Colorful romantic fantasy!
Phoenix Unbound (Fallen Empire #1) by Grace Draven
It's been some time since I've read a fantasy novel with some of my favourite ingredients:
#Azarion, son of a clan leader from the steppes of the land of Sky Below, the nomadic clan Savatar, sold by his cousin Karstas into slavery in order to steal his birthright. Now the prime gladiator in the Empire's capital, plotting to regain the freedom and position he'd had so cruelly riven from him
#Gilene, a fire witch whose gift of walking through fire means her village offers her up once a year in the place of other village maidens to be sacrificed as the Flowers of the Spring by the empire to deities. (The conundrum being that Gilene could save herself but that would mean the death of those the village and tradition deems she must protect. The physical personal cost to her is agonizing. “It isn’t fire that burns me; it’s the magic I use to summon it. It comes with a price.” The emotional cost is also enormous and the villagers, rather than give thanks for Gilene's acquiescence to their demands, threaten her and her family if she doesn't take up the yoke. She is shunned rather than being honored.
#An empire that reeks of cruelty and depravity, where bloodlust runs high, dominated by a fiendish empress whose sexual proclivities are heightened further by watching men fight to the death in her personal quarters. The victor is further enmeshed in a ceaseless merry-go-round of death, survival and being the empress's sex toy.
But when the gladiator plans to use the witch to gain his freedom, that choice opens a startling road for both of them.
Wraiths, magic, nomadic horse warrior tribes that roam the open spaces, ambitious clan members, and surviving them all brings this romantic fantasy novel to a satisfying conclusion.
A NetGalley ARC
****
#Azarion, son of a clan leader from the steppes of the land of Sky Below, the nomadic clan Savatar, sold by his cousin Karstas into slavery in order to steal his birthright. Now the prime gladiator in the Empire's capital, plotting to regain the freedom and position he'd had so cruelly riven from him
#Gilene, a fire witch whose gift of walking through fire means her village offers her up once a year in the place of other village maidens to be sacrificed as the Flowers of the Spring by the empire to deities. (The conundrum being that Gilene could save herself but that would mean the death of those the village and tradition deems she must protect. The physical personal cost to her is agonizing. “It isn’t fire that burns me; it’s the magic I use to summon it. It comes with a price.” The emotional cost is also enormous and the villagers, rather than give thanks for Gilene's acquiescence to their demands, threaten her and her family if she doesn't take up the yoke. She is shunned rather than being honored.
#An empire that reeks of cruelty and depravity, where bloodlust runs high, dominated by a fiendish empress whose sexual proclivities are heightened further by watching men fight to the death in her personal quarters. The victor is further enmeshed in a ceaseless merry-go-round of death, survival and being the empress's sex toy.
But when the gladiator plans to use the witch to gain his freedom, that choice opens a startling road for both of them.
Wraiths, magic, nomadic horse warrior tribes that roam the open spaces, ambitious clan members, and surviving them all brings this romantic fantasy novel to a satisfying conclusion.
A NetGalley ARC
****
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