Toni V. Sweeney and Sinner

Wild Women welcomes: Sinner (Book 1 of The kan Ingan Archives); Part 2 of the futuristic family saga The Arcanian Chronicles, by Toni V. Sweeney

     Sinner is the first novel in The kan Ingan Archives, Part 2 of The Arcanian Chronicles, and it’s my version on the Greek legend of Phaedra. The story of a woman who has an affair with her stepson and eventually causes her husband to murder him had been around since 428 BC, when Euripides first introduced the myth in his play Hippolytos Kalyptomenos (Hippolytus Veiled), and it’s been a good soap opera standby ever since. So you see, contrary to popular belief, the theme—young wife…older husband…younger man…wasn’t thought up by the writers of Dynasty or Dallas.

     Sinner is a cautionary tale, the story of a prince who falls in love with the wrong woman and pays the price for that crime. It’s a continuation of The Narrative of Riven the Heretic, whose story is told in Part 1 of The Arcanian Chronicles, tracing the life of one of Riven’s descendants, Aric, Lord Ghiralaine, and his journey from prince to exile to prince again.

     Aric kan Ingan is young, spoiled, and the designated heir to an empire and a galaxy. Raised since the age of twelve to be prince of all he surveys, he gets the shock of his young royal life when his uncle, the margrave, who has fought marriage all his life and cut more than a swath through the women of his planet, takes a bride from a planet which has been quarantined for nearly two thousand years. The planet is Earth, the bride is a young Terran named Elizabeth Sheffield.

     Suddenly, Aric is not only no longer the heir; he’s now fourth in the line of ascendancy, after his uncle, his new aunt, and their child. Quite a let down!

     Swearing revenge, Aric rebuffs Elizabeth's overtures of friendship, childishly embarrassing her at every opportunity, and Elizabeth responds with equal hatred. Although Aric isn’t aware of it, there are others in the kingdom who agree with him that a Terran has no business on the throne of Arcanis, and insurrection foments in secret rooms of the Empire…

     …and then, as will often happen when two individuals dislike each other so fiercely, Fate steps in with its usual perversity. Aric and Elizabeth discover they are too similar in their personalities as well as their hatreds. They fall in love. With their passion comes the breaking of a king’s heart, as well as the beginnings of the toppling of an empire.

     In 2013, The kan Ingan Archives received a Special Mention at the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice awards, and the following year, named The Man from Cymene, Book 1 in Part 1 of The Arcanian Chronicles, one of the Top 8 SF/Fantasy novels of 2014.

About our guest author:

     Toni V. Sweeney has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains.

     Since the publication of her first novel in 1989, Toni divides her time between writing SF/Fantasy under her own name and romances under her pseudonym Icy Snow Blackstone. In March, 2013, she became publicity manager for Class Act Books (US). She is also on the review staff of the New York Journal of Books and the Paranormal Romance Guild. In 2016, she was named a Professional Reader by netgalley.com.

     She is an Amazon reviewer, is in the 1% of reviewers for Goodreads, and in 2015 and 2016 was voted one of the Top 10 authors of those years by Preditors & Editors Readers Poll.

     As of 2018, Toni currently has 55 novels in print, including 3 series, and 3 trilogies.

To learn more about Toni, go to:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvsweeney

Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLQBB8

Twitter: @ToniVSweeney

Blurb:

Aric kan Ingan had it all.

     Pampered and spoiled, he was groomed since the age of twelve to be heir to the throne of Arcanis…until his uncle surprised everyone by falling in love with an Earthwoman.

     Elizabeth Sheffield wanted it all.

     Headstrong and beautiful, she’d never met a man she couldn’t wrap around her little finger…until she met Aric.

     The vengeful former heir and the margrave’s bride are instant enemies, trading insults and threats, until the unexpected happens: They fall in love.

     While Aric and Elizabeth engage in their illicit affair, other forces in the kingdom gather for the more sinister purpose of rebellion and murder…

     …with Aric as the not-so-innocent pawn.

An Excerpt:

On the fourth floor, outside the hallway leading to the royal apartments, Kozlu waited for him. The old man looked him up and down disapprovingly, staring at his travel-dusty clothes.

“You couldn’t take time to change?”

“Why should I? I’m only going to see my uncle.” His tone bordered on disrespect for the man who’d been his tutor as he’d been the margrave’s.

“Aric, it’s more than that and you know it.” Kozlu’s reply held the knowledge he was speaking to someone who had no intention of listening. He started up the stairs, not looking to see if Aric followed.

So it’s like that, is it? Already dispensing with respect since I’m no longer the heir.

“I suppose you want me to return to my rooms and dress in my most formal uniform, complete with metals and insigne, before I meet the creature?” He saw Kozlu’s face darken. “Why don’t I go back to the barracks and rout all the Black Shields, and have them mount a dress parade in the courtyard?”

“Lower your voice.” Kozlu nodded toward the guards on the landing below.

Realizing how close he was to letting his anger take over, Aric took a deep breath.

“You’ve been drinking, haven’t you?” Kozlu frowned.

“As much as possible,” he admitted. “It seemed the most appropriate thing to do.”

“You’d best calm yourself a little,” the elder suggestion. “You look as if you could kill.”

“If I thought I could get away with it, I might,” he muttered. As Kozlu looked around at him sharply, he said hastily, “Don’t worry. I’ll behave myself.”

They started climbing again.

“You may as well accept what’s happened,” Kozlu went on. “The council has.”

“The council isn’t losing anything.” Aric’s answer was sullen. “I was taken from my mother to be my uncle’s heir. For eight years, it’s been drilled into me how Arcanis will someday be mine, and now…to lose it to some mongrel Milky?” He shook his head. “I thought my uncle had more pride in our family. Even someone from one of the other planets—Gataeus, Scylla, even Nereis—would be better than a near-barbarian.”

“I think it’s you who’ve too much pride, Aric,” the old man answered quietly. “Someday, you’ll find yourself in the dust because of it.”

Aric looked rebellious and didn’t answer.

They reached the fifth landing, coming around a dark corner into the archway opening onto one of the stone-balustraded terraces.

Two people sat on a stone bench set in an arrangement of flower-filled urns surrounding a javancia tree, its thick branches offering protection from the ocean’s wind and the morning sun. One was obviously his uncle, and the other was…

She.

“Lord Aric, sire.” Kozlu bowed and backed out of his uncle’s presence, leaving him alone in the entranceway. For the barest moment, Aric was tempted to run after the old man, away from the unpleasantness awaiting him. Briefly, he regretted that third glass of brandy.

To purchase Sinner, go to:  

Paperback from the publisher’s website: http://www.classactbooks.com/cat-romance/sinner-8712018-02-11-21-39-57-detail

eBook/Kindle from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sinner-Arcanian-Chronicles-Part-Book-ebook/dp/B07B614JNF/