thenovl: The Sisters of Court of Fives by Kate Elliott I like to call the Court of Fives series &ldq
thenovl: The Sisters of Court of Fives by Kate Elliott I like to call the Court of Fives series “American Ninja Warrior meets Little Women in a fantasy world inspired by Cleopatra’s Egypt.” It combines two of my great loves, epic fantasy and athletics, in an adventure of revolution, love, and family that centers girls both as heroines and, in Jessamy’s case, as a competitive athlete. Writing a trilogy centered on a single main character (Jessamy) means just that: the spine of the story has to always support her point of view. The reader sees only what Jes sees, and Jes’s experience of the larger ongoing events is restricted to what she directly lives through. She negotiates numerous challenges in the first two books, and I think readers will agree that she fights through even more dramatic and shocking events in the final volume, Buried Heart (coming July 25!). But when I finished writing Court of Fives, I knew I wanted to tell two stories that Jes hadn’t experienced and couldn’t know. With Night Flower, I tell the story of how Jes’s parents meet and how they come to defy the social conventions of their world. But what about Jes’s three sisters, Maraya, Bettany, and Amaya? While the Court of Fives trilogy isn’t a retelling of Little Women, it does offer a nod to Louisa May Alcott’s iconic novel about four sisters who come of age in a world that isn’t friendly to their hopes and dreams. “Pretty little sister” Amaya grabs a lot of screen time in Book 2, Poisoned Blade (where we see what she’s really made of), and calm, intellectual Maraya gets her moment in the spotlight in Buried Heart. And then there’s Bettany, Jes’s twin. People who’ve read Little Women know what happens to her analogous character, Beth. In the Court of Fives world, Bettany also begins a journey that will lead her to a place her sisters can’t follow. Her story, Bright Thrones, is available now as an ebook novella. This is one of my most personal stories, not because it reflects anything that has happened to me (except for getting a poison oak rash), but because I feel as if I wrote this story with my heart on my sleeve, with both anger and compassion. I hope you love it as much as I do. Thanks, Kate! The complex family bonds at the heart of the Court of Fives series are one of the many reasons these books are such immersive and captivating reads. We’re beyond excited to find out how it all ends when Buried Heart comes out in July—and until then, we’ll be re-reading the first two books and bonus novellas in anticipation! Learn more about the Court of Fives series here >>--source link