K.M. Shea's Blog, page 37
April 15, 2019
Curse of Magic: Name that fairy tale!
Champions, you got reviews in with record timing! A big thank you to everyone who took the time to leave an honest review, I really appreciate it–and so do all the new Champions who have joined us after reading them! 
Name that fairy tale!
Champions, you got reviews in with record timing! A big thank you to everyone who took the time to leave an honest review, I really appreciate it–and so do all the new Champions who have joined us after reading them!
April 11, 2019
Curse of Magic: Let’s Celebrate!
The wait is over, Curse of Magic is finally available to purchase or to read in KU! Wooohoooo!!
I am so relieved! CoM was a work of love, Champions. That sucker is my longest fairy tale book by a lot. I hope you enjoy all the extra scenes! But as some of you were wondering, I am indeed throwing my usual “let’s celebrate/thanks for reviewing” special.
Once CoM hits about 90 reviews–including reviews across all Amazon stores and Goodreads–I will release a bonus chapter! I’m again only doing one this time because it’s a long bonus chapter/scene. (It’s actually even longer than the Duke’s Clothes!) It’s called The Love Potion, and it takes place during the events of Apprentice of Magic.
I like to release bonus content with book releases because I am sincerely grateful for your honest reviews! They help me, and they help readers new to me decide if the book is really something they’d be interested in. So a big thank you in advance to all you dedicated Champions who review!
I’m going to keep it short and stop it here–mostly because I’m sure everyone is anxious to go and read, so be free my Champions!
April 10, 2019
Champion Fan Art
The countdown for Curse of Magic continues! Only a few short days and it will be in your hands–and I cannot wait to hear what you all think of it! It’s so fun to share the Timeless Fairy Tale world with you all!
Keeping that in mind, I am so happy when readers like my characters enough to dedicate time to recreating them through drawing, painting, design or even costumes! 
April 5, 2019
Beauty and the Beast Retellings
Beauty and the Beast is one of the most well known fairy tales ever–and, let’s be real, the Disney animated movie is pretty much perfection!
My fairy tale retelling of Beauty and the Beast is Book #1 in the Timeless Fairy Tales series, and my upcoming book, Curse of Magic, will give you Angelique’s side of the story!
So to celebrate the upcoming Curse of Magic release (less than a week away!!) let’s take a look at some of the Beauty and the Beast retellings I’ve read, AND more books the Facebook Champions recommended.
Some of my top favorite Beauty and the Beast retellings are….
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley
The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
And of course, there is my retelling, Beauty and the Beast by K.M. Shea (Haha, surprise!)
Here’s a “couple” more my Champions recommended on Facebook, but while I have read some, I haven’t read them all. (Or even most of them–and now I have massive fairy tale To Be Read stack, haha!) Brace yourself because they had a LOT of suggestions!
Note that I didn’t include any books that were labeled as definitely not clean so if you’re looking for even more suggestions you can check out the comments on the Facebook post.
Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
A Tale of Beauty and Beast by Melanie Cellier
Shadow and Thorn – Kenley Davidson
Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Beauty and the Beast by Jenni James
Before Beauty by Brittany Fichter
Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
The Unbreakable Curse by Jenna Thatcher
Beauty and the Beast and the Enchantress by Finley Aaron
The Rose and the Mask by Victoria Leybourne
The Beauty’s Beast by E.D. Walker
Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly
The Enchanted Rose by R.M. ArceJaeger
Stolen Enchantress by Amber Argyle
Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier
The Curse Girl by Kate Avery Ellison
The Merchant’s Daughter by Melanie Dickerson
The Subtle Beauty by Ann Hunter
Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen
Her Beast of a Billionaire Boss by Lucy McConnell
Beauty and the Baron-Joanna Barker
Finding Beauty in the Beast-Jessilyn Stewart Peaslee
Beauty and Beastly – Melanie Karsak
The Beast of Talesend by Kyle Robert Shultz
Whew, and that’s all that we have so far! Have you tried these? Do you know of more? If you have a suggestion that isn’t on the list (and is clean) then give it a shout out in the comments and either I or one of my lovely assistants will add it to the list. Now, Champions, go forth and enjoy good books!
The post Beauty and the Beast Retellings appeared first on K. M. Shea.
April 3, 2019
Curse of Magic Pre-Order
Less than 10 days until Curse of Magic launches, and it’s available for pre-order right now!
Pre-order link: Amazon.com | All other Amazon stores
It’s actually been available on pre-order for a while–something I don’t normally do. And I don’t like to do it because I’m having to use a place holder file right now (since the book is in the final beta read stage right now) and I’ve heard too many horror stories of Amazon delivering the place holder file by accident instead of the final version. I’m crossing my fingers that won’t happen, but just in case it happens to you my place holder file has instructions on how you can request an updated version of the file from Amazon support.
Coincidentally, my tiny place holder file is also the reason why the book is currently showing up in the “Kindle Short Reads” category, which is extremely irritating to me! I promise the final version of the book will be a full length novel! It’s actually longer than the first book. (Ahahaha and all those extra pages were made with sweat, blood, and tears.)
Curse of Magic will feature lots of new scenes from Angelique’s point of view but it will also have spoilers for Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots, Wild Swans, and a few more. If you don’t mind spoiling yourself a bit you can probably figure out which additional books overlap by reviewing my Timeless Fairy Tales timeline (click here for the series page). You might also find the series page helpful since it has a map of the continent, and Angelique travels around a LOT.
Before I close let’s take one more look at the cover image:
I just love the background on this cover, it’s so pretty and fits the world so well! Angelique’s core magic obviously isn’t fire but she is able to manipulate it to some extent thanks to her training.
March 22, 2019
Discounted Ebook – Puss in Boots
Apprentice of Magic provides an introduction to all kinds of characters, among them is Puss, err, I mean Roland Archibald Whisperpaws V in all his kitten cuteness. I’m happy to say that and he and Gabrielle appear in Curse of Magic as well! But they made their original debut back in Book #6 of the Timeless Fairy Tales series – Puss in Boots.
I wanted to make it easier for you to catch up on their adventures–and even meet Gabrielle before Curse of Magic comes out–so I’m discounting the Puss in Boots ebook! For March 20-24 Puss in Boots is priced at only 99 cents on the Amazon.com store!
Get the deal: Amazon.com
For those of you that have already read Puss in Boots – what did you think after learning more about Roland’s background in Apprentice of Magic? Did he deserve to have the collar put on him?
March 20, 2019
2019 Most Wanted Hero Poll
*Ding* *Ding* Time for Round 2 of my Annual Hero Polls! The Most Wanted Hero Poll!
For those of you Champions who may be new, every year I hold a poll in two stages. The first is to crown the top voted heroes from my K. M. Shea and A. M. Sohma books. This year Merlin managed to maintain his title as last year’s winner – click here for the poll results. The second stage is to collect YOUR suggestions for the Most Wanted Hero and then vote on all of them!
The suggestions were collected in the comments of this blog post, and there were a lot of great suggestions this year! I did my best to condense them when possible since it’s not really practical to have a poll with 50+ choices. Who will win this year? YOU DECIDE!
Vote for your top five favorite hero archtypes below!
I can’t promise I will definitely write a hero that matches the winner of this poll, but I do take the results into consideration when planning my future books! In fact, after Villain Turned Good Guy won the 2018 poll I decided to move forward with writing Royal Magic as Benjimir, the hero of the story, is a reformed villain.
This poll closes April 5th, so you have until then to deliberate on your selection.
Special note: The poll order changes with every refresh, so look carefully to make sure you haven’t missed any of your favorites!
The post 2019 Most Wanted Hero Poll appeared first on K. M. Shea.
March 16, 2019
2019 Hero Poll Interview
The 2019 Hero Poll (Round 1) ended back in January – here’s the results if you need a reminder of who won. Last year, after the 2018 poll I decided to host an interview style “chat” with the heroes who placed the highest in the poll. For that interview I asked for questions you wanted to ask the heroes and it was a lot of fun going through the many suggestions and writing up with the guys would respond. Here’s where you can read the 2018 Hero Interview.
With everything going on with Angelique’s series I didn’t have time to ask for question submissions but I still wanted give you a thank you for participating! So here’s the 2019 Hero Interview, (In a PDF) although you’ll notice that we don’t really have a chance to go over many questions thanks to the mass chaos of so many characters talking at once. (Merlin was very proud to win twice in a row.)
I hope it’s as fun for you to read as it was for me to write! And another big thank you to everyone who voted in the poll and submitted ideas for the Most Wanted Hero. For those of you who are wondering, Round 2 of the Hero Poll – where you get to vote for the Most Wanted Hero (type) – is coming later in March So stay tuned!
On behalf of all my heroes, thank you for your loyalty and support! We couldn’t do it without you, Champions!
The post 2019 Hero Poll Interview appeared first on K. M. Shea.
March 13, 2019
Best Fantasy Worlds
In the past we’ve had great fun discussing some of our favorite fairy tale retellings, so I thought in celebration of my Fairy Tale Enchantress series–which essentially pulls my entire fairy tale world together, we could list some of the best fantasy worlds we’ve read! The following books vary in terms of violence and romance, but the reviews should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Important note, in the interest of keeping my “Best of” booklists varied, I’m going to try to not include the same authors/books over and over, so if I haven’t included a particularly famous book, chances are its because I’m planning to include it in another booklist, but please feel free to call out your favorites in the comment section! But for now, we’re covering the kings of fantasy world building.
Middle Earth: By J R R Tolkien
Of course, we start with the strongest, Middle Earth! Tolkien breathed life into his world, not only giving it individual races but complex languages, different cultures, and eons and eons of history. Middle Earth continues to inspire the entertainment industry today, and has forever changed the fantasy genre. If you’re looking for sprawling landscapes and endless adventures, this is your world.
Narnia: By C. S. Lewis
It’s difficult to describe what makes Narnia so special. I think it’s because it perfectly captures the wonder of childhood with its talking animals, deep magic, and–of course–Aslan. Narnia is the fairy-tale world every child wants to live in. It has everything from adventure on the high seas to horse stories, fauns, and more. If you’re looking for a story of comfort and brightness, Narnia is yours for the taking.
Hogwarts: J. K. Rowling
No fantasy world list could be complete without a nod to J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world, but I specifically chose Hogwarts because to me that’s where much of the magic and incredible settings occur. But really, Rowling creates a spellbinding world with extraordinary attention to detail–from food and drinks to stores and cafes and beyond! If you want to laugh at the shenanigans of magic and get lost in a world, Hogwarts is the one for you.
Innkeeper World: Iona Andrews
The Innkeeper world is a perfect blend of fantasy, paranormal, and a dash of sci fi. It possesses all the fun and fantastical elements of Hogwarts, with the vast universe of magic like Middle Earth, with a dash of Men In Black thrown in. The books in this series are fun, fast paced, and have all kinds of amazing plot twists, plus it has some of the most unique world lore/magic mash up I have ever seen. (Let’s just say werewolves and vampires are real…but they don’t usually live on earth.) The basic premise of the series is this: Innkeepers (as our heroine is) are responsible for running safehouses where magical, alien races can stay at, or meet in to discuss political talks, on neutral territory. If you want to see the modern day world through new eyes, or perhaps a more adult version of Rowling’s wizarding world, I cannot recommend the Innkeeper Chronicles enough to you!
Aileen Travers: by TA White
If paranormal/urban fantasy is more your speed, than the Aileen Tavers series is all for you! Filled with all kinds of fantastical creatures and races, the Aileen Tavers series is essentially our world with the secret of vampires, fairies, pixies, and more hidden in the shadows. In this series TA White spins some of the most incredible plotlines using different kinds of magic and races, and she puts everything in a whole new spin. (The vampire politics in this series are honestly probably the most refreshing and unique I’ve seen in ages.) Aileen is the title character who was (unwillingly) turned into a vampire. The vampire who did so dropped her and ran, abandoning her to a new life in the fantastical world she previously didn’t know existed. The series has humor, amazing world building, and is loads of fun!
The Five Hundred Kingdoms: By Mercedes Lackey
In the Tales of Five Hundred Kingdoms, Lackey takes common fairy tales stories and tropes, weaves them together, and then turns them on their head. The books are stand alone, but filled with hilarious and witty banter, lots of twists, and original takes on fairy tale elements. In the first book we meet Cinderella–whom tradition dictates would normally go to a ball and wed a prince. There’s just one problem, the prince of her country is a child. So instead she becomes a Fairy Godmother, and watches/protects multiple countries. If you love fairy tales and laughter, this is a series you need to dive into!
Of course there are dozens more series that I would love to include on the list, so I’m going to add in a few honorable mentions here, and what better way to start the honorable mentions than with a self-promo plug? (Ahaha thank goodness this is my own website, or this might be awkward.)
Other honorable mentions:
Fairy Tale Enchantress by K. M. Shea
Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
the Graceling Realm by Kristin Cashore
Damar, which appears in two of Robin McKinley’s works
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy,
Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede
What series do you think have the best fantasy world building in them? List them in the comments down below, and share this post with a friend! (Because who doesn’t need more book recommendations??)
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