I APOLOGIZE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IN ADVANCE FOR THE PERSON I’LL BECOME ONCE THIS DROPSI HAVE NEVER BEEN READIER FOR ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRETY OF MY EXISTENCE
I APOLOGIZE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IN ADVANCE FOR THE PERSON I’LL BECOME ONCE THIS DROPSI HAVE NEVER BEEN READIER FOR ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRETY OF MY EXISTENCE
never not thinking about that jurdan moment in queen of nothing when:
“What was it like?” I ask. “Being a serpent.”
He hesitates. “It was like being trapped in the dark,” he says. “I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There were only feelings—hatred and terror and the desire to destroy.”
I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. “And you.” He looks at me, his lips curving in something that’s not quite a smile; it’s more and less than that. “I knew little else, but I always knew you.”
And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.
i don’t think y’all understand the way jude & madoc’s relationship absolutely KILLS me .
it agonizes jude to love madoc when he is the one who killed her parents, but he is the only father she has ever known.
she wants to be nothing like him, and yet she is her father’s daughter. it is him who teaches her to fight, to be strong, to be ruthless and unyielding and cunning. and she loves him for this, so much so that when she uses all that he taught her against him, it breaks her heart a little.
when they find themselves on opposite sides of the war, jude can think only of how his love for her is not enough to outweigh his love for power. yet she realizes that her love for him does not outweigh her desire for power either. they are two sides of the same broken coin.
in the end, when she must pronounce madoc’s punishment, she exiles him because she knows that being forced to live in a place of peace is a worse fate than death for him. and yet a small part of her also cannot bear to see him die. she knows their relationship can never be healed, but it is her lingering love for the father that taught her how to be strong once upon a time that saves him from death.
jude has only ever called madoc “father” when she is about to betray him, but when she whispers, “goodbye, father” it is not to announce a betrayal. it is to acknowledge that he is her father, and she loved him, and she hurt him, and he did exactly the same to her, and now they find themselves back where they first began with the roles reversed- madoc brought jude to the faerie realm, where she had no desire to be, and now jude sends him to the human world, where he has no desire to be. but perhaps he might learn to love it the way jude grew to love elfhame.
perhaps jude’s punishment was never a punishment at all.
perhaps it was a final gift to the only father she ever knew.
“Well, a previously believed to be extinct species reappeared with the murder of a well-respected local political figure… despite that I’ve had more chaotic periods in my career.”
Do you like YA fantasy books with dragons, family drama, strong friendships and perhaps a pinch too much banter?
If so, you’ll enjoy my series Dear Dragon.
The first book will have been out for a year next month. It followed Itazu, a young adult who believed she was the last dragon until she visited her home-town and discovered another nine dragons in hiding.
My second book is due to come out in a couple of months and it continues her and all the other dragon’s story.
I haven’t got a definitive cover or name for it yet (apparently I like waiting until the very last minute and stressing myself out with releases), but what I do have is a book ready for reading.
So, if you’d like to be among the first people ever to read this book, I’d like to invite you to join my ARC team!
What’s an ARC team you may be asking?
ARC stands for Advanced Reader Copy, it’s standard practice in the industry where a certain number of readers receive a free copy (in this case ebooks) before release so they can read and review the book.
There’s no obligations attached. Obviously the objective is to get reviews but I completely understand that life happens and gets in the way all the time, so if you receive a free copy and never read it or forget to review, don’t worry, I’m not going to chase you down or anything like that.
This is basically just another way for authors and readers to collaborate!
If you sign up to be an ARC reader, thanks so much for the interest, if you aren’t interested, I still hope you learnt something from this post about the book world.
As usual, have fun writing, have fun reading, and you can find my socials, book and other links of interest: here.
