Spotlight & Giveaway: The South Wind by Alexandria Warwick

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Alexandria Warwick to HJ!

Hi Alexandria and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The South Wind!

Hi there!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

THE SOUTH WIND is a second-chance fantasy romance inspired by the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
 

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

I have the power to rewrite my story. I will scrub the manuscript of perfection. I grant myself permission to be messy, open, raw, vulnerable.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Our main character, Sarai, is a concert violinist. I am a professional orchestral violinist and have been playing the violin for nearly 28 years now. I listened to a lot of classical music while writing the story to better connect with her as a character and my own experience as a performer!

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

Notus and Sarai are first attracted to each other for different reasons. Sarai notices Notus because he is different, a bit mysterious, and she, as a princess, is looking for a bit of excitement in her life. Notus is attracted to Sarai for her headstrong persona and her skill at the violin.

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

Yes! The epilogue had me tearing up because of the journey Sarai goes through, which eventually comes full circle in regard to her relationship with music. Here’s a brief snippet (no spoilers!)

Sarai Al-Khatib, Princess of Ammara. The realm had known her. The world had known her. Of course people would remember.

Readers should read this book….

if you love second-chance romance, a fake engagement trope, or a healthy amount of angst in your romance. 😉

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

Currently I am working on the final book of the Four Winds series: THE EAST WIND, which will be releasing less than a year from now!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 1 Print copy of THE SOUTH WIND, open to the US only.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: What are your thoughts on the themes of music and grief throughout the novel?

 
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Excerpt from The South Wind:

Forty-seven days.

My stomach cramps at the sight, yet I carefully mark an x through the number, one of dozens recorded in the pages of my journal. Tomorrow, day forty-six will follow, then forty-five, forty-four. I wonder if I might not end it now, in the small study attached to my bedchamber. Topple the candle wavering atop my desk. Surrender to the smoke. Defeat the curse before it defeats me.

A bell clangs. Its echo leaps from the shining rooftops of the city’s prosperous upper ring to the stately, wind-eroded pillars of the King’s Road. I smooth the wrinkles from my dress with a trembling hand, for the time has come sooner than I wished.

Pushing to my feet, I move to the window. An enemy approaches Ishmah’s border. From my vantage point overlooking the Red City, I observe the line of soldiers snaking across the raw, sunburned earth. Sunlight glints against a thousand hammered shields.

The gates will open at Prince Balior’s arrival. There will be a feast held in his honor. The streets will swell with citizens, oleander blooms plucked from the public gardens and tossed onto the cracked, dusty roads. For this enemy is welcome.

My palm lifts, pressing flat against the window pane. For twenty-four years of my life, my left hand has lacked the opal rune that would identify me as a married woman. But my twenty-fifth nameday approaches. If I am to do my part in securing my people’s survival, then I will wed this prince, whom I know nothing of.

We must all make sacrifices.

Returning to my desk, I spot the journal lying open, rows of numbers etched in blackest ink. A rush of despair consumes me, wholly and completely. I could have sworn I had more time. Forty-seven days seems like an age, but chill mornings will bleed into stifling afternoons. Time, unable to alter or slow.

I hurry toward my wardrobe, hauling open the doors to reveal a collection of brown, gray, and black dresses. Utterly lackluster, painfully drab. I brush them aside to reveal a smaller collection of jewel-colored gowns. I am Princess Sarai Al-Khatib of Ammara, yet I am not even allowed a bit of color or sparkle. Father’s word is law.

Reluctantly, I tug two colorless dresses from the wardrobe, accidentally knocking my violin case from where it had been shoved in the back corner. It topples onto the rug with a muffled thump.
I wince, kneeling to pull the leather case onto my lap. Fahim would scold me for my carelessness. But Fahim is not here.

My throat tightens, and after returning my instrument to its place in the back of the wardrobe, I hold up both dresses in the mirror. Linen of dull brown, which blends into the mahogany of my skin, or ivory, which promises purity? My mouth curls bitterly. Brown, most definitely.

Gathering my heavy locks of ebony hair, I weave a ribbon through the plait that begins at the crown of my head. With a steady hand, I apply kohl to the corners of my dark eyes. A threadbare shawl drapes my shoulders, sandals strapped across my oiled feet.

After a slow, calming exhalation, I head for the door. “Duty to one’s kingdom is duty to one’s heart,” I murmur, and step into the hall. I must, of course, fulfill my duty in greeting Prince Balior. But not now.

Not yet.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

From the bestselling author of The North Wind and The West Wind comes a sizzling fantasy romance novel inspired by Sleeping Beauty and the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur

Princess Sarai of Ammara has less than three months to live before death claims her. Cursed as a child to die on her twenty-fifth nameday, she will do whatever it takes to secure her realm’s future, including an arranged marriage to Prince Balior, a handsome young noble from a neighbouring kingdom. But another man vies for her attention as well: Notus, the South Wind, god of the desert breeze, and Sarai’s ex-lover.

Sarai is determined to stay away from the god who betrayed her and honor her father’s plan. But Prince Balior has an agenda of his own, and as Sarai learns more about her betrothed, she realises he might be a dangerous threat to her people. So despite her hatred for Notus, she fakes their engagement to escape the arranged marriage and unearth Prince Balior’s true motives surrounding his obsession with the menacing labyrinth that sits in the palace’s grounds.

But darker forces are at work, and time is running out. Together with Notus, Sarai must face the horrors dwelling inside the labyrinth to save herself and her realm – but in order to succeed, she must confront her pain and the monsters she carries within herself…
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Meet the Author:

Alexandria Warwick is the international bestselling author of the Four Winds series and the North series. A classically trained violinist, she spends much of her time performing in orchestras. She lives in Florida.
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