The Talon Princess, by J. C. Rose

She saved her sister, but can she save herself?

In a world where dreams of knighthood meet the cold reality of destruction, Isabel, a skilled archer, witnesses her home razed by a mysterious hooded warrior. A forbidden name escapes his lips, one that Isabel’s mother warns her never to repeat. Forced into a desperate flight with her sister, clutching a broken relic and a locked chest, they seek refuge in the abandoned city of Accreton.

Within its mythical tapestries, a foreboding curse casts its ominous shadow, revealing long-forgotten families and a dangerous narrative that Isabel wishes she had never uncovered. Guided by road tales and haunted by memories of a perilous forest, Isabel discovers that some stories are better left forgotten. At times, it seems silence and knowledge, or the lack of it, are her only allies. Perhaps it might be best to know little and ask less. But Isabel quickly learns ignorance is the death of the innocent.

As the barbarians approach from the west and the hooded warrior emerges from the south, Isabel grapples with the weight of her family’s secret and the thirst for survival. In a world where allies may lurk in the shadows and enemies wear the guise of daylight, Isabel must decide what risks she is willing to take and whom she is prepared to lose. Will this unexpected journey change the world, or will it be the world that changes Isabel?

365 pgs, English, 6x9 paperback