She’s the One that Gets in Fights
(Book Three of the War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters)
by S.R. Cronin
GENRE: Historical Fantasy
BLURB:
Do you know what your problem is?
Sulphur knows hers. This 13th-century woman has trained as a fighter all her life in hopes of joining the army. Then, within days, both of her older sisters announce plans and suddenly Sulphur is expected to find a man to marry instead.
Is it her good fortune her homeland is gripped by fear of a pending invasion and the army now goes door to door encouraging recruits? Sulphur thinks it is. But once she’s forced to kill in a small skirmish, she’s ready to rethink her career decision. Too bad it’s too late. The invasion is coming, and Ilari needs every good soldier it has.
Once Sulphur learns Ilari’s army has made the strategic decision to not defend certain parts of the realm, including the one where her family lives, she has to re-evaluate her loyalty. Is it with the military she’s always admired? Or is it with her sisters, who are hatching a plan to defend their homeland with magic?
The problem with being a woman who fights for what’s right is that now, she has to figure out what is.
(The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters consists of seven short companion novels. Each tells the personal story and perspective of one of seven radically different sisters in the 1200s as they prepare for an invasion of their realm. While these historical fantasy/alternate history books can be enjoyed as stand-alone novels, together they tell the full story of how Ilari survived.)
Excerpt:
As one of the oldest three daughters, a few anks ago I’d been gussied up in a gown that appeared to be made from spun gold. The seamstress said she’d hoped to match the color of my hair. I’d shocked everyone by chopping it short, but she insisted it remained my best feature. The dress must have cost a fortune and it was varmin uncomfortable. But because I and my two older sisters had all finished our advanced studies without finding a husband, my distressed mother thought it best to send us to the Kolada ball at the palace in Pilk.
She put Ryalgar, our oldest, in a rich red get-up that got the job done. An actual prince of Pilk took a shine to my academic sister and by the end of the evening a courtship began. My mother’s eyes shown with joy when she heard the news.
Coral, my next sister, had been packaged in a soft pink confection that I think even she hated, and she’d landed with some oaf she despised. Me, I’d been as polite as I could be for as long as I could, then I’d taken a brisk walk around the grounds alone until it got late enough for me to retire to my quarters and get out of that dress.
Now, clothes were a problem again.
I’d torn more than my share of them and my mother’s frustration at the state of my last ripped dress worried me. I’d already claimed to have been chased by a bull in Bisu, to have slipped and fallen into a creek bed in Gruen, and to have climbed a tree to rescue a neighbor’s cat. I’d run out of plausible excuses. I needed special clothes to train in.
I’d never been good with a needle and thread, but I had two sisters who could sew anything out of almost nothing. One was away at school, so I asked the other for help. Coral made two pairs of strong trousers and a couple of long tunics with split sides from scraps she found. Modest yet functional, and they fit in my saddlebags so I could change in the barn.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.
She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how eccentric she is.
All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.
Author Social Media Links:
Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads
Amazon ~ Author Blog ~ Book Series Blog
Buy Links:
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Smashwords
4 comments:
It is always a pleasure to be on this fine blog!
Sounds like a great read.
Great post - I enjoyed the excerpt!
Sounds like a good book.
Post a Comment