Tag: fantasy

Posted in News, Writing

The Baronet Who Thwarted Me: Bedlam Academy Cover Reveal

Posted on by Amy McNulty

The book I’m currently serializing on Kindle Vella has a new title and cover in preparation for its e-book/paperback release next year!

Cover by Ali Lawson Book Design.

  • Title: The Baronet Who Thwarted Me: Bedlam Academy
  • Author: Amy McNulty
  • Publisher: Crimson Fox Publishing
  • Publication Date: TBA Summer 2023

Georgiana Radcliff is her family’s sacrifice. Georgiana Radcliff is Bedlam Academy’s pawn. She should never have been chosen for the Sacrament that keeps the world in balance, and she certainly shouldn’t have retained her memories of her other life when thrust through the portal door. Now she must get the notoriously rakish son of a viscount to agree to marry her or she fails the Academy’s purpose—and endangers the lives of everyone back home. If only the dashing, reclusive baronet would stop diverting her…

First serialized on Kindle Vella (originally under the title Forsworn Consort), The Baronet Who Thwarted Me: Bedlam Academy is a historical portal fantasy genre-bending romance. Part high-stakes fantasy, part Regency England-esque courtship and decorum, this story will appeal to fans of Jane Austen and Bridgerton looking for a dash of added enchantment.

Read the first three episodes for free right now on Kindle Vella.

Add to your Goodreads to-read list.

Posted in News, Writing

Darken the Night: FREE YA Novelette

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m releasing a FREE YA novelette today. It’s a contemporary Greek myth retelling (Nyx and Erebus) with a dash of magic.

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Amazon – iTunes – Barnes & Noble – Kobo – Google Play

Phoenyx “Nyx” Douglas feels like a damsel trapped away. Suffering from a form of light sensitivity, she sleeps during the day, missing out on all the typical things the other teens in her town do. One night when her flighty father is out on a job, she falls for charmer Erebus Jones at first sight but then has a dream about a child she’s supposed to have with him in the future—and the peril that boy is in.

With Ere’s help, she uncovers what it will take to save their future child: blackmailing the powerful town mayor and teaching him to fear her.

The two teens are in over their heads as they uncover shocking secrets and cross the line between what’s right and what’s wrong—all in service of saving a child they can only have if their burgeoning relationship survives the danger they put themselves in.

A contemporary retelling of the Greek myth of Nyx, with a dash of magic.

First published in SING, GODDESS!

Posted in News

Ballad of the Beanstalk Heads to Snowy Wings Publishing!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m excited to announce my YA fairy tale fantasy book, Ballad of the Beanstalk, will now be published with Snowy Wings Publishing! This book is available widely.

A Library Journal Self-e Selection.

As her fingers move across the strings of her family’s heirloom harp, sixteen-year-old Clarion can forget. She doesn’t dwell on the recent passing of her beloved father or the fact that her mother has just sold everything they owned, including that very same instrument that gives Clarion life. She doesn’t think about how her friends treat her like a feeble, brittle thing to be protected. She doesn’t worry about how to tell the elegant Elena, her best friend and first love, that she doesn’t want to be her sweetheart anymore. She becomes the melody and loses herself in the song.

When Mack, a lord’s dashing young son, rides into town so his father and Elena’s can arrange a marriage between the two youth, Clarion finds herself falling in love with a boy for the first time. Drawn to Clarion’s music, Mack puts Clarion and Elena’s relationship to the test, but he soon vanishes by climbing up a giant beanstalk that only Clarion has seen. When even the town witch won’t help, Clarion is determined to rescue Mack herself and prove once and for all that she doesn’t need protecting. But while she fancied herself a savior, she couldn’t have imagined the enormous world of danger that awaits her in the kingdom of the clouds.

A prequel to the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk that reveals the true story behind the magical singing harp.

Fans of Rosamund Hodge, Marissa Meyer, Jenni James, and Sarah J. Maas will enjoy this original faerie tale retelling fantasy in the vein of stories like Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid.

Buy Ballad of the Beanstalk

Posted in News

The Never Veil Trilogy Heads to Snowy Wings Publishing!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m excited to announce my romantic YA fairy tale fantasy trilogy, The Never Veil, will now be published with Snowy Wings Publishing! The e-books are exclusive to Amazon, though the paperbacks are available widely. You can save some money on the e-book versions by purchasing the box set or the paperbacks by purchasing the giant three-in-one paperback of the complete series!

Nobody’s Goddess: Winner of The Romance Reviews’ Summer 2016 Readers’ Choice Award in Young Adult Romance. A novel readers are calling “spectacular and heartbreaking.”

In a village of masked men, each man is compelled to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. A man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.

Seventeen-year-old Noll’s childhood friends have paired off and her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever chosen her. She is in fact the goddess of the mysterious lord of the village, a man who refuses to let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him.

Thus begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman and the magic of man. The stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled lord is willing to lose.

Fans of Tamlin in A Court of Thorns and Roses, Rhys in A Court of Mist and Fury, the Darkling in the Grisha Trilogy’s Shadow and Bone, and Jareth in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth will devour this Beauty and the Beast-style romantic adventure.

Buy Nobody’s Goddess (Free in Kindle Unlimited)

Buy Nobody’s Lady (Free in Kindle Unlimited)

Buy Nobody’s Pawn (Free in Kindle Unlimited)

Buy The Never Veil: The Complete Series (Free in Kindle Unlimited)

The box set is 99c in the US and UK for a limited time! (Now through April 23rd.)

Posted in News

The Fall Far from the Tree Duology Heads to Snowy Wings Publishing!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m excited to announce my dark YA fantasy duology, Fall Far from the Tree and Turn to Dust and Ashes, will now be published with Snowy Wings Publishing! I’ve loved working with this publisher the past few years and they offer a great variety of MG and YA reads. These books are available widely and you can save some money on the e-book versions by purchasing the box set.

Fall Far from the TreeTurn to Dust and Ashes

Terror. Callousness. Denial. Rebellion. How the four teenage children of leaders in the duchy and the neighboring empire of Hanaobi choose to adapt to their nefarious parents’ whims is a matter of survival.

Soldier Rohesia, the pitiless daughter of the ruthless duke. Thief Fastello, the compassionate son of the “king” of the raiding nomads. Orphan Cateline, the pious, myopic follower of the austere leader of her religion. Royal heir Kojiro, the hypersensitive son of the bloodthirsty Hanaobian empress.

When the paths of these four young adults cross, they must rely on one another for survival—but the love of even a malevolent guardian is hard to leave behind.

Fans of the twists and turns in Six of Crows and the compelling character drama in the works of Sarah J. Maas will love this YA version of Game of Thrones meets Marvel Comics’ Runaways that readers are calling “intense and brutal and just a whirlwind of a ride.”

Buy Fall Far from the Tree

Buy Turn to Dust and Ashes

Buy the Fall Far from the Tree Complete Series Box Set

https://books2read.com/fffttboxset
Posted in Reading

My Favorite Fairy Tale Blog Hop Stop!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Welcome to the 2018 Fairy-tale Blog Hop. Thirteen fabulous fairy-tale authors have gotten together to talk about their favorite fairy tales. Follow the links at the bottom of each blog post to hop to the next author’s website. Collect our favorite numbers to total up at the end and enter to win a print collection of our books! (There are several anthologies, debuts, and even an ARC for a BLINK YA book you can’t buy in stores yet!)

My Favorite Fairy Tale

Like many Disney fanatics, animated musicals were among my first introductions to fairy tales. In my youth, Aladdin was my favorite fairy tale—I loved the humor and Princess Jasmine was a kick-butt heroine for much of the movie, the kind I strived to be. However, as time passed, my second favorite Disney film became my favorite fairy tale overall: Beauty and the Beast. Perhaps it was because I grew to love the Byronic hero in fiction: brooding, troubled, and saved by the love of a strong-willed heroine. (In the vast majority of cases, it’s not a healthy relationship to emulate—but it’s always swept me off my feet in fiction.) And that’s the key, I think, to why Beauty and the Beast continues to mean so much to me, causing me to fall in love with the live-action movie version almost as much as the original animated tale. The Beast is a jerk, focused entirely on his own suffering, but he learns to be a better person and put others before himself thanks to the power of love. Not just someone loving him—but more importantly, him loving someone else.

In the Disney version, Belle is confident and unwilling to put up with a lot of the Beast’s unreasonableness, standing up for herself and those she cares for. That’s my favorite kind of heroine, especially in a hate-to-love scenario, because she doesn’t compromise who she is for a relationship. (Fantastical reasons for her captivity aside.) In the original fairy tale, Beauty is more passive and self-sacrificing, though the Beast is somewhat less cruel, too. She may be a little too passive for my tastes, but it’s still beautiful that she sees past the Beast’s hideous exterior and demonstrates selflessness.

There are elements of Beauty and the Beast in my The Never Veil Series—the moody, mysterious lord and the stubborn girl who’s his would-be captive. So when I finally had an idea to work on a “fairy tale retelling” (in my case, it was a prequel), I didn’t choose my favorite fairy tale, instead picking one I never particularly thought much about: Jack and the Beanstalk. I actually strangely was inspired during a Rifftrax Live showing of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. But that’s a tale for another time.

The giveaways are over!

Bibbidi bobbidi boo! 15 is my magic number for you. Go on to author Elizabeth Hopkinson’s website for more fairytale fun!

Have you visited every author’s website and collected all the numbers? Want to win all these fairy tale stories in paperback? Here’s where you’ll find the giveaway!

Before you leave my site, consider entering my bonus giveaway! You could win:

  • One e-copy three-pack of NOBODY’S GODDESS, NOBODY’S LADY, and NOBODY’S PAWN, the complete trilogy (my YA romantic fantasy The Never Veil Series)
  • One e-book of BALLAD OF THE BEANSTALK, my YA romantic fairy tale fantasy
  • One e-copy two-pack of FALL FAR FROM THE TREE and TURN TO DUST AND ASHES, my dark YA fantasy duology
  • One e-book of FANGS & FINS (Blood, Bloom, & Water Book One), my YA paranormal romance/urban fantasy series

Enter here!

Posted in News

Turn to Dust and Ashes Release Day!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

It’s release day for TURN TO DUST AND ASHES, the second and final book in the Fall Far from the Tree duology! I want to thank the readers who enjoyed the first book and reached out to me because although I know the story wasn’t fully told after just one book, I wasn’t sure I was going to go back to this world to finish the tale since I wrote the first book four years ago now and I have other projects on my to-write list. This book literally exists because some of you asked for it!

Watch for the paperback version in the next few weeks! The paperback will be available widely at outlets such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Book Depository.

To celebrate, the e-book of Book One in the series is just 99¢ during release week! Both are free on Kindle Unlimited.

Buy Book One – Buy Book Two

(Click here for more Book One links to get the paperback!)

Posted in Writing

Turn to Dust and Ashes Cover Reveal and Publication Date

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Above is the cover for the second and final book in the Fall Far from the Tree duology, which I can now announce is publishing September 5th! That means I have a lot of work ahead of me in the meantime, but I can’t wait to share the rest of these characters’ journeys with you. Below is the blurb (spoilers for Book One), too:

Turn to Dust and Ashes (Fall Far from the Tree #2)

Coming September 5th, 2017 from Patchwork Press

Impassive. Devious. Besieged. Naive. In the ashes of their parents’ cruel sovereignty, four teenagers are left holding the reins with no idea how to lead their peoples to peace and prosperity.

Rohesia, told she is the true heir to Hanaobi, must choose between ruling the duchy in her father’s place and returning with her cousin to seek the throne that is more rightfully hers. Without her father figure, she has little interest in either, but there is no escape from the infamous legacy of her parents on both sides of the sea.

Fastello, left to lead both his father’s people and to seek the rule of the entire duchy, has never had so much responsibility in his life. Grappling with heartbreak the likes of which he’s never experienced, he doesn’t know if he has it in him to try to fill the hole so many people so desperately want him to fill.

Kojiro, adrift in a strange land and emboldened by the actions of the people he met there, is determined to find his courage and free his people from the tyranny of his mother’s reign. However, with her number one foe defeated, the empress of Hanaobi is more unstoppable than ever.

Tomiko, the perfect daughter to the strict and controlling empress, is sheltered from the reality of the world but eager to discover the truth. Before the war is over, she must decide between fealty to her mother and loyalty to her brother, knowing full well that either way, her family will never be whole again.

The goals of each of these four young adults are bound to clash—but there’s no escaping their destinies, no matter the destruction left in their paths.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34862530-turn-to-dust-and-ashes

Amazon Pre-order Link Coming Soon

Catch up with Fall Far from the Tree, Book One in the series!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27048456-fall-far-from-the-tree
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IMGGAFM
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fall-far-from-the-tree-amy-mcnulty/1124435001?ean=9781927940587

Posted in News

Ballad of the Beanstalk Release Day!

Posted on by Amy McNulty

1

It’s Ballad of the Beanstalk‘s release day! That means you can get your hands on my prequel story to Jack and the Beanstalk for just 99¢ now through April 18th. Then the book goes up to $2.99, so act fast!

Order on Amazon or read for free on Kindle Unlimited!

Ballad of the Beanstalk_3D Cover 2For those who prefer paperbacks, you can order one at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository (free shipping worldwide!), CreateSpace, and even at your local bookstore if you ask them to order you a copy!

Advance reviews say:

“The ending is both surprising and expected. But in the best of ways when retelling a story that is not an automatic happily ever after.”

“I loved the spin that Amy McNulty put on this classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk!”

“What an awesome take on the Jack and the Beanstalk world. This book was very engaging.” ~author Dorothy Dreyer

Ballad of the Beanstalk_3D Cover