The Bird and The Sword Chronicles: Reviews of The Bird and the Sword and The Queen and the Cure By Amy Harmon

THE BIRD AND THE SWORD Publication date: May 11, 2016 Genre: Fantasy, Romance Recommended for ages: +16

Nominee & Finalist "Best Fantasy"

​Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

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{My Review}

I loved being pulled into a new fantastical world of magic, romance and adventure. The Bird and the Sword creates it's own magic from the beginning as the power of words are shown to be uplifting, but also deadly. The characters at first are hard to get to know until suddenly you are wrapped up in them and their problems. It was wonderful to watch as main character Lark opened up to find her hidden gifts. The creativity of the "Gifted" people was very interesting and well written. The overall story flowed well and kept you enthralled as young King Tiras fights for his kingdom and his life against the merciless and deadly bird men, The Volgar. 

The world building is woven so well you are enveloped quickly into the kingdom of Jeru. Lark's journey is the heart of this story and truly the most fulfilling aspect of this novel. 

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{The Bird and The Sword - Excerpt}   ​He waited for me to continue, but I was holding myself tightly, refusing to think at all, so I wouldn’t share more than I wanted to. “They would have killed us. All of us. You saved so many.” “I killed so many.” My voice snapped back at him, lashing out like a snake. He left his bed and came toward me. I turned and braced myself for his touch, but he stopped before he reached me. “Yes. You did. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” His tone was frank. Admiring. I wanted to scream. My fingers curled into fists at my sides. “I am not a sword.” “What?” he asked, surprise coloring the word. “I am not a sword!” I squeezed my eyes shut against the hot tears that rose immediately. I didn’t want to share any of this with him. But my thoughts were unruly, and he was listening intently. “I am not a weapon. I don’t want to be a weapon!” “You are what you are. I am what I am. It matters little what we want.” “I am not a weapon.” The words were a cry, mournful and resistant. I felt him draw closer, but still he didn’t touch me, and for that I was grateful. If he touched me I would break down. “I never wanted to be king. But it is what I am. It matters little what we want,” he repeated. I turned and stared up into his face, filled with an anguish that wouldn’t abate. “You’re wrong. It is the thing that matters most.” “Why?” he murmured, his eyes intense. “Because without desire, there is only duty.” My lips trembled, and I bit down on them, bidding them to be still. He pressed a thumb against my mouth, freeing my lower lip from the grip of my teeth. “Do you desire me?” I jerked, resisting the coiled need that suddenly sprang from my belly and filled my chest. His eyes flared and his breath caught, and I wondered what I’d given away. I could only guess. I stepped around him, but he caught me up, lifting me off the ground, one arm beneath my hips, one braced around my back. He walked back to the thick furs where he slept and laid me down on them. “This is not my duty. Or my desire.” “It is both,” he responded, his arrogance setting my teeth on edge. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

THE QUEEN AND THE CURE

Publication date: May 9, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Recommended for ages: +16

There will be a battle, and you will need to protect your heart.

Kjell of Jeru had always known who he was. He'd never envied his brother or wanted to be king. He was the bastard son of the late King Zoltev and a servant girl, and the ignominy of his birth had never bothered him.

But there is more to a man than his parentage. More to a man than his blade, his size, or his skills, and all that Kjell once knew has shifted and changed. He is no longer simply Kjell of Jeru, a warrior defending the crown. Now he is a healer, one of the Gifted, and a man completely at odds with his power.

Called upon to rid the country of the last vestiges of the Volgar, Kjell stumbles upon a woman who has troubling glimpses of the future and no memory of the past. Armed with his unwanted gift and haunted by regret, Kjell becomes a reluctant savior, beset by old enemies and new expectations. With the woman by his side, Kjell embarks upon a journey where the greatest test may be finding the man she believes him to be.

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This book is a STANDALONE novel featuring characters that were introduced in The Bird and The Sword and it is recommended that ​The Bird and The Sword ​be read first. ​

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{My Review}

I really liked the first book in the series, but I truly loved this second book even more. The characters were written so much deeper and were harder to figure out, but the payoff in the end was great. Kjell is closed off and has good reason because of his harsh upbringing. I didn't like him in the first book and he crept his way into my heart during the second book. As you read the novel you can't help but fall for this reluctant hero just as the heroine Sasha does. Their love story is heart-wrenching as both of their hidden backgrounds come into play. Just as Lark and King Tiras in The Bird and the Sword had to learn to accept their "Gifts", so do Sasha and Kjell in The Queen and the Cure. The Gifted are the spinners, tellers, seers, changers and healers. They both also have to learn to accept who they truly are and the responsibilities that come with their titles. This novel felt more intimate as you get to know the characters on a personal level. There are a few scenes of a sexual nature that are more appropriate for the 18+ crowd but nothing that would be seen as pornographic. 

I love the way that Amy Harmon writes. Her words are so beautiful and lyrical. Here is how the novel opens...

“Light glanced off of the empty throne and streaked across the wide room, peeking around corners and climbing the walls. Silence was the only occupant. Something fluttered overhead, breaking the stillness. Vines with leaves so emerald they appeared black in the shadows, wrapped their way around the rocks and past the windows, filtering the light and casting the interior in a wash of green. The castle was holding her breath. She’s been holding her breath for so long”. 

That just makes me sigh!

So if you are looking for a tale filled with adventure, romance, deep characterization, fantasy and an over-all good story, then The Queen and the Cure is one you should pick up. I highly recommend you read the first book in the series, though this could be a stand alone, but it will mean so much more in following Kjell's journey to know where he started from.

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"There were no secrets, no sorrows, nothing hidden, nothing lost. They saw not what would be or what had been, but only what was. She saw him. He saw her. And they saw nothing else."

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{The Queen and The Cure - Excerpt} She turned and walked into her room, and he followed, shutting the chamber door behind them. She perched on the edge of her bed, her hair pooling around her, reminding him of the day she stood in the rain, battered and bedraggled, clinging to her clothes while he clung to his resistance. He sank to his knees before her, abandoning his resistance completely, and she drew him to her, cradling his head in her lap, and stroking his hair. Still kneeling in front of her, he wrapped his arms around her hips and drew her from the bed and into him, connecting them from their knees to their noses, his arms supporting her weight. For a moment she hovered slightly above him, her hands braced on his shoulders, eyes searching, wanting but waiting, until the exquisite became the excruciating, and he wound one hand in her hair, lifted his chin, and pulled her to him, mouth to mouth. He kissed her, taking her to the floor because he was too overcome to stand, clinging to her body because he was too undone to go slow. The storm pounding in his limbs and in his belly began to build in his heart, seeping through his skin and gathering in the corners of his eyes. He wanted to weep. It was the strangest sensation, the most puzzling reaction he’d ever experienced. He wanted to lay his head on Sasha’s chest and weep. Instead he breathed against her lips, withdrawing enough to move his mouth along the delicate bones of her collar, over the swell of her breasts, before he paused, his eyes closed, his forehead pressed to her abdomen. He was happy. The feeling surged through him, an echo of the swelling he’d felt when Sasha had told him his kisses made her joyful. He was . . . happy. And he wasn’t killing anything. There wasn’t a sword in sight or a birdman in the sky. He was lying on a stone floor with Sasha in his arms, her hair twined around them, her hands on his face, her heart pounding beneath his cheek, and he was perfectly and completely happy. “There once was a man named Kjell of Jeru who could pull trees from the ground with his bare hands,” he began, not even knowing exactly what he was going to say. “So he was a very strong man?” Sasha asked, not missing a beat. “Yes. The strongest.” She laughed softly, the tremor making her body move against his. “He could wrestle lions and toss bears and once killed ten birdmen with his bare hands. But the man was lonely. And his heart was dark.” “Not so dark,” she murmured. “Shh. It is my story.” She pinched him and he rose up to kiss her again, punishing her mouth with his lips and his tongue, unable to help himself.After a breathless moment he withdrew, panting, his eyes still on her mouth, even as he tried to refocus his thoughts. Sasha’s eyes pleaded and her lips begged, and he knew if he didn’t continue with his story now, there would be no more conversation. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ {Meet Author Amy Harmon}:  Amy Harmon is a USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author.  Amy knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Amy has been a motivational speaker, a grade school teacher, a junior high teacher, a home school mom, and a member of the Grammy Award winning Saints Unified Voices Choir, directed by Gladys Knight. Amy Harmon has written eleven novels, including the USA Today Bestsellers, Making Faces and Running Barefoot, and the bestselling historical, From Sand and Ash. Her novel, A Different Blue, is a New York Times Bestseller. Her novel, The Bird and the Sword, is a Goodreads Best Book of 2016 nominee. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts and more, join Amy at www.authoramyharmon.com.       ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ {All Books written By Amy Harmon...so far!} Slow Dance in Purgatory & Prom Night in Purgatory capture the heartache of a love story where a happy ending might be decades too late. This volatile and mismatched romance is doomed from its start where secret love and hushed affection are threatened by outside forces, resulting in a desperate race to keep a secret ​no one would understand.​​ READ MORE Running Barefoot is a deeply romantic and poignant story of a small town girl and a Native American boy, the ties that bind us to our  homes and families, and the love that gives us wings.​ READ MORE A Different Blue ​is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. Of an unlikely friendship where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don't know who you are. READ MORE Making Faces is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast where we discover that there is a little beauty ​and a little beast in all of us. READ MORE Infinity + One ​is a tale of shooting stars and fame and fortune, of gilded cages and iron bars, of finding a friend behind a stranger's face, and discovering love ​in the oddest of places. READ MORE The Law of Mosesis a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all . . . a love story. READ MORE The Song of David is the story where we learn that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think ​we can win. READ MORE The Bird and The Sword I can't speak or make a sound, and I can't wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left READ MORE From Sand and Ash A sweeping, epic story of love, war, and the resilience of the human spirit. READ MORE The Queen and The Cure Armed with his unwanted gift and haunted by regret, Kjell becomes a reluctant savior, beset by old enemies and new expectations. READ MORE

Great Summer Reads Countdown Blitz and Giveaway-Day 14: Ascenson By C. Michelle Jefferies

C. Michelle Jefferies is a writer who believes that the way to examine our souls is to explore the deep and dark as well as the shallow. To manipulate words in a way that makes a person think and maybe even second guess. Her worlds include suspense, urban fantasy, and an occasional twist of steampunk. When she is not writing, she can be found on the yoga mat, hand binding journals, dyeing cloth, and serving ginger tea. The author and creator divides her time between stories, projects, and mothering four of her seven children on the wild and windy plains of Wyoming.

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A PROPHET’S REDEMPTION

Living an unassuming life as a teacher for the Academy, the former assassin, Antony Danic, turned Speaker for the Devoted, would love to let the past stay there. However, as hard as he tries, his new identity, Noble Standing, can’t escape who Antony was. The widower, turned self-avowed bachelor doesn’t mean to fall for the red-headed sword instructor, Lyris Jaimes. Noble insists he’s better off single, but he is drawn to her in spite of his memories of Elite. Noble finds that courting her, however, isn’t easy. His interest in Lyris sets into motion a rivalry between him and a dangerous sociopath who wants her for himself. 

Regardless of the vow he made to never shed human blood again, Noble must reconcile his past with his present, and use his assassin skills and knowledge to keep himself and those he loves alive.

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Top Ten List:

1     If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?

A big piece of land with a house and a place to hold retreats and conferences

A healthy immune system

Go to school and become an acupuncturist

1        2        Where do you write?

In my office, with my doggie at my side. It also serves as my project storage room and lately there's not been a lot of room in said office. 

3 How long does it normally take you to write a novel?

If I push it, like during NANO, 15-17 days. If I am busy like right now, one to three months. 

4  What are your inspirations?

The three novels, one novella, and my four anthologies that are on my desk. (as well as some of my NANO proofs) I look at them and know I can do hard things. 

5 1   How did you come to write this particular book or series?

This series is the extremely revised story of my very first novel, the 189 page handwritten thing I did in high school. Which was an examination of how to write team fiction the right way. But, in it's revised form, it is also a study of what it takes to change a bad boy into a good guy, and how does that good guy stay good in the face of trials. 

6 1   What was the hardest part of writing your book, and how did you overcome it?

When I wrote the first drafts of this book the romance between the characters was a definite low importance on the totem pole of sub plots and story lines. One of my beta readers got on my case for presenting a huge plot hole in regards to the romance line in the book. I went back to the books (sort of) and really studied romance sub plots. I went back in and restructured it and let the characters have a bit more leeway and the sub plot emerged. It was a hard one to write because it deals with sin and I didn't necessarily want to delve into it. But I am glad I did. The story is better for it. The characters are so much more real now. 

7     What is your writing drive? The power that keeps you going when your writing gets difficult?

My characters are who drive me to write. They have stories that need to be told and I can't ignore them. Also, my fans wanting to know what else happens to my characters drives me. If I am not writing my characters invade my dreams and they start doing strange things. 

8     How did you come up with the title?

The idea of this book was to take two normal characters and drive them as low as I could. To try and refine their characters so by the end they had grown as characters. To ascend from the pit. So, Ascension was the perfect title for it. 

9     Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family member?

There were so many that helped but if I had to name one (or two) that would be my two writer friends, Lauri Shoenfeld and Mercedes Yardley. They stuck through it all with me. 

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Great Summer Reads Countdown Blitz and Giveaway-Day 13: Sweet Water By Laurie Lewis

Laurie (L.C.) Lewis will always be a Marylander at heart—a weather-whining lover of crabs, American history, and the sea. She admits to being craft-challenged, particularly lethal with a glue gun, and a devotee of sappy movies. 

Her ninth published novel, her first romance novella, Sweet Water, was inspired by a visit to Oregon’s magnificent coastline, and time spent with Mother Eugenie, upon whom the character Mother Thomasine is based. 

Laurie’s women’s fiction novels include The Dragons of Alsace Farm (2016), Awakening Avery (2010), and Unspoken (2004), written as Laurie Lewis. Using the pen name L.C. Lewis, she wrote the five volumes of her award-winning FREE MEN and DREAMERS historical fiction series, set against the backdrop of the War of 1812: Dark Sky at Dawn (2007), Twilight’s Last Gleaming (2008), Dawn’s Early Light (2009), Oh, Say Can You See? (2010), and In God is Our Trust, (2011).

She is currently completing a political suspense novel planned for a summer 2017 release, a re -release of a romantic comedy, and she’s working on another historical fiction novel for a 2018 release. She loves to hear from readers.

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Love and money don’t mix when three college friends launch a fledgling business, and two impulsively elope. When Hudson Bauer hears the wedding news he leaves town, stealing the company's first big contract and Olivia and Jeff's dreams.

Olivia McAllister has spent eight years blaming Hudson for all her losses, including her anemic marriage to Jeff and a recent, tragic accident that leaves her body battered and her dreams of a family shattered.

Widowed, and in desperate straits, she is forced to accept Hudson’s offer to recuperate at his parents’ empty house on Oregon’s Cannon Beach, but her return to the place where the three friends once summered casts new light on her hasty marriage and on the enemy she once called friend.

When Hudson offers Olivia a job doing humanitarian work, something hopeful and familiar awakens in Olivia, giving rise to long-denied feelings for Hudson. Stuck between grief and the promise of new love, Olivia must make peace with her confusing past, and forgive the man she once hated, before Hudson walks away again, closing the door on their possibilities forever.

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Q & A:

1.     If you had 3 wishes, what would they be? A cure for dementia, the power to teleport, and the Miss America answer--world peace

2.     Where do you write? In my office surrounded by friendly clutter

3.     How long does it normally take you to write a novel? a year for a good historical. 4 months for a novel

4.     What are your inspirations? travel and interesting settings stir my imagination. The news also gives me great plot ideas. 

5.     How did you come to write this particular book or series? I fell in love with the rugged Oregon coastline, and envisioned a lonely woman sitting there, trying to heal inside and out.

6.     What was the hardest part of writing your book, and how did you overcome it? Tying all the threads together. I didn't want to leave any of those tangled questions unanswered.

7.     How did you come up with the title? I was sharing the cave scene from the book with my critique group, and when I came to the part about Hudson's grandparents and the Indian legend, I said the words "sweet water," and romance author/friend Lisa Swinton said, "That's it! That's your title!"

8.     Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family member? I'd have to name two. My wonderful critique group of talented, award-winning authors, and my first editor, Angela Eschler. Amazing, talented women all.

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Great Summer Reads Countdown Blitz and Giveaway-Day 12: Water So Deep By Nichole Giles

Nichole Giles, the author of The DESCENDANT series, and The WATER SO DEEP series, has lived in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas. She is a fan of all things paranormal and magical, and her dreams include owning a garden full of fairies, riding a unicorn, and taming the pet dragon she adopted at a recent local ComiCon. She loves to spend time with her family, travel to tropical and exotic destinations, drive in the rain with the convertible top down, and play music at full volume so she can sing along.

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Seventeen-year-old Emma Harris is drowning on dry land.

No one knows what’s happening to her, and she’d like to keep her evolution from human to mermaid a secret, but the truth is getting harder and harder to hide. From her adoptive family, from her friends, and especially from the irresistible James Phelps.

Her time in the ocean is spent dodging a possessive merman, while her time on land is split between caring for her special-needs brother and squeezing in every last possible moment of human life. She soon realizes falling for James is unavoidable when he constantly comes to Emma’s rescue and somehow manages to see through her carefully constructed icy facade to the vulnerability she lives with every day. Everything about James makes Emma yearn for a life on land she just can't have.

When Emma’s brother disappears on her watch, James is the only person she trusts to help her save him. But even if they can save her brother, nothing can prevent her return to the sea. Whether she likes it or not, Emma is changing—unable to breathe without yielding to the tide—and it's only a matter of time before she's forced to surrender forever.

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Top Ten List:

Ten Fun Facts

1.     I have an enormous (8 foot) metal palm tree in my front yard. Yes, it was expensive. No, I don’t live by a beach (anymore), which is why metal instead of real. But I am all about tropical, lovely things, and also art.

2.     I learned to scuba dive, mostly because I needed inspiration and to research for my Water So Deep series—and even though it was hard at first, I truly love it, and have enjoyed it immensely.

3.     Being near water brings me peace. Sounds strange, I know, but when life really piles on the stress, the best possible remedy for me is a trip to the beach. Second best is a day on a lake. I think it’s a combination of sounds and smells and sunshine, and just being out in nature. It’s a spiritual thing for me.

4.     I’ve kissed a stingray, petted a shark, fed sea lions, swam with dolphins, been on a boat nearly capsized by a whale, and witnessed tiny, just hatched baby turtles as they crawled out to sea. I can’t decide on a favorite, but I intend to someday catch my own crab, and maybe a lobster. I have no idea how.

5.     I have a large collection of sand. Not the kind in a yard, or the kind you buy in gift shops—actual beach sand that my family and I have collected over years of trips. I’ve never been to Europe or Asia (yet) but I’ve visited so many islands (Caribbean and South Pacific) that I’m running out of space to store my bottles of sand. It’s almost as troublesome as my book collection! Almost.

6.     There was a time, a few years ago, when I had purple hair. This was long, long before colored hair was socially accepted among conservatives. I loved it, but keeping it up was a lot of work. I’m considering adding a few pops of color again this year, just for fun. Maybe a mix of colors, because COLOR!

7.     For a brief few years, I lived in Texas, in a house with a view of Corpus Christi Bay right out my front windows and porch. I used to sit in that living room and watch the cargo ships as they sloshed in and out of port. I’ve never lived anywhere else that smelled so sweet, like water and salt and fresh air, and where I could always, always hear the wind rustling palm fronds.

8.     I’ve done a heck of a lot of road trips, that have basically taken me coast to coast. Maybe not all at once, but Utah to Virginia, and Utah to Florida, and then a LOT in other directions, to California, Nevada, and Arizona. Most of it was moving in one form or another, but if you ever want to truly SEE America, you just can’t see it from a plane.

9.     This last Mother’s Day, I got creative and ordered a bunch of pearl oysters from China (in bulk) and some pearl cage pendants and chains from Amazon. They were such a hit, that I made sure I had enough for all my little nieces, too, because every girl deserves a pearl that she harvested herself. Plus, I mean, ocean-themed gifts = WINNING!

10.Secret reveal: I have TWO (yes, that’s right, TWO) books coming out this summer (2017), both related to Water So Deep. One is obviously the sequel I’ve been promising for two years, and the other is a secret project I’ve been working on alongside it. It’s actually a prequel to Water So Deep, and will be available exclusively in the Shattered Worlds Boxed Set to be released on August 8^th. I’m extremely excited to FINALLY be able to conclude James and Emma’s story, and add more depth with the prequel. Plus, I’m in love with the covers. In a big way.

Thanks so much for reading my list. I hope you enjoyed learning about my enthusiasm/obsession (okay, honestly, it’s an addiction) to all things beach and ocean related.   

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