Except: BURSTS OF FIRE (Addicted to Heaven #1) by Susan Forest

I am thrilled to be able to give you guys a sneak peak of this book today! It’s been out since early August and has been receiving lots of great reviews.

I haven’t had the pleasure of reading it yet, but this little snippet sounds wonderful! If you like  epic fantasy then you will defiantly want to check this one out.

While this is more in the YA genre, I think it would be a book that adults would love as well! Not only does it have magic and other fantasy elements, but it sounds like it’s going to tackle some big issues too much as addiction and mental illness so I think that it’s content will appeal to a wide audience.

Summary

Bursts of Fire begins an epic political fantasy of revenge, addictions, and redemption. In an empire where magic has become suspect, love and loyalty–for one’s lover, one’s family, one’s country–are tested. If Heaven desires the very earth be burned, what place can those below hope for, when the flames come for them?

To survive. To fight. To restore balance.

The Falkyn sisters bear a burden and a legacy. Their mother, the imperial magiel of the kingdom of Orumon, protects her people from the horrors of the afterlife by calling upon the Gods with a precious Prayer Stone. But war among the kingdoms has brought fire and destruction to their sheltered world. When a mad king’s desire to destroy the Prayer Stones shatters their family, the three girls are scattered to the wilderness, relying on their wits and powers they don’t yet master.

Assassin. Battle tactician. Magic wielder. Driven by different ambitions, Meg, Janat, and Rennika are destined to become all these and more. To reclaim their birth right, they must overcome doubtful loyalties within a rising rebellion; more, they must challenge a dogma-driven chancellor’s influence on the prince raised to inherit his father’s war: a prince struggling to unravel the mystery of his brother’s addiction to Heaven.

Excerpt

Bursts Of Fire Excerpt by Susan Forest (698 words)

On Sale: August 6, 2019

Meg woke much later in need of the chamber pot and a drink of water. The rumble of men’s voices had been replaced by snores and the rustle of leaves beyond the windows. The sinking star of Sashcarnala shone through the open shutters, and yellow candlelight flickered from somewhere in the room. She lazed in her blankets, drowsy and unwilling to venture into the chill of the night.

“But why so soon?” Janat’s voice, hushed, floated from the far side of the room. The sound of bowls and wash water accompanied it. She must be tidying up. “Wait, Sulwyn. Stay here with me. Please.

Until we can follow Mama’s bidding—”

“King Artem will never give up that siege until Archwood falls and everyone in it is dead.” The whisper, fierce and suppressed, was Sulwyn’s, clumsy with drink. “Not unless we give him a reason. A peace he can live with. And a peace the people can live with.”

“You know what King Artem wants? You read his mind?”

Meg peered across the room at them. Janat stood by the side board, washing dishes, sleeves rolled, hair in faint disarray.

“And what do you think you’re going to find at that tarn? Hmm?”

Sulwyn leaned in, close to Janat, his hair wild, his linen shirt open at the neck, a ruddy flush in his cheeks. “The Amber? A prince? Nothing short of both is going to change anything.”

Janat glared at him. “You talk as though what we see and hear in this world is real,” she said in a low voice. “It’s not. Only the Heavens are real. Faith is believing, even when there’s no evidence we can touch. You know that. One day we’ll be returned to our rightful place.”

“You fill your head with dreams.” Sulwyn pushed frustrated hands through his hair. “What service do you do yourself when those dreams of turning back time to some . . . romantic . . . era have

no hope of fulfillment?”

“No hope? Of course there’s hope! More than hope,” Janat whispered. “It will happen, Sulwyn.”

“Your mother may have set some events in motion, but she can’t know how they’ll play out.”

“Stop. Wait.” Janat put down her dish towel. “You tell me, now. What would you do with us, you and that band of ruffians you travel with, stirring up trouble wherever you go?” Janat leaned back against the sideboard and tossed back the dregs of her beer.

“Use us? Magiels of the House of the Amber. Your political pawns? Is that your interest in us? Don’t tell me you haven’t thought of it.”

“What? Janat!” But the color of his already flushed cheeks deepened.

Help the rebels. Meg almost sat up.

Janat set the mug on the sideboard, and lifting her wash basin, tossed the gray water out the window. “You think you’re going to talk the king into giving up power?” She put the wash basin back. “Into sharing his Gods-given right to rule, with a bunch of . . . of commoners?” She said the word with disgust.

Of course not. Without Meg or Janat—or Rennika, whom Dwyn had hidden away—and the Amber, the uprisers would never coerce Artem into sharing power.

“Common. That’s what you think of me, isn’t it?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Unless the foreigner’s steam machine was more powerful than magic.

“We’re not talking about making things the way they were.” Sulwyn’s voice lowered, tight and slow, as if he explained something to a child. “A different system of governing. Different. One that’s never been done before.”

Even without the Amber, magiel magic had been helping upriser plans. But if they had a magiel whose direct lineage could be traced to the One God . . .

“I think beer fills yourhead with dreams,” Janat countered. “Revolution. Maybe war. Killing.” She wiped the sideboard. “Dying.”

“It’s better than a privileged few living off the work of the poor.”

Janat whirled. She launched herself at him, fingers clawed.

“Hey!” He grasped her forearms before she could harm him, and they tussled silently. “I meant nothing!”

“You’re as bad as the others!”

“Janat—”

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