An emotionally charged, morally complex fantasy that blends passion with pathos and seduction with sorrow.
In Ar-feinial’s brooding dark fantasy, an elven bodyguard’s mission spirals into a battle with grief, desire, and supernatural forces. Haunted by the disappearance of his cousin Anaergienne and the trauma of his closest friend’s death, Erdan arrives in the city of Sheris with a singular task: protect a halfling merchant named Glentor. But Sheris proves no safe haven. Under its rain-slicked streets and tense, multi-racial bustle, darker forces stir: ghosts, zombie trolls, an unholy paladin, and a growing trail of violence linked to Anaergienne’s vanishing. Everything changes when he meets Vircona, a dark-skinned elf shunned by society. What begins as a brief encounter turns into something consuming and forbidden.
Ar-feinial crafts a brooding and immersive tale where grief and desire bleed into every shadowed alleyway and torchlit room of Sheris. The city is rendered in sweeping, sometimes relentless detail: market stalls clamor with life, dwarven forges pulse with heat and hammerfall, and taverns thrum with drink and the dull ache of survival. This density isn’t just atmospheric; it mirrors Erdan’s internal decay. But the novel’s heart lies with Vircona. Her arrival shifts the narrative into more dangerous territory. She’s seductive, yes, but never shallow. Ar-feinial resists easy archetypes and instead draws a woman shaped by abandonment, torture, and quiet defiance. Her presence forces Erdan to confront everything he thought sacred: his faith in the goddess Carmielle, his loyalty to the dead, and his own assumptions about power, race, and belonging.
Their affair is tender, volatile, and laced with risk. Erdan’s attraction is as much spiritual as it is physical, and their union becomes a haunting paradox: an escape from the world’s cruelties and a descent deeper into them. As they seek fleeting comfort in each other’s arms, the novel questions what it means to be both seen and damned, to be healed by the very thing society demands you reject. Though the prose can veer into overwriting and the pacing occasionally lags with exposition-heavy passages, the novel offers emotionally immersive storytelling. The pacing is measured, andt the character development never falters. As Erdan’s world crumbles, so too does the divide between his principles and his passions. Fans of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will want to take a look.
A suspenseful, emotionally satisfying tale of love, loss, and seduction.
Pub date March 31, 2025
Holy Grail Publishing
ASIN B0F2SJ8F3W
Price $3.99 (USD) Kindle edition, $0.00 Kindle Unlimited
