To
Love a King
Annwyn
Book 3
Shona
Husk
Genre:
paranormal romance
Publisher:
Sourcebooks
Date
of Publication: 7 October 2014
ISBN:
9781402280221
Number
of pages: 352
Word
Count: 80,000
Book
Description:
To
keep the balance between good and evil at the court of Annwyn, Prince
Felan ap Gwyn has two weeks to marry and take the crown. But he wants
more than just power—he wants love; a love he once had but was too
stubborn to hold on to.
It
took years for Jacqueline Ara to put her life back together after
Felan abandoned her. And she doesn't want fairies back in her
life—even if her heart still burns for him. With war in Annwyn
looming and death bleeding into the mortal world, Felan and Jacquie
will need to heal old wounds for one last gamble. It's all or nothing
to save both worlds.
Excerpt;
The fairy man took off his sunglasses, revealing pale green eyes like the edge of a glacier.
The fairy man took off his sunglasses, revealing pale green eyes like the edge of a glacier.
Her heart stopped. Or time stopped.
That split second hung incomplete as her brain tried to rationalize
what she was seeing. It couldn’t be him. Not here. Not now. Her
heart gave a beat and noise rushed back in to fill the silence she
hadn’t noticed. Felan, the fairy Prince who’d ridden away with
her heart and never thought to return it, was in the coffee shop. She
blinked and glanced away, pretending she didn’t recognize him.
The doctors who’d told her fairies
weren’t real had never been confronted with the truth—the truth
that was walking steadily closer to the counter as if it wanted to
order a cup of coffee.
Last time, it had been hard to say
anything with her mother standing there. He’d never come back and
given her the chance to speak or explain what had happened. And she’d
never had the chance to ask him to send the monsters away. Everyone
had just thought she was crazy. Then, as the years had passed in
drug-induced grayness, she’d begun to hope that she would never see
him or any fairy again. It hurt too much.
As he strolled toward her, the old
doubts began to rise. Why was he here now? Had he come back, thinking
it wasn’t too late, that maybe only days had passed when it had
been years? Or had he come to take her to Annwyn? Why would he bother
chasing her? He could have any woman he wanted. She was just the girl
who he believed killed his baby.
If he wanted revenge, he was a little
late. She’d been to hell and back, and she had nothing to say to
him.
He glanced at her and looked away as if
he didn’t recognize her.
Maybe he didn’t. She’d grown up and
changed. She’d had to.
He hadn’t changed a bit. His
cheekbones could still weaken women’s knees, and the curve of his
lips could melt hearts. But it was the way he acted, as if he didn’t
know women were watching him over their coffee cups. The trouble was
she knew it wasn’t an act. When he’d been with her, his attention
had always been on her. He’d made her feel like the most beautiful
woman in the room even if she wasn’t. He’d had a confidence she’d
always lacked.
He’d seemed stable, calm, and wise,
while at the same time he’d craved freedom from Annwyn. That her
parents had hated him had been the cherry on top. He’d been her
rebellion. Even though he knew that her parents didn’t like him,
he’d always insisted on being polite and behaved himself around
them, as if he thought he could eventually win them over. He believed
family was important. And she’d lost his baby. She’d never forget
the look on his face when her mother had said it was gone. Felan
calling her name even as the door shut. She’d cried until her
mother had forced her to take a sleeping pill. She’d slept so many
hours away, hiding from reality.
He really had no right to be here,
messing up her new life with his charm and looks.
Ash almost raced around the counter to
take his order. Her eyes were bright and unable to look away from the
fairy. That had been her once, stumbling into his arms, head over
heels into love. Crawling out had been much harder than getting in.
It was kind of like those coils of barbed wire and the mud pits army
recruits have to slog through and over, only it had lasted for years.
She busied herself wiping the coffee
machine and filling the next order on her list. It was better this
way, that he didn’t recognize her. Easier if she never had to
explain herself or listen to his reasons for abandoning her. Love.
Fairies didn’t know the meaning of the word.
“Latte, please.” His voice was soft
and smooth, just the way she liked to remember, not the tortured cry
she’d heard last from his lips.
Jacqui had to close her eyes to hold
back the memories. She opened her eyes, expecting him to be looking,
but he’d taken his table number and found a seat by the window.
Then he busied himself reading the newspaper. He had always liked to
follow news from around the globe.
She frowned. How long had it been since
he’d been in the mortal world?
Ash slapped the order in front of her.
“How gorgeous is he? I bet he’s an actor or something.”
Or something was closer to the
truth. “Trouble I bet.” Jacqui glanced at the till, wondering how
he’d paid. When they’d been together, she’d helped him set up a
bank account. Did he still use it, or had he simply tricked Ash into
thinking he’d paid?
“I wouldn’t mind that kind of
trouble.” Ash sighed.
Jacqui looked at Ash. She wasn’t even
twenty, but she was pretty—she’d be prettier if she didn’t
bleach her hair to within an inch of its life and she quit the fake
tan. She looked like every other girl here. Didn’t everyone go
through that phase of trying to fit in? Jacqui had dyed her brown
hair black and straightened it every day through high school, partly
to fit in but mostly because her parents had hated it.
“You would when he left you
heartbroken.” The words came with more bitterness than she’d
planned.
Ash raised her eyebrows. “You have to
kiss toads to find a prince.”
“I don’t want a prince.” She’d
had that once, and she wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
About
the Author:
Three
time ARRA finalist Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge
of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most
of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered
romance novels and hasn’t looked back.
With
stories ranging from sensual to scorching, she writes paranormal,
fantasy and sci-fi romance.
Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/lySiD
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I have book two sitting on my shelf at home so this would be perfect!!! thanks so much for the chance!
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