) Best World Building: Indexing by Seanan McGuire – A dark urban fantasy, I loved the exploration of fairy tales and how they impact the world, particularly recognizing how dark and deadly they can actually be!  A very cool magic system and concepts over-laid on (almost) the real world.

1C) Best Romance: A toss-up here, between Book Lovers by Emily Henry and Landline by Rainbow Rowell.  In both cases I enjoyed the romantic couples defying romantic cliches.  The heroine in Book Lovers knows the cliches well and recognizes where she fits in – she’s the big city, high-powered girlfriend who gets dumped for the simple small-town girl – and I loved that twist.  In Landline we see a couple a decade into their relationship who have real challenges but also really love each other, and I liked that a lot.  So many things shouldn’t have worked with the two of them, but I loved it anyway.

1D) Best Character: Eliza Hamilton in My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie – It might be a little unfair since Eliza was a real person, but the book brought her to life beautifully, and really portrayed how amazing a force she was – as more than Alexander Hamilton’s wife.  Although, surprisingly, Eliza and Alexander could also be contenders for best romantic couple!

Continue reading “2023 Reading Round-Up” →

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (November & December, 2023)

On By cherylmahoneyIn ReviewsLeave a comment

With all the writing focus on NaNoWriMo in November, I missed doing a reading update last month!  So now that the dust has settled on NaNo and on the holidays, I thought I’d hit the highlights today for the last couple months, before doing my annual Reading Round-up at the end of the year.

In the past two months, I read two more Terry Pratchett books, Interesting Times and The Last Continent, both wizards/Rincewind books.  Rincewind went first to Discworld Asia (with a surprise return of Twoflower) and then to Discworld Australia.  Chaos ensues, of course, and they were both quite amusing.

I got one more Martha Wells book in this year – City of Bones, a stand-alone with Wells’ usual excellent world-building, if a little less found family than I usually find in her books.  And I did one more T. Kingfisher book as well, Thornhedge, a truly delightful spin on Sleeping Beauty. Continue reading “What I’ve Been Reading Lately (November & December, 2023)” →

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #30

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo1 Comment

It’s the last day of November, and that means the end of NaNoWriMo!  I’m happy to report a very successful NaNoWriMo this year.  I actually passed 50,000 words on November 26th, and managed to make it to 60,000 words today, for a final total of 60,417.

I really wanted to get as much of the story written as I could while I had good momentum going.  I probably need around 10,000 words more to get to the end of the story, so I plan to continue in the first part of December.  At a slower pace, though!

I’ve really enjoyed writing this one all through the month.  I hit some walls around the 3/4 mark, which I hear is common – it’s when the story needs to stop expanding and start contracting down towards the end, and pay-off all the things that have been set up along the way.  It’s a change of focus so it’s a bit of a bump, but I had a couple scenes I was excited to write that helped me make the shift.  I have a couple more scenes coming up now that I’m excited about, so I hope that will help me keep up momentum even though we’re past NaNoWriMo now.

I have a few more books in this series to finalize before this new one will be going out into the world, but in the meantime, here’s an excerpt…

Rose stared across the length of the long lawn, heart pounding in her chest, and felt time double-back on itself.  Surely she wasn’t now, surely she was having some hazy hallucination of then – but the shouting council members, the lurching ground, Elena’s wide-eyed gaze all felt too real, too present.

Which did not explain what she was seeing across the lawn.

A wall of thorns was growing.  Stalks were springing up out of the ground, putting out branches, growing and doubling and expanding at a visible rate.  They stretched along the edge of the lawn and out of sight, surely wrapping their way around the perimeter of the castle.  The branches were brown and gnarled, not a softening leaf or flower in sight.  She couldn’t see thorns from here, but she knew, deep down inside, that they were there.

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #12

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo1 Comment

More than a third of the way through NaNoWriMo already!  It’s been going very well so far – I’ve built up a nice cushion of extra words, which may be helpful in the later part of the month, which I expect to be busier.

I’ve been really enjoying the writing this time around.  The story has been flowing very well, I think in part because I have a solid outline.  I don’t get stuck wondering where to go next, because I did that planning in October.  Though just yesterday I made some revisions to my outline, realizing I needed to rearrange a few chapters and add another one in to make the timeline work.  But mostly I have a good framework to work with.

It also helps that I know all of my major characters very well – I’ve already written at least one book with each character in the lead, and most have appeared throughout the series.  That makes it easier to get into the flow of writing for each of them.

I’m tending to write about one chapter a day, which feels very satisfying, to hit a nice end point each day.  It’s also a sign that the story is moving quickly, and since sometimes I get bogged down with slow pacing, that’s encouraging too!  The first big crisis point of the story hits in Chapter Six, which meant spending the next few chapters with different characters dealing with the crisis.  Trying to avoid spoilers, but my husband likes to joke that I really like writing angst, and he is not wrong… Continue reading “NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #12” →