Beta Readers Wanted – Historical Fantasy

I am less intimidating than a bear, I promise.

So, the time approaches. Hold strong your nerves, have courage, take heart. At the end of May, I will* have finished revisions on Daughter of Kings. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know this as Queen of Hearts. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I made the decision to split Queen of Hearts into two volumes. Daughter of Kings is the first volume.

Daughter of Kings is a New Adult historical fantasy.  It will end up at about 80,000-83,000 words. As the title of this post proclaims, I’m searching for 5-10 beta readers to dedicate some time to reading the manuscript over and making suggestions (which I’ll delve into further on).

So, would you be interested in reading Daughter of Kings? At this stage, I won’t presume to compare DoK to any published works so instead I have a few questions:

• Do you like fantasy which emphasises the historical/political/social end of the spectrum?
• Do you want to read a fantasy story with almost 1:1 male/female ratio, and focuses on the women?
• Do you like your women kick-ass?
• Have you been enjoying my WIPpet Wednesday snippets or character interviews?

If your reaction to any of the above questions was this…

…then you could be a beta reader for Queen of Hearts.

Sometimes we must make a choice between what is right and what must be done.

Fariel is a country simmering on the brink of war. And it doesn’t know it.

In the citadel looming over the capital of Fariel, Karavere rebels against the restrictions of life at court. Confined to her rooms for yet another misdemeanour, Kara decides to sneak out into the city.  Drawn to the slave markets, Kara spends the last of her allowance on two slaves, natives of neighbouring Bashraan with whom Fariel has been on the brink of war for more than five hundred years.

Freeing the slaves, Kara is thrown into a world of high stakes diplomacy but she soon realises that petty sqaubbles between Fariel and Bashraan may be the least of her worries. Dark plots abound, and in the north, a mighty power draws closer.

When Kara’s grief stricken father refuses to recognise the threat, Kara is forced to make a choice – to be the obedient daughter and see her people slaughtered, or commit treason against the king and in doing so, save Fariel itself.

You can read excerpts of this under the Queen of Hearts tag which I’ve linked above.

If this sounds like your cup of tea/coffee/alcoholic beverage, then comment, shoot me an email at aebrowne.ink [at] gmail . com (remove spaces/brackets etc) or contact me via twitter.

I’ll be looking for feedback on:

• flow of plot
• overall structure
• enjoyability
• character continuity
• pacing

I’ll send out the manuscript on Monday 6th June and be hoping to have it back within four to six weeks.

If you don’t have the time or it doesn’t quite suit your tastes, but you think some of your followers might enjoy it, please consider a reblog. 🙂