Showing results by author "C. J. Brightley" in All Categories

A disillusioned soldier. A spoiled, untried prince. A coup that threatens the country they love. When retired soldier Kemen finds the young prince Hakan fleeing an attempted assassination, he reluctantly takes the role of mentor and guardian. Keeping the prince alive is challenging enough. Making him a man is harder. As usurper Vidar tightens his grip on power, Kemen wrestles with questions of duty and honor. What if the prince isn't the best ruler after all? Invasion looms, and Kemen's decisions will shape the fate of a nation. What will he sacrifice for friendship and honor?

When retired Erdemen army officer Kemen Sendoa helped the young Prince Hakan Ithel reclaim his throne, he thought he was happy. He had shaped the future of his beloved country and earned a place of honor and respect. In the shelter of the palace, he finds peace and the promise of a life he’d only imagined. Yet his own choices and brewing border troubles may force him to make a final sacrifice.

Lord Ash Willowvale is wealthy and eligible, albeit famously disagreeable, but he is hardly looking for a wife, and the Fair maiden who catches his eye certainly wasn’t hoping to. She is merely doing her job as bodyguard for the Fair ambassador, who has been imprisoned in Aricht.

When Lord Fenton Selby is accosted at his own back door by Miss Crocus Firethorn, a beautiful Fair maiden looking for the Wraith’s young ally Juniper, he’s torn as to whether to trust her any more than she trusts him. His charm and kindness quickly win her affection, until she finds out Fenton has known her cousin Juniper’s whereabouts all this time. Now Fenton must find a way to regain her trust, while a cunning new enemy, terrifying monsters, and risky bargains with several Fair lords all threaten their futures and their lives.

When a fairy king grants a human wish, there's more at stake than dreams. Claire Delaney has a good life, despite her adolescent angst. But she wants more. In a moment of frustration, she wishes to be "the hero." What she actually wants is to be the center of attention, but what she gets is a terrifying Fae king demanding that she rescue an imprisoned fairy, facing fantastical dangers and hardships she could not have imagined. Yet the dreams - and the rescue - are only the beginning of her journey. She is at the center of the king's audacious gamble to end the war that has raged in Faerie for half a century.

For better or worse, choices have consequences. Even for a fairy king.

Young Hannah receives an interesting letter. Is her pen pal a fairy prince or a prankster? How long will he write to her, and what will change as a result of his letters? He offers her a wish. Can he really grant a wish? What will she wish, and what will she offer him in return?

A brother and sister play at being heroes, and the game changes their lives. This is a novella. It stands alone but is set about 12 years after Street Fox and several generations after The King's Sword.

A boy learns heroes still exist. This is a short story set in the world of the series Erdemen Honor. It is a prequel/introduction to an upcoming novel and takes place several generations after The King's Sword.

When Miss Lilybeth Rose Hathaway and her family arrive in Ardmond for the season, Lily can’t help but be charmed by wealthy, popular Theo Overton’s lovely manners and genuine affection. The Hathaways are soon elevated far beyond what they might have imagined, and like everyone else, they are captivated by rumors of the national hero known as the Wraith, who is saving human children from the terrors of the Fair Court. The arrival of the Special Envoy of the Fair Court tasked with capturing the Wraith frightens everyone. But the Wraith is far too clever to be captured.