Silver to the Heart by Brien Feathers

Silver to the Heart

by Brien Feathers

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GENRE: Dark fantasy, urban fantasy (adult, not YA)

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BLURB:

— 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.

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NOTE: This book is free.

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Excerpt

Arrogant men stood different, carried themselves different, and smirked when they should smile. The redhead clearly enjoyed his own company and Ana dug people who loved themselves—narcissists. Her therapist would say that was a problem, but she wasn’t here, so who cared?

Tilting his head in a question and looking directly at her, the redhead arched an eyebrow; she’d been staring at him. A normal person would have smiled, maybe even waved, but Ana rolled her eyes and turned back to the bar. Because I have no game.

“Here, girl,” said the bartender, and her drink appeared. When Ana exchanged her card for the bourbon, he asked, “Open tab?”

“Nah, I’m about to be out of here.”

“Aight girl.”

“Hey, how old is the kid over there? The redhead on the terrace, six o’clock,” asked Ana. She lived alone and had no dignity, so why not?

The bartender stared behind Ana, squinting. “I carded him already.” Yeah, because Ana looked like she was from the liquor license revoking… agency?

“I’ve seen him in here before. He’s all right,” said the bartender answering the question Ana hadn’t asked. “The blonde is hot, though,” he continued.

“Is he looking at me?” Ana asked.

“Nope, he’s looking at the blonde.” With that, he took her card and turned.

Ana threw a glance over her shoulder—carefully. He was talking to a blonde wearing an off-the-shoulder black dress. The woman’s face was turned away from Ana but the snooty attire said ‘not a college kid’.  Perhaps he liked older women, which was good, because Ana wasn’t eighteen or nineteen… or however old he was. At twenty-seven, she was already trying to rob cradles—she would need more than one therapist soon.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Brien Feathers is a fantasy author living in the land of permanent frost, horses, and Mongols. She likes reading, writing (of course), riding (horses and husbands), drinking dark beer, and checking things off a to-do list.

Although she claims to love everyone equally, she really loves her youngest son the most. He has autism superpowers that allow him to speak all types of rare languages including drumbeats, elevator dings, and police sirens.

Miss Feathers loves grey days, orange cats, and all creatures human or otherwise. And she hopes you will love her world (fantasy) and people (characters) as well. 

Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

Light of Adua is a contemporary dark fantasy series, and ‘Silver to the Heart’, Book 1 is set in modern-day New Orleans. On the surface, the series is about vampires who are centuries old, wielding magic to protect the world from the supernatural forces of a fallen dark realm. However, on a thematic level the story is asking a question: are good and evil absolutes, or are they just different perspectives?

The story is told from multiple points of view to illustrate how every character with agency thinks they’re doing the right thing— the truth is a spectrum. Also, it has the added benefit of avoiding exposition dumps as each character has a different bit of the puzzle, and the reader gets to see the whole picture without the villain having a long talk explaining his plans.

Villain, that’s another interesting concept. Characters should be as complex as real people, and in real life, is there such thing as a mustache-twirling villain or his/her objective simply different than yours? This is going to be a bit of a spoiler, but the main ‘villain’ of the series is not present in Book 1. His name is mentioned a lot— that would be a clue as to who it is. Another hint: he’s lost the Elder War.

Called the High Council, a group of twelve Elders watch over the world to protect humanity against crimes of their own kind. Vampires, or Elders, have designated depots to buy blood, and killing is not allowed. After the Elder War, three hundred years of peace has followed; however, at the beginning of ‘Silver to the Heart’, the commander of the High Council, a telepath sees that the ancient darkness has arrived in the human world. The presence of dark magic compels the realm to appoint a guardian that shall lead Elders into the coming war, and that is Ana— a twenty-seven-year-old living in New Orleans, ignorant of Elders, magic, or looming apocalypse.

Drake, a telekinetic Elder, and hero of Elder War is sent to protect Ana but gets himself kidnapped and tortured. Pain is a reoccurring theme in the series, and ‘Silver to the Heart’ has reading warnings for language and violence.

Another thematic question asked throughout the series, beginning in ‘Silver to the Heart’: What is duty, and how far one can go in the name of it and still be considered a good guy? Do ends justify the means?

I’ve been told by a 1-star reviewer that the cover looks like YA fantasy but beware that it is not. It’s urban fantasy with snarky and humorous (hopefully) characters but the story itself discusses mature ideas and has adult (violence) scenes. If you’d like to give the series a shot, ‘Silver to the Heart’, Book 1 is perma-free across all retailers. 

 

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