Inside a mortal girl lies the heart of the Queen of Diamonds, true ruler over El’Anret, the world of Faerie.
Inside a Half-Human, Half-Fae boy lives the soul of a Stag King, mysterious and powerful creature of legend, capable of transforming worlds… or destroying them.
And neither of them belong.
In a world of myths and monsters, it will take them both to usurp a renegade queen— one who stole the crown and made the whole of El’Anret bend to her will.
The Faerie world will never be the same.
DIAMOND MARKED: The Tale of El’Anret combines the stories of the Faerie and Mortal worlds into a single collection. Queen of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, and King of Diamonds are included in their Author Preferred text editions.
QUEEN OF DIAMONDS: There are some days in life that change the way you are, forever. That One Day Where All Things Are Undone. For Hazel Leigh Mac Tíre, that day was the day she found the mound in her backyard. It began as small as a mole’s hill, growing and growing as the hours ticked by, until a hole that spanned three feet wide sat against an open mouth of dirt.
The stories always warned to stay away from Faerie mounds. Leigh did not always listen.
What waited inside? A sadistic, renegade Queen with a stolen crown. A tortured Prince. An entire Faerie world in need of saving. And, thanks to the Fae fires that marked her, Leigh was their new and rightful Queen. She must separate fact and fairy tale in order to survive the realm of El'Anret. Can she save a world she wasn't made for?
JACK OF DIAMONDS: The world of El'Anret has been quieter since Hazel Leigh Mac Tíre became the Faerie's new Queen of Diamonds. With her son, Jack, in tow, she leads the land with a calm and careful diplomacy.
That is, until an unseen force shakes the very foundation of the land.
At Midsummer, a new Queen is set to be Marked. A Faeborn girl comes forth, blazing diamonds marking her arms, and what should be a day of celebration turns the entire world of El'Anret against their mortal queen. No sooner than her diamonds appear, the girl is kidnapped, and a single clue is left in her wake: a missive, written in blood.
ALL HAIL QUEEN MAC TIRE. ONE TRUE QUEEN.
Time is not the only enemy Leigh faces as she seeks to rescue the girl and set things right. The entirety of El'Anret hunts her and her family, believing that she intends to keep the throne from the rightful heir. In the midst of chaos, Jack disappears, becoming a fabled creature all his own.
A storm is brewing— one that no one, human or Fae, might survive.
KING OF DIAMONDS: Darkness has long been cast over El'Anret.
While two diamond-marked Queens toil under the watch of the monstrous Alexandria, an awakening is happening-- one that the renegade queen would never suspect.
Jack, Stag King of El'Anret, stirs from his crystal slumber.
As death waits around every corner and honored allies begin to fall, he has but one choice: harness the darkness inside him, before El'Anret falls deeper into madness. Jack must find any ally he can to save not only his mother and the rightful Queen of Diamonds, but the only world he's ever truly called home.
Will the Stag King balance the scales between dark and light, or will El'Anret be lost forever?
While pretending to be a human, Melody Klink likes to write down words. Lots and lots of them. All to gain the admiration and trust of the human masses.
Wait. I mean… Melody Klink is a lovable little scamp with a sweet tooth for all things coffee. When she's not collecting superstitions about the American South, she can be found scribbling out stories on just about anything, which explains her odd assortment of used napkins, pictures of skin, and copious number of notebooks.
While her first foray into publishing was Bad Mood Boogaloo, a picture book for toddlers, she also enjoys writing novels, and has several titles in the works. Her debut novel, Godeater: The Second World, released on February 29th, 2016. She currently resides in the Mid-South with her husband, daughters, and one annoying cat.
This was a good fast read!! There seemed bits of fairy tells mixed in the story!! One of the main characters was played so well!! I would definitely suggest this book!!!
Part 1: QUEEN OF DIAMONDS I didn't realize it at the time but this was like watching the first season of Once Upon A Time - terrible but necessary. And just like that first season I don't know if I would have continued reading from this first 'section,' it was very YA and the writing was stilted and somewhat boring. At parts it was even over the top and full of YA tropes. Even though the first book wasn't very good, it didn't stay that way. I'm not going to give too much away but I am going to say that I appreciated the end of this. That it wasn't 'happily ever after' and that there were consequences for their actions. I did not connect with Leigh or Gideon which may have been the biggest problem.
Not very good but if you can get through this, I promise the next two parts are worth it. - 2.5 stars
Part 2: JACK OF DIAMONDS As disappointed as I was in the first book, that quickly faded once Jack comes into the works. It becomes more complicated as it sheds its overly YA skin and takes on a whole new form of awesomeness. Suddenly it is highly imaginative, the plot opens up and even gets a little dark. It was engaging and I found myself turning pages and staying up later than I should to find out what happens. The irritation with the young character in the first section is balanced out here and Jack is such a likable character. I was also really happy to see Leigh come into her own.
I absolutely love this one the best - even with the cliffhanger at the end. - 5 Stars
Part 3: KING OF DIAMONDS A great conclusion to these short novellas. This book went much darker and showed some overall elements of society that go poorly. That evil wins when good people do nothing. The world also expanded and grew and the battle scenes at the end, though a little long, were awesome. I felt like I finally had a great picture of what the author was trying to portray. The writing also improved and had better flow. Though Leigh's undying love I came to like Gideon.
It also had a very sweet after ending that was very satisfying. I'm not always happy about those, but in this instance it was wonderful. - 4 Stars
Overall:
If you are going to buy them, you might as well get this box set and read them all the way through. Where Leigh felt a little flat, Jack eventually balanced her out and she came into her own. The world building greatly improves from book to book, as does the writing.
Rating:
4 Stars
Overall I enjoyed this collection of stories. The further I went into the story the more I enjoyed them. If you like YA stories that have fairies - this is a worth while read.
I received this book for a free and voluntarily review. More reviews at creatingworldswithwords.wordpress.com.
Diamond Marked is the entire Tale of El'Anret, including Queen of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds, and King of Diamonds, made complete with one very special "Epilogue: The After." The Tale of El'Anret holds a special place in my heart (don't all books to their authors?), because it's a much more emotional work than Godeater: The Second World (which broke my heart a few times, maybe I'm just fragile!)-- or, I should say, it's based on emotion. Join me in watching Hazel Leigh Mac Tíre, a Faerie Prince, and a ruthless Queen battle it out for the good of two worlds.
TL;DR? All three novellas in one, with updated text?! Yass please.
Diamond Marked is an enjoyable YA Fantasy read about a girl who gets thrown into a fantastical realm. It's a combination of three different smaller stories, but they all fit together chronologically and revolve around the same characters so I'm glad I read them together!
I wasn't that into it at first when Leigh was still in-between our world and El'Anret and the writing style wasn't working for me, but once the second part/story rolled around it became a lot more fun and I think the author was getting a lot more comfortable in the world she had created. Many more interesting creatures showed up and the family relationships were explored in a deeper way and we started to see a little bit more of the magic and mythology of the world.
Speaking of family relationships I really like that the author didn't go the cliche easy route of having the heroine be a loner or lose her family at the start or anything. She was pulled into a fantastical world, but at the same time her family were still very important to her and she definitely still had to straddle the line between the two worlds and between her roles in both places.
I think the weakest part of it was the start because we weren't really given a reason to root for the main character's quest, I felt a little bit like she just had things handed to her on a golden plate and was just going along with it, but once the backstories of the characters in the world got going it became much more interesting and there were some pretty high stakes and a few surprises as well!
My favorite of the three stories would have to the second one, Jack of Diamonds, even though it ends on a cliffhanger! The focus shifts to a different main character whose struggle and position I found a little bit more interesting. I won't give away any spoilers, because this is when it started getting very interesting and you should read all three of them together just for this part!
Long story short, this story is a pretty good one that kept me entertained this weekend. Check it out if you like YA fantasy.
Highly imaginative! A world brimming with fantastical detail. The world really is the greatest strength in this trio of novellas. The difference in the passage of time between the faerie and ordinary worlds can make things a bit confusing at times, but it becomes clearer as the work continues. Overall a fun and magical ride. I received a free advance review copy of this book in anticipation of my unbiased review.