I am always excited and nervous on release day—well, release week—but with this book, this series, I am more so than usual. That’s probably the reason behind my ramblings today! This is my first high fantasy/epic fantasy series—a genre I haven’t written in since my childhood days—so, I’m eager to see what readers think of it. And scared of what they’ll think of it.
There have been more pre-orders for this book than all my previous pre-orders combined, so I know that people are eager to get their hands on it. Just a little pressure, but it’s very welcome. Needless to say, I’m very proud of this trilogy and I believe it will satisfy its target audience. Think Throne of Glass without fae; Game of Thrones without dragons—but with a different mythical creature instead.
The style of writing in this trilogy is different to that of my six urban fantasy books, and of course, the story is worlds apart from my four contemporary romance novels. I switch up my style—and therefore my ‘voice’—depending on the genre I’m writing in and the story that I’m telling. Perhaps that means I don’t have a ‘voice’? And perhaps that’s not a good thing? Rest assured, my ‘voice’ within each individual series is consistent.
One thing that is always the same in all my works, regardless of genre, is the character-driven aspect of them. I try to ensure that my characters are well thought-out and well-developed, and whether or not you agree with the decisions they sometimes make, I ensure that you understand those decisions. That the characters’ actions make sense to you.
Funnily enough, the romance in my fantasy books is subtle; the love story is a proper sub-plot to the action, suspense, and drama—maybe because my contemporary romance novels revolve around the love story, while the action, suspense, and drama form the sub-plots? Still, the characters are the stars of the show; they’re the ones that stay with the reader.
That’s my brand—characters that feel so real, you’ll forget you’re reading fiction. (Catchy little tag line for my author brand, don’t you think? I must get around to making a banner with it. I came up with it ages ago!) My writing ‘voice’ might change a little—or a lot—with the genre, and you might not recognise it when you read my fantasy novels after reading my contemporary romance books—or vice versa—but you’ll know it’s a Neha Yazmin book because of the depths to the characters.
For me, it’s very important that the audience understands the people in my stories as well as I do—without spending half as much time with them as I do. I give my characters a lot of time, think about them for hours and over days, care about them as though they’re real, and I show that on the page. If they’re not real to me, how will the reader believe them? Why would they care? Why should they spend time with my characters if I didn’t bother to spend enough time on them to make them worthy?
Apart from well-rounded characters, here are a few more things that readers can expect from this trilogy—without giving too much away:
1) This series revolves around mythical creatures that I haven’t written about before, with my own take on them. [Hint: I’ve written about vampires (Poison Blood Series), witches, wizards, and shifters (Witch’s Blood Series). I don’t think that I’ve mentioned these creatures in any of my projects, actually. As I said earlier, you can think of this trilogy as ‘Throne of Glass with ______ instead of fae’ or ‘Game of Thrones with _______ instead of dragons, and none of the sexual content, either.’ I’ll fill in the gaps in a future post—I want you to discover this while reading).]
Two) I love a good origin story—I like to explain how the magical beings in my stories came to exist—so this trilogy gets one, too. [We learned how the vampires in my Poison Blood Series came about, and we’ll discover how the witches in the Witch’s Blood Series came to exist when I complete that series.]
Three) No corsets. These books are set in a completely made up fictional world—they’re not inspired by a particular time or place in history—so why would I include something that I don’t believe in? There’s no mention of corsets in this trilogy because they don’t exist in this world. [The best way to describe the setting of these books is “alternative historical fantasy world”.]
Four) The lead character’s body shape is not typical for the genre. Usually, the girls are tiny compared to the big, bear-like love interests, or they’re of medium height, have a small waist and “great boobs”. Aaryana—like all her sisters—is very tall, flat-chested, hardly has any curves, and her training has helped her gain a strong, powerful, muscular, athletic body.
I really hope that readers take to Aaryana like they have to Ellie, Mukti, and Shell, and that they enjoy a series that was inspired by just a single image (below) that I found on the web (see my ‘story behind the story’ blog post here).
Thanks for reading this post. All the links to this new release are below if you want to read it.
Buy now from:
Only the worthy can take the Throne...
In the Kingdom of Adgar, the King or Queen's firstborn is not automatically named Heir to the throne; any of their children can become the next ruler of the land. If they are deemed worthy.
17-year-old Aaryana has competed against her siblings from a young age and is a firm favourite to take the Throne. However, just days before her father is expected to name her his Heir, a scheme is devised to not only take Aaryana out of the running, but also to ruin her reputation completely.
Will her enemies succeed in cheating her out of the throne that she was destined for or will Aaryana and her friends manage to save her from disgrace?
Heir to the Throne is a new epic high fantasy that’s perfect if you’re getting Game of Thrones withdrawal symptoms or missing the Throne of Glass series.
Heir to the Throne is a new epic high fantasy that’s perfect if you’re getting Game of Thrones withdrawal symptoms or missing the Throne of Glass series.
Subscribe to my mailing list to receive an extended preview
(approx. 30% of the 115,000-word novel)
