We're so pleased to announce an author take over by none other than author Kasia Bacon! She's back with exclusive content about her latest in the Order series...Twenty-One Arrow Salute! But that's not the only prezzie for readers, there's a mega giveaway: three people can win an eBook copy and two people win an Order Chibi keyring! Open internationally! Think of the possibilities! Good luck!
Take it away, Kasia!
An archer’s heart is a hard target to hit…
TWENTY-ONE ARROW SALUTE
by Kasia Bacon
Hello Everyone,
I’m delighted to be back on my favourite blog.
*squeals* I mean...
*gives a dignified wave*
Today I‘m super excited to show off the cover of Twenty-One Arrow Salute, book #2.5 in the
Order Series.
If you’re a fantasy enthusiast and you’ve read
The Mutt and
The Highlander—you might wish to check out this latest instalment. It tells the story of another couple, one half of which is incorrigible Verhan TÅrryés, Ervyn’s cousin.
What can you expect?
Well, how about hot, long-haired Elves? Royal Archers, to boot? Snark? Slow burn? Opposites attract? Foul language?
But enough tittle-tattle. Behold the stunning cover art designed by
Ying Draws—a gifted artist and illustrator, who is also an absolute pleasure to work with!
Isn’t it gorgeous? Gah! And here’s the blurb:
Verhan TÅrryés of Black Mountain is a handful.
Freshly enlisted in the Highland Regiment, he does all he can to steer clear of responsibility and commitment. Just not his cup of mead, that. Loose of tongue and even looser of morals, he rarely misses an opportunity to get into trouble—and into the other archers’ knickers, too.
In a unit composed almost entirely of Dark Elves, Hernan Seinnés, with his green eyes and auburn hair, is an outsider. When Verhan, up the creek again, is blackmailed into helping Hernan, he never expects to fall for him. But during the long hours spent training Hernan for the Honour Guard, feelings strike the Highlander right in the heart—and with the force of an arrow.
Unversed in relationships, Verhan finally plucks up enough courage to tell Hernan how he feels, only to drive the AsirhwÓ±nian away instead. If Verhan can swallow his pride, he might get one last chance to show Hernan what he means to him—and maybe this time he can hit the mark.
If my Royal Archers sound at all appealing, the good news is that
Twenty-One Arrow Salute IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!
Amazon:
Amazon UK:
It will be released on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on 11th June.
Let’s celebrate the cover reveal in style and have a giveaway. Ta-da!
Read the exclusive excerpt below. Share your thoughts in comments and you’ll be in for a chance of winning one the following five prizes:
- An Ebook copy of Twenty-One Arrow Salute for three readers
- An adorable Order chibi keyring for two readers (open internationally—keyring chosen on random). Fancy having your own Elven warrior? Lochan, the assassin or Ervyn, the archer, could be yours by a stroke of luck.
(Those who don’t enjoy leaving things to chance and would like to get an Order keyring, can find them available for purchase
here.)
I wish you the best of luck in the giveaway and hope you enjoy the exclusive excerpt below.
Oh, and if you would like to receive freebies and learn about new releases, sign up for my
newsletter.
Many thanks to the Unicorns for hosting me again! Until the next time… *salutes*
a Rafflecopter giveaway
(Giveaway is open until
June 9th 12 AM EST! Winners should leave a valid way form of contact (ie @twitter, email, etc). S
hould winners not respond within 48 hours of a winning email, unfortunately a new winner will be selected.
Good luck!)
EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:
The jab to my chin came from nowhere, snapping my head to one side. It hurt, damn it. Tears stained my vision. I staggered, jumping away from the window of the bathhouse and down onto the gritty path beneath it.
“Verhan TÅrryés, you sick bastard.”
I sighed. If I had a silver for every time I found myself at the receiving end of
that phrase, I’d be the richest Dark Elf in the Highlands. I moved my jaw experimentally, relieved to ascertain that its hinges held fine, and faced my squad’s leader, Achiah.
Considering the thin press of her lips and the black slits of her eyes, she didn’t stand there to propose I be her date to the Archers’ Fete. More was the pity, as I still didn’t have a partner and would hardly refuse her. The girl had mighty sweet lips on her, shaped like a ripe, freshly-peeled fruit of
pashjia, just as red and juicy. And my gods, the perkiest pair of—
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” My gaze must’ve wandered too low because she pointed her two splayed fingers towards her eyes in a jerky
look-at-me gesture. “Didn’t I catch you peeping at the girls last bathing day? Now you’re back spying on the lads? Have you got no shame?”
“Not a great amount, no,” I admitted with calm. “Neither do I have a set preference.” That was true, too. Girls, boys, anything with a pulse—I didn’t mind.
“Wait. Isn’t it the officers’ turn to bathe?” she said, climbing up to the window herself to steal a brief glance. When she descended, her face lit up like the sky on the Night of Lights. “Oh, this is too precious. You’re salivating over Captain Akhini?”
As if she could blame me. The man’s buttocks, round and firm, looked like a masterpiece some besotted artist had carved from smooth, creamy marble.
She clucked her tongue. “You’re a disgrace to the uniform, Verhan. Start acting like a Queen’s Guard for fuck’s sake, since by the gods’ miracle, you
are one. I won’t have anyone mess around in my squad.” She paused for effect and squinted at me. “If I report you to the Commander, you’ll be your pointy ears deep in shit.”
Uh-huh. That I couldn’t dispute. To start with, the accurate word to describe Commander Yennés’ sense of humour would be
negligent. He’d already displayed, well,
twitchy behaviour around me. People tended to have such a reaction for reasons I never understood. Secondly, the possessiveness Commander displayed over Captain Akhini, his long-term partner, was legendary. All in all, it promised me a bleak outcome. “I’m sensing an alternative somewhere in there,” I said carefully. “What do you want, Achiah?”
The long, scrutinising look she cast me set off an unpleasant tingling between my shoulder blades. And with that, my hope of wiggling out of this mess unscathed keeled over and died right in front of me on the gravel.
“Seinnés,” she said.
“Seinnés?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows. I didn’t know the AsirhwÓ±nian very well, even though we’d completed our initial training at the same camp and since then ended up in the same unit. “What about him?”
“He needs a wee bit of help. He’s a good archer, but I’ve noticed he’s been struggling with the instructions during the drills.”
I stared at her. Well, that made sense, seeing that Seinnés didn’t speak the mountain dialect, which had been the language of command within the Queen’s Guard since its foundation.
The Queen’s Guard wasn’t called The Highland Regiment for shits and giggles. Traditionally, the unit only accepted Dark Elves. However, of late—and after a public debate that threw flashy concepts like
inclusion, diversity and
equal opportunity into the air—Queen Nae’amh decided to allow only the best non-Highlander archers to join. Still, so far not more than a handful of them had been offered a place. They’d blended in somehow, even in terms of looks, all of them by chance dark-haired and robust. But Seinnés, with his vivid auburn hair, green eyes and svelte, delicate physique stood out.
“So?” I said with a frown. “What do you want me to do about that?”
“Teach him the basics.”
I wanted to laugh. But sobered as soon as it occurred to me that she meant it. “I don’t want to,” I announced, ill-tempered.
“Go on, ask me if I give a shit, Verhan.”
Nah. Clearly, she didn’t.
We eyed each other for a time. A group of archers jogged past, interrupting our silent stand-off and forcing us off the main path. Their boots hit the ground—left, right, left, right—raising a cloud of dust from the dry soil around us.
A tickle started at the back of my throat.
“There is more,” she added after a while.
“How wonderful.” My foul mood had blossomed from non-existent into fully-fledged in a snap. And to think that my day had started so well.
Ignoring my muttering, she continued, “He’s been chosen to be a Guard of Honour during the celebration of the Queen's Namesday.”
My mouth fell open. “What? They want
him to perform the twenty-one arrow salute?
Three weeks from Freeday?”
“Why, yes. Amongst the other six archers, as customary. But he’ll be the centre shooter. The Commander thought it would send a nice message.”
This piece of information rendered me speechless, but that state, quite foreign to me, passed swiftly. “What message?
Come for the parade, die in a freaky bow and arrow accident?” I spluttered, amazed at the idiocy of this idea. “The poor fucker doesn’t know how to handle an asymmetric bow! And they want him to shoot magically enhanced arrows armed with explosives, using a weapon he’s not familiar with? Above a massive crowd of Elves? The entire capital will gather there, for the gods’ sake—it’ll be a disaster! Or he’ll lose an arm. Probably both.” I kept shaking my head until I felt a little wobbly.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A linguist and an avid reader with a particular fondness for fantasy and paranormal genres,
KASIA BACON lives in London with her husband. When not tearing her hair out over a translating project, she writes stories about the shenanigans of emotionally constipated assassins and sexy Elves. Otherwise, she can be found shaking her loins at a Zumba class, binging on anime or admiring throwing knives on Pinterest. She has a mild coffee and lemon tart addiction. A lover of MMA and Muay Thai, she also enjoys nature and the great outdoors. She dreams of becoming independently wealthy, leaving the city and moving into her wooden mini-manor—located in the heart of stunning forests resembling those of the Elven Country depicted in her tales.
Find Kasia online:
Website
Amazon
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram
Goodreads
See our 5 <3 review of Twenty-One Arrow Salute HERE!
