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/
