Queens of Renthia – serie

The battle between vicious spirits and strong-willed queens that started in the award-winning The Queen of Blood and continued in the powerful The Reluctant Queen comes to a stunning conclusion in The Queen of Sorrow, the final volume of Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia epic fantasy trilogy.Queen Daleina has yearned to bring peace and prosperity to her beloved forest home—a hope that seemed doomed when neighboring forces invaded Aratay. Now, with the powerful Queen Naelin ruling by her side, Daleina believes that her dream of ushering in a new era can be realized, even in a land where powerful magic and malevolent nature spirits thirst for the end of human life.And then Naelin’s children are kidnapped by spirits.Nothing is more important to her than her family, and Naelin would rather watch the world burn than see her children harmed. Blaming the defeated Queen Merecot of Semo for the kidnapping, Naelin is ready to start a war—and has the power to do it.But Merecot has grander plans than a bloody battle with her southern neighbors. Taking the children is merely one step in a plot to change the future of all Renthia, either by ending the threat of spirits once and for all . . . or plunging the world into chaos.

From the bestselling author of The Spellshop comes the award-winning first book in an adult epic fantasy series of malevolent nature spirits, a young woman’s uncertain destiny, a deadly competition, and family found along the way—available in trade paperback for the first time.Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .Only those spirits want to kill you.It’s the first lesson that every Renthian learns.What is a queen?In Renthia, the queen is the one human with enough magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. For the very spirits the humans rely on to live—wood, earth, water, air, fire, and ice—at the same time possess an instinctual drive to exterminate them. The queen is chosen for her ability to control the spirits, but she is also mortal, so to ensure the humans’ survival, potential heirs to the queen’s role are rigorously trained to take her place. And there is concern that Fara, the current queen, is weakening.What is a champion?With the stakes literally life and death, competition at the academy is fierce and demanding. Years ago, spirits slaughtered almost everyone in her village until young Daleina was able to drive them off with power she didn’t know she possessed. Now struggling to equal the magical strength of her fellow trainees at the academy, she comes under the tutelage of a disgraced champion, Ven, who has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks, and the mysterious healer Hamon.What is a family?Joining forces, they embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand together against both enemies and friends to save their land…before it’s bathed in blood.

From the bestselling author of The Spellshop comes the mesmerizing second book in the Queens of Renthia epic fantasy trilogy of malevolent nature spirits, a young queen learning as she goes, a mother with unwanted powers, an unsettled kingdom, and family found along the way—available in trade paperback for the first time.Not long ago, Daleina used her strength and skill to prevent the elemental spirits of wood, earth, water, air, fire, and ice from exterminating the human race and assumed the responsibility as Queen of keeping the peace and protected the humans of her land. But now for all her power, if she leaves the world before a new heir is ready, the spirits that inhabit her beloved realm will run wild, destroying her cities and slaughtering her people.Naelin is one such potential heir, but she couldn’t be further removed from the Queen—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her world is her two children, her husband, and the remote village tucked deep in the forest that is her home, and that’s all she needs. But when Ven, the Queen’s champion, passes through the village, Naelin’s ambitious husband proudly tells him of his wife’s ability to control spirits—magic that Naelin fervently denies. She knows that if the truth of her abilities is known, it will bring only death and separation from those she loves.But Ven has a single task: to find the best possible candidate to protect the people of Aratay. He did it once when he discovered Daleina, and he’s certain he’s done it again. Yet for all his appeals to duty, Naelin is a mother, and she knows her duty is to her children first and foremost. Only as the spirits become emboldened—even as ominous rumors trickle down from the north—does she realize that the best way to keep her son and daughter safe is to risk everything.Sarah Beth Durst established a place of dark wonder in The Queen of Blood, and now the stakes are even higher as the threat to the Queen and her people grows both from within and beyond the borders of Aratay in this riveting second novel of the Queens of Renthia series.