Title: Druids In the Mist
Author: Cornelia Amiri
Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance
Book Blurb:
As Queen Boudica leads her two druids against Rome… love leads them to their destiny.
Conquering Romans plunge the British tribes into chaos. The future of the mist-covered isle and its brave people rest in the hands of two druids, whose views are as different as fire and ice.
Arch Druid Rhys is a master of the sacred mysteries but a novice in the ways of the heart. Sulwen, a survivor of the Roman massacre on the Druid Learning Center, discovers Rhys, the shapeshifter, has evoked a basic, feral desire in her.
But soon, the goddess may exact the unfathomable price of taking him from her.
Though their love is as potent as their magic, is it strong enough to survive the turmoil of the Romans, the Rebel Queen Boudica, and the gods?
You may be familiar with the author Cornelia Amiri, often referred to as the Celtic/Romance Queen, she's been researching and writing about the ancient Celts for over 20 years.
Excerpt:
Sulwen’s essence rose from her like gray smoke from a snuffed candle. She gazed down on her still body, her white skin, and her long, blonde hair. She felt like a heavy cloud as she pushed against the wind and floated into the body of the bird.
She felt small, compressed. She gazed out of tiny yet sharp eyes. She opened her mouth, expecting a shrill scream, but her beak emitted the caw of a gull. Her teeth were gone. Frightened by it all, she felt as if she had leapt off the cliff and was falling, helpless, to her doom.
Hot, almost fevered, her heart hammered at a rapid speed. She breathed faster than any human. She felt hurried. She needed to move swiftly. Sulwen needed to fly. She moved up and down, faster than any human could move their arms, she flapped her wings hard. She dove off the cliff.
Fighting the urge to shut her new, keen eyes, she worked her wings with all her might until she caught a wave of wind and ceased the frantic flapping.
As she stretched out her wings, her entire body eased. That feels so good. Like lying down on the most comfortable bed, all the tautness and tension in her body rolled off. She rode the wind, arching her wings slightly. Her tiny, light body had the strength and power to defy the pull of the earth and break free.
Sulwen coasted effortlessly across the sky with the speed of an iron pellet fired from a slingshot. She whizzed through the air, breathless. A chariot at top speed was slow, compared to the swiftness of flight.
She tilted her head up and rode higher. With an empowering freedom, her body ran with little guidance from her brain as she soared beyond the clouds.
As her sharp gull eyes gazed upon the rocky sides of Ynys Mon, jutting out of the tranquil blue water, she quivered with joy. She soared above strips of sandy beach, patches of huge white rocks blanketed in emerald green and the blueberry-toned mountain range. Making a large, playful loop in the air, she circled the ancient rocks of Holy Head where she first fell in love with Rhys.
She glided above mountains topped with groves of trees crested with lush green leaves, and slopes covered with dense woodland. Sulwen flew free over splashes of bright blue she knew as lakes and streams, as well as strips of ebony rocks dotted with green, which stretched into the sea.
Lifting one wing higher than the other, Sulwen turned back to fly over Ynys Mon once more. As she flapped her wings slower and slower, the earth began to pull her closer. She flew past a grey seal basking in the sun on a rock jutting out of the white foamed water. She soared over a forest as she headed toward Eryri. Sulwen came to a clearing with a small ring of green sparkly standing stones.
With a twist of her wings, she slowed her landing, then spread and lowered her tail feathers to brake to a stop. With feet outstretched, she landed on top of one of two tallest stones in the center of the ancient ring. Like its mate, the long stone stood twenty hands high.
Glancing to the north, she looked upon Holy Head, but to the south across the sea she gazed at the peak of Eryri where Rhys stood, waiting for her sprit to return to her body.
Perched on the tall slab-like stone of green schist, she gazed at its mate. At the last Beltaine festival on the Ynys Mon, in the center between the two long stones, Madog stood, beating a bodhran drum as he led her and the other druids in a chant. She glanced to the smaller stones circling the larger two. She had stood there, between her best friends, Goewin and Brisen, holding their hands and dancing around the sacred ring. When the Beltaine sun set behind the stones, the shadows of this and the other center stone stretched across the ground, looking human like an ancient giant, like a god.
Goewin had often said that Madog was her favorite teacher at the learning center, so serene and wise, but now he grew nervous, erratic, and sprouted madness about destructive magic. The Romans had done so much damage. How she hated them.
She had watched her best friends die. Sulwen still felt empty, lost without them. Those who survived weren’t quite the same. She wasn’t. She woke up at night, covered in sweat, her heart racing, a scream on her lips, all her muscles clenched with fear.
Sulwen flapped her wings as fast as she could. She began to take off, her feet free of the earth once more. She didn’t rise, instead she hovered just a hand span from the stone. It was hard, like treading water, and her muscles soon tired.
She landed back on the sacred rock. As a bird she wanted to fly away from sad, intrusive thoughts. She had the answers Rhys wanted her to find. She knew as a beast, more aptly as bird, how she felt about another war with the Romans. No animal is as free as a bird in flight. The gulls lived on their own terms. Safe in the mountains where the Romans wouldn’t come, the druids and Boudica’s daughters could live free, like winged birds. There they could keep their ways, their beliefs, without Roman influence. If they battled Rome now, their freedom and their very beliefs would be at risk.
As far as this small stone circle with these huge, long stones facing the purple mountains of Eryri, she would participate in other rituals here. Soon, she would return to Ynys Mon. This island was where her heart was, this was her home. The Romans could never take that away.
Buy Links (including Goodreads):
Regularly 4.99 – Druids in the Mist is on sale for .99 during this event!
B & N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/druids-in-the-mist-cornelia-amiri/1125469522?ean=2940154200780
What makes your featured book a must-read?
This unique fantasy romance has a Celtic twist and historical accuracy. It whisks you into a world of Druids, Warriors, and Boudica—a strong, powerful, influential women of ancient history, who put fear into the hearts of the Roman legions. The tropes are second chance and fighting for a cause. The druid hero, Rhys, and the druidess heroine, Sulwen, are intriguing characters you’ll be drawn to. It also includes sex-magic, shapeshifting, and dragons.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon US or Amazon Canada gift card
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Author Biography:
Boudica, the Celtic Warrior Queen made me start writing professionally. I love history and in reading a book about the dark ages, I came across the rebel queen. She inspired me so much, I started jotting down notes, but they were fiction, visions of me involved in the Boudica revolt. Before I knew it, I had accidentally written a rough draft for a novel.
And I've been writing books on purpose ever since. Drawing on my love of a happy ending I have currently penned 35 published romance books under my name, Cornelia Amiri.
Now, for the more mundane stuff. I and my muse, Severus the Cat, live amid the hustle and bustle of humid Houston, Texas. My newest release, Rare Finds, is a sci-fi comedy romance with a Celtic goddess heroine and a Xeno-archaeologist hero.
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