The Tears of the Rose
The Twelve Kingdoms, #2
by Jeffe Kennedy
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Three sisters. Motherless daughters of the high king. The eldest is the warrior-woman heir;the middle child is shy and full of witchy intuition;and the youngest, Princess Amelia, she is as beautiful as the sun and just as generous.
Ami met her Prince Charming and went away to his castle on the stormy sea-cliffs—and that should have been her happily ever after. Instead, her husband lies dead and a war rages. Her middle sister has been taken into a demon land, turned into a stranger. The priests and her father are revealing secrets and telling lies. And a power is rising in Ami, too, a power she hardly recognizes, to wield her beauty as a weapon, and her charm as a tool to deceive…
Amelia has never had to be anything but good and sweet and kind and lovely. But the chess game for the Twelve Kingdoms has swept her up in it, and she must make a gambit of her own. Can the prettiest princess become a pawn—or a queen?
The Twelve Kingdoms, #2
by Jeffe Kennedy
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: November 25, 2014
Three sisters. Motherless daughters of the high king. The eldest is the warrior-woman heir;the middle child is shy and full of witchy intuition;and the youngest, Princess Amelia, she is as beautiful as the sun and just as generous.
Ami met her Prince Charming and went away to his castle on the stormy sea-cliffs—and that should have been her happily ever after. Instead, her husband lies dead and a war rages. Her middle sister has been taken into a demon land, turned into a stranger. The priests and her father are revealing secrets and telling lies. And a power is rising in Ami, too, a power she hardly recognizes, to wield her beauty as a weapon, and her charm as a tool to deceive…
Amelia has never had to be anything but good and sweet and kind and lovely. But the chess game for the Twelve Kingdoms has swept her up in it, and she must make a gambit of her own. Can the prettiest princess become a pawn—or a queen?
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with a writing career that spans decades. Her works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook.
Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, which released beginning January 2, 2014. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and a fifth, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, will release starting in July.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Foreword Literary.
http://www.jeffekennedy.com/
http://www.jeffekennedy.com/category/blog/
https://www.facebook.com/jeffe.kennedy
https://twitter.com/jeffekennedy
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Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, which released beginning January 2, 2014. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and a fifth, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, will release starting in July.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Foreword Literary.
http://www.jeffekennedy.com/
http://www.jeffekennedy.com/category/blog/
https://www.facebook.com/jeffe.kennedy
https://twitter.com/jeffekennedy
Guest Post:
The Three Sisters
One of the reader comments I love to hear about my Twelve Kingdoms trilogy is how much people love that the story is as much about the three sisters and their relationship as anything else. I really wanted the story to be about them, what they share and how they’re different.
Ursula, Andromeda (Andi) and Amelia (Ami) are the three daughters of the High King. They were born five years apart and grew up essentially motherless. Queen Salena died when Ami was born. Andi, who was five at the time, barely remembers Salena and has been the only mother figure Ami has known. Ursula, ten when their mother died, assumed the mantel of responsibility for them all. Because their father is both remote and a – shall we say – difficult person to get along with, and because their elevated station in the realm isolates them further, the three sisters develop a strong bond, despite their age differences.
They share certain traits in common – both ones they’re aware of and ones that emerge over time. Because none of them knew their mother all that well, and because Salena kept many secrets, her legacy is less clear. All three of the sisters discover ways that they’ve inherited their mother’s magic, in very different capacities. They also find that, as they carry out Salena’s deeply laid plans, they possess much of the nobility and love that drove Salena to sacrifice her own happiness for the good of others.
All three sisters are, naturally, profoundly influenced by their father. They all have gained his ferocity, his lust for life and a tendency to assume command. His less happy qualities of arrogance and being quick to anger are part of them also – flaws the young women must learn to manage and channel for positive purposes.
And yet, each sister is very different also.
Andi, the middle princess, grows up seeing herself as the space between her far more interesting sisters. In fact, she thinks of herself as being what they are not. She is not the beauty or the warrior, not the eldest or the youngest. She’s unremarkable at best, abhorrent at worst. Over time, however, she discovers the ways in which she’s inherited her mother’s magic and how she’s learned to hide that behind appearing to be invisible. In many ways, she’s the most steady of the three sisters, once she finds her way. The moon goddess, Moranu, guides her path. She finds a sustaining love first and discovers her own sense of self. She manages her emotions and becomes a powerful bedrock to assist her sisters in their journeys.
The youngest, most beautiful princess, Ami, is both sweet-natured and terribly spoiled. She’s the indulged baby, the petted motherless child, a girl universally admired for her beauty and as the physical embodiment of the goddess of love, Glorianna. In many ways, she’s bought into her own press. It takes a lot for her to begin to understand what is truth and what is flattery. She believes herself to have no power of her own – only borrowed power from other people. Because she’s used to manipulating people to get her way, she doesn’t understand her own value beyond superficial prettiness. Over time Ami learns what she really has to offer, the real power of love and how to live in the moment. She brings that back to her sisters, the ability to savor life and live it to the fullest.
As the eldest, Ursula is the gatekeeper. She protects her sisters whether they want her to or not – and in ways they never suspect. She is the son her father never had and holds herself accountable to a high standard, always hoping to, if not make him proud of her, at least not disappoint him further. She believes herself to be a warrior first and foremost, and she looks to the goddess Danu and her bright sword of truth to guide her. She sees herself as her father’s daughter and only much later recognizes the profound ways in which she is very much her mother’s daughter. Ursula is all about being strong, but much of it is external. Only with the help of her sisters can she find her true core strength.
To me, the three sisters form the parts of a whole. Their strengths compensate for the others’ weaknesses and their love for and belief in each other is what enables them to eventually triumph.
The Three Sisters
One of the reader comments I love to hear about my Twelve Kingdoms trilogy is how much people love that the story is as much about the three sisters and their relationship as anything else. I really wanted the story to be about them, what they share and how they’re different.
Ursula, Andromeda (Andi) and Amelia (Ami) are the three daughters of the High King. They were born five years apart and grew up essentially motherless. Queen Salena died when Ami was born. Andi, who was five at the time, barely remembers Salena and has been the only mother figure Ami has known. Ursula, ten when their mother died, assumed the mantel of responsibility for them all. Because their father is both remote and a – shall we say – difficult person to get along with, and because their elevated station in the realm isolates them further, the three sisters develop a strong bond, despite their age differences.
They share certain traits in common – both ones they’re aware of and ones that emerge over time. Because none of them knew their mother all that well, and because Salena kept many secrets, her legacy is less clear. All three of the sisters discover ways that they’ve inherited their mother’s magic, in very different capacities. They also find that, as they carry out Salena’s deeply laid plans, they possess much of the nobility and love that drove Salena to sacrifice her own happiness for the good of others.
All three sisters are, naturally, profoundly influenced by their father. They all have gained his ferocity, his lust for life and a tendency to assume command. His less happy qualities of arrogance and being quick to anger are part of them also – flaws the young women must learn to manage and channel for positive purposes.
And yet, each sister is very different also.
Andi, the middle princess, grows up seeing herself as the space between her far more interesting sisters. In fact, she thinks of herself as being what they are not. She is not the beauty or the warrior, not the eldest or the youngest. She’s unremarkable at best, abhorrent at worst. Over time, however, she discovers the ways in which she’s inherited her mother’s magic and how she’s learned to hide that behind appearing to be invisible. In many ways, she’s the most steady of the three sisters, once she finds her way. The moon goddess, Moranu, guides her path. She finds a sustaining love first and discovers her own sense of self. She manages her emotions and becomes a powerful bedrock to assist her sisters in their journeys.
The youngest, most beautiful princess, Ami, is both sweet-natured and terribly spoiled. She’s the indulged baby, the petted motherless child, a girl universally admired for her beauty and as the physical embodiment of the goddess of love, Glorianna. In many ways, she’s bought into her own press. It takes a lot for her to begin to understand what is truth and what is flattery. She believes herself to have no power of her own – only borrowed power from other people. Because she’s used to manipulating people to get her way, she doesn’t understand her own value beyond superficial prettiness. Over time Ami learns what she really has to offer, the real power of love and how to live in the moment. She brings that back to her sisters, the ability to savor life and live it to the fullest.
As the eldest, Ursula is the gatekeeper. She protects her sisters whether they want her to or not – and in ways they never suspect. She is the son her father never had and holds herself accountable to a high standard, always hoping to, if not make him proud of her, at least not disappoint him further. She believes herself to be a warrior first and foremost, and she looks to the goddess Danu and her bright sword of truth to guide her. She sees herself as her father’s daughter and only much later recognizes the profound ways in which she is very much her mother’s daughter. Ursula is all about being strong, but much of it is external. Only with the help of her sisters can she find her true core strength.
To me, the three sisters form the parts of a whole. Their strengths compensate for the others’ weaknesses and their love for and belief in each other is what enables them to eventually triumph.
September 11 Spotlight
Queen of All She Reads
http://queenofallshereads.blogspot.com
September 17 Guest blog
Shut Up & Read
http://shutupandreadgroup.blogspot.com/
September 19 Spotlight
Vampire Romance Books
www.vampireromancebooks.com
September 22 Spotlight
Flutey Words
http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com
September 25 Spotlight
Cover Reveals
http://CoverReveals.blogspot.com
September 26 Guest blog
VampChix
http://www.vampchix.blogspot.com
September 30 Spotlight
Deal Sharing Aunt
www.dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com
October 1 Spotlight
CBY Book Club
cbybookclub.blogspot.co.uk
October 7 Spotlight
Emma Weylin
http://emmaweylin.com/
October 9 Guest blog
Angel's Guilty Pleasures
http://angelsguiltypleasures.com
October 13 Spotlight
Share My Destiny
http://sharemydestiny.blogspot.com
October 14 Spotlight
Illuminite Caliginosus
http://darkwriter67.wordpress.com
October 30 Spotlight
happy tails and tales
magluvsya03.wordpress.com
Thanks for hosting me today!
ReplyDeleteIt's my pleasure :) I loved the first book in this series and am looking forward to reading this one!
DeleteYay! I just mailed you an ARC on Saturday. :-)
Delete