fuonlyknew

A Coup of Tea
by Casey Blair

(Tea Princess Chronicles, #1)
Publication date: August 2nd 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy

When the fourth princess of Istalam is due to dedicate herself to a path serving the crown, she makes a choice that shocks everyone, herself most of all: She leaves.

In hiding and exiled from power, Miyara finds her place running a tea shop in a struggling community that sits on the edge of a magical disaster zone. But there’s more brewing under the surface of this city—hidden magic, and hidden machinations—that threaten all the people who’ve helped her make her own way.

Miyara may not be a princess anymore, but with a teapot in hand she’ll risk her newfound freedom to discover a more meaningful kind of power.

A Coup of Tea is the first book of the Tea Princess Chronicles, a cozy fantasy series full of magic tea, friendship, and lifting people up even when the odds seem impossible.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

~~~~~

Enjoy this peek inside:

She hands me a third cup, and I eye her mistrustfully, that unease back again and sharp.

“Earning your tablecloth,” she reminds me.

I smell the grassiness of the green tea before I taste it. But the flavor is so strange I can’t immediately identify the elements—she’s used aloia nectar not just as a sweetener, but to bind this mystery ingredient, and the result has a strangely smooth, nutty element. I frown at the cup and take another sip, swirling the tea in my mouth.

“So?” Lorwyn asks.

It’s much better than the other two, but this tea gives the impression of oozing—no, crawling through the grass—

I set the cup down abruptly. “Please tell me your mystery ingredient is not insectoid.”

Her eyebrows rise in surprise. “Wow. Okay, I’m impressed. Apparently the trekkers named them sleekbeetles. New species discovered in the Cataclysm. Talmeri bought crates of their scales.”

I am drinking beetle scale tea.

This morning I was a princess, and now I sit sopping in a tablecloth drinking beetle scale tea.

“Why?”

Lorwyn shrugs. “I’m sure they were cheap. Talmeri’s always on the lookout for novelty items to boast the most unique tea flavors in the city, and she also likes torturing me. Who can say which was the primary factor this time?”

I grimace. “Wonderful. A hitherto untasted bug. I hope it’s at least magically inert and you haven’t poisoned me?”

“Of course I didn’t poison you,” Lorwyn says. “I tasted it before you did. How could you tell it was beetle?”

“The grassiness of the green tea,” I say. “It’s too sharp. You need something mellower that’s still robust enough to hold up to the aloia nectar.”

Lorwyn slumps back—I’m not entirely sure how she manages to, since she’s sitting on a stool.

“Aloia is tricky,” she grumbles.

“Maybe it needs another note,” I say. “The aloia manages the beetle flavor into something nearly salvageable. Now you need a bridge between the aloia and the tea.”

Lorwyn bolts out of her stool. “Wait there!”

She returns with another small pot and a cup, adds them to the tea service. She lifts the pot to pour, and all at once I realize, beetle scales aside, what’s been bothering me.

The water from that kettle should not have correctly brewed different kinds of teas and tisanes. The temperature of the water has to have changed, and there are no cooling or heating devices anywhere near the table.

I glance around for a structure, anything she could have used to anchor magecraft. The stools aren’t in any particular order around the table, there are no candles, and the teacups are arranged for the taster’s benefit alone.

Which means this isn’t magecraft at all.

It’s witchcraft.

I promise I can maim you in any number of ways, she said.

Lorwyn holds a cup of tea out to me with an excited look on her face.

I’ve lost my wits. After realizing what she’s doing, it’s the only explanation for what I do next.

I take the cup, and I sip.

.

Author Casey Blair:

Casey Blair writes adventurous fantasy novels for all ages, and her serial fantasy Tea Princess Chronicles is available online for free. After graduating from Vassar College, her own adventures have included teaching English in rural Japan, attending the Viable Paradise residential science fiction and fantasy writing workshop, and working as an indie bookseller. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest and can be found dancing spontaneously, exploring forests around the world, or trapped under a cat. For more information visit her website caseyblair.com or follow her on Twitter @CaseyLBlair.

Website / Goodreads / Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hosted by:

~~~~~

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for The Wielder Diaries organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.

Author Ashley Scheller will be awarding a $25 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Don’t forget to enter!

And you can click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Wielder Diaries

by Ashley Scheller

Genre: Fantasy / Adventure

Synopsis

Please…Please come back… Those words ring in her ears as she awakens. A strange band of characters call her Kayla, a name she’s forgotten along her life filled with transforming animals, magic, and dragons. Anybody would want to remember such an exciting life, yet there seems to be a truth no one wants to share, WHY it’s important Kayla remembers. With a mystical book in hand, she races against time to recall her adventures she shared with her family and friends in this first installment of ‘The Wielder Diaries’ series, ‘My Crystal.’

~~~~~

Enjoy this peek inside:

“P-Please come back…”

When the first light seeped in, I awoke with a jolt. There was a quick blur from brown to green when a sharp pull upwards tugged around my shoulders. Blinded by green fabric, I could faintly smell a smoky, sweet aroma while held tight into someone’s shoulder.

“By all that I am, you sure took your sweet time,” a young male voice cried.

Held tight from the earnestness of his embrace, I, sounding muffled, tried to ask what was going on. I wriggled and pushed the man away. When released enough to bring my head back a bit, there was a smiling face. Though he appeared young, his face was still rather hazy with my sleep-clouded vision. Not heeding my questions, or asking what I meant to say, for that matter, he lifted me off the bed into his arms and carried me out the door. Taken aback, still at a loss as to why this was all happening, I couldn’t utter a word of objection.

“Oi, has the meeting begun? Look who’s awake! Get King Basi in here!” the green-clad stranger shouted.

Although my surroundings were still blurry, I felt we were going down a set of stairs. The stairs were along the sidewall of a large room made out of what looked like wood and maybe black marble along with a high ceiling. There were also bright, twinkling lights hanging overhead, appearing somewhat tiered altogether, but I could barely stand to look at them for any length of time.

~~~~~

About Author Ashley Scheller

Ashley Scheller has many hats. An educator by day and artist by night –  if she isn’t sketching new creations in her notebook, she loves to create stories. Residing with her family in Iowa, Scheller enjoys connecting with her community about art, books, and games. In 2021, Scheller published book two of The Wielder Diaries series, Shattered. She invites you to an exciting adventure and looks forward to publishing book three soon.

Click here to check out her books, social media, and more: https://aschellerbooks.carrd.co/

Instagram / TikTok

Amazon buy link

~~~~~

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~~~~~

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for They Awakenings organized by Goddess Fish Promotions.

Author Loraine Conn will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B&N Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Don’t forget to enter!

And you can click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Awakenings

by Loraine Conn

Genre: Fantasy

Synopsis

Many generations have passed since Carling first faced Chaos’ rage. With each incarnation, his desire to find and claim her gifts grows.

Claire is just like any other 17-year-old, or so she thought. No stranger to tragedy and heartache, she finds comfort in her great-uncle and guardian, and her best friend, Adam. Her life is settling into a happy peace. Until one night everything she knew and trusted is turned on its head.

Spirited away in the middle of the night and thrust into a world of family secrets and hidden magical abilities, Claire discovers she’s not just any teenager and she’s being hunted by her best friend’s father. Claire must learn to harness her awakening gifts before an ancient evil finds her.

Can she master her Abilities before Marcus finds her?

~~~~~

Enjoy this peek inside:

The footsteps had stopped. Claire tried to swallow. She had never known fear like this, not even when she had been told her parents had died and she wondered what was going to happen to her. Thoughts of her Uncle Geoff came into her head, and she wished she were home with him. It was at that moment she became aware of someone standing over her. When she pried her eyes open and looked, a dark figure loomed large, and she almost gave a cry of alarm.

The figure bent down, and a beam of light caught his features. Claire did not know what to make of what she saw. It was her uncle. He held out his hand to her, telling her to get up. She froze for a moment, her head spinning as she tried to make sense of it.

“Uncle Geoff?” Claire asked in a soft and confused voice.

“Come on, Kid. We don’t have all night.” He reached down and pulled her up into a standing position.

“We were told you were to take her to Mr Ryder immediately, Mr Brown,” Deep Voice said, shining his light on the girl.

“I am aware of that,” Geoff told him curtly. Then to Claire in a softer voice, he said, “I’m sorry, Kid.”

~~~~~

About Author Loraine Conn

Loraine Conn grew up on the outskirts of Upper Hutt, New Zealand. Her backyard encompassed the surrounding farmland, river, hills, and mountains which she wandered with her brothers and fed her imagination. After discovering a love for writing in English class at the age of eight, she continued to write in secret. It was not until much later in life that Loraine turned what she thought was a hobby, and something fun to do, into her first completed novel. Now married, Loraine moved from New Zealand to Perth, Western Australia in 2008, and became a stay-at-home mum. While caring for her family and after battling breast cancer, a series was born from a kernel of a dream. Loraine has now published the seven book fantasy series, The One True Child Series, and also the stand-alone Realm of Dragons, Fight for the Crown. Both the series and book have been released with the American based indie publishing company Between the Lines Publishing, under their Liminal Books branch, using the pen name L.C. Conn. She continues her career with many more stories waiting in the wings to be released, and even more ideas to be written.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS: email / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Website

Amazon buy link

~~~~~

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

~~~~~

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.