BOOK REVIEWS AND SPOTLIGHT! ~~ ArcKnight Chronicles (Books 1 & 2) by Alexia Purdy

December 17, 2015

BOOK REVIEWS AND SPOTLIGHT! ~~ ArcKnight Chronicles (Books 1 & 2) by Alexia Purdy

Title: the ArcKnight Chronicles

Author: Alexia Purdy

Series: the ArcKnight Chronicles (Books 1 & 2)

Genre:Paranormal/Shifter/Romance

Publisher: Lyrical Lit. Publishing

Release Date: Oct 22 2015

Edition/Formats: eBook & Print

Blurb/Synopsis:

Vengeance is the only thing worth dying for.

Only love can save you.

Teaming up with a handsome shifter named Ephrem, the banished Princess Lilliana must find her stolen Ardent talisman before a sinister enemy uses it against both rival wolf pack strongholds. Thrown onto a path neither of them expected, they stumble across a third cell of supernatural shifters lurking in the city’s Outlands where tensions mount. These new strangers want nothing more than to disrupt the two royal strongholds, the ArcKnights and the MarkTiers, and reignite a long-forgotten feud from decades past.

In the treacherous City of Temple where supernaturals and humans intertwine, only the most cunning will survive.

Includes Books #1 Ardent & #2 MarkTier

Book Links

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Excerpt:

“My Lady, I cannot leave you here alone. It’s not safe.”

I whipped my eyes open and glared at him. “I told you I was banished. You can stop with the formalities and get. I don’t have time to waste on a pathetic royal guard. Especially a MarkTier. I'm okay on my own.”

“If you come with me, I know a safe place where you can get out of the rain and get warm.”

I laughed. It came out more hysterical than I intended, but I was not in a mood to keep it together any longer. The fact that he offered me any shelter at all, most likely his home, was gracious, yet the knowledge that it was most likely on ArcKnight territory made the offer even more bittersweet. I was banished not only from the royal ArcKnight palace but from lingering on any of the pack’s territories, which included a substantial chunk of the city.

I was truly alone now.

“You’d be punished for harboring a non-citizen… a traitor like me. I can’t. You know I can’t.”

He held out his hand. It glistened with water, for he was soaked to the bone, just like me. The cold rain didn’t affect him at all. I was the one shivering and on the verge of hypothermia, and yet he waited patiently.

“It’s beyond the ArcKnight border. I promise.” His eyes gleamed in the momentary moonlight sneaking past the storm clouds above. They were breathtaking and unusual. I’d never seen another shifter with eyes like his.

It may be beyond the ArcKnight stronghold, but they weren’t the only pack ruling the city.

“But the MarkTiers….”

“They have no jurisdiction there either.”

Staring at him in disbelief, I let my eyes linger on his for an eternal moment. His offer brought more questions to my mind than anything else. Even so, there was something there that held me in a trance and beckoned me to follow. Taken in by that hypnotizing cobalt sea, I reached out, accepted his hand and let him lead me through the murky city paths I’d never trodden, deeper into the unknown.

This place was now my new home, and it was nothing but strange and frightening.

But what choice did I have?

~Lily & Ephrem - The ArcKnight Chronicles

Title: Ardent

Series: the ArcKnight Chronicles (Book 1)

Genre: Shifter Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Lyrical Lit. Publishing

Release Date: Oct 22 2015

Edition/Formats: eBook

Blurb/Synopsis:

Vengeance is the only thing worth dying for.

Teaming up with a handsome rival named Ephrem, the banished Princess Lilliana must find her stolen Ardent talisman before a sinister enemy uses it against both rival wolf pack strongholds, intertwining the destinies of the two would-be lovers.

My Review:

5 out of 5 Stars!

I am always truly amazed at how many different stories Alexia Purdy has in her head, and they don’t always even follow the same genre: from fairies to post-apocalyptic to romance that’s not paranormal, to shifters. She writes it all, and she writes it WONDERFULLY. I have never picked up one of her books and been disappointed. The only disappointment? I’m still catching up, and she writes FAST while she continues to write well. This series is no exception, and as always, I’m impressed.

As always, Ms. Purdy creates an entirely new world. Yes, it’s technically in California, but I live in California, and this is like no part of California I’VE ever seen. Although, this is entirely the point in this story. This town has a magical draw to shifters. And when average humans get drawn into the inner part of this town (between the two giant walls that encircle each of the huge Packs that aren’t getting along so well at the moment), they don’t notice that the town is cursed with never-ending rain and gloom. They also never leave. The power of the magic.

Lilliana has spent her entire life inside the walls of one of these Packs. She’s royalty, and she’s never left. Until now. Banished because of the ultimate no-no of the loss (or in her case theft) of her Ardent talisman. If she was even able to survive the cruel world outside the walls, she was about to find out how cruel that world could be – until Ephrem stepped in; saving her life, and changing her life and the same time.

Ephrem takes a bit to tell Lilliana his story, and why there’s so much to his – and their – story. Although they only knew each other for about a minute, and he’s part of the rival Pack (that would love to kill her) it still feels oddly completely normal that Lily instantly agrees to go to his home and stay there.

Normally, when you read a story, and a woman agrees to go stay with a strange guy she just met on the street (that by the way is working for her family’s rival), you’d find yourself having a really hard time believing that would actually happen – unless Alexia Purdy wrote it.

Alexia Purdy’s real life magic ability is to write so much detail and feeling with so few words. This continues to happen throughout the story, and this part of the writing style was really fun. There were many times when she could have drowned us in details, but she didn’t. She so creatively summed up entire scenes in a few sentences, like, “Oh, by the way, while you were reading about this, this other really big thing happened too.” And it was TOTALLY OK that we didn’t live through the entire scene. It was perfectly timed, and I was impressed.

Did I mention there were two other entire storylines going on at the same time? It all melded together beautifully. She did this by making each chapter change to a different character’s point of view. Even more impressive was that you felt what each character was feeling, not just the person who’s point of view you were reading from. A movement, a look, a touch…subtle things one character mentioned noticing spoke volumes about what another character was feeling.

This story was barely over 100 pages and felt like 200. It was full of story, but not rushed. I couldn’t wait to get to book 2, and wanted to read it instantly…so I did!

Book Links

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

iTunes/iBooks

Kobo

Smashwords

Title: MarkTier

Series: the ArcKnight Chronicles (Book 2)

Genre: Shifter Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Lyrical Lit. Publishing

Release Date: Oct 22 2015

Edition/Formats: eBook

Blurb/Synopsis:

Only love can save you…

Freed from the bonds of royalty forever, Lily must adjust to life in the treacherous city of Temple. With the handsome prince Ephrem by her side, she inadvertently stumbles upon a third cell of supernatural shifters lurking in the city’s Outlands, but they aren’t part of any wolf pack she’s ever known. Tensions mount when these new strangers impede on the two royal strongholds and reignite a long-forgotten feud from decades past.

My Review:

5 out of 5 Stars!

**Review does not contain spoilers if you have not read book 1**

After devouring book 1, I couldn’t move on to book 2 fast enough! Once again, Ms. Purdy’s writing kept me sucked in from word 1 to the last word. Again, her writing style was surprisingly easy to follow, considering there were at least 4 storylines going all at the same time – this in a book that’s only around 100 pages. With each chapter, which character’s point of view it was changed. It was a really great, creative way for the reader to be in 4 or 5 places at once, without getting lost.

Just as book 1 moved fast, book 2 felt like it moved even faster. This book also had several more twists that I had NO idea were coming. I loved each and every one of them. I have to say that this book could NOT have been easy for her to write with all that was going on, and not drowning us in details. There were moments that were super intense, moments that were romantic (and I even heard myself say “Awww!” out loud a few times), and shocker moments thrown in there as well. There were times, especially close to the end of the book, when I found it really hard to sit still, and I realized it was because there was so much going on, I was starting to feel serious anxiety for several of the characters – but it was definitely a good thing. It just showed how involved in the story I was.

Like book 1, I loved how she found a way to tell us entire, BIG events happened while we were reading about other events, by pretty much summing it up in a sentence. Like I mentioned in my book 1 review, it was much like “Oh, by the way, while you were reading about this, this other really big thing happened too.” In fact, the end of the book had this, and it was perfect. It was such a creative way of writing it, and I really didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.

Did I instantly download book 3 to find out what happens next? I most certainly did! Better hurry on book 4 Alexia, because I’m about to catch up!

Book Links

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

iTunes/iBooks

Kobo

Smashwords

About the Author:

Alexia currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada - Sin City! She loves to spend every free moment writing or playing with her four rambunctious kids. Writing has always been her dream and she has been writing ever since she can remember. She is the award-winning author of the Reign of Blood series and A Dark Faerie Tale Series.