You know I was hooked the second I heard queer Rapunzel retelling. As someone who is very much here for the queer retellings we’re being served with recently (just think of Kalynn Bayron’s Cinderella Is Dead or TJ Klune’s upcoming In The Lives of Puppets), I knew I needed to read this immediately. And while I wasn’t as blown away as I would have hoped, I still think this is a solid entry to the retelling genre.

While there are quite a few moments that rather tell the reader what characters are feeling rather than showing the anguish, fear and frustration Ava and Kaye struggle with, you could still see what makes them tick on their own and why they hold so strongly to their beliefs, whether it’s because of what they’ve learned or what they’ve been conditioned to accept as irrefutable truths. I’m always intrigued when we get to meet new worlds with other rules and concepts that seem to feel so ingrained in the characters until they inevitable have to question whether what others have told them is really the truth or just a convenient smoke screen and Flores delivers beautifully in this aspect.

As compelling as the premise was, the character and relationship development left a lot to be desired. I was frustrated at times because, while the “natural” enemies part between Ava and Kaye is well established and called back into focus many a times, we never really get the development from enemies to allies to friends to something more. There are flashbacks that tell us that Ava and Kaye used to be friends, but I needed more during the actual plot to feel invested. Instead, most of the development of their relationship is left until the very last chapters of the novel and thus feels pretty insubstantial and somewhat rushed. However, there are a few moments that made me root for Ava and Kaye to figure out how to work together to save their seemingly incompatible worlds.

All that being said, I still adored the premise and am always here for more sapphic witches and vampires. There’s a lot of promise in this story and with a bit more work on showing rather than telling and character development, I’m excited to see what Flores comes up with next.

Sapphic ex-best-friends-to-natural-enemies-to-lovers meet in this queer Rapunzel retelling that’s perfect for fans Kalynn Bayron’s Cinderella Is Dead and The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl.

The Witch and the Vampire is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of March 21st.

Will you be picking up The Witch and the Vampire? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Francesca Flores’s The Witch and the Vampire is a queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.

Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she’s a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother’s plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.

Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she’d started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.

But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other’s greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.

The post #ReadWithPride: The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Aina Solís has fought her way to the top of criminal ranks in the city of Kosín by wresting control of an assassin empire owned by her old boss, Kohl. She never has to fear losing her home and returning to life on the streets again—except Kohl, the man who tried to ruin her life, will do anything to get his empire back. Aina sets out to kill him before he can kill her.

But Alsane Bautix, the old army general who was banned from his seat in the government after Aina revealed his corruption, is working to take back power by destroying anyone who stands in his way. With a new civil war on the horizon and all their lives at risk, the only way for Aina to protect her home is to join up with the only other criminal more notorious than her: Kohl himself.

As Bautix’s attacks increase, Aina and Kohl work together to stop his incoming weapons shipments and his plans to take back the Tower of Steel. To defeat them both, Aina will resort to betrayal, poison, and a deadly type of magic that hasn’t been used in years.

Through narrow alleys, across train rooftops, and deep in the city’s tunnels, Aina and Kohl will test each other’s strengths and limits, each of them knowing that once Bautix is dead, they’ll still have to face each other. If she manages to kill him, she’ll finally have the freedom she wants—but it might forever mark her as his shadow in a city where only the strongest survive.

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The post Read An Excerpt From ‘Shadow City’ by Francesca Flores appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We had the pleasure of chatting to Francesca Flores and we talk all about her recently published debut novel, Diamond City, from the inspiration behind the story, to her journey as a debut author!

Your debut novel, Diamond City, is now out in the world! Can you tell us about it and why everyone should include this book in their reading list?

Diamond City is about a young assassin named Aina trying to survive and open her own crime empire in the dangerous, industrializing city of Kosín. It’s full of action, gritty and brutal, and very morally gray, yet at the heart of it is a girl who’s just trying to sculpt a future for herself out of a changing, war-torn, and difficult place.

As a debut author, it can be an extremely long and tiring process to finally get published. Can you share about your very own writing and publishing story?

It was certainly long, but honestly, looking back, I just feel happy to see how far I’ve come. I’ve been writing since I was a child and completed my first novel about ten years ago, in my first year at university. That was also a young adult fantasy, as were most of my projects, and it came to me in a dream! I wrote quite a few manuscripts before trying to publish, somewhere between 10-15. Publishing just wasn’t on my mind and I just kept writing as a hobby. But then my writing friends started to look at publishing opportunities and so I finally considered it myself in early 2017, which is also when I first started drafting Diamond City. I drafted quickly and did one major revision before querying that summer (I recommend doing more revisions before querying; I had no idea how to revise back then so I thought I was good-to-go!). But I did get an agent that same summer, the wonderful Peter Knapp. There were many revisions ahead before going on submission, though, and I’m glad I had them because they helped make the book much stronger and taught me a lot about craft. We went on submission the following summer, in 2018, and the book sold quickly to my amazing editor, Eileen Rothschild. I’m excited to finally share my writing and to keep writing more fantasy.

Now, let’s talk about the characters in your debut, starting with Aina! Being such a fierce and strong heroine, can you tell us about your writing process of her? Were there any changes made to her character that you’d like to share with us?

Aina, along with the setting, were the first two things that came to mind when I started brainstorming Diamond City. At first, I just kept hearing bits of dialogue in her voice where she was making witty remarks or expressing her opinion. I really liked her voice and wanted to get to know her more, and she developed really naturally for me. One thing that changed is that, in the first couple of drafts, she used magic herself. Around the third draft, I think, I changed that because I wanted a main character who could see the situation between magic users and the people who are prejudiced against them while sort of being on the outside of the conflict. And even though she’s on the outside of it, it still affects her life, and that’s something I wanted to explore—how technology and conflict and general change in society affect the people in it. I also just wanted her to be a regular girl as much as possible, so I took away her use of magic and instead had her power come from the skills she’s learned over the years.

And were there any struggles that you faced when you wrote the dynamic between Aina and Kohl?

Yes, so many! It was so important to me to get it right. As Aina’s boss and someone who saved her life when she was a child, Kohl holds a lot of power over her, and it’s often overwhelming. But that doesn’t mean she’s powerless, and it doesn’t mean she’s unable to learn how to stand up for herself. I had to present it in a way that readers could see how it’s hurting her but still understand why she feels so indebted to him, why she doesn’t understand that their dynamic is harmful, and why being his star employee is so important to her that she’ll keep working for it even when he uses his power against her. I wanted to show a character who doesn’t start the book in the strongest position, who doesn’t always have the best idea of what’s right or wrong for her, and has a misconstrued sense of trust and love, because the circumstances she grew up in didn’t really permit her to learn any of that. While I think it’s great to have books where the main character is emotionally strong from the beginning and would never let anyone take advantage of them, I think it’s equally important to show characters who are still working through these difficult relationships and figuring out what to do. It’s based on my own experience, so I hope that people who read it and are going through something similar might gain hope that they can pull through it, too, by watching how Aina navigates it all.

We simply couldn’t do this interview without asking about the scene-stealing prologue in Diamond City. It was absolutely thrilling! What inspired you to write this particular scene?

Thank you!! That’s one of my favorite parts of the book and it really hasn’t changed much since the beginning. The first line, most of the dialogue, and the events of the prologue are the same as in the first draft. I wanted to show who Aina was before she became an assassin, so that right in the next chapter, you can see how much she’s changed six years later. I also wanted to show how she and Kohl met, since their relationship is extremely important to the book. They meet when he saves her life, and the opening line is “Do you want to know the secret to survival?” so I think that encapsulates a major question for Aina throughout her years as an assassin: how far will she go to survive? And what does she owe, or not owe, someone who saved her? As far as the original inspiration, it came from conversations I’ve had over the years about little ways to stay safe, to survive. I have OCD and sometimes the way for me to feel safe is to count things, people or time, and that’s something the characters do in the prologue. They count how many people are in the room and they count the seconds before a bomb goes off. The “counting” aspect also correlates to the importance of “time” as a whole in the novel, especially seen through the setting and how the changing times of industrialization can have such a big effect on people’s lives.

The magical yet vicious world of Kosín was remarkable. How long did it take for you to develop this universe and were there any challenges that you faced along the way?

I absolutely love making settings for my book. I’ve always considered places to have their own souls, and that they’re as much characters in the book as the actual characters. I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be set during a period of industrialization with around late 1800s technology. There’s so much change and shifting of ideas in this time period that greatly affect the characters, their experiences and beliefs, and I wanted to play with it. Research was a challenge at times. Another challenge was making the city seem dynamic, which was important because the characters don’t leave the city. So every time that they go back to the same place, I tried to show it shifting and changing somehow along with the character so that it would still be interesting. It was also an intriguing challenge to create a world that would allow people like Aina and the other tradehouse employees to exist. There has to be the right social climate for the crimes they commit to be common yet still shocking even in their world, and it had to be done in a way that made Aina’s path in life, and her choice to become an assassin, more viable and realistic.

Time for a fun question! If the casts of Diamond City took a Pottermore quiz, what would their Hogwarts’ houses be?

I always love this question! Aina and Kohl would definitely be Slytherins. They’re both way too ambitious not to be. But as long as you’re not getting in their way, they’ll also be loyal to you. Teo is a pure Hufflepuff, so it’s always fun to write his scenes with Aina. Although he’s had to do difficult and dangerous things as part of his job, at the core he’s kind and caring and never really wants to hurt anyone. He’s an extremely loyal friend, too. Raurie is a Ravenclaw. She’s had to figure out lots of savvy ways to stay safe and earn money for her family over the years, and she loves learning new things. And then I have two Gryffindors: Ryuu and Tannis. I’m a Slytherin myself so I’m surprised that I allowed there to be two whole Gryffindors in my cast, but that’s just who they are. Ryuu isn’t used to Aina’s dangerous lifestyle, but he jumps into it and isn’t afraid to do difficult things. Tannis is a mysterious character, so I won’t reveal too much, but she’s a brave, sometimes headstrong, Gryffindor as well.

If this story was to be adapted for the big screen, are there any actors that you think would bring these characters to life?

Some of the characters are pretty easy to choose for this. Teo, for example, would be Luke Pasqualino. Luke looks exactly like how I imagine Teo, and he played in The Musketeers, so he has experience in action roles! Ryuu would be Tomohisa Yamashita. I could easily see Kat Graham, who was on The Vampire Diaries, playing Raurie. For Aina, I think the actress Bianca Santos looks most similar to her, but she’s mostly played in more contemporary things, so sometimes it’s hard to fully picture her as Aina. Adria Arjona, on the other hand, played in Emerald City, and while she doesn’t look exactly like Aina in my head, there are a lot of shots from that show that look like they could be Aina. Kohl is also hard to choose, but there’s a model, Leo Mangieri, who looks very similar to him!

We’re incredibly excited for this book, as it’s in our list for most anticipated 2020 releases. For you, what’s your most anticipated titles for this year?

Thank you so much!! There are so many good books coming out this year, it’s hard to choose. Some YA fantasies I’m excited for are A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown, Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, Heart of Flames by Nicki Pau Preto, Red Tigress by Amélie Wen Zhao, Fable by Adrienne Young, Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova, and All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace.

Lastly, what’s next for you?

Right now I’m revising the sequel to Diamond City! It’s a lot of fun, though definitely a challenge. I love being back with these characters and in this world, and I’m really excited to wrap up Aina’s story in the way she deserves.

Will you be picking up Diamond City? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Francesca Flores, Author of ‘Diamond City’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Featuring the journey of a fierce heroine in the magical yet vicious world of Kosín, Francesca Flores’ fantasy debut novel, Diamond City, is going to blow your mind with its action-packed story, fast-paced plot, and scene-stealing characters. Being the first book in a series, Diamond City follows the story of Aina Solís and her dangerous quests as an assassin along with some unlikely allies that she never expected to have. Confused between paying back her gratitude and unravelling the ultimate truth, she must fight and survive in a game that she accidentally started.

After her parents are executed for a religion that they believed in, Aina must do everything to survive in the harsh and dangerous street life. Being a street rat at the age of 12, she went through the shivering of night and the suffering of hunger. However, her life took a turn when a mysterious man saved her life at the very last minute from a bomb. After being given everything that she thinks she wants, Aina is now an assassin and works for the man that saved her life. She works through murder after murder, and everything seems to go okay. But when an assigned murder goes wrong, she has to unravel the truth about the man she works for, unexpectedly works with the enemy but most importantly, she has to figure out how to break herself free.

Told in an alternate timeline, we get to see Aina’s past and how it unravels and shapes her into the way she is today.

I couldn’t deny the charms in Diamond City‘s prologue that instantly grasped my whole attention. It was short and straight to the point, yet it gave me chills, and ultimately, pulled me into the deep of Kosín’s slums. Being introduced to our heroine at the age of 12 and witnessing how her life took a sharp turn in a spare few seconds, I was more than invested to explore her journey. It was one of those prologues that makes me think about it over and over again because the scene was absolutely intense, smart, and struck my mind in the best way possible.

This story relies heavily on its character, but it especially relies on Aina as the main lead as we got to witness her internal monologues in facing dilemmas in her confined life. Trapped between two opposite sides, Aina’s journey in this story was intense and very much relatable, as often at times the truth is not simply black or white. Flores eloquently elaborate Aina’s difficult position and I completely adore her multidimensional character.

Though it was a very much character-driven story, Flores also went beyond with its worldbuilding, including the harsh street life in Kosín’s slums, the endless tunnels, the magical diamonds, the intriguing belief system, and of course, the fierce competition between gangs that hated each others guts. I absolutely adore this universe because although I was struggling a bit to dive deeper into it and try to grasp the whole concept of how this world works, I can tell you that it was written after a tremendous amount of research and hard work. I feel like this is the case of me instead of the book itself, as I couldn’t wait to reread this gem in the future and try to understand it better.

My one last favourite aspect of Diamond City is Flores’ impressive skill in describing and narrating this fast-paced fantasy, leaving us with more than enough outstanding quotes that reflect our cruel reality.

In conclusion, Diamond City is a fierce fantasy featuring a fierce heroine living in a fierce universe where everyone hides everything and danger always creep around the corner.

Diamond City is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of January 28th 2020.

Will you be picking up Diamond City? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Good things don’t happen to girls who come from nothing…unless they risk everything.

Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten.

Her boss is brutal and cold, with a questionable sense of morality, but he provides a place for people with nowhere else to go. And makes sure they stay there.

DIAMOND CITY: built by magic, ruled by tyrants, and in desperate need of saving. It is a world full of dark forces and hidden agendas, old rivalries and lethal new enemies.

To claim a future for herself in a world that doesn’t want her to survive, Aina will have to win a game of murder and conspiracy—and risk losing everything.

Full of action, romance and dark magic, book one of Francesca Flores’ breathtaking fantasy duology will leave readers eager for more!

The post Review: Diamond City by Francesca Flores appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

January sees the release of new books from authors William Gibson, Joanna Kavenna, Charlie N. Holmberg, and Melissa Albert, along also debuts from authors Simon Jimenez and Francesca Flores!

Plus there’s some exciting retellings including a gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of Cinderella, a retelling of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and a gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us if you will be picking up any of these fantasy and sci-fi releases!

The God Game by Danny Tobey
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of runes, gods, mythical creatures, and more. But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?

Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A princess fleeing an arranged marriage teams up with a snarky commoner to foil a rebel plot in B. R. Myers’ Rogue Princess, a gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of Cinderella.

Agency by William Gibson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This thrilling YA retelling of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai features a girl tasked with saving the world from eternal darkness. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows and Marie Lu.

Diamond City by Francesca Flores
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten.

Zed by Joanna Kavenna
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the winner of the Orange Award for New Writing comes a blistering, satirical novel about life under a global media and tech corporation that knows exactly what we think, what we want, and what we do–before we do.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time.

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Packed with high-stakes adventure, romance, and dueling identities, this gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo is the first novel in an epic YA fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Sabaa Tahir, and Leigh Bardugo.

The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A spellbinding story of truce and trickery from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician series.

The Night Country (The Hazel Wood #2) by Melissa Albert
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.

The Heap by Sean Adams
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Blending the dark humor of Patrick deWitt and the jagged social and techno-satire of Black Mirror, an audacious, eerily prescient debut novel that chronicles the rise and fall of a massive high-rise housing complex, and the lives it affected before—and after—its demise.

Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Strange Exit is Parker Peevyhouse’s next suspenseful, near-future, stand-alone thriller, perfect for fans of Kass Morgan’s The 100 and Patrick Ness’s More Than This.

Will you be picking up any of these fantasy and sci-fi releases? Tell us in the comments below!

The post January 2020 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.