Hello!
I have been counting down to this month since I started writing A Bond Beneath Smoke and Blood.
August 18th is the day the next story drops and I cannot wait!
Here’s the thing about August I have always loved: We are one step closer to fall, my favorite season! Is there something about this month you love? I know some would say, kids go back to school!
Tuesday, August 18th: A Bond Beneath Smoke and Blood — The Dragonkin’s Court, Book 2 — is officially out in the world.
Kieran is gone. The bond is severed. And Nyra — half-trained, half-broken, and the last of the Dragonkin — has to hold a Shadow Court that was never hers to begin with. She has enemies who smell weakness, allies who demand a queen, and a thread beneath that severed bond that even the Void couldn’t quite cut.
If A Bargain of Shadow and Flame left you with feelings, this one is going to do things to you. I am sorry. I am also not sorry.
One beta reader put it this way: “I bawled like a baby! The emotional roller coaster was a hell of a ride — and I’ll be honest, this one hit deep and hit hard. I am almost afraid for what’s next.”
I could not stand it, so I have started book 3 and the final of Kieran and Nyra’s story. Devotion of Shadow and Flame. I do not have a release date yet but my hope is later this year if not early 2027.
Here is something I keep coming back to as summer starts loosening its grip: almost every mythology has a version of this exact turn. A last light before the dark half of the year. A door that starts to open before anyone notices.
For the Dragonkin, that thread — the one that survives even when everything else is severed — is the whole point of the book. Not because nothing was lost. Because something refused to stay lost. Bonds that get cut clean don’t always stay cut. Some things keep burning long after you think the fire is out.
I did not plan for this book to land in the same month as that particular shift in the light. But I cannot say I am mad about it either.
Before I let you go:
Are you the type to read the next book in a series the second it drops, or do you like to sit with the last one a little longer first? Me, I need to read asap!
What’s a book that hit you the way this beta reader described — the good kind of wrecked?
If you could ask Nyra one question before she picks up that crown, what would it be?
Thank you for being here — for reading, for preordering, for waiting through every “almost done” update since May. This book would not exist without readers like you, and I do not take that lightly.
With love, smoke, and a thread that even the Void couldn’t cut,
Valerie
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