Brothers of the Vine
Forever Evermore
Women of W.A.R.
Hi! I’m Karen Brooks, author of the historical fantasy/romantasy trilogy The Curse of the Bond Riders. I’ve been asked to name five of my absolute favourite romantasy couples – only five!
Before I do, I’ll tell you a little about my books. Set in a world akin to Renaissance Venice called Serenissima (which is actually what Venice used to be called), they tell the story of a young candle-maker, Tallow, who’s the last of a race of mystical beings, the Estrattore. Due to terrible bigotry, fear and a struggle for power, the Estrattore were persecuted and believed wiped out by the church centuries ago. When Tallow’s forbidden powers start to manifest, there are those who will stop at nothing to manipulate and control both the magic and Tallow. Watching and waiting in a borderless world where time pauses are the Bond Riders, those who’ve sacrificed their souls for duty. Tallow is the sign they’ve been waiting for – only not everyone wants what Tallow represents.
When the future of worlds is at stake, deadly danger, threats and murder are just the beginning …
The Curse of the Bond Riders trilogy by Karen Brooks
Tallow, Votive, Illumination.
Dante and Tallow
My first favourite couple from a fantasy series would have to be Tallow and Dante – I just adored creating them. They’re in their late teens when they first meet – drawn irresistibly together – and as the books progress and years pass there’s nothing they won’t sacrifice for each other. Incredible obstacles and great dangers face them as Tallow enters the sensual world of courtesans and is horribly used and abused, all while learning to secretly wield magic. Dante makes a life-changing sacrifice to try to save Tallow, but is it enough?
This is a deep, true passion that transcends borders, faith, magic and even death. Tallow and Dante are soulmates in the truest sense.
The Binding by Bridget Collins
Emmett Farmer and Lucian Darnay
This glorious book, so wonderfully imagined and written, took my breath away. It’s about binding memories into books, especially those you’d rather forget or are forced to relinquish. And yet memories are what make us who we are.
Emmett is a farm boy who becomes an apprentice binder; Lucian is a cold, mysterious aristocrat who has no time for the likes of a farmer’s son. This is a slow burn novel about forbidden love and those who punish anyone who feels it, but also how nothing and no one can stop true love’s course.
The Axis Trilogy by Sara Douglass
Battleaxe, Enchanter, Starman.
Rivkah and Axis (special mention to Faraday)
This is one of my all-time favourite series that involves religion, war, magic, monsters and love.
The lead character, Axis, a warrior-prince, is beautifully flawed and has to overcome so much to finally find not just his real place in an epic world, but the woman who’s destined to be by his side. Rivkah is gorgeously drawn and while she competes for Axis’s affections with the tragic Faraday, she’s a brilliant heroine (as is Faraday) in her own right.
Strange the Dreamer by Liani Taylor
Lazlo and Sarai
This is the first book in a sumptuously imagined, poetically written duo of books (The Muse of Nightmares is the second).
If you haven’t read these – or any other Liani Taylor books – you’re in for such a treat. Lazlo is a librarian who travels to the city of Weep, a place where blue-skinned gods rule from the sky. One of the gods, Sarai, has the ability to enter people’s dreams without them being aware– all except Lazlo who, for some inexplicable reason, can see her.
What develops is a beautiful love story but, like so many that start well, it’s how it ends that will make you clutch your chest …
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Sabran and Ead
I was late to the party with this book and, once there, didn’t want to leave. Again, an opulent, richly detailed novel where the world-building and characters live on long after the last page. Featuring different cultures, topography, religions, laws and so much more, it also has dragons.
Fantastic, dangerous, magnificent dragons. Told from different viewpoints, and with more than one romance (the love a rider has for their dragon must surely count?), it’s the romance between Sabran, a strong, devoted queen, and the warrior from another land bound to protect her, Ead, that stole my heart.
A huge book with nary a wasted page.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Brooks
Karen Brooks is the author of sixteen books – historical fiction, historical fantasy, YA fantasy, and one non-fiction. She was an academic for over 20 years, a newspaper columnist and social commentator. She has a Ph.D. in English/Cultural Studies and has published internationally on all things popular culture, education and social psychology. An award-winning teacher, she’s taught throughout Australia and in The Netherlands and keynoted at many education conferences. Nowadays, she finds greatest contentment studying history and writing, and helping her husband in his Brewstillery, Captain Bligh’s.
She shares a beautiful stone house in Hobart, Tasmania, built in 1868, with her husband, adorable dogs and cats, and shelves brimming with books.
Don’t miss Karen’s romantic fantasy series: The Curse of the Bond Riders
On the edge of a mystical border called the Limen, close to a beautiful canal-laced city, a humble candlemaker rescues a child whom he raises as his apprentice.
Years pass and the child’s unusual talents are revealed, the gentle art of candle making slowly transforming into something far more sinister.
Lingering in the shadows, enemies watch and wait – a vengeful aristocrat, an exotic queen and the lethal creatures known only as the Morte Whisperers.
They hunger after the child’s ancient magic and will do anything to control it – betray, lie, manipulate. Even murder.