Why I Wrote The Burn Zone by Renee Linnell

Photo Credit: In Her Image Photography

I wrote The Burn Zone as a catharsis; I had to get the story out of me. Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I believe she is right. The story was consuming me. It was tearing me apart from within. I was filled with anger and hatred and confusion and I had to let it go. So I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. I vomited all of it onto paper. Over and over and over again. The same scenarios, the same pain, the same periods of my life. I wrote hate letters that I never sent. I screamed into pillows. I wrote letters to God. Over 700 pages I wrote. And it helped. The heaviness began to lift. The anger began to abate. The fits of rage dissipated. The overwhelming sadness turned to hope.

As this happened I began to speak bits of my story to loved ones. I began to share what I went through, what I signed up for. People were shocked, amazed, and . . . impressed. I began to realize my story had worth. I began to realize it was a story of strength; a story of the fight of the human spirit; a story of uncovering my True Self from deep within the shattered pile of a whole lifetime’s worth of rubble. As I spoke my story I began to get a consistent similar response, “You have to write a book.” It was then that I realized I had been writing a book; it was then that I made the decision to publish what I had written.

But, it wasn’t easy. Reading through my journals was painful. Reliving those stories, those states of mind, was sickening. However, I kept doing it. Because as I did it I realized I had inscribed a map. It was a description of what so many of us (I may even venture to say all of us) do as we create a life to please others. And it was a map, a stepping stone path, out, back to authenticity. I realized I had to print and share my story; even if it helped only one other person.  

I suppose my background as a seeker and as a Buddhist monk influenced my writing in that I felt safe being raw. Vulnerable. “In my defenselessness my safety lies,” says The Course in Miracles. I took it to heart. And it has been liberating. Publishing my whole story is so freeing because I get to just be me. And it turns out I’m really good at being me. I sucked at being the versions of me I thought I was supposed to be to please my parents, my teachers, my friends, the rest of the world; but it’s actually not much effort at all to just be me. I had a great writing teacher in high school who taught us all the rules of grammar, but then encouraged us to break them. So, you will notice I break a lot of writing rules, but I write the way I would tell a story. Thought by thought, sentence by sentence. Again, authenticity. This is the way I would tell you a story if we were face to face in my living room; why should I write it any other way?

It is my sincere desire that readers would feel liberated after reading my book. I love to imagine the little child within them smiling, finally feeling like s/he gets to call the shots. I love the idea of my readers making the commitment to love and nurture themselves; to treat themselves to the little joys in life that they love. I would love for my readers to finally let go of shame; to start claiming and even celebrating their stories. Especially the “skeletons in the closet.” I imagine shackles around the soul being removed; the shackles of shame, the shackles of not-forgiving, the shackles of wishing this or that never happened. I love imagining the spirits of my readers dancing around in the joy and wonder of their Earth Walk. Changing their mental paradigms to believing their life has been a wild adventure instead of lugging around the baggage of regret. I love imagining the flames within their hearts, the light within, igniting. And I would love for my readers to pull up to the surface, and feel safe in the exposing of, the parts of them that make them different. I would love for them to put my book down knowing their difference is their destiny and feeling ready to show and tell the world about their story, their fight of the human spirit, all that they have gone through, all that they have learned. I would love for them to discover the exhilarating freedom that comes with forgiving all of it, embracing their battle scars, and using those scars to go out in the world and fulfill their true Divine Purpose.

About the Author:

Renee Linnell is the author of The Burn Zone: A Memoir, now available on Audible. She is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and cofounded five companies and has an Executive Masters in Business Administration from New York University. Currently she is working on starting a publishing company to give people from diverse walks of life an opportunity to tell their stories. She divides her time between Colorado and Southern California. For more information, please visit https://reneelinnell.com and follow Renee on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Q&A with Lucy Parker, The Austen Playbook

Your latest book THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK is out this month! Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK.

I knew that I wanted to feature a stage adaptation of a Jane Austen book, but couldn’t decide which book, and in the end decided to opt for all the Austen books, with a contemporary gaming twist. And I’m a big fan of classic detective fiction, so since the action in the book is primarily taking place at a country estate, I couldn’t resist making it a murder mystery play and going for a modern-day house party vibe.

Once I decided that Freddy, a secondary character in an earlier book, was going to be the heroine, it was without question that the sunniest, most optimistic person in the series was going to be paired with the man who is possibly its biggest grump. She’s this exuberant beam of happiness, and he’s this cool-tempered, work-focused “walking ice cube”, as Freddy puts it. I have such a weakness for the Slytherin/Hufflepuff pairing, that clash in temperament, and watching as the cynical character falls hard for this bright, chirpy light, and has no idea what’s happened to their life.

What three words best describe Freddy?

Optimistic, loyal, and affectionate.

What three words best describe Griff?

Needs more hugs.

What’s your writing routine?

I have some mobility issues associated with chronic illness, so it’s uncomfortable for me to write at a desk. I do most of my writing, whenever I can, on my bed, lying down with my laptop propped up on my knees. I can’t write in complete silence, so I tend to have reruns of a show I’ve seen hundreds of times playing in the background. And I try not to snack too much, because I’ll just keep eating without realising, but if I get writer’s block, it’s instinctive that I’ll go and get something to eat! When you’ve written yourself into a corner, apparently the only answer is carbs.

What do you do when you get stuck?

Eat. All the carbs and sugar. J Then I’ll talk it out. Usually, a long-suffering member of my family is the recipient of my long-winded complaints about where I’ve gone wrong in a book they haven’t read yet, and they always do an amazing job of prompting me with the right questions so that, generally, I can find a way forward. My incredible writer friends online have also frequently stepped up to help me in a similar way.

What distracts you the most when you're trying to write?

Honestly, my own anxieties. The more I start second-guessing what I’m writing, and worrying about other people actually reading it, the more blocked I’ll feel and the more stilted the writing becomes. I really have to try to get into the zone where I’m just writing for me, and enjoying what I’m doing, and I’m in my own little bubble.

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?

Not received personally (sadly!), but definitely the quote by Nora Roberts: “I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.”

Do you use a bookmark or dogear pages?

If they’re my own books — I dogear. I’m sorry. But I think of it as book wrinkles; they’re lines of experience. They show somebody loved that book, and are visual evidence of its past history of reads. I’m sticking to that story.

What are you currently reading?

I’m currently deep into writing, so not reading as much as I normally do, but I recently read Olivia Dade’s Teach Me (out in May) and it’s wonderful. I highly recommend it.

Who are three romance authors you fangirl over?

Nalini Singh, Tessa Dare, and Laura Florand.

How would you describe your ideal romantic hero?

My ideal romantic book hero is a grump and/or stuffed shirt who’s never fallen in love before and doesn’t know how to handle all the feelings when it happens. Preferably with a sarcastic, cynical sense of humour.

In real life, however, I would probably find that man very fatiguing, and in an actual human, I like kind, gentle, supportive and affectionate, with a wry sense of humour.

About the Book:

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In which experienced West End actress Freddy Carlton takes on an Austen-inspired play, a scandal at a country estate, an enthusiastic search for a passion outside of acting…and the (some people might say icy*) heart of London’s most feared theater critic.

*if those people were being nice

Freddy Carlton knows she should be focusing on her lines for The Austen Playbook, a live-action TV event where viewers choose the outcome of each scene, but her concentration’s been blown. The palatial estate housing the endeavor is now run by the rude (brilliant) critic who’s consistently slammed her performances of late. James “Griff” Ford-Griffin has a penchant for sarcasm, a majestic nose and all the sensitivity of a sledgehammer.

She can’t take her eyes off him.

Griff can hardly focus with a contagious joy fairy flitting about near him, especially when Freddy looks at him like that. His only concern right now should be on shutting down his younger brother’s well-intentioned (disastrous) schemes—or at the very least on the production (not this one) that might save his family home from the banks.

Instead all he can think of is soft skin and vibrant curls.

As he’s reluctantly dragged into her quest to rediscover her passion for the stage and Freddy is drawn into his research on a legendary theater star, the adage about appearances being deceiving proves abundantly true. It’s the unlikely start of something enormous…but a single revelation about the past could derail it all.

“There’s more drama offstage than on, the writing is outstanding, and the bit of mystery blends well into the romance. Theater fans will devour this lovely contemporary romance.”-Publisher’s Weekly, starred review, on The Austen Playbook

“The London Celebrities series-some of the wittiest, smartest dialogue to come down the romance pike in years.”-Kirkus ReviewS of London Celebrities series

Q&A with Phoebe Darqueling, No Rest for the Wicked

You’re living in Germany right now. What are some pros and cons of ex-pat life?

Freiburg im Breisgau is a gorgeous city at the foot of the Black Forest and nestled between France and Switzerland. I really love being so centrally located within western Europe, and my husband and I are taking the opportunity to travel. After all, when you can just pop over to Zurich for an art exhibit or go to a wine tasting on France’s Rue de Vin (wine road) for the cost of a carshare rental, there’s really no excuse NOT to get out and see more of the world.

The biggest con, besides being so far away from friends and family, is navigating the bureaucracy. I found out just a couple of days ago that in order to have a long-term resident permit, I have to take 700 HOURS of “orientation” and language courses. And though I’d like to be able to banter with the occasional cashier, learning German is really hard. I leave the classes feeling completely exhausted mentally, which makes it hard to get writing done. I’m switching to evening classes in the hopes that I can do my writing in the morning before I get so tired of braining for the day.

So far, what has your publishing journey been like?

Unfortunately, my publishing journey has been plagued by promising organizations that implode on me right after I’ve invested a lot of time and effort. The small press is a difficult model to maintain, and I’ve been sucked in doing a lot of extra work marketing other people, then been spat back out because the institution folded after a big fight a couple of times. One of my pieces of advice for new authors now is to make sure you don’t put all of your publishing eggs in one basket; you never know when someone’s going to knock it over.

Luckily, No Rest for the Wicked and my Mistress of None series has found a home with Black Rose Writing, which is a very stable indie press located in Texas. I’m in great company there, both with the authors and the staff.

But before all that, I got my first publishing credits by working with the Collaborative Writing Challenge. They had this really interesting system where authors get the first chapter of a book, the chapter that precedes the one they are going to write, and reference notes. Then, 3-5 people would take their best shot at writing what came next. A story coordinator would choose their favorite chapter, sometimes two but also sometimes none, and then the story would move on from there. I contributed to one of their novels and had two out of three of my attempts chosen for the book, including writing the big climax. I thought it was such a cool concept that when they were trying to decide what genre to do next, I suggested Steampunk and offered to be the coordinator. Over a year later, Army of Brass was born.

Since then, I’ve had two novels published and I am actively working on two more. My first nonfiction book, The Steampunk Handbook, will be available starting this summer, but it is currently available for free for people who subscribe to my newsletter.

I’ve also been a part of a couple of short story anthologies. My shorts tend to be a lot darker and graphic than my novels; probably because I don’t like to dwell too long in that headspace. Better to dip a toe in the darkness than to dive right in.

What comes first in your writing, the plot or the characters?

With the two novels I have finished, the characters definitely came first. The main character in Riftmaker is basically what I think my dog would be like if he suddenly found himself in a human body with human thoughts.

Viola Thorne, the main character of No Rest for the Wicked, has an interesting story behind her. I absolutely love the “bad science” of the Victorian era and where it intersects with magic. Spiritualism, for instance, is fascinating to me. So when I got a job as a tour guide at the Sacramento History Museum and needed to create a persona, I immediately had the idea to be a medium. However, Sacramento was also famous for the high density of grifters and thieves at the time, so I decided to create a fake medium. And thus Viola Thorne was born.

With some of the other ideas I’ve had for books that I haven’t started yet, the plot came first. It was an interesting challenge to go the other direction and figure out who would be the best character to star in story that already had plot points in it rather than the other way around.

Where does your inspiration for your pieces come from?

I really like what I lovingly refer to as “bad science.” These are concepts that make some semblance of sense, but turn out to be false. Or the phenomena are real, but the explanation is just plain wrong. I enjoy taking these concepts and creating stories around them. This can make what I do a little tough to classify sometimes because it is sits right where fantasy and science meet.

I’ve also realized that the idea of worlds that are separate but overlap somehow, be they actual portals you walk through or the ability to see the dead among us, has a real hold on me. That is more like a common theme than inspiration though, because it seems to be where I end up but not necessarily where I start.

What is No Rest for the Wicked about?

Other people just think they’re “haunted by the past.” In Vi’s case, it’s true.

Clairvoyant Viola Thorne wants to forget about her days of grifting and running errands for ghosts. The problem? Playing it safe is dull. So when a dead stranger begs for her help, Vi jumps at the chance to dust off her hustling skills. The unlikely companions are soon tangling with bandits, cheating at cards, and loving every minute.

Then she finds out who referred him, and Vi has to face both a past and ex-partner that refuse to stay buried. Though she betrayed Peter, his spirit warns her of the plot that cost him his life. Vi’s guilty conscience won’t let her rest until she solves his murder. Though she’s spent her whole life fighting the pull of the paranormal, it holds the key to atoning for the only deception she’s ever regretted—breaking Peter’s heart.

The Mistress of None will take Vi from CA down to New Orleans and up the East Coast of the US in the fall of 1871. The series is planned for a 5-book arc, but I love the character so much that I have also been playing with the idea of writing a prequel book or two as well.

Where can people find you on the web?

From May 17-19, I’m part of OWS CyCon 2019, a cyber book convention for readers and writers. In addition to hosting guest posts on my blog and sharing posts with others, we’ve got contests and games going on all weekend. If you RSVP to the Facebook event page, you’ll get a reminder to check out the festivities when they begin.

I spend a lot of my non-fiction writing energy on writing reviews and articles for the Steampunk Journal. In addition to myself and my co-editor, we have a ton of guest writers who drop by to add their flare. Plus, indie authors send in chapters of their books for our readers, so stop by and find a fun new book to read!

 Here are a few other ways to connect with me online:

Newsletter - Sign up and get a FREE copy of The Steampunk Handbook

Facebook Fan Group - Where I post links to all of my guest posts and other goodness

Twitter

Instagram

Thanks for having me, Michelle!

Guest Post: Vannetta Chapman, A Perfect Amish Match

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As is often the case, my upcoming release A Perfect Amish Match is patterned after some people I know. And although my book is about Amish people, and the folks I was thinking about as I wrote this story are Englisch, I am convinced that the Amish deal with many of the same problems that the rest of the world deals with.

In this case, it’s the idea of love, of soul mates, of whether there is someone out there for everyone. Some people (most romance writers) are believers. We are certain that there is true love for everyone, but sometimes it’s hard to recognize the person who could be our forever love. For instance, when I first met my husband, I was going to set him up with my sister. That’s a true story! I did not think he was my type. After twenty years of marriage, I’m now sure that we were meant to be.

As I was plotting A Perfect Amish Match, it was easy enough for me to envision Olivia Mae. She’s a young (but not too young) Amish woman, someone who believes in love but thinks that her chances have passed, someone who finds contentment in matching other people. Yeah. I could see that easily enough.

And then along comes Noah Graber. Oh, Noah. What can I say about him other than he reminds me of many of the men in my own family: men who are convinced that dating is fine for everyone else but not for them, men who think they’re destined to always be a bachelor so they might as well enjoy it, men who don’t read romance books and don’t believe that everyone has a happily-ever-after.

Just as the sparks fly for Olivia Mae and Noah, I continue to believe that someday the guys in my life just might find the one. Until then, I’ll keep using them for story characters. They provide plenty of heart, hilarity and hope for both the married and single among us.

I hope that you enjoy A Perfect Amish Match, and I pray that through it you will be reminded that God has a perfect plan for everyone.

Q&A with L.E. Rico, Mischief and Mayhem

How did you pick Minnesota to be the location of the Story?

L.E. (Lauren): My primary career is as a classical music radio DJ and when I was in my late twenties, I had the chance to work for a nationally syndicated service called Classical24—which happened to be based in St. Paul, MN. Even though I’d lived all over the east coast, I knew the Midwest was a whole other world, so I was pretty scared when I got there. But the Minnesotans welcomed me with open arms and helped me weather (pun totally intended) my first winters, buying and maintaining my first house and my ongoing struggle with depression. I had friends almost immediately and was totally enamored of the quirky, cool community around me. The polka mass at the local Catholic church, the obsession with hotdish, and the state fair—where everything is on a stick and Princess Kay of the Milky Way reigns supreme, were some of my favorites. Honestly, had I not met my husband and moved back to New York, I’d probably still be there now!

Was it always your intention with this book to do it about a sister and then two brothers?

L.E. (Lauren): Yes. We first see Jameson in book one, Blame it on the Bet and it’s clear that her marriage to Win is in trouble. Knowing that her book would be next, I was already concocting scenarios for her to find love after divorce and by having someone who’s been away for so long, I was able to use him to reintroduce the readers —who may or may not have read Blame it on the Bet—to the whacky town of Mayhem and its quirky residents. Plus, I knew it would make Win craaaazy! And that’s always a bonus :^)

Was it always your idea to have different issues like stroke, adoption, working in foreign countries a part of the story or it just came as the story flowed?

L.E. (Lauren): It all came as the story unraveled under my fingers. My characters often tell me what their stories are, believe it or not! I start off with a very basic idea of who they are and then the events just kind of unfold.

Adoption played into this story. Was that something you researched or did you know someone who went through that?

L.E. (Lauren): I have two uncles who were adopted—the youngest of whom is two years younger than me. He and I grew up more like brother and sister and we’re still very, very close today. And, while I didn’t purposely set out to write a story about adoption, it was easy to paint that kind of attitude that we were raised with—family is family is family, blood or not. In the case of my elder uncle, my grandparents had to fight for him when, mid-adoption, a “white” family was interested in taking him (my grandparents are Latino). Those were totally different times—even though it was just in 1961—and it was a battle but they never backed down. So this idea that Big Win and Marjorie would do whatever they had to do to adopt that child and keep him—and his identity—safe wasn’t foreign to me.

Was the county fair always part of your original story?

L.E. (Lauren): Ohhhhhh yeah… I’ve never seen anything like the Minnesota State fair. The food is all deep-fried and on a stick, the rides are amazing, there are people walking around in bee costumes for the honey judging. And, of course, there’s Princess Kay of the Milky Way and her royal court— the inspiration for my Princess Mary of Midwestern Dairy. They really do make a butter bust of her! How could I NOT include that?! Although, I have to admit that the float catastrophe was all mine.

Do you have a process that you come up with when you are choosing names and personalities of your characters?

L.E. (Lauren): I’ve run through most of the guy names I like so I sometimes use a name generator for help with that. I’ve got a ton of girl names, though. Sometimes I consult a baby names book. The personalities just kind of unfold as I write. I had a good idea of who Jameson, Win and Big Win were based on Blame it on the Bet. Scott was a mystery to me—I had to figure out what it was about him that kept him from coming home and confronting his past for a full decade. Oh, and then there’s little Jackson…God help us all. He was the most fun of all! I’m at a loss for what I’ll do with him as he gets older in the upcoming books!

Do you use daily events sometimes as your inspirations?

L.E. (Lauren): Oh, sure, all the time! The character of Bryan, Hennessy’s boyfriend, is basically me when I first moved to Minnesota. I was the fish out of water—especially when it came to things like winter preparedness and regional foods like lutefisk (yuck!) and cheese curds (yum!). But more than events it’s people I know who inspire my characters. Janet Lahti, the pie-making mystic is actually an aunt of mine. She’s a bit of a psychic and has had some really spooky occurrences over the years. Julie Freddino, aka The Knitty Kitty, is a girlfriend of mine who took up knitting and gave me a pussyhat last year. It gave me the idea for her business and she picked out her own purple hair.

Did you always have big Win getting sick at the beginning in your draft?

L.E. (Lauren): Oh, yeah. In the absence of the late “Pops” O’Halloran, Big Win is the paternal figure here. So when his life is in serious jeopardy, it’s a crisis that sucks them all in—the sisters, Win Jr, Scott—even Jackson is effected by the fall of his “goppa.” So it’s a good thread to bring them all together in shared fear and stress and grief. And with his life on the line, it was an opportunity for me to explore the kind of man he’d been when he was younger—when Scott and Win came along. It was also a chance to really see his incredible strength and the love that comes with that.

Was that scene considered the hook to the story?

L.E. (Lauren): I’m big on starting things right smack in the middle so that the reader is immediately thrown into the deep end. And that image of Big Win on the floor with Jameson giving him CPR and little Jackson wailing in the background—well, it doesn’t get a whole lot more high-stakes than that.

When you began to write this book did you know it was going to be a romance and a mystery?

L.E. (Lauren): Bringing Scott home was easy—his father’s health crisis put him in an impossible position. He had to come back. But that begs the question—if he’s such a great guy, why did he leave in the first place? So, yeah, it was kind of a mystery for me as well while I sorted out what kind of demons might make someone run away from their family—from their life—for a decade.

When do you know that the time in the story calls for humor, like the float scene at the fair?

L.E. (Lauren): Honestly, I didn’t even know I was funny until the reviews came in for book number one—Blame it on the Bet. So it was pretty scary approaching Mischief and Mayhem thinking I HAD to be funny. But I found my way. There were a couple of early drafts that were just way too dark and my editor helped me find my way back to a more lighthearted, funnier place—like Princess Mary showing up at the pub and the iguana on the plane. Of course, there’s always going to be something around the Knitty Kitty. But, yeah, that float scene—it was totally organic and it STILL cracks me up!

If your book was made into a movie who would you have play…

L.E. (Lauren): Yikes! This is always tough for me…

Jameson: Rose Leslie

Scott: Theo James

Win Jr.: Alex Pettyfer

Win Sr.: Treat Williams

What song or songs best describes your couple or book as a whole?

L.E. (Lauren): It’s the theme song from the prologue through to the epilogue—with a generation in between:

“Make You Feel My Love” – Garth Brooks

“Make You Feel My Love” – Adele

What is your next project and when is due out?

L.E. (Lauren): I’ve just released a new, non-Whiskey novel, Counterpoint about two concert pianists who bond over a tragic past, a dismal future, and their love for one another.

2019 will also see books for the remaining two sisters, Walker and Bailey.

What Inspired The Starlight Chronicles Series by P.S. Malcolm

It was after a short writing break that I was inspired to sit down at my wooden desk, cup of tea in hand, and write a psychological thriller. It's also worth mentioning that I had no clue how to write such a genre at the time. But I was driven around the concept of the stars actually being lanterns in the sky in need of regular re-lighting, and creating a world around that with a stealthy antagonist.

Of course, the book flopped a couple of chapters in for this reason, and the draft was left saved on my memory stick which I unthinkingly lent to a friend for her assignment.

This friend happened to be a major bookworm and found the manuscript, devoured it, and demanded I keep writing it. At the time, another story concept had floated into my brain—one consisting of stars and princesses and magical kingdoms. The two ideas sort of blended together, and suddenly I was really inspired to write a story much more within my reading tastes.

A tragedy story with gritty, dark romance and action!

I wanted my readers to cry, to scream with frustration, to feel deeply for the characters. I wanted them to be awed by the plot twists and not be able to possibly predict what was coming.

I loved reading stories like that—was constantly awed by authors who could make me feel such a way, and I vowed that I would do the same. It all fell together so easily and so quickly that I finished the story in a month. By the end of the year, I had four books drafted out and a small following of loyal readers glued to the series.

What makes this series so powerful is the conflict between the characters and how deeply entwined it is with the plot—there are so many stakes and perspectives to consider. Each character is uniquely different and contributes to the overall plot, making them necessary key players in the conflict. This was one of my big goals—I wanted to write a story where siding with just one character would be difficult, and there would be amazing character growth ARCs to witness.

After many re-writes, the first book is finally hitting shelves and I couldn't be more excited or prouder—I can't wait for readers to connect with my story and follow the exciting journey waiting for them!

You can grab your copy of Lanterns In The Sky here: https://www.amazon.com/Lanterns-Sky-Starlight-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B07NZXTMQ4/

If You Love These Books, You'll Love Lanterns In The Sky

I am a huge fan of royal revolutions, magical fantasy and powerful, badass characters—which is why I read these books as well as write them!

In this post, I want to help you figure out if Lanterns In The Sky is your next go-to read by sharing a couple of similar books with relating themes, settings or style. You might even discover another book you haven't heard of yet (did someone day two for one?)

So buckle up, and let's take a look shall we?

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard

I'm sure most people who read YA fantasy have heard of this book by now. Red Queen kind of blew up—and I definitely see why.

Some of the best parts of this book were the magic structure in this world, the worldbuilding, the stakes and the plot twists! (If you've read this one you know exactly what I'm referring to).

Enter Lanterns In The Sky—a story set in the present world descending into a slow downfall of society, with major stakes and a super killer plot twist to throw you off—because I love Victoria Aveyard's style! *wink*

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

Ah… dreamy Stardust! I love this beautiful, whimsical read and the adventures the characters go on. Also, the romance is just lovely!

Though Lanterns In The Sky is more dark and gritty, it has it's powerful and lovely moments—and if you love 'star' magic and constellations, then Lanterns In The Sky is heavily based around that entire concept.

I like to think that the writing is balanced between dark moments and hopeful ones—with an interesting love story unfolding along the way.

An Ember In The Ashes, by Sabar Tahir

This book has some amazing character development, action, and shares a very similar theme to the backstory of The Starlight Chronicles. Character conflicts are something that come up a lot in Lanterns In The Sky—so these books share a parallel here.

If you love resistances and royal revolutions and enjoyed reading An Ember In The Ashes, then you'll definitely want to add Lanterns In The Sky to your reading list (especially because the following novella, Starfall, will really intrigue fans of An Ember In The Ashes.)

Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, by Laini Taylor

If you love European settings crossed with fantasy worlds, you will just adore Lanterns In The Sky.

One of the most notable things about Daughter Of Smoke And Bone was it's distinct settings in Prague and Paris and other places outside of the U.S. It also managed to magically blend fantasy worlds in the epic way that Laini Taylor does!

Although we don't get to explore the other 'fantasy' worlds of The Starlight Chronicles until book two, the setting of Lorelei is entirely unique on its own and influenced by Vienna and Salzburg. Plus, there are angels in this book and they are super cool beings!

I hope this post has inspired your next read and helped you decide if Lanterns In The Sky is for you! You can grab your copy of Lanterns In The Sky here: https://www.amazon.com/Lanterns-Sky-Starlight-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B07NZXTMQ4/

Happy reading!