The Crown of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 1
by Rachel Rossano
Genre: Historical Romance
In a time when castles were the strongest…in a place where combat was face to face…Labren was on the run. He hid his true name and he admitted it freely.
In a time when slavery was legal...in a place where kings were all-powerful…Eve, a slave, appeared in the right place at the right time.
Eve saved his life. In return, he offered her the opportunity of freedom. She did not know what would happen to her if she chose to accept his proposal, but she did know the consequences of rejecting it.
The King of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 2
A reluctant king, a blind queen, and a marriage that sparked a rebellion...
Ireic Theodoric, King of Anavrea, constantly battles with his council over who will run the country. When the council insists on a treaty with Sardmara, he agrees. However, the treaty quickly becomes an arranged marriage. Ireic offers up himself for the sake of Anavrea. But after he signs, no princess appears.
Lirth Parnan, only daughter of the king of Sardmara, survives alone in a cold, damp tower room. Baron Tor kidnapped her in an attempt to control her father. No one came to claim her. She suspects her father considers her flawed beyond use in his political games. After five years of waiting, her hope of rescue wanes with her health.
After Ireic fights his way into Lirth’s tower, he realizes the depths of her father’s deception. Instead of being an answer to his problems, Lirth creates new ones. The council will not accept her as queen, but Ireic has sworn an oath that he will marry her. His choice could cost him his throne, perhaps his life.
The Reward of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 3
She couldn't hide forever.
A hard life taught Jayne to avoid men, powerful men most of all. When a new nobleman arrives to take over the vargar, she takes her family and hides. But the new baron seeks her out and makes her an offer she can't refuse: protection. However, once they were sheltered behind the dark stone walls of the vargar, who would protect her from the new master?
His reward isn't what it seems.
King Ireic of Anavrea charges Liam, a former bodyguard, with the task of retaking and taming a corner of the northern wilds. Upon arrival at Ashwyn Vargar, Liam finds challenges beyond his military experience. The keys to the vargar are missing and so are the field hands who should be harvesting the fields. Once he finds the keeper of the keys, she raises more questions than answers.
The King of Anavrea
By Rachel Rossano
Ireic’s stomach ached.
The woman gazed straight before her with calm assurance. Her composure unnerved him considering she acted as though he was going to strike her a moment ago.
He dropped his hand and studied the top of her head. Shiny, dark brown hair caught the fading light as she turned toward the door. He registered the sounds of the creaking stairs and voices as he grappled with yet another betrayal.
“Ireic!”
His older brother stood in the doorway.
Behind Trahern, he could see the outline of his personal guard, Isack. Ireic returned his attention to his brother's strained features and tried to pull his anger back under control. This woman could not be blamed for her father’s dishonesty.
“Ireic?”
Trahern's blue eyes regarded him, questioning as he nodded toward Lirth. Ireic glanced back at his betrothed and encountered her upturned face.
“Your brother?” An amused smile pulled at her mouth and one eyebrow raised with her question.
“How did you guess?”
“You sound alike.” She turned to his brother. “A pleasure to meet you, Prince Trahern.” She dipped a low curtsey. Blind or not, she had been raised well at some point.
“The pleasure is mine, Princess, but I must ask you to call me Trahern and later perhaps brother.”
Ireic's heart sank as he watched first confusion and then surprise pass across her face as she realized the implications of the title. She dropped her chin.
Trahern caught Ireic's gaze over her bent head and silently asked the obvious.
Ireic shrugged his shoulders in reply.
He didn’t understand the situation any better than his brother.
After the treaty signing, Ireic had waited a day for Trahern to arrive before traveling to claim his bride. At the end of the four day journey, he found an empty house and a gardener keeping watch over the grounds. The truth was Princess Lirth hadn’t lived there for years, ever since her abduction by a northern baron named Tor.
Determined to finish his task and validate the treaty, Ireic, his brother, and half of the armed men with them continued north while the councilmen headed back west across Braulyn.
Now, frustrated and tired, Ireic was tempted to walk back down the tower stairs, out the main gate and disappear forever into the northern wastes. The council could run Anavrea just fine without him.
But what would happen to Lirth? He was not the only person being managed and manipulated.
He glanced at his bride. Her father valued her as a pawn in his political games, not even bothering to rescue her. More a victim than he in this political mess, she needed protection.
“Am I a clause in an alliance agreement?”
Lirth's bright, blue eyes drew Ireic's focus back to the present. For a woman just informed of her betrothal to a stranger, she appeared unusually calm. How could she act so serene?
“Is our marriage part of an alliance agreement?” Small lines appeared between her eyebrows.
Watching hesitancy and wariness play on her face, he replied. “Your father offered your hand to me as a show of goodwill between our nations.”
Rachel Rossano specializes in clean romantic fiction set in historical-feeling fantasy worlds. She also dabbles in straightforward historical romance and not-so-strict speculative fiction.
A happily married mother of three small children, she divides her time between mothering, teaching, and writing. She endeavors to enchant, thrill, entertain, and amuse through her work. A constant student, she seeks to improve her skills and loves to hear from readers.
