Next Book Series Announcement

Author

Lexi Ayala
December 02, 2024

The Next Book Series Fantasy Fangirls Will Cover Is…

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Kindred’s Curse Saga!

Starting with Book 1, Spark of the Everflame! WE ARE SO EXCITED!! 🎉

But before we keep going – this email is spoiler-free, so it’s safe to continue reading if you haven’t read Spark of the Everflame.

So… did you guess right?? It’s been so much fun seeing all your guesses from the clues we’ve left over the past few weeks. We appreciate your enthusiasm, no matter which book you thought was going to be next. And hey, if you haven’t read this series, don’t worry! There’s plenty of time to fall into the world of Emarion before we begin our coverage in mid/late April.

Three books in the series are currently available, with the fourth and final book coming out TBD. Our episode coverage format and schedule will come out after Burn of the Everflame’s release date announcement.

We felt the pull to deep dive Kindred’s Curse Saga while we were preparing for our Burn of the Everflame Theories bonus episode (though we didn’t make the final selection from our shortlist until recently). It has Empyrean-level Easter eggs and mysteries to solve that we can analyze for days, with a world and characters that are reminiscent of ACOTAR. Keep reading for more reasons why we chose this as our next series to cover!

Plus, the author Penn Cole is so kind and we can’t wait to shine the spotlight on her. She joined our book club for a live Q&A back in June and offered so many fantastic insights that had our Patreon community talking for weeks! Our coverage of Kindred’s Curse Saga will be the first time we’ve had a direct connection to the author and we’re thrilled to get extra tidbits from her to share with you all.

Keep an eye on our social media for our official announcement video (posts at 6:50am ET today), a Kindred’s Curse merch giveaway, and more in the lead-up to our deep dive of this fantasy series!

After Onyx Storm, We’re Covering…

Episode coverage format and schedule will come out after Burn of the Everflame’s release date announcement.

Title: Spark of the Everflame
By: Penn Cole
Series: Book 1 of Kindred’s Curse Saga

Starts: Mid/Late April 2025
Spoilers?: Yes, for all released books, bonus chapters, and author interviews.

Summary: A sudden disappearance—and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past—offer Diem Bellator an unexpected opportunity to enter the magical world of Descended royalty and unlock a web of mysteries left behind by her mother.

With the dying King’s heir watching her every move and a ruthless rebel alliance recruiting her to join the growing civil war, Diem must navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics to save her family—and all of mortalkind.

One of Our Favorite Audiobook Series!

These audiobooks are fantastic – the narrator, Amanda Dolan, pulls you in and takes you on the journey alongside the FMC. As primarily audiobook listeners, we sincerely appreciate when the narration enhances an already great story!

Kindred’s Curse Saga is exclusively on Audible and if you sign up today (12/2), you get an extra $20 credit for any audiobooks… like the Kindred’s Curse Saga!

Spark of the Everflame

FFG Rating: 5⭐️
Audiobook: 5⭐️

Also available on Kindle Unlimited and as a hardcover.

Glow of the Everflame

FFG Rating: 5⭐️
Audiobook: 5⭐️

Also available on Kindle Unlimited and the hardcover releases tomorrow, 12/3.

Heat of the Everflame

FFG Rating: 5⭐️
Audiobook: 5⭐️

Also available on Kindle Unlimited.

Why We Love This Series

Kindred’s Curse Saga is one of our top reads of 2024 and there’s plenty of reasons to love it. To avoid making this email too long, here’s each of our top 5 reasons why we love this series and knew it had to be our next deep dive.

LEXI

  1. The world-building is one of my favorites. The nine realms and their unique traits, cultures, and magic, along with the world’s history with the Kindred and the Old Gods, are captivating, as well as easy to understand while still multi-layered.

  2. Like many others, I devoured this series. I was worried about reading three books in only a few weeks ahead of our book club interview with Penn, but I finished all of them in days. This series is an easy read in the best way!

  3. The characters are multi-dimensional and I can’t wait to dive into them, their choices, and evolving perspectives. Especially the FMC, who struggles to appeal to everyone in impossible situations, which we don’t often see in fantasy stories. And oh goodness, we have our work cut out with analyzing Henri (yes, he’s already got his own segment planned!).

  4. The Easter eggs start with a bang in Chapter 1 and don’t stop through all three books! The predictable reveals come with major twists that I didn’t see coming, and I come up with more theories, discover new evidence to existing theories, and have new questions every time I read it. It’s an FFG deep dive dream come true for our theory talks!

  5. Penn beautifully balances societal conflict, romance, humor, character development and internal battles, magic, mystery, and culture into this story that has me thinking about bigger issues in our real world, laughing at funny moments, yelling at characters because I love them so much and am invested in them, and kicking my feet squealing over comments like “Good girl.”

NICOLE….

  1. First and foremost, this series has easter eggs for DAYS! It doesn’t matter how many times I read this series, I find something new every. dang. time – whether it’s a full-blown theory that has me spiraling and parsing through all three books or half a sentence that is a “WAIT! WHAT!?!?” moment, I never cease to mark up these books like crazy each read!

  2. This romance is quite possibly my favorite I’ve ever read! It’s a slooooow burn that is so tense you could cut it with a knife! Luther is DELICIOUS and I am foaming at the mouth to talk about him (especially Glow -AHHH!)

  3. The magic system is fascinating and while it is easier to grasp than some, some elements are still shrouded with mystery, and you bet we’re chomping at the bit to parse through every morsel that Penn hints at throughout the three books.

  4. The FMC is complex. She’s arguably one of the most realistic FMCs we’ve covered on the podcast as she is thrust into a new environment and has… some complex choices. I cannot wait to analyze her character!

  5. GFDH, obvi.

So You Want to Know Some of the Clues?

While we’ll spill the beans on all the Easter eggs we’ve shared over the past few weeks soon, here’s a few spoiler-free clues that the next series is Kindred’s Curse Saga.

  • November Newsletter: “Spark”, “Glow[ing]”, and “Heat” were mentioned throughout.

  • Hannah’s Illustration: There are 28 clues in this incredible piece of art! We will reveal all of them on Thursday, but in the meantime… the 9 realms are represented (among lots, lots more).

  • ??? Playlist: First, the three “???” represents the three books, and the songs are in order of the series (like all our playlists). Penn has said Hozier embodies the MMC, so of course we had to include him. We’ll do a full breakdown soon, though now that you know the series, you’ll certainly see it all fall into place!

  • Hashtag #slidintoauthorsDMs: Because yes, we have been talking to Penn and already have an existing relationship with her that you know from our bonus episode and June book club. Plus… DM = Diem!

  • Emphasis on Blue: Blue for Lumnos eyes!

  • ACOSF Episode 5: We discussed a theory at length that focuses on light and shadows, which is the magic of Lumnos.

  • ACOSF Episode 6: Both of us wore gray for Diem’s eye color, and Lexi wore her “Book Club” sweatshirt because Spark of the Everflame was a book club book.

  • ACOSF Episode 7: Nicole has a blue flower in her background, which someone conjures using magic in Glow of the Everflame.

  • Pre-Announcement Video: Lexi’s crewneck has several icons that refer to this series (in addition to ACOTAR).

Talk to you soon!

Nicole and Lexi