Fiction
Based on the author’s past lives, the Stoneslayer high fantasy series charts a lost world of political scandals, explosive family secrets, and the reincarnation of a line of extraordinary women who challenge the cataclysmic rampage of an ancient, demonic foe.
Book Two Fallout
Between healing the king and her best friend, Azgard outcast Helen Andros and her powerful father clash repeatedly. She pays an ever-rising price until her heedless words lead to a brutal military discipline that scars her for life.
Otherworldly mentor Maguari takes Helen into two past lives with her father to help her release her anger and fear of loss. Is she strong enough to tell her father she loves him before he endures savage reprisal for his relationship with her mother? Can she endure a loveless marriage made for political reasons?
As the target of the Temple’s lethal plans and the Stoneslayer’s relentless pursuit, Helen is equally at risk.
“I’ll tell you what I have told Helen before. Both of you are furious with Miriam, and are taking it out on each other. You did to Helen today what you wanted to do to her mother many years ago, what you still want to do to her now, out of your anger and pain.”
Lord James covered his mouth with his hand. Judith could not help noticing a certain similarity in gestures between the father and the daughter. You were right about that in more ways than perhaps even you realized, Miriam.
“James, you have every right to your anger at Miriam. And Helen does have this dreadfully self-destructive habit of making even those of us who love her dearly want to wring her neck.”
“How can she be chaste, have the face of an angel, and talk like a trollop?”
Judith shrugged her shoulders. That’s the irony of Helen. She can keep her legs shut, but not her lips.
Praise for Book One Scandal
***** (Five Stars)
“If you are interested in high fantasy, political drama, and social issues, then this book should be right up your alley.”
–Sean Patrick Tracy
OnlineBookClub.org
**** (Four Stars)
“Scandal is excellent high fantasy…Talmadge constructs an immersive world, and her political intrigue rivals anything from Game of Thrones.”
–Alana Maple
Reedsy Discovery
Book One Scandal
Lt. Helen Andros is a mixed-race outcast in Azgard. Saved from death when her true parentage comes to light, she now faces the outrage of the overclass, the lethal hostility of the mighty Temple of Kronos — and a powerful, high-ranked father she neither knows nor trusts.
Steering a volatile personal journey with her stranger parent, Helen is stalked. Will a hidden menace — the deadly Stoneslayer — plunder the mysterious green gem she inherited from her mother? Will political necessity bind her in marriage to a man she does not love and who cannot love her back?
Helen found it easy to look death in the eyes. Dying was effortless. It was living that had always been a struggle. Why had she, orphaned and despised, ever bothered to try so hard? What had been the point of battling every inch of the way for a medical degree? To this miserable end?
The strange red glow filled her inner vision. Giving up! That’s more like it. We will meet soon on the other side, and you will suffer for depriving me all these years of what is rightfully mine.
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