Title: The Stone Queen
Author: L.E. Bross
Genre: YA Fantasy
Cover Designer: SelfPubBookCovers.com/Daniela
Publication Date: Feb. 26th, 2018
About The Stone Queen:
An empty throne.
A fairy realm on the verge of ruin.
THE STONE QUEEN is the tale of a girl who has spent her life trying to forget who she isâand the kingdom that will die if she succeeds.
A thousand years ago the only surviving heir to Alcaria disappeared and the throne stood empty. Over time, the entire kingdom succumbed to The Sleep of Stone, the silent death of a leaderless faery realm. On the verge of Midsummerâs Eve, time is up and Alcaria can be claimed by any with royal blood, Light or Dark.
Eighteen-year-old Merci lives a meaningless existence in the Bronx. Expelled from school, she spends her days dodging her prostitute mother and chasing her next high. As long as it dulls the pain and makes the shadows that follow her disappear, she doesnât care how or where she gets it.
But her risky behavior is about to catapult her into a world unlike any sheâs ever seen in her alcohol-fueled dreams. A tumble off a rooftop should end her life, but instead of falling to her death, she lands in the arms of a stone gargoyle come to life.
And thatâs only the beginning.
When sheâs attacked in the middle of Central Park, the same gargoyle comes to her rescue, but this time, he has a story to tellâone that changes everything she thought she knew about her life and who she really is.
That is, if she chooses to believe him and embrace the truth; That she was born to be a Queen.
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Most recently she has stepped into self publishing with THE STONE QUEEN, a YA fantasy novel that is the first book in a planned trilogy. L.E. Bross lives in Maine with her husband, sons and many four legged fur babies.
Author Links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2BNTDKS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lebrossauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lee_Bross
Buy Link:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2HKOovL
Chapter One
The car lights below crawled along like ants on their way to a midnight picnic.
I was the giant in my own surreal fairytale, ready to stomp down and squash them with my huge boot. I stretched my arms out and shouted into the night. âFee, Fi, Fo, Fum.â My foot slipped off the ledge and giddy laughter bubbled from my throat. I barely managed to keep from tumbling over the side. A tiny blip of fear cut through the fog of alcohol in my head.,
I looked over my shoulder and winked at Torin to dispel the thick nothingness that was always present in my gut. Being this close to the edge always made my thoughts heavier.
Sometimes it took all my will to step back and not forward.
âGet away from the edge, Mer.â
Torinâs gravel-filled voice washed over my bare arms and I shivered in pleasure. He was the only good thing in my life. Without him...
âWould you even miss me if I was gone?â I hated the neediness that crept into my voice. I stopped relying on other people a long time ago, but Torin had found a way under the armor I wore. Now I cared, and some days I hated him for it.
He lit a joint and leaned back against an old rusted roof vent. His black leather jacket pulled tight across his arms as he squinted at me through the smoke. I could feel his gaze moving up and down my body and I loved the thrill it gave me.
âHell yeah, Iâd miss you.â
Satisfied for the moment, I jumped. My boots thudded when they hit the roof and I sauntered over to the makeshift table we set up. A board across a couple of milk crates was all we needed. Torin watched me, his eyes half closed. I already knew what he wanted. That look on his face said it all.
I wasnât sure if I was going to give it to him or not. Iâd been in a weird headspace all day and even though we were celebrating, a part of me just wanted to be alone. I leaned down and grabbed the almost empty bottle of bottom shelf whiskey and straightened.
âTo forgetting,â I shouted and tipped the bottle back, guzzling until it was empty. I threw my arms wide and laughter poured from my throat. The bottle clunked at my feet. It didnât matter how Iâd gotten to this point anymore. The alcohol kept the shadows away, and thatâs all I cared about.
The roof spun in crazy circles around me, whizzing by like some twisted carousel ride, making me lose my balance and stagger sideways. The laugh that burst free was anything but joyful.
Torinâs fingers slid over my shoulder and cupped my breast. Hot lips pressed against my neck and I couldnât help the involuntary shudder of pleasure that rippled through me. He always knew all the right spots. I let my head fall back onto his shoulder and looked up. The stars danced above us, brighter than ever before. An orgy of gyrating fireflies that I wanted to reach up and pluck from the air. To put in a glass jar and remember how beautiful they were tonight.
To tuck away and take out when I needed the reminder that life wasnât all dark shadows and despair.
With a loud sigh, I stepped out of his embrace and dropped into a rickety old lawn chair.
âNot now, I just want to enjoy this.â I waved my hand upwards.
âBabe seriously? I thought we were celebrating?â He stepped behind me and brushed his fingers over the back of my hair. God, it felt good to be touched. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the sensation. He was the only person I let do this. The only person I let close enough to.
âMaybe later, âkay?â I reached behind me to run the back of my fingers along his rock-hard stomach. He sucked in a breath and pressed my hand lower, to an even harder part of him. My stomach clenched and my pulse sped up. Maybe it wouldnât hurt to strip him down and let him make me forget about the noise in my head for a while.
But the respite was always temporary.
Even with the bottle of whiskey sitting in my guts I knew I couldnât escape it. I hated the darkness that was always around the edges. It felt like the shadows watched, waited for me to give up.
All of a sudden, the weight of the city air settled over me so thick that breathing felt more like drowning.
âI just want to be alone for a little while. Later?â
Torin sighed and brushed his lips over the top of my head. âThis was supposed to be your birthday celebration, Mer. You sure?â
âYeah.â
I was eighteen today. It seemed like it should be an important milestone, but all it did was remind me that nothing had changed. Another year gone. Time moved faster, speeding toward a giant black void. That scared the hell out of me. Now what danced through my head in a constant chant.
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Gangs of New York meets Cassandra Clare in this debut YA fantasy set in 1882 Brooklyn
New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers. Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive. Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why. AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY
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His orders are clear: launch a raid against England and bring home the spoils of war. But the prophecy is also clear: General Torben will take a foreign bride—one who is a seer and healer just like his mother. The eldest princess of England is said to be just that…a beautiful, charming, and headstrong woman. But he’s a Viking army general and she’s an English princess—and one who is already promised to the king of Tara.
Two worlds collide in this epic historical fiction centered on an undeniable chemistry that smolders against the odds. Richly written and injected with moments of humor, this action-packed romantic tale will leave you breathless. You can add Viking's Chosen to your Goodreads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35656054-the-viking-s-chosen?ac=1&from_search=true And you can purchase Viking's Chosen at any of these retailers! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1634222741/ B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-vikings-chosen-quinn-loftis/1126731852?ean=9781634222747#/ iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-vikings-chosen/id1258142589?mt=11 Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-viking-s-chosen Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Viking-s-Chosen/56172459 TheBookDepository: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Vikings-Chosen-Quinn-Loftis/9781634222747?ref=grid-view&qid=1518103896560&sr=1-1
As a princess, the oldest of three sisters, and future queen of England, I, of course, did the mature thing when my parents told me that I was to marry the King of Tara. I ran. Allete Auvray, noble born heiress of the Britannia empire, ran. No, I did not run away. There would be no point in that. My father would have sent guards searching for me like crazed hounds to drag me back before I even made it to the borders of our land. No, I ran only as far as my familiar old oak tree. The ancient tree that had become a sanctuary to me and my cousin, Thomas, when we were children—our place of refuge. Disregarding the fact that I was clothed in one of my finer dresses, I hoisted myself up on to the lowest branch and then continued, up and up, until I was sitting high enough that I could see the whole of my father’s lands, spreading out before me like a giant green picnic blanket. It was a beautiful and bountiful kingdom, but it was a gilded cage for me. The day that I had dreaded had finally come. I had always known that one day that I would be married off to a nobleman. As the oldest, it was my duty to either marry a nobleman worthy of becoming king of England, or marry another king in order to secure an alliance beneficial to our empire. Every decision was about power for my family, how to gain it, and how to keep it. The king who held the most land and the largest army was the one everyone else feared. It didn’t matter what I personally wanted. It didn’t matter that I would be wed to someone that I did not love, or someone that did not love me. Nothing mattered except what my father, the king, wanted.
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