The third book in the War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters series by S.R. Cronin is here! Read an exclusive excerpt from She's the One That Who Gets in Fights and then download your own copy. Be sure to visit the rest of the tour for even more sneak peeks. Remember to leave your comments and questions along the way. Best of luck in the giveaway!
Do you know what your problem is?
Sulphur knows hers. This 13th-century woman has trained as a fighter all her life in hopes of joining the army. Then, within days, both of her older sisters announce plans and suddenly Sulphur is expected to find a man to marry instead.
Is it her good fortune her homeland is gripped by fear of a pending invasion and the army now goes door to door encouraging recruits? Sulphur thinks it is. But once she’s forced to kill in a small skirmish, she’s ready to rethink her career decision. Too bad it’s too late. The invasion is coming, and Ilari needs every good soldier it has.
Once Sulphur learns Ilari’s army has made the strategic decision to not defend certain parts of the realm, including the one where her family lives, she has to re-evaluate her loyalty. Is it with the military she’s always admired? Or is it with her sisters, who are hatching a plan to defend their homeland with magic?
The problem with being a woman who fights for what’s right is that now, she has to figure out what is.
(The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters consists of seven short companion novels. Each tells the personal story and perspective of one of seven radically different sisters in the 1200s as they prepare for an invasion of their realm. While these historical fantasy/alternate history books can be enjoyed as stand-alone novels, together they tell the full story of how Ilari survived.)
Read an exclusive excerpt:
(trigger warning – suicidal thoughts)
All four of my younger sisters busied themselves adjusting to the new family order and wondering what would happen next. Our youngest two returned to school two days after the wedding, while the twins settled back into the lives they created as unmarried young women with artistic pursuits. I guessed they both had lovers they’d kept hidden to spare my feelings in much the same way Coral had kept her relationship with Davor quiet until Ryalgar left.
If I could do nothing else, I had to stop this nonsense. Unlike Ryalgar, I had no desire to marry, and I didn’t think I ever would. Marriage didn’t seem compatible with the life of a soldier, I found most domestic chores boring beyond belief, and I had no desire to raise a child. So, my younger sisters needed to get on with their lives, and I had to find a way to make a graceful exit from a world that didn’t appear to have a place for a woman like me.
The not-having-a-place-for-me thing stung, to be honest, and after an ank or two it became all I could focus on. As the days shortened, the feeling grew until it crowded out everything else. I didn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, and I considered ending my life. I’m not proud of the fact, but it was easy enough to conclude the whole family would be better off without the problem of what to do with Sulphur.
But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even get myself to focus on a way of doing it. Oddly enough, I had Ryalgar and the Mongols to thank for it.
When I’d been in the forest, Ryalgar and I discussed these thieves from the east. I’d confided in her about my dreams of joining the Svadlu and discovered she knew more about the dangers our realm faced than I’d have guessed. She didn’t want to hide in the forest while others raided our homeland, and she sought her own way to help protect Ilari.
She and I agreed our realm would need all the fighters it could get. So, the idea of having potential soldiers, good soldiers, die by their own hand before the battle began made no sense to me, even amid my despondency. For all that I wanted to force everyone, especially Davor, to feel guilty about my lack of choices, I also didn’t want my life to end stupidly. I wanted my life to end in glory, dying for those I loved. Or perhaps not dying at all, at least not for a long while
So I held on tight to the idea that Ilari might need me, despite everything, and that bit of light got me thru the darkest of those times.
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She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how eccentric she is.
All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.
Author Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cinnabar01
Facebook: www.facebook.com/46Ascending
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.r.cronin/
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5805814.Sherrie_Cronin
Amazon: www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/e/B007FRMO9Q
Author Blog: https://sherriecronin.xyz/
Book Series Blog: https://troublesome7sisters.xyz/
S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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