A Sharp & Brutal Fate
Fantasy Romance
Status: DRAFTING
Trapped beneath the earth with a magic dampening iron crown lashed over her head, twenty-seven-year-old Bryn’s perfect life was stolen from her. A life where she was set to marry King Cyrus Loreto, where she used her unbridled nature magic only to make beautiful things grow, and where the monsters rising from the ground were far beyond her worry. Now, with her body dying beneath the soil, waiting for her king to come save her is no longer an option. An unexpected burst of energy gives her what she needs to split the earth and crawl free, only to find her body laced with strange, black veining and face to face with Knave of the Body Breakers, the one to blame from the creatures ravaging their lands and who Bryn believes is responsible for sealing her underground.
In the clutches of her king’s enemy, Knave tries to convince Bryn that her perfect life was a set up and the king was using her and her rare magic to create a well of immortality. When Bryn refuses to relent to his ravings, Knave allows her to return to her life with Cyrus, only to find that the three years that passed while she was underground reveals a home she no longer knows and a lover who’s become a dangerous stranger. Trapped in a prison of another kind, Cyrus now wants to use Bryn to seduce Knave to capture and use him for his plan, and Bryn must decide whether to truly follow along with his ambitious mania or find another path to life and love.
Back on Knave’s doorstep, the two join forces to discover who and what is responsible for raising the dead, and how to stop King Cyrus from obtaining what he needs to create the well of immortality. When it becomes clear that Knave has his own motivations for finding out what is raising the dead, and as Bryn and Knave evade the creatures and their feelings for one another, a thought occurs to them—what’s stopping them from taking everything for themselves?
Inspired by the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, A SHARP AND BRUTAL FATE is a standalone fantasy romance with the aesthetic feel of a Tim Burton film, the accessible magic system of FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes, and the romance of UPROOTED by Naomi Novik with a steamy edge.