Brien Feathers

When words fail, bring out the guns, swords, and death spells. Marina is the daughter of Tsar Alexander the Cruel, the most powerful warlock. She's also a princess of the Court of White Rose. The only problem is that she's mundane—she has no magic. On her sixteenth birthday Marina fled from her father's tsardom to the revolutionist side of Muscovy, and five years later she's doing all right, working as a seamstress in the United Workers' Factory. Despite the political police, the never-ending witch hunt, and her best friend living as an orange cat, she's happy. She gets along with her cottage mates and is even seeing a guy... until the city blows up, she's implied in the sabotage, her guy turns out to be an enemy, her friends are murdered, and an alchemist maniac hunts her down for a blood vendetta. With the Red Army and the Alchemist Federation on her heels, Marina runs back to the Court of White Rose, but when death follows her home she must uncover a prophecy, reconcile with the warlock, and stop an oncoming war. It's a tall order for a seamstress. The first book in the Sun War Trilogy, this intensely dark tale of magic and mayhem is full of grey characters that blur the line between good and evil. Content warning for strong language, graphic violence, and intimate situations.

Guard your heart and go home or fall for a stranger and perish. Reiko is the immortal spirit of the storm. Seeking to unravel a reoccurring dream that perplexes her, she visits the mortal realm during the Soul Festival and boards a train to the historical district of Sunlit City. There, in the imperial palace of old Nara, she finds no answers, only more questions as a peculiar girl indulges her with a tale of a disgraced deity and a mortal warlord. Ayame has a bad temper. She slapped the Immortal Emperor’s sorceress, and her punishment was to spend a decade on earth as a mortal—a task easier said than done. Nara is amidst its centuries long warring era, the age of the warlords. To navigate this treacherous new world, Ayame befriends a wine-loving, trickster fox spirit, and scrapes by as a servant in the household of one of the greater clans. Toiling day and night, she’s made do for five years and dreams of the day she can return home. But war arrives. When death announces itself outside her door, she assumes the identity of a noble and finds herself betrothed to the youngest son of an enemy clan, his father a ruthless warlord. To live, Ayame must play her role, but she soon she finds herself dangerously drawn not to her intended husband, but to the infamous warlord himself. In the tumultuous world of a warring empire, trouble is always on the horizon. Betrayals run deep within families and clans, and nothing is as it seems. All Ayame wants is to survive her banishment and return home, yet she may risk it all for a mortal man. A vicious killer, twice her age, nothing is right about him, including his insanely possessive concubine out to get Ayame. She knows it, but can she control her temperament, or will she find herself at odds with yet another court, this time a deadly one? A slow burn dark fantasy, Remember Me is Book 1 of the Royal Diviner Trilogy, and comes with content advisory for violence and intimate situations.

American Fiction Awards Horror Winner. FireBird Festival Dark Fantasy Winner. San Francisco Book Festival Wild Card Runner-up. — So begins the apocalypse, with death and a story of love — An old soul (several centuries old), the lover, fighter, and telekinetic Drake receives an order to safeguard Ana, a mortal with Elder Talent. Ana, an artist beset by haunting visions, falls for the perfect stranger while venturing home to mediate emergent family chaos. Past-warlord and present commander Sasuke wields his telepathic might to outwit Council traitors in an effort to save the human realm and its Guardian from a new Dark War. Criminal and light bender Lou, now sought by the Council to answer for his sins, seeks shelter with the Reverend—an Elder fit to bypass rules of magic meant to be unbreakable. As time’s last grains of sand deplete, an ancient battle may renew, with pieces of the fractured realm imperiling man’s modern world. Though few on Earth are cognizant, dark days now lie ahead. . . ---------- One fate, two paths, six singular perspectives, and plethoric danger. Contemporary fantasy at its polychromic finest—pure delight.

To have a heart is to love, isn't it? The faerie war has devastated the world, and what little remains of humanity lives underground as vampires. Kara is a half-blood. Her mother was human, but her father was not. She works as a hostess in one of the many pleasure dens of Nocturne, a vampire nest in a catacomb. Earning her blood one night at a time, Kara lives as peacefully as she can in a dying world. For decades her life has been the same... until she meets a stranger who may be able to grant her fondest wish—to be human. But nothing comes free in this brutal world, and when the faeries come knocking on the door she must choose between saving the life of a stranger or protecting her own secret. Lucien is a powerful telepath and a pureblood vampire, meaning he was born as one. He’s never seen the sun. On a mission from his queen, he travels to the city of the undead, Nocturne, territory of a different vampire clan. When betrayal turns a negotiation deadly, he finds an unlikely guardian in a den hostess. But can their fledgling bond survive when he learns that she’s the enemy? Delve into the dark world of Ugly Angels, where newfound love is tested, and old loyalties are torn. This adult dark fantasy tale comes with a content warning for strong language, graphic violence, and intimate situations.