Crowning Heaven Snippets

Perhaps you have heard from my social media (or this post) that my book Crowning Heaven went to my editor last month?

Well it did.

And to celebrate, I am sharing with you some of my favorite (non-spoiler) snippets!

Comment below with which one is your favorite and tell me what you are currently reading or writing!

Heaven leaned her arms on the thick upper log of the fence and gazed out down the hill at the Plain Man’s orchard and the golden wheat fields beyond, all drenched in warm sunlight. Everything was so peaceful—even the grief she had gone through here could not mar it in her mind. She would miss this place, miss it with every ounce of her aching soul.

“You aren’t resting,” said the Plain Woman’s voice, soft and low behind her.

——

“Have you been many places?”

“Many. Far islands, distant countries, seen things most men hear of only in books. Should your majesty ever find herself in possession of the time, I should love to be her guide. I know the world as few do.”

“What is your favorite place?”

“Rodhacar,” he answered without hesitation. “There is no place I love more than these rugged mountains and crisp springs, and rivers running wild like ten thousand horses.”

—–

A gasp sounded behind her and she saw Tydeus Cerastes standing in the doorway, his face a white mask of shock.

She whirled around despite herself, her heart leaping to her throat. “What are you doing here?”

“Look, Heaven, the sun is rising,” said Tiarni, pointing towards the east over the high hills. The sky had been growing lighter the whole ride through, but now the ruddy sun had broken over the tousled barrier of hills and was ascending.

—–

She seized Thrasi’s hand and broke into a run, feeling the rush of excitement like the driving rain. The hood flew back, and her hair was blessedly wet as the rain ran down her face. She was soaked in an instant, and she had never felt better in her life.

They ducked under cover on the other side and went straight around the corner into the second courtyard.

She was laughing—laughing for the first time in what seemed like forever, and she couldn’t stop.

—–

“There are still concerns about more attempts, and on you, my lady,” said Breac. “Tydeus left with threats pouring from him like the river Tharis.”

—–

He glanced at Heaven briefly, his nostrils flared in his handsome face and his bright eyes blazing. Then he stopped short and looked again.

He took a couple of slow steps toward her, a smile growing on his face. In the center of his attention, Heaven felt herself growing cold.

“So, this is the jewel of the Cassidaes…Neoma’s girl child.”

Heaven sighed softly, breath-like. The moon and star light illuminated her face and the gentle curve of her upraised chin, the shadow of the latter plunging her throat into a high collar of blackness. “The stars are much closer here, I think,” she whispered. “You can almost reach out and catch at their aliveness.”

—–

The world does not believe in kindness. When people grow up, they begin to believe the lie that everything must be first for their own good and second for their fellow man. Do not believe it for a moment. Perhaps that is where the rich come from, or the powerful, but never the happiest or the most beautiful of people. Where the sacrifice of kindness is, there beauty lies.

—–

“For Castellan!” The shout rang out and hung for the space of five heartbeats.

And then the night air, fresh beneath the light of the silver moon and stars, was filled with the sound of fifty thousand voices raised in song.

—–

“Do you miss it much?” he asked gently. “Tennessee?”

A pang of homesickness struck her and she had a sudden yearning for cider and doughnuts, and the leaves turning, and baseball. Tennessee had been on the edge of fall when she left.