Spotlight & Giveaway: Bride of the Shadow King by Sylvia Mercedes

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sylvia Mercedes to HJ!

Hi Sylvia and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Bride of the Shadow King!

 
Thank you for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

This is a romantasy about a princess who suffers from a magic-related chronic illness, and the dark and dangerous Shadow King she finds herself kind-of-sort-of-accidentally married to.

King Vor of the Trolde (think trolls but hot) needs to make an alliance with humans in order to gain access to human magic. He picks his ally’s favorite daughter for his wife, even though it’s her sister, Faraine, who captures his attention. Faraine is so used to being the dutiful and overlooked daughter, she is quite unprepared when her father thrusts her into the center of dangerous intrigue, posing as her sister to become the Shadow King’s bride.

Bound by marriage vows and yet torn apart by treachery, can these two find a way to navigate the push-and-pull of desire and mistrust between them?
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

There’s courage in her eye, unexpected and defiant. She may not be a warrior: that doesn’t mean she’s weak.
____
I marry for the kingdom. I marry for the crown. For I am but an extension of the kingdom and the crown.
____
“You are to be queen of my people. But you are also MY queen. You and you alone shall guide and dictate your will to me. It will be my honor to act accordingly.”

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The main character, Faraine, was inspired by three different women in my life who have dealt with chronic illness and yet always been warriors in their own, unique ways. I loved the idea of taking an apparently “weak” heroine and proving over the course of an epic tale just how strong she truly is.
 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Vor is attracted by Faraine’s calm and composure even under terrible stress. They literally meet in a battlefield, and though she is not a warrior, she never loses her head. Their following conversation further impresses him with her intelligence, her dry wit, and her grace.

Faraine is initially attracted to Vor because he is the first person she’s ever interacted with who does not set off her empath abilities to the point of causing her pain. While she can still read his emotions, he gives her calm rather than chaos. (He’s also a muscle-clad warrior with a soul of honor and self-sacrifice, and devastatingly beautiful . . . so that doesn’t hurt!)

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

The wedding night scene between Vor and Faraine brought out ALL the emotions in me! It’s so tender and yet simultaneously so terrible . . . because he doesn’t know who she really is. And she’s crazy about him, but knows that all this tenderness he’s offering her isn’t actually FOR her but for the woman he believes her to be. SO MANY EMOTIONS . . . but also SO HOT.

With a sudden growl, he turns me around, pulling me up on my knees in front of him. His strong arm presses me against his muscled chest. He swipes my hair out of his way and begins to kiss the back of my neck and shoulder, eliciting new shocks of sensation throughout my body. I close my eyes. A shivering sigh escapes my lips. Who knew that skin could be made to sing like this? He slips the other strap from my shoulder and begins kissing that side as well. His hand reaches around me, caressing my throat, fingers trailing lower, lower . . .

“You’re very quiet,” he murmurs even as he nips playfully at my earlobe. “Is there nothing you would say to me?” He kisses me again, just in that little patch of skin behind my ear. A flower of fire blooms inside me. “We can talk, you know.” Another kiss, another blossoming. “I’m happy to make conversation with you until sunrise.” Another kiss. I moan softly and feel his smile against my shoulder. “You’ll find I’m an excellent conversationalist.”

I’m dizzy, drunk. Absolutely mad with desire I’ve never before known. Turning sharply, I catch his lips in a kiss that’s almost vicious. Then I wrap my arms around his neck and shoulders and pull him down on top of me.

Readers should read this book….

. . . if they’re looking to be swept away in an unforgettable romance! Vor is the perfect Book Husband, so swoony, so earnest, with an edge of danger, ready and willing to do anything for the woman who has captured his heart.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

My next release from Ace Books is an Assassin-Falls-for-His-Mark Romantasy! Think “The Bachelorette” . . . only the leading lady is a kidnapped princess who’s trying to escape, while the bachelors competing for her hand in marriage are seven devastatingly handsome princes, each with his own secret motivation (more than one of them is there to unalive her!).

Title still forthcoming, this action-packed and swoony romp is coming from Ace Books, autumn 2025.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway:  One finished copy of BRIDE OF THE SHADOW KING by Sylvia Mercedes.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What is your preferred beverage when curled up with a good romance novel? (I’m a Ceylon tea drinker myself!)

 
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Excerpt from Bride of the Shadow King:

“I want you to know, princess, that I have no intention of hurting you. Not tonight. Not ever.”
She regards me silently. Perhaps she doesn’t understand.
“What I’m trying to say is, we need not do anything now that you are not prepared to do.”
“It is our wedding night.” Her voice is very soft.
“I know.”
“The alliance . . .” She leaves the unfinished thought hanging between us.
“The alliance is important to me,” I acknowledge. “But so are you. I want you to be happy here in my kingdom.”
She seems to consider this. “My cousin must verify the consummation before her return.” She pauses and then adds, “My father will be expecting her.”
“A messenger can be sent in her stead, explaining the delay.” She starts to protest, but I hold up one hand. “I don’t think it fair that an arbitrary deadline should dictate our private actions.”
A long, silent moment hovers between us. There’s no sound to break it but the distant hum of music rising from the feasting hall far below, underscored by the throbbing beat of drums.
“But,” she says at last, “this deadline isn’t arbitrary.”
It isn’t. I feel the terrible pressure of the alliance weighing on me. The needs of my people, my kingdom, my world. And yet . . .
I look her in the eye, and though I cannot see her face clearly through that veil, I hold her gaze. “You are to be queen of my people. But you are also my queen. You and you alone shall guide and dictate your will to me. It will be my honor to act accordingly.”
Another silence. So full of unspoken things. Fears. Longings. And everything in between. I stand there beside that bed, looking at this woman, this stranger, to whom I have just bound myself, heart and soul. And I wait.
She takes a step.
My heart hitches in my chest.
She takes another step. And another. I clench my fists, arms straight at my sides, like a soldier bracing for battle. My eyes long to devour her body, the way the skirt parts, revealing her shapely legs. Even as I refuse to look down, refuse to let my gaze shift from her face, I cannot help the intense awareness of her flooding my senses.
She stands in front of me, peering up at me from beneath her veil.
Her lips move in a gentle whisper: “Will you kiss me, my king?”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Book Info:

An outcast princess makes a political marriage with a reluctant king to save both their kingdoms in this first book in the viral Bride of the Shadow King series.

Though she is the oldest daughter, Princess Faraine lives in the background, shunned from court and kept out of sight. She’s told her gods-gift makes her a liability to the crown, and has learned to give place to her beautiful, favored younger sister in all things.

When the handsome and enigmatic Shadow King comes seeking a bride, Faraine is not surprised that her sister is his choice.

King Vor is not eager to take a human bride, but he is willing to do what is necessary for the sake of his people. When he meets the lively Princess Ilsevel, he quickly agrees to a marriage arrangement.

So why can’t he get the haunting eyes of her older sister out of his head?
Book Links:  of Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Sylvia Mercedes makes her home in the idyllic North Carolina countryside with her handsome husband, numerous small children, and a menagerie of rescue cats and dogs. When she’s not writing she’s . . . okay, let’s be honest. When she’s not writing, she’s running around after her littles, cleaning up glitter, trying to plan healthy-ish meals, and wondering where she left her phone. In between, she reads a steady diet of fantasy novels.​

But mostly she’s writing.

Sylvia is the author of more than 20 popular Fantasy Romance novels, including the internationally bestselling BRIDE OF THE SHADOW KING trilogy. She is represented by Amanda Jain at BookEnds Literary Agency.
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