Unveiled is the first book in the Raven Daughter series by Audra Trosper, a fast-paced adventure with a slow-burn enemies to lovers trope. The series – a trilogy – is complete and ready for binging.
What happens in Unveiled
Jo (never call her Josephine) is rather shocked when she finds out that she’s not entirely human, that in fact, her absent (and criminal) father was an angel. And that there’s a world beyond the Veils that’s actually her home.
However, that world not just populated by the descendants of angels. That realm contains demons, soul eaters, monsters, and a lot more between Hell and Heaven… and nothing is as it seems.
Jo ends up as a Reaper and gets to wear a black cloak, among other things. Her job is to escort souls and defend them against attacks. So far so good, and she’s not bad at it either. In fact, she’s shockingly good.
Then things go south. (Yes, Audra said so herself.) Of course, they do, or there would be no story, right? And Jo ends up in a team with Caius, a half-demon, both of them tasked to find out what is going on with all those souls getting Lost. His good looks are not lost on Jo, but as a demon, he’s her sworn enemy. Until the situation gets beyond desperate…
Why I liked Unveiled
I really enjoyed this book (and series) because Jo is such a no-nonsense character with an indomitable sense for the absurd. She pushes herself way beyond her own limits, she’s snarky, she’s reliable, and she remains undaunted even by gods. But even she has to learn that she cannot do everything.
I also liked how different this series is from all those angels and fallen angel books. Here, the world is messy, gritty and often gray. There are demigods and even gods (later on). And not all of them are on the same side, either. Audra plays with the tropes and then twists them upside down.
Often enough, the plot takes a sharp turn to the left and tears off into uncharted territory. This is definitely not your usual angel stuff, and not your usual romance, either. If you like action and adventure with a dash of ancient lore and a pinch of sweet love, this book is for you.
What is special about Unveiled?
The book is told strictly from the Point of View of Jo. However, Caius does get a say, in the shape of a little quote at the end of each chapter. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this in a book, and it’s charming, wonderful and sometimes… foreboding. It’s very well done.
Where can I get Unveiled?
Audra likes to make her books available for everyone, so you can get Unveiled and the entire series through many different distributors. Here’s a link where you can choose your favorite store: Unveiled by Audra Trosper
(Books2Read links are very useful, and you can set them to remember your preferred store. They will also take your to the store in your country. I love using them because they offer options to all readers, even audio and print. You’ll see them for my own books, as well.)
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Time for the October Progress Report, and it’s a good thing I always do these for my newsletter so I post at least once in a while.
Thing is, there is little to report.
I’m struggling with writing, getting a few hundred words every day. It’s frustrating that I’m not nearly close to the 2k I used to be able to write last year. I’m trying to add to the marketing, and that’s working to a degree – I gave away over 2,000 free books last month. Remember, three of my first in series are free (Dorelle’s Journey, Decoy, and A Wolf’s Quest).
Oh, here is something fairly awesome to share, after all. My book “A Wolf’s Quest” hit some bestseller lists in the free Kindle ratings in October, so that was rather fun. Have some visual proof:
Ranking from October 2nd, 2022
And even better, my dragon book “Dorelle’s Journey” made #1 in two categories in September. I’m very proud of that, although I’m not sure whether that entitles me to calling myself a best”selling” author, since it’s a free book. But take a look here:
Ranking Screenshot from September 10th, 2022
Sorry about geeking out like that. This is author candy, you know. I’m also rather pleased by the many ratings and the awesome averages. So feel free to grab the books and see for yourself whether it’s worth your time. (And if you keep reading the sequels, you’ll have my gratitude.)
Winds of Destiny Progress Report
I’m getting East ready for formatting and publication, but right now, I’m going through feedback from an awesome beta reader, Mette Holm. She really puts me on my toes.
Even so, I will be able to make the release date on November 10th. I also hope I can share the new cover with you soon. My awesome cover designer is on it.
And well… East is the polar opposite of West in many ways. He’s angry, and it takes him a while to turn that anger into something productive. And when tragedy strikes again and again, that anger almost destroys him.
I still love him. I love his strength, his determination and his basic goodness. I’m really glad he decided to come back to me and share screentime in the Earth book.
Pillars of the Empire Progress Report
I’m still writing Earth, book 1 of the follow-up series to the Winds of Destiny. It’s slow going, but with help from a friend, I figured out the big, final showdown and how it’ll work out. It’s going to be fun to write, but for now, I’m working hard to even push them on the road. They feel much more comfortable hiding out in Holy City. (Idiots!)
Here’s a funny little tidbit: I took a voice lesson yesterday, and suddenly had an inspiration for Moon (book 4 of the Pillars/ book 8 in total). No, I won’t spoil it, but yes, it has something to do with voice. She’s going to be so cool. But it’ll be a while before I can write her story.
Screen Writing Progress Report
I finished the class and learned a lot. Seriously.
Unfortunately, my mind has been wrenched into dealing with a lot of administrative stuff (including a real struggle to simply get some signed books into the mail!) and that stress has left me with little energy for my Wolf screenplay. It’s waiting for me to come back to it and fix the beginning, the character descriptions and the formatting.
Do you know anyone in the business? Drop me an email and help me connect with them. Because I already know that a nobody from Germany will have a hard time even finding a reader for the screenplay.
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In this article, I want to compare Amazon vs Google Play Store with a view to what they offer to indie authors. But let me get a few things out of the way before we dive into details:
You probably know that I’m an indie-author, i.e. a writer who self-publishes her books (yes, even though they mention a publishing house, which I run in my name for my books only). You might have seen that my books are available on Amazon (of course!), but also on Google, Apple, Barnes&Noble and several other stores, including the Tolino.
That is called “being Wide”.
Now, I’m Wide mostly because of principle. I dislike being beholden to one store or one source of income. I also prefer giving my readers lots of options. It is possible I’m leaving money on the table because of that, but you know, never put all your eggs in one basket and all that.
Why I only compare Amazon vs Google
All of this gives me ample opportunity to compare the stores, with an important limitation:
Amazon and Google Play Store are the only vendors I go direct with – which means I go through their interface and upload my books into their system directly. For everything else, I use a distributor called Draft2Digital.
All right, now we can take a closer look at what those two stores do for authors.
All of us know Amazon, of course. By launching the Kindle, they single-handedly created an ecosystem for authors that made self-publishing possible. Without that, we’d still be stuck with practices of traditional publishing that are stuck in the 1940s or worse.
The Google Play Stores developed much later, and for quite a while it was basically unusable for indie-authors because they played free and wild with the prices, triggering endless price-matching wars with Amazon. Once they stopped doing that, things got a lot better, and now they are quite a good alternative to the big river.
So here’s what I want to look at and show how each store handles it:
Pricing and Royalties Amazon vs Google
Amazon long ago decided that ebooks are best priced between 2.99 and 9.99, in either US Dollar or Euro. They reward authors who price their books within that bracket by paying 70% of the price in royalties. Outside that bracket, they only pay 35%. Oh, and if someone from a third country (let’s say, someone from Panama ordering from the COM store) buys your book in an Amazon store, you only get 35% regardless of how you set your price.
Google doesn’t care about a price range, making things extremely simple. They give authors 70% royalties, no matter what the price or where the books sell. That means that I earn more than double on a 99ct book on Google than I do on Amazon. And Google allows me to set a book free, which leads me to the next aspect.
Free books Amazon vs Google
I will admit that this is a very sore point for me right now, which I’ll explain a bit further in.
You see, Amazon does not truly allow authors to give books away. In the pricing interface you cannot set a price lower than 99ct.
So how do we indies set up free books on Amazon?
There are two options: Either your books are in Kindle Unlimited and you use those 5 promotion days you get every 90 days to give away your book, or you email KDP support and ask for “price-matching” after setting the book free in competitor stores (aka Apple, Kobo, B&N, or Google). Because Amazon WILL price-match your book with other vendors rather aggressively (except for free, you have to ask for that).
If you want offer your readers a free book through Amazon, you have to work for it.
Even worse, their algorithms will revert that book to full price (99ct, at the very least) about every two months. The exceptions are the US and the UK stores, but even that is not guaranteed. They did so in the middle of a paid promotion for a free book I ran last week. (Yes, I’m still miffed. *grumbles*)
Now Google just gives you the option for pricing your book at 0.00 in whichever currency you want, no questions asked, no judgment. Easy peasy.
Giveaways on Amazon vs Google
I already mentioned those 5 days where you can give away your book on Amazon, if – and that’s a big if – your book is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. Five days in a period of three months (90 days, to be precise). If your book is not enrolled, you cannot do free, except by asking for a price-match, as I explained above.
Google on the other hand took an idea that Smashwords originally pioneered and now offers Coupons (Draft2Digital is working on those as well, now). You choose if a coupon covers the full price of a book or allows only a reduction. That means you can give away your books to people and choose exactly who gets them. Or how many you want to give away.
Even better, those coupons do not trigger the price-matching algorithm of Amazon. (Yes, they have web crawlers that look for your book on other vendors. Better believe it.)
Worldwide Reach Amazon vs Google
We all know that Amazon has stores set up all over the world, best known are those in the US and the UK, but also in several European nations. In addition, there are stores in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and India. That’s not really bad, considering this is an American business. (You also need to know that authors often only earn 35% of royalties in those “exotic” stores.)
Google doesn’t really do stores. They just offer my books in their Play Store, and I’ll simply take a screenshot showing where my books are available through them, because I’m too lazy to type it all up. Yes, they even sell in Africa. And the royalties are the same everywhere, 70% of the net price.
E-Readers Amazon vs Google
Okay, this is where Amazon still wins. Their Kindle is a very comfortable E-Reader, one that I actually like taking to bed with me to read on.
Google offers their reading App for phones and tablets (and PCs?), and that’s great. But I don’t enjoy reading on my phone (I’m getting old and my eyes aren’t what they were…) and I really don’t want to take a tablet to bed with me. So there’s that.
It does make me wonder if and when Google comes up with a cooperation for a dedicated E-Reader. Care to make a bet?
Subscription Service Amazon vs Google
Amazon does have Kindle Unlimited, and yes, that is a very good deal for avid readers. I’m almost ashamed to say that I caved earlier this year and signed up for it.
Now, Google does not have a subscription service for books, and I haven’t heard of anything in the works, either.
Having said that, subscription services are usually great for a reader and less than great for authors. The biggest drawback for Kindle Unlimited is the exclusivity – i.e. your books must not be available anywhere else. (Which is why I will not put my books into KU, sorry, readers. But I price mine low.)
It also took Amazon a few years to actually create a system that doesn’t allow massive scamming, and it’s far from perfect even now. Hardworking authors finance scammers even to this day.
This is it so far with direct comparisons. Below, I’ll go into some pet peeves of mine where I believe Amazon is absolutely failing me as an author and you as a reader and customer.
Sideloading books on Amazon looks awful now
I need to take you on a little side-tour here, because you may have heard of “sideloading” books to Amazon, maybe through a service called BookFunnel or by actually dropping them into your Kindle (or the App) on your computer, phone or e-Reader. That has become much easier since Amazon stopped using the mobi-format and switched over to epub, which everyone else had been using anyway.
Since then, those side-loaded books have started to look absolutely terrible on the Kindle, because Amazon strips away their cover. Instead, they get this cute graphic that looks like a Word document, with the title written below. This is how they appear like in my library in the Kindle App on my PC (and they look the same on my Kindle reader):
It makes me very angry because those authors have gone to the trouble of finding and paying (!) for a cover for their give-away books, and Amazon makes them look like drab documents, killing any hope of branding or recognition. It’s just awful.
The infamous Amazon Delivery Surcharge
Now this is something that Amazon can get away with because they are still the biggest seller of ebooks. And maybe this is something you didn’t know about because it only affects authors behind the scenes.
You see, Amazon charges every author money for “delivering” the ebook to the customer who bought it, when they essentially just send a copy to another server, if at all. The actual amount depends on the file size for the ebook, and especially for those of us who price books low, it can wipe out a part of our royalties. At least they don’t charge it for those books earning only 35% of royalties.
Google doesn’t do that nonsense. And honestly, I believe it’s just a way for Amazon to make more money from authors, and they do it because they can.
Those famous Amazon search algorithms? No longer good.
Ah, but we all know that Amazon is best at giving customers what they want, right?
Not anymore. Now I get handbags and jewelry in my search results, even when I tell Amazon to search for a specific book in Kindle books. And if there’s even one typo in the author name? Forget it.
Now, Google’s back bone is the search algorithm – and they do really well in putting books in front of people’s eyes. You do the math… ahem.
Conclusion Amazon vs Google
At this point in time, I’m starting to believe that Amazon is no longer the best opportunity for authors. It costs us more to do business on Amazon than on Google. The reach is less. Amazon hobbles our marketing. And the restrictions are much worse. Alas, Amazon is still the biggest store.
So, I don’t believe Amazon will go away anytime soon, nor will authors stop selling books through them. All I’m saying is that there might finally be competition around that possibly could impact Amazon.
In fact, I am hoping that the competition that Google is shaping up to be could actually force Amazon to abandon some of their business choices that are actively hurting indie authors now. Only stiff competition can do that, and for the first time ever, I can see it on the horizon.
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Yes, I’m putting this at the bottom of every article because I hate pop-ups. So I won’t shove one into your face, but I’m still going to offer you the opportunity to hear about my writing, my books, my reading recommendations and my (maybe somewhat famous) little dragon sidekick called Ember once a month (on the 13th, because I love that number).
It’s time for another Progress Report, and yes, I do have quite a few things to talk about. Stuff happened, life went on and stories grew.
And I need you, dear Readers. More about that below.
Winds of Destiny Progress Report
West Flows, Book 2 of the series is out, and this pleases me a lot.
What would please me even more (actually, it would make me cry happy tears, really!) would be finding some readers for this tale. Because I love my West to bits.
The other day, I looked up what a “Cinnamon Roll” hero is because a friend of mine uses it all the time to describe her hero. Well, turns out that describes a good guy, someone possibly a tad naive and definitely somewhat emo (like me).
That’s West.
He does something rather inane and very emotional at the beginning of his book, escaping his fate of being sacrificed on top of a nasty black pyramid. Yes, he expects to die. No, he doesn’t, because clearly, there wouldn’t be a story if he did. Or at least not the kind of story I write.
After surviving (much to his own surprise), he decides to find a mentor. There actually is someone (South, from book 1, to be precise) and so he sets out to get to her. Not an easy task, as you’ll find out – and then Madu kicks him out.
Now West is between a rock and a hard place and makes a fateful decision. And yes, I am mean enough to make you find out what he does on your own. (Hey. Don’t look at me like that. I’m a little meany deep down, or I wouldn’t be able to torture my chars as much as I do.)
Anyway, West Flows is now up in all stores and you can grab the book here:
In further news about the Winds (and the Pillars), I’m currently working on Book 5 (or book 1 of the Pillars). This one is called Earth Splits, and to be honest, it’s a difficult one. It needs more action or at least tension, but I’m in the process of setting up a nasty trap for my heroes.
I’ll torture East a bit more… or, hey, why not Earth? (This is me having a plot inspiration as I’m writing this. It happens.)
Anyway, there is progress and I will finish the series. I’m already getting glimpses of Sky, who will be the hero of Book 2. He’s a trickster, escaping an endless number of impossible situations. I will have much fun with him – and he will challenge me in different ways. I’m hoping to make him my NaNo project. (Book Title: Sky Falls)
Screen Writing Progress Report
Yes! I finally have something to report, after not looking at the Wolf script for months. It’s not that I don’t want to work on it, it’s that so many things keep coming up – and that my brain has been on a bit of a burn out and demanded a Romance spree.
But! I bought a screen writing class and as soon as I post this report, I’ll go and take care of the first assignment.
I dream of creating a series of Mini-Series (does that make sense to you?) for a streaming service from my Wolf books. And I need a bit of your help.
If you read my Wolf books and found them to your liking, can you leave a review? Or at least a rating? Here’s a link to the first one, which is free. (But you really should read on, the series gets better and better. And leave reviews.)
Okay, so you get this rather than an annoying pop-up. (Because I hate pop-ups, even though they are known to convert.)
If you never want to miss another release, if you want to get alerted to more rambling… er, progress reports or book reviews or stuff, sign up to my newsletter. And get to know Ember, my little dragon familiar.
You see, in this book, children are tortured and killed, there are several worlds full of horror, and even the sunny world of Lysena is very much not what it seems.
Tria is an accomplished thief at a young age, yet her considerable ability is barely enough to survive what the Magician throws at her. She has to fight for her life time and again – never knowing why. She suffers endlessly, but she also grows stronger and learns to defend herself, on several levels. And she never loses her center, her innermost desire to be free.
This story is also full of mystery which won’t be resolved even at the end. That’s because The Warrior is merely the beginning of a huge tale, a story so complex and convoluted that it takes more than one book to show it all. In fact, it takes almost an entire series.
If you pick up The Warrior you must trust the author, M.H. Milrem. (And me, a little, maybe.) It is very much worth it, even if this first book leaves you feeling confused and upset.
The Memorian Prophecies are not an easy series. The books are disturbing, mysterious and difficult. And they are so much worth it.
So go and pick up The Warrior. If you have the fortitude for dark tales, this is a perfect read.
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Never want to miss a review or a new book? Want to learn about book deals? And best of all, do you want to read about the adventures of Ember, my little dragon familiar?
I’ve been seeing images that list keywords for a review with the cover. So I made a keyword image for South Breaks, just for the fun of it.
And because I’m not a fan of all those graphics apps (and could never use them on my phone!), I play with GIMP. This first one took me hours, but it was also a great learning curve. (It even led me to install a bunch of new brushes in GIMP, but don’t ask me how I did that.)
Lesson learned: Never draw those arrows in the gradient layer. Ever. *sigh* Make a new layer instead.
Here’s how it came out:
Keyword Image for South Breaks
I find the gradients tricky, admittedly. I’m planning on making another one for West (I made one for him in Canva, after all, but the background is too busy for me).
I haven’t found a nice brush for arrows yet, so those are hand-drawn. To be honest, they don’t have all those curly flourishes you find in apps, but I find them more personal. Drawing with a mouse isn’t easy, though.
Keyword images for the series
There is something that gives me a happy bubble in my heart:
I plan on making the mules a running gag in all the keyword images I’ll create for the series. *snicker*
Because they are in books 1-3, but there are none in book 4. I don’t know about books 5-9 since I still have to write them, but I can guarantee a certain mule will appear in some of them. (Okay, you’ll need to read West Flows to get the full meaning here, but hey, it’s coming out on September 10th, this year.)
Now, I find that I enjoy these graphics, but I don’t know about you. Tell me, please. Looking forward to your comments.
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So if you want to know when I publish a new book, if you’re curious about how that old writing goes, if you want to get a glimpse of what I’m reading (not as much as I would like) and receive tips for book deals, and finally, if you enjoy tales about a cute, little dragon plushie, sign up below. (How’s that for a run-on sentence?)
(Another random Artbreeder landscape for my progress report.)
Not much progress to report, but I decided to include some silly statistics, since that’s what I do in my day job. Which is a fancy name for handling spreadsheets in my case.
Writing Progress Report
Anyway, I made progress in three different worlds these weeks, plus having a vacation when I stayed with my family for a week and then had my sister visit with me for another week. Needless to say that writing wasn’t the main focus.
Here’s what I did between the last progress report and today:
The Twin Worlds: 1672 words The Steamy Shifters: 7213 words Winds and Pillars: 1630
Winds of Destiny Progress Report
I also edited West and responded to feedback from my great beta-readers. That mostly involved making his thought processes more clear and to improve his motivation for some choices.
Of course, I also fell in love with West again. I love that guy, even though he is a bit naive and not at all ambitious. He is very loyal and caring, on the other hand. (His book is on pre-order, Amazon only right now, look here.)
Book Release Progress Report
And I had a new release: My German short story “Die letzte Prinzessin” was published in a German anthology edited by Karin Braun and Gabriele Haefs, Piratengeflüster.
I’m planing to translate the story into English and publish it as a standalone. And long term, this could be the prequel for quite a series… if that world decides to speak to me.
Proofreading Progress Report
Other than that, I’m open for proofreading jobs. I’m getting one next week, for book 3 in the Memorian Prophesies by M.H. Milrem. Those are fun.
The same author has just released the first book in their new series, which is one that I proofread:
The Warrior
– Book One of the Memorian Prophecies
Tria is an orphan and a thief. Two things that should not exist in the glittering city, Lysena.
When she makes friends with the heir to the richest merchant of Lysena, Tria has to decide between her freedom and saving his life.
But then she is Called by the gods in Lysena’s glistening temple and discovers that underneath the city of light and love lurks a dark and dangerous world – ruled by the mysterious Magician.
In those shadows, Tria has to learn all over again what it takes to survive. Only this time, she has a teacher who will stop at nothing to turn her into the most fearsome weapon the world has ever seen.
If you’ve taken a look at the cover of my new book, South Breaks, you probably noticed that symbol hovering above the title. It looks a bit like a compass rose with some extras, right?
That’s on purpose. Every single item in it has a meaning. Let me explain.
South Breaks and the Winds
South is the name of one of the four Winds who live in each House*. The others are West, East and North (obviously). And yes, they are named after the cardinal directions and not much else. Their job is to provide energy to the Pillars when those work their magic.
In the symbol, the Winds are represented by the pointy parts. And if you look closely at the image above, you’ll see that the one pointing down is golden, unlike the other three. That’s because this book is about South.
Of course, the stories will show that Winds are by no means limited to handling plain energy. Often they have a special power that has been suppressed by the Priests overseeing each House and the powerful people living in one.
South can handle energy, of course, and she makes it into shields. She’s also learning to use her energy to heal. I won’t spoil the special powers of the other Winds just yet, you’ll have to wait for the books to come out. (They are already written.)
*A House consists of eight people, four Winds and four Pillars. Each year, one House dies and a new House is founded. There are 25 Houses, set around the Sacred Square in the center of Holy City. (And that is as much world-building as I’ll inflict on you here.)
South Breaks and the Pillars
Now, the other half of each House is made up of Pillars. That’s the generic term for elemental mages, and unlike the Winds, the mages’ names actually reflect the kind of magic they can use.
The four Pillars are Moon, Sun, Sky and Earth. In the symbol, they are represented by the blobs between the cardinal points. If you look very closely, those blogs have little symbols on them that show the element aligned with each Pillar.
Let me lay it out for you, though, to spare your eyes: Moons handle water in any shape and form. Suns do heat and fire, Skys handle lightning and electricity, and Earths deal with rock and plants.
Their elements and their personalities match to a degree. Moons are often gentle and look for harmony. Suns are joyful, shiny people who love life, while Sky are often mischievous and volatile. Some Skys tend to brood or break rules on purpose. Earths on the other hand lean towards being calm, grounded and nurturing.
I want to read South Breaks!
Nothing simpler than that. For South Breaks, you can choose between several stores for the ebook and there is a print version available on Amazon:
Oh, yes! You can also get to know West very soon as the second Wind in my series, I’m finalizing the book right now. I already have set up a link (it only points to the preorder on Amazon at the moment, but that will change very soon).
Never want to miss another book? Sign up to my Newsletter – Ember Alert! You’ll get writing news, reading recommendations, release dates, links to special deals and last but not least, a tale with my little dragon cub, Ember. Lots to enjoy! (And it only comes out once a month, on the 13th. Because I’m weird and love that number.)
500 words for the Twin Worlds #3. I gave Krighen (this is the Artbreeder image I made for him) some nasty trouble, and it will take a big effort by his friends to save him.
Also I read through an old NaNo-story with a dragon shifter and it has potential. Needs a rewrite, though. Not sure it’s worth it, since I would have to expand it into a series before it becomes even viable, and so far, it’s not long enough for a a series starter.
Have a snippet from what I wrote today:
Something wrapped around Krighen’s mind and yanked, and suddenly, he tumbled through the air helplessly, unable to bite back a scream. Rage filled him and his armor popped out, just in time to protect him as he hit the ground awkwardly. He rolled, screaming again with pain as the arrows were driven deeper into his arms, and before he could stop the rolling, he fell off the edge of the cliff.
His fall was cut short when he landed on a rough ledge, the impact driving all breath from his lungs. Gasping with pain, he clung to some rocks, fighting to stay conscious, to avoid falling to his death. The beach was far down, breakers washing over several boulders dotting the sand, and even his armor would not save him if he lost his grip.
Darkness wavered at the edge of his vision.
Trials of Power, The Twin Worlds Book 3
This is the start of an experiment. I will share daily updates on my writing progress on my Patreon.
Yes, the Dragon Gate series is what I have been reading in the last few weeks. In fact, it was rather riveting, for several reasons.
The Dragon Gate heroes
Lindsay offers up a bunch of good people, starting with Jadora, a scientist, herbalist and archaeologist, and her son Jak. Both are on a quest to find a special artifact – but when they do, their lives are irrevocably changed, along with the entire world. Because they found a dragon gate…
There are also a bunch of mercenaries, mostly women. They are great fun, they are lippy and they don’t take prisoners. Well, mostly. Unfortunately, they find out that they cannot always choose who they work for. Let me name Ferroki, the captain of the mercenary band, and Sorath, who is trying to be an ex-mercenary – and failing.
Next is Vinjo, a creative engineer and minor mage. He’s a genius, and that lands him in hot water. Or cold water, depending. He finds out the hard way that he has little choice who to work for if he wants to stay alive.
And finally, we have the zidarr Malek, the champion of one of the major mage-kings in this world, fighter extraordinaire and accomplished mage himself. Superhuman, basically. Most of the zidarr are cold, arrogant men (there is no female zidarr, although someone we get to meet has tried), but Malek has a different past and turns out to be as honorable as his position allows him to be. Which comes with a price, at times.
Yes, there are some romantic relationships that develop among the good guys, and they are slow burn. In fact, when several finally do end up in bed together in Book 5, it took me by surprise. (Nothing very graphic, but yes, they do get close and personal.)
The Dragon Gate Villains
Most fantasy books have villains, and this series is no exception. The world is ruled by several kings and at least one queen. They are mages who live and rule from flying cities, literally looking down on those puny, terrene humans without magic.
Uthari is one of those mage-kings, and while he can be generous, he tends to be fairly narrow-minded and only interested in his own well-being. He twists and uses everyone he gets his hands on. He’s also very old and one of the strongest mages in the world. It takes quite a while in the series before he actually has reason to fear anyone – and he moves quickly to contain the sources of that fear. No, he is not a good guy.
Tonovan is the commander of King Uthari’s mageship fleet, and he is the stereotypical bad guy. Arrogant, greedy, a rapist and a killer. The guy we all love to hate. He gets his hands on almost all of the good guys and gals at least once…
The Dragon Gate Dragons
Yes, there are dragons in the series, but it takes quite a while for them to show up, and… almost all of the ones who do are in a very bad mood. I won’t say more because you really need to read the series to understand what happened to the dragons and why they are what they are.
The Dragon Gate Series from a Writer Perspective
Now, this is where I will gush and fangirl. Because this series takes epic to another level.
You see, the plot twists and turns worse than a greased snake. And many, many times, Lindsay manages to pit our heroes against each other. Again and again, they end up in situations with impossible choices – and our heroes slip out of death’s clutches by the breadth of several times, often for a price. This is masterful. Seriously. I learned so much just from reading the series.
All heroes are up against impossible odds, too. Most of them have no magic. At the start, actually only Malek has any magical powers, but that changes over the course of the series (for reasons that make a lot of sense). On the other hand, practically all mages are villains who can read minds, throw fireballs and squash people they dislike. Or torture them.
And throughout the series, things get worse. The threats grow bigger. Heroes make mistakes that earn them even more danger. The stakes get higher – in the end, it’s about saving the world, not just their own lives anymore. The way this world unfolds and grows is also very well done, so I took notes on worldbuilding.
Having said all that, I can’t wait for the final book to come out – it’s scheduled for October and it’s in editing already.
Where to get the Dragon Gate Series
Right now, the series is exclusive to Amazon, and it’s in Kindle Unlimited. This will probably change eventually, Lindsay does put her books up on other stores after some time. There will also be audiobooks if you prefer those.
I’ll link you directly to the Series Page on Amazon COM: Dragon Gate Series.
More Dragon Gate Fun
Lindsay has a lovely website, and she wrote a post with some backstory when she was just starting out writing the series. Definitely worth a few chuckles: Dragon Gate: Behind the Scenes
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