The third book in the Shivadh Romances, The Lady And The Tiger, is now available for purchase in print and epub!
Already familiar and just want to buy it?
The Lady And The Tiger: Hardcopy | Epub
As with the first two books in the series, The Lady And The Tiger is $3.99USD for epub, $12.99USD for print; prices vary a bit by currency for the hardcopy but are generally between 12 and 17 of your local smackers.
Want to learn more? Read on!
Welcome to Askazer-Shivadlakia, a coastal micronation with one of the few democratic monarchies in the world, Europe’s only Jewish royal family, and a distinctly queer-friendly culture. The irreverent but earnest Shivadh people have recently elected a new king, and there are changes afoot for the country.
The Lady And The Tiger, the third book in the Shivadh Romances series, finds King Gregory III’s cousin and assistant, Lady Alanna Daskaz, transported across the border to Galia, a nearby micronation that claims she’s the heir to their throne. Bringing her best friend Gerald, Duke of Shivadlakia, along with her, Alanna sets to work figuring out how to escape becoming Duchess of Galia without destroying Galia in the process. Jerry, who has a complicated life at the best of times, is trying to solve a few problems of his own along with helping Alanna solve hers. None of this is made easier by the fact that Alanna’s had a secret crush on Jerry since they were at school together, and Jerry’s just starting to believe he might be someone worthy of the Lady Alanna.
Purchase The Lady And The Tiger: Hardcopy | Epub
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If you’re new to the Shivadh Romances, the previous two books are available here:
Fete For A King introduces Crown Prince Gregory, who needs a caterer for his coronation and also could use a husband; it turns out he’s stuck with the American TV celebrity and kitsch connoisseur Eddie Rambler, who might want both jobs. Purchase Fete For A King: Hardcopy | Epub
Infinite Jes follows Gregory’s father Michaelis into retirement, and straight into the recording studio of nonbinary broadcast journalist Jes Deimos and Jes’s son Noah. Michaelis was just looking for a hobby; instead he might get a romance with Jes, as long as they can keep Noah out of trouble. Purchase Infinite Jes: Hardcopy | Epub
He looks up at her, blinded by tears, confusion; mind teetering on the very edge of insanity and catatonia. She’s the third?fourth?ninth? Jemma he’s seen. He’s seen her die again and again, shot and gutted, poisoned and choking, strangled and mutilated and murdered, sputtering in dirty water, gagging on her own blood.
Then there’s another and another and another.
All killed and dying and he useless to do anything but stand witness.
“Just hold on,” she says again and drags him, stumbling down another hallway. It’s all he can do to keep his feet, weakness and grief and looming hysteria robbing him of both strength and coordination. The only thing that feels real is her hand in his, warm and sure (but then, so had the last Jemma’s and the one before that, and the one who had kissed him and tasted of desperation and fear).
He staggers to a knee and she jerks his grip hard, then spins and delivers a kick to his thigh. “Come on, Gene. Just a little further, a little more.”
The words could be for either of them. He lurches up and follows.
If it’s Jemma…he would follow her to the end of the world. If it’s the Domain…he doesn’t suppose refusing to play along with their twisted torture will actually work.
She hesitates at a T junction. “Detention block,” she mutters. “The others are probably down there,” she half turns to the left.
For the first time in three five?ten?eighteen? Jemmas, Gene speaks to her. “No.” His voice is rough, low, a mere whisper.
“Gene?” She is instantly in front of him, all of her incisive focus on his face. The hand not crushed in his on his face. He can see the flicker of panic at the edges of her gaze, beneath the rock solid dependable strength he relies on.
“No,” he says again, a hair louder. “I can’t- can’t-”
Can’t lose you again.
Can’t take the risk of seeing you interrogated because it really will drive me mad.
Can’t risk the others looking at you and telling me it’s someone…something else.
“Are you hurt?” her eyes sharpen a little and the hand drops from his face to his chest then his ribs.
That’s not exactly what he meant. He’s not wounded. He just…can’t.
Still, he nods. Darrow had left the first Jemma to die slowly on that cold floor instead of giving up any of his precious rebellion. Leave him. Gene has this Jemma and (for this lunatic moment at least) that is enough.
She hesitates another second, the resolute loyalty he loves her for in his eyes. “Alright. We’ll get you aboard a ship and healed up and come back.” Then she’s tugging him forward again, down the right hand fork. “Just hold on.
my friend wrote another book! it's a stranded on a mountain romance story (@modpix-blog did the sensitivity reading for her!)
Amazon.com: One May Day: A Love Story eBook : Watson, Louise Jane: Kindle Store
if you don't use amazon
it's climbing to the top of the charts on amazon and it'd make her day if it hits #1
At thirty-five, single mom Emily Wyatt's world revolves around her autistic son, Jude.
Emily rarely dreams of anything more than a school day without tears or dinners beyond mac and cheese. Life is small, routine, and, to be honest, boring.
Planes, palindromes, prime numbers, and Pokemon are Jude's absolute favorite things, and Emily is determined to make his double-digit birthday special.
Dino gave up being a taxi pilot a couple of years ago to concentrate on his new business. But when Dino's old friend, the owner of Top Spot Tours, begs him for a favor, Dino can't bring himself to say no.
Disaster.
Their plane crashes in a remote area of Mt. Ranier's wilderness, leaving Dino injured, Jude in shock, and Emily nowhere to be found.
psst. hey. yoo joo and han sung. let me let you in on a little secret. they're called *open relationships*. check it out. i feel like you'd both enjoy being in one.
You went to relax with snacks and a good book in a nearby field. But when you turn back to your food is all gone. A fae appears and tells you they accept the offer and you are under the fae protection now. You slowly realize they act like the mafia.
Quick shoutout to cnovel readers who like food porn with their romance -- Gluttonous Crown Princess is adorable and I really enjoyed it. The MTL is super readable as well. The male lead acts sickly and gentle but he’s actually a black belly with some light yandere tendencies. The female lead is obsessed with cooking so fans of Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator will enjoy the delicious menus and business stuff. (Of course she opens a chain of restaurants, why not?) The OTP is sweet too. And while there’s some political intrigue, it’s a pretty light and fluffy read. A very nice palate cleanser after all the tragedies and angst fests I’ve been reading lately lol. (Shoutout to Love in Another Life: My Gentle Tyrant, and Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script.)
Okay guys I honestly have not yet finished my book edits but I need a break from biblio and paragraphing so here’s a drama rec!! I don’t usually recommend like het dramas but I really love this one so far!!!
Plot: Zheng Xiao En is an editor working on some book plot - Chinese romance novels, which are usually centred on an arrogant, rich guy who’s also typically a rich CEO of a company. Anyway she finds herself transported into this very book and plot after fainting one day and she meets the guy of her dreams (in real life) in the novel, who’s also a successful, rich CEO in real life called He Tian XIng.
In the book however, his name is Si Tu Ao Ran, and she thinks she’s playing the main female lead character but she was transported in as the evil side bitch who’s out to break up Ao Ran and the female lead, named Chu Chu. Cue some rom-com shenanigans, a whole lot of GOOD angst where Xiao En realizes halfway that no matter what she does, she can’t change her fate to become the main love interest for Ao Ran ;-; It’s hilarious AF because she’s watching a standard like Asian love drama where two men are trying to chase after the same female lead - all the terrible tropes man ALL OF EM - and she’s like damn it what the hell is this plot XD
Side-plots: He Tian Xing, who’s the real-life version of Ao Ran, is also in a coma after his older half sister or something tried to wrestle control and power over the company (after their dad goes into a coma) - They haven’t actually gone in depth into this yet, except for showing how the sister is plotting and scheming and being evil. If Tian Xing was transported into the book for real, I don’t yet see like him being cognizant of it!
Reasons why I love this:
IT’S HILARIOUS. Like Xiao En judging every single time the female lead falls down and Ao Ran catches her in some gorgeous and beautiful scene, Ao Ran having some tragic backstory, the other guy who likes the female lead who’s Ao Ran’s secretary/best friend
OMG THE UNREQUITED BUT REQUITED LOVE TROPE IS DELICIOUS. DELICIOUS OKAY!!!
She’s basically like the audience that’s jaded with dumbass weak-damsel-in-distress plots and she’s watching it unfold before her and going like wtf people actually write it like this (and as literally the EDITOR of this story she’s in, it’s even more hilarious)
MARCUS CHANG AS SI TU AO RAN/HE TIAN XING. Gosh he’s so damn handsome!!!
Have I already mentioned that I am a sucker for the unrequited but requited love thing?!!!
Assuming that Tian Xing remembers his love for Xiao En from in the novel later when he wakes up in the real world, I wonder how everything is going to pan out because he seems to have a mild love interest (a different girl) there as well.
Where to watch: Kissasian for now if you need subs! Not sure if Viki and the other places has it yet. Currently airing episode 8.
Characters!!!
Zheng Xiao En: She’s every one of us. We all want to be in that story where we get noticed by the rich other person and then have a series of coincidental but fated meetings with the person. Her celebrity crush is He Tian Xing, who’s this celebrity businessman (and then also all that inheritance problems I mentioned above with the older sister) because of what he says in interviews (you know that, when all seems hopeless, there is still a reason to keep going, that kinda shit) and because she was in a tough place, she was like YES MY IDOL YOU BROUGHT ME OUT OF A DARK PLACE. So when she gets dumped into her own novel, she feels a (misplaced?!!) affinity with Ao Ran who looks exactly like him (and was probably written in the image of him).
After lying her way into becoming Ao Ran’s housekeeper, spending time with him, arguing with him, trying to break up the romantic atmosphere between the two at the dinner table (below) etc. she realizes after that she can’t change the fact that she’s the side bitch in the novel and stops trying to break them up (not that she was trying very hard or you know being evil in the first place).
And she tries to make sure Chu Chu (who’s of course always bullied and isolated at the office) gets along better with everyone else, and being her friend. But Ao Ran is very sure that Xiao En is trying to harm Chu Chu, hence the angst and unrequited/requited thing going on. She & Chu Chu do get a kiss scene tho XD
I really like her character because she knows what’s going on and like I said she’s cringing along with the rest of us as the audience at the ‘typical het romance plot devices’ present in most romance shows! She’s the epitome of “I tried” and “damn it who the fuck wrote this in” and I’m all here for it!!
He Tian Xing/Si Tu Ao Ran: As Tian Xing, he’s in a coma right now while his sister does dumb and evil shit outside. Within the novel, Ao Ran has a phobia of the dark because tragic story - he was locked up in the storage basement in the dark for as long as a day whenever he misbehaved by his father, and so he sleeps with all the lights on etc.
He meets Chu Chu in the novel when she “TRIES TO CLIMB A TREE TO HELP A BIRD” and he catches her when she falls and says “YOU’RE SO KIND” and BOOM they fall in love like all male and female leads of shows/plots do while Xiao En (who was there because she wanted to BE THE FEMALE LEAD AND KNEW SHE NEEDED TO FALL FROM A TREE AT THIS PLACE) watched on and realized for the first time that FARK. SHE’S THAT CHARACTER. Anyway, as Ao Ran he obviously falls for Chu Chu, but he finds his mind all occupied by Xiao En because she literally keeps putting herself in front of him, but he thinks that she’s trying to harm Chu Chu all the time!!!
It’s episode like 8 next airing tonight though and you can see how Ao Ran now realizes how much he thinks of Xiao En, just when she’s totally given up on him XD
Chu Chu: The typical cute, beautiful, small damsel in distress who comes from a poor family and had to work her way up but is also bullied by the people around her. She KEEPS FALLING. AO RAN KEEPS CATCHING HER. my god, it’s amazing. She’s not a terrible character (cuz we know as the audience that she was written like this as a caricature in a sense, as a character from this novel) and she really is the White Lotus flower type
She keeps dropping stuff too where Ao Ran can see them and that’s how their relationship is supposed to progress XD
Of course, he’s supposed to end up with Xiao En IN and OUT of the novel, I presume, but there aren’t much hints that I’ve seen so far on how they’re gonna explain the novel world + real world between them both!!! Either way I’m loving the angst right now.
Qing Feng: AHAH! The fated non-requited love male character, who initially likes Chu Chu as well and teams up with Xiao En to try to break Ao Ran and Chu Chu up, but (spoilers, he ends up still a non-requited second male lead because he falls for Xiao En later)!! And he ends up being real sweet and supportive for Xiao En gosh I CRY.
Decided to do my own kind of Monster March! Let’s see how this goes.
Gender neutral narrator, siren, beach/cliffside setting, small village, fluff
Every night at the crack of twilight, when the blue-gray of bruises bloomed over sky and darkened freckles of clouds, a song rose up from the depths of encroaching dark. There were no words in any language to describe it: the melody was the most beautiful thing you would ever hear, wordless and powerful and soul-wrenchingly passionate. It was a song that screamed up at the empty sky for something, someone.
Your Nan taught you never to follow the song up the cliffs. “If you do,” she warned, “the singer will eat you.”
All of your village knew better than to venture up the rocky beach. Instead, you stuffed your ears with beeswax come nightfall, and went about your work.
When you first arrived in the village, you were given the choice to listen to the song. They tied you to the trunk of the fattest tree on your side of the island and you listened. You were young when you heard it—too young, Nan liked to grumble. You couldn’t quite remember what it sounded like, only that no music ever sounded as pretty to you again.
Sometimes, visitors came to the village. Usually sailors and traveling merchants. They would eat at the inn, and be offered beeswax to plug their ears at night, and while most took it, a few always didn’t. They would be gone by morning, and the leftovers of their group would be warned not to expect them back. Every now and then a leftover would search for a body, or climb the cliffs for revenge. The former would return empty-handed; the latter wouldn’t return at all.
You lived like this until Nate came to visit, and you woke in the middle of the night to find him gone.
Everything inside you revolted at once; nausea rose like a wave inside you, your chest burned, your throat swelled up until you couldn’t breathe. You rushed out of your hut stumbling, tripping over sand and rocks and your own feet, and you couldn’t pick out whether the wooshing in your ears was your pulse or if the beeswax had come loose. It didn’t matter; you didn’t have time to repair it.
You had never once climbed the cliffs, but you did so frantically tonight, your path lit by nothing more than moonlight. Even though you had never been here, never done this, you knew where to go. There was only one way.
Your heart was banging against your ribs, stomach full of lead when you staggered up the last round of rock and saw them together.
Nate, eyes glassy, shuffling up to a strange man with hair like burnished gold and sleeves of feathers of matching color, his nails long and sharp as talons as he beckoned your friend closer.
“Stop!” You cried, charging forward. “Stop! Please! He’s my best friend!”
The man jerked around, staring at you, but his singing had stopped, and the spell was broken. Nate blinked and began to look around himself in alarm.
You rushed forward, shoving Nate behind you as he said—something. You couldn’t actually hear him, which you supposed was a good thing, and instead of answering you glared, trembling, at the man who had been luring your best friend to his certain death.
The man was even more bizarre up close. His entire torso was actually covered in those golden feathers, and he had eyes to match, glowing gold in the dimness of the evening. The skin of his face and hands was sun-darkened and freckled, and when he gaped at you, the teeth that peeked out from behind his lips were bone-white and pointed like fangs. He was wearing a sailor’s common trousers, but the leather boots on his feet were ripped open art the toes to allow bird-like claws to protrude through.
“Leave him alone!” You yelled, shaking, and then after a second’s pause, “Please.”
Nate’s hand came down on your shoulder and squeezed, but if he said anything, you couldn’t hear him. The man in front of you slowly raised a single finger and tapped on his ear, glowing eyes watching you.
You shook your head.
He tapped again, and then looked over your shoulder, murmuring something. You didn’t have time to react before fingers plunged into your ears and removed the wax.
Noise came back so quickly it made you dizzy, but you caught Nate’s disgusted, “Oh, that’s so gross.”
“Nate!” You screamed, half in disbelief, half in terror.
“Wait, wait, before you get mad, just listen!”
The man was watching you still, and he leaned forward on the rock he was perched on, snatching your attention back to him. He cocked his head to one side. “You want me to let you and your friend go.”
You startled. “Y-yeah?”
“I have no claim on you, but I won him fairly,” the man nodded at Nate, who blanched, but said nothing.
“I can trade you for him,” you offered, maybe a tad desperately. “We have plenty of meat in the village, and—and fish and pigs and chickens. If you like music, I can carve you an instrument, or—“
“Sing for me,” he cut in.
You screeched to a halt. “What?”
“Sing for me, and I’ll let him go. I sing each night for those who would come to me, but no one has ever sang for me. One song, and you can go home.”
He seemed serious. You stared at him a moment, your mouth dry, when Nate’s dumb mouth opened again.
“Uh, do I have to sing too, oooor … ?”
“No.” The bird-man didn’t hesitate.
“Oh, right then.”
You licked your lips, swallowed, mouth dry, and began to sing.
It wasn’t anything special; it was just a nursery rhyme you had been taught as a kid, and though you knew your voice was nowhere near as beautiful as this creature’s, anxiety made it wobble and break. Still, you kept going, you kept trying until you reached the last verse, the last syllable, and then you watched the bird-man fearfully.
He wouldn’t change your mind just because you sucked, right?
But the bird-man only dipped his head and gestured back down the path, the dark hiding his face from view. “You are free to leave. I will not pursue you.”
You didn’t need to be told twice.
~
You loved Nate, but you were glad to see him go. It wasn’t safe for him here, and furthermore, you were still upset with him for compromising the two of you that night. What was worse, he had seen fit to spread the news that you had bravely rescued him, with several exaggerations and overblown statements that made your neighbors regard you with more interest than you liked.
Somehow, you had known it was going to happen, but you dreaded it anyway.
Miss Taylor’s child went missing in the night, and you were awoken by her banging on your door, pleading for you to save him from the monster by the rocks. You didn’t want to. Reggie was a stubborn idiot, but how could you leave him to die? Granted, you might join him in death, but you had to try. You could not stare this tearful woman in the eye and do nothing.
That night found you back on top of the rocks, the bird-man regarding you with surprise, Reggie standing stupidly in the middle of the cliffside, glassy-eyed and distant. Slowly, you showed the man the plate of mutton you had brought with you and placed it on the ground, slowly.
“Please, don’t hurt him. Take that instead. Think of it as a gift.” You tried.
The bird-man tapped on the side of his head, and after a small hesitation, you scooped the wax out of one ear.
“Will you sing for me again?”
You couldn’t hide your surprise. “You want me to?”
The bird-man stared at you, those strange eyes drilling deep into places you weren’t entirely comfortable with. “I like your voice.”
Well, there was no accounting for taste.
You sang for him. You sang like it would be your last time ever doing so; you sang like a life depended on it (because it did). You sang even when Reggie groggily began to wake up from his stupor, even when he snuck off and left you alone with the creature in front you. You sang until the song was done.
The bird-man lowered his head like he had the previous night. “Thank you. You may go.”
And like the previous night, you left.
~
There were mornings when you would open your door to find items on your doorstep that could not have gotten there on their own. At first, you were puzzled by their appearance. You would find pearls, pretty shells, shiny jewels, old jewelry, coppers, silvers, gold pieces, aluminum, bones, shark teeth.
It was a slow process, but you began to suspect, and that was what led you back up the rocks one particular evening, a roasted chunk of pork wrapped in linen in your basket.
The bird-man was perched on a boulder again, lounging with his mouth open, singing some melody you couldn’t hear past the beeswax stuffed in your ears.
He stopped abruptly as you walked closer, glowing eyes wide as they watched you.
You placed the basket at the base of the rock and unplugged one ear. “You’ve been leaving me gifts.”
He didn’t say anything, and remained very, very still.
You continued. “You’ve been leaving me gifts, but I don’t even know your name.”
“I was never given one.”
“Surely you’ve had companions before.”
“I have.”
“What did they call you?”
He shifted uncomfortably on the rock. “We didn’t call each other. That is not our way.”
You stared at him for a minute. “What is your way, then?”
“We sing together. Or for each other, if we wish their company. But my kind don’t stay together unless they are mated.”
“I see.” Well, that was a problem. “How am I supposed to call you if I want your attention?”
He looked at you then, his eyes too bright in the surrounding dimness. “Isn’t it obvious? I hoped you would sing to me.”
You decided to try a different tactic. “Why have you been leaving me gifts?”
The bird-man shifted again, dropping his eyes from you. You tried to peer at his face, but sadly, it was too dark to catch any signs of a blush. “I … I was hoping to show my … interest. And that it would be returned. Perhaps.”
“How would I show that?”
He cleared his throat and scraped a sharp nail over the rock. “You would sing with me.”
You watched him for a moment. “We aren’t mated if I sing with you?”
“No. To mate, we must build a nest together.”
You thought for a moment, but only just. You had been thinking of this for several days now, after all. “Okay.”
Your companion’s head jerked up, eyes sharp. “Okay?”
“Okay. I’ll sing with you. Hold on.” You plugged up your ears again, looked to him for a minute—his face was avid, hopeful and focused—and began to sing.
You saw his mouth move, though you couldn’t hear him. You had no idea if he knew the lyrics to this song, or if your voices were blending well together, but you gave it your all.
The villagers began to refer to you as the monster tamer as people stopped going missing in the night. You did not tell them that your lover wasn’t tamed at all; simply well-fed on your plates of pork and beef and mutton. Well-fed and happy, you thought.
He seemed to thoroughly enjoy singing with you, and having you sing for him. Sometimes, after the two of you had learned each other more, you would even take out your wax and let him sing for you.
It was the most beautiful song you would ever hear.
