slow burn romance

Journeys: the Archers of Saint Sebastian

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A barracks full of beautiful boys. A girl in disguise, living among them.

It’s the 14th century, and the longbow is king. But in the northern European principality of Ardennes, archery isn’t just the nation’s defense. It’s the national obsession.

MEET THE JOURNEYS
12 young Journeyman archers, the best in the country
2 years of public competitions, in which looks count almost as much as ability
6 will win a coveted membership in the Archers’ Guild of St. Sebastian
1 will become the prince’s new Guardsman

MEET MARIEKE
15-year-old Marieke is as obsessed with St. Sebastian’s as everyone else in Ardennes. Only it’s the middle ages, and girls just don’t become elite archers. Except Marieke’s prospects as a girl aren’t promising either, after a well-timed kick from a mule has left her with a face that’s badly scarred and ruined for marriage. But when circumstances force her to leave her old life behind and flee to the guild for refuge, there are only two things Marieke really knows about the place. One is that a mysterious accident ended her own father’s time as a Journey. The other?
There are no women allowed inside St. Sebastian’s.
Marieke knows disguising herself as a boy and infiltrating the guild means embarking on a dangerous deception. But it may be her only chance to find out the truth about her father’s past and to stop a murderous plot from coming to fruition. When the dashing young Journeyman Tristan takes her under his wing as his squire, she’s got to stay – at least long enough to help him beat out his brutal arch-rival to win the competitions.
Keeping her identity a secret will be hard. Living in close quarters with a pack of gorgeous boys? That will be harder still. But the hardest thing of all will be keeping the vow she makes for herself: to see Tristan become the next Guardsman, without ever letting him find out she’s a girl – a girl, who loves him.

Part Robin Hood and part Princess Bride, with a pinch of Mulan and a dash of Cyrano de Bergerac in the mix, TheArchers of St. Sebastian I: Journeys is a humorous action and adventure saga inspired by late medieval/early Renaissance Belgium and packed with romance, wit, and longbow archery. Perfect for adults who love young adult themes,Journeys is an escape into the past that reads more like romantic historical fantasy than pure historical fiction.

Unrequited love? Ugly heroines who stay ugly? Friendship, coming of age, romance, adventure, and plenty of archery competitions? A unique setting inspired by the glorious city of Bruges, with a richly imagined, immersive world set within the walls of a male-only archers’ guild?Journeys: The Archers of Saint Sebastianhas it all, so if you’re looking for a great escape, don your disguise and join Marieke as she enters the forbidden world of Saint Sebastian’s, and prepare to fall in love with the Journeys – that is, the twelve best and most beautiful archers in all of Ardennes, the Journeyman archers of St. Sebastian’s.

Meet Jeanne Roland

Roland hails from Davis, California, where she spent most of her youth lounging at the pool, soaking up the sun, and daydreaming. She had a key ring that read ‘I’m running away to join the circus,’ and her favorite moment of the day was when the local movie theater went dark, and the slogan ‘escape to the movies’ appeared on the screen. As an adult, her passions include all things melodramatic and beautiful — everything from classic movies, British romantic poetry, ancient tragedy and epic, to Italian opera. She is now a professor of Classics in a small midwestern town, where she lives with her Greek husband, her fraternal twins, and a Bernese mountain dog named Franco Corelli.

Gravity Girl (Gravity Shattered Book 1)

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When your life has a deadline, why play it safe?

Grav-walker Jasper Pine has always known she’d die young. She makes a living hunting for salvage in the decaying, three-dimensional maze of the gravity zones, where any direction can be down and every leap could be your last. Even if her reckless lifestyle doesn’t kill her, the alien infection inside her will soon explode, and the resulting cataclysm of broken gravity could endanger the entire planet. She’ll die to prevent that from happening. 

Then an unexpected glimmer of hope appears and changes everything. A feral boy holds the key to her future, but he’s been captured by a ruthless militarized cult. Jasper will have to turn to the one person she should be avoiding, Ryan Latrans, a charming outsider who’s been sent into the zones to retrieve a sample of the alien infection for a powerful and unscrupulous man. 

With millions of lives at stake and time running out, can Jasper afford a leap of faith?

Perfect for fans of hopeful, poignant character journeys, slow burn romance and unique settings. Contains some language and violence, self-harm, and memories of abuse and torture.

Meet V.R. Friesen

V.R. Friesen has been writing stories since shortly after she learned the alphabet. She grew up on the beautiful East Coast of Canada and now lives on the equally beautiful (but in a different way) West Coast, in Vancouver, BC, with one of her many siblings and a cat. She can usually be found drinking chai lattes, cheering on her favourite basketball team, or reading voraciously in science fiction, fantasy, young adult and dystopian fiction. Gravity Shattered is her first series.

Back to Troy

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She could lose her heart, mind, life—or all three.

Murders and disappearances. Spicy rumors and family secrets. A childhood crush turned ladies’ man.

This could not end well.

What really brought Emma Dill back to Troy? The need to remember—or to forget? The desire to solve a ruthless murder—or to move on? The hope for a blossoming new romance—or an old flame that just won’t die?

The murderer is a sociopath: a savage hiding in plain sight.

The victim is her mother: a former stripper, a hot-headed, cold-blooded enigma.

She is a twenty-two-year-old orphan: a spunky poodlehead, a spitfire in the guise of a songbird.

Her partner in crime is her old heartache: an irresistible freewheeler, a shameless tease…and a delicious, impertinent kiss.

Charged with fast-paced suspense and slow-burn romance, BACK TO TROY kicks off the series with two hundred pages of heat, adrenaline, and humor.

Buy your copy today and settle in for a ride. Welcome to Troy.

Meet Maki Matsui

Born and raised in Japan, Maki Matsui has been a lifelong reader and writer, first in Japanese and then in English. Besides being the author of two books—Back to Troy (2020) and Daisy Fields (2020)—she is also a classical singer. She makes her home in the hills of Western Massachusetts and is currently working on her third title.