Blog Archives - Antonia Aquilante

Rainbow Snippets June 29-30

6/30/2024

The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I'm sharing some snippets from the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, A Dance of Water and Air, this month. In A Dance of Water and Air, Edmund is a demisexual prince with an Affinity for Water magic, who is told by his father the king that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country. He makes the long journey there, only to find himself ignored and alone and confused by the undercurrents at this new court, but he does strike up a friendship—and end up falling in love with—the queen's brother, Arden. Then Edmund is blamed for an attempt on the queen's life and thrown in the dungeon. Arden helps him escape, and the two run, hoping to uncover whatever plot is threatening them and their countries...and to find a way to be together. I skipped ahead just slightly from last week's snippet to Edmund's meeting with his father. This snippet is longer than it should be, but I thought it was necessary.

Pride Month Book Sales

6/26/2024

All of my books are on sale for Pride Month:

I've put To Love the Dragon King on sale for $1.99 at all retailers through June 30th—this is the cheapest this book has been or is likely to be for a while, so now is a great time to give it a try if you haven't yet.

My Chronicles of Tournai and Elemental Magicae books are all 40% off at NineStar Press through June as well.

Go grab some fantasy romance to read for Pride Month and beyond!

Rainbow Snippets June 22-23

6/23/2024

The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I'm sharing some snippets from the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, A Dance of Water and Air, this month. In A Dance of Water and Air, Edmund is a demisexual prince with an Affinity for Water magic, who is told by his father the king that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country. He makes the long journey there, only to find himself ignored and alone and confused by the undercurrents at this new court, but he does strike up a friendship—and end up falling in love with—the queen's brother, Arden. Then Edmund is blamed for an attempt on the queen's life and thrown in the dungeon. Arden helps him escape, and the two run, hoping to uncover whatever plot is threatening them and their countries...and to find a way to be together. This week's snippet comes right after last week's.

Once Edmund was dry, Peregrine handed him the robe he’d left hanging over the back of a chair when he’d arrived. He’d also left a book there—he’d been far too optimistic about his time when he came down here, apparently. He thanked Peregrine and shrugged into the blue-green silk. It was new, something he hadn’t really needed, but he liked the color against his brown skin and the feel of the smooth, cool silk.

“Any idea what my father needs?” Edmund stepped into his sandals and picked up his book from the table.

“None.”

He raised his eyebrow at Peregrine in surprise. Edmund could always rely on Peregrine for more information than seemed possible about everyone from the maids to the king. He’d long since gotten over any misgivings about Peregrine’s seeming omniscience and begun to rely on it. For Peregrine not to have an inkling of what was brewing... Odd. And slightly disturbing.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Not immediately, of course. A summons through official channels called for more formality. Edmund couldn’t appear in the king’s presence in nothing but a thin robe and sandals. Peregrine kept pace as Edmund walked to his rooms, informing him of other court news and gossip that he might find interesting or useful as they walked.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Also, A Dance of Water and Air, along with the second book in the Elemental Magicae series and the Chronicles of Tournai series, is 40% off at NineStar Press for Pride Month!

Pride Month Book Recs

6/21/2024

Last year, I did a few book rec posts, separating favorite books by genre, during Pride Month—because there are so many fantastic books and I want to tell you about all of them! I had planned to do the same this year, but everything has gotten away from me and I just wasn't able to manage it. However, I still wanted to do a book rec post this year even though I can't manage as much as I did last year. As always, I had a terrible time narrowing this down (and I will absolutely think of more I should've added as soon as I hit post), which probably means I have to do some more book rec posts soon! For now, here's a list of some queer books I've enjoyed:

Rainbow Snippets June 15-16

6/16/2024

The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I'm sharing some snippets from the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, A Dance of Water and Air, this month. In A Dance of Water and Air, Edmund is a demisexual prince with an Affinity for Water magic, who is told by his father the king that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country. He makes the long journey there, only to find himself ignored and alone and confused by the undercurrents at this new court, but he does strike up a friendship—and end up falling in love with—the queen's brother, Arden. Then Edmund is blamed for an attempt on the queen's life and thrown in the dungeon. Arden helps him escape, and the two run, hoping to uncover whatever plot is threatening them and their countries...and to find a way to be together. This snippet follows immediately after last week's.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Highness.” Peregrine would never call him by name when someone else might hear, and Edmund would never try to convince him otherwise. Edmund was far too aware of the dictates of his own position. And far too grateful to have found a friend in Peregrine to quibble overly about how they had to behave in public. “I apologize for disturbing you, sir, but the king has called for you.”

A summons from Father certainly counted as a valid reason to disturb him, especially with the rising tensions between Thalassa and their neighbor, Tycen. It seemed Edmund would be cutting his swim short this morning. He struck out for the terrace where Peregrine waited, swimming with steady but unhurried strokes. He wouldn’t dawdle, but if there had been reason to rush, Peregrine would have said.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading, and Happy Father's Day!

A Late Rainbow Snippet

6/10/2024

The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I'm sharing some snippets from the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, A Dance of Water and Air, this month. In A Dance of Water and Air, Edmund is a demisexual prince with an Affinity for Water magic, who is told by his father the king that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country. He makes the long journey there, only to find himself ignored and alone and confused by the undercurrents at this new court, but he does strike up a friendship—and end up falling in love with—the queen's brother, Arden. Then Edmund is blamed for an attempt on the queen's life and thrown in the dungeon. Arden helps him escape, and the two run, hoping to uncover whatever plot is threatening them and their countries...and to find a way to be together. This snippet follows immediately after the previous one.

With that thought, tension—the tension his morning swim had briefly dispelled—came flooding back. He stopped swimming and flipped onto his back, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before letting it out in a long sigh.

The sigh had barely left him when he heard the scrape of a shoe against stone. He bit back another sigh and flipped over again to straighten and tread water in the center of the large pool. His secretary stood on the tiled terrace. Peregrine knew better than anyone that this time was Edmund’s and wouldn’t disturb him unless it was urgent. Disaster or grave injury were top of the list.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading!

Boobs Between the Books

6/6/2024

I've talked about this event before, and I was so excited to be a part of it, but unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to attend (long covid sucks). However, you should still go if you're in the area. It's going to be a great night of book signings and panel discussions with local romance authors, and a portion of each author's proceeds will go to Evolve Pink, a breast cancer charity.

Attending authors include
Stacey Wilk
Jodi Payne
Kimberley Ash
KM Fawcett
JB Schroeder
Lori Matthews
Caridad Pineiro
Nicole S Patrick
Elizabeth John
Ruth Casie
Caitriona Drexler
Skye McDonald
Linda J Parisi
Lisa Olech
Miriam Allenson

My May Reading

6/5/2024

Happy Pride, everyone! I plan to share some Pride Month book recs as the month goes on, but for today, I'm going to talk about books I read in May. May was a rough reading month for me. I kept starting books and putting them aside because I just couldn't figure out what I was in the mood to read. I'm a huge mood reader—is anyone else that way? And I just hate it when I just can't get into a string of books that I know I'd enjoy at a different time. So frustrating! Fingers crossed that June's reading goes better. I did read a few books in May that I want to mention:

Rainbow Snippets June 1-2

6/2/2024

The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I'm sharing some snippets from the first book in my Elemental Magicae series, A Dance of Water and Air, this month. In A Dance of Water and Air, Edmund is a demisexual prince with an Affinity for Water magic, who is told by his father the king that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country. He makes the long journey there, only to find himself ignored and alone and confused by the undercurrents at this new court, but he does strike up a friendship—and end up falling in love with—the queen's brother, Arden. Then Edmund is blamed for an attempt on the queen's life and thrown in the dungeon. Arden helps him escape, and the two run, hoping to uncover whatever plot is threatening them and their countries...and to find a way to be together. This snippet is the very beginning of the book.