A daring druis with a thousand-year-old secret. A fiery love defying the magic of the realms. And an ancient, desperate soul hungry for vengeance.
For druis Avalina Prince, collecting lost souls and guiding them to the afterlife has always been her natural gift. But, when she discovers she is part of a thousand-year-old secret that gives new meaning to her clairvoyant abilities, she learns things about herself she never imagined–and a possible explanation of why she can see a handsome stormy-eyed stranger no one else can.
Thorben hasn’t spoken with a single person in ten years–until a perceptive, spirited woman breaks the silence, giving him hope for a future he had believed to be impossible. Ava could be the key to lifting his curse, but her giving heart and beautiful soul could distract him from chasing after hope he’d thought was long gone.
When Ava, Thorben, and her friends uncover the ambitious–but delusional–commodore’s plan to destroy the barriers holding the island realms in place, she must do whatever it takes to stop him. Or the realms–and the people she loves–will float away into nothingness.
Can Ava claim every part of her deep-rooted past and take a chance on love–even if she might lose it? Saving the realms will require a sacrifice of life–and who is better suited to bind the Five Realms and their souls together than an ancient, powerful druis…
I grew up snagging romance💖 books📖 from my mom’s shelf. To this day I can’t believe she let me read them, but I did and the love of reading 🌶️spicy 🌶️ stuck. I read authors like Jude Deveraux (my favorite to this day!), Danielle Steel, Julia Quinn (Why, hello you Bridgertons, welcome back into my life twenty years later, thank you very much Netflix), Phillipa Gregory, and Johanna Lindsey. Anyone care to guess when I was born? 😆
It wasn’t until I was thirty that I discovered 💫fantasy AND romance💖combined was exactly what I needed. Why it took me that long, I’ll never know. But, I’m so glad it found me. Bec McMaster was the very first steampunk⚙️ 💫fantasy romance💖book 📖I ever read. She has two series set in the same world 🌍and I devoured them.
It set me on fire🔥. I had an idea and I needed to write it down. I tore a sheet of paper off a large roll of butcher paper 📃and hot glued it to my wall. (No, really, I did. Here’s a photo to prove it.)
It began as one long sheet📃. Then turned into another for the prequel…and another for book 2…now, I have four long sheets of butcher paper📃 hot glued to my wall. I jot down ideas when I can’t sleep😴, when inspiration strikes⚡while I’m doing laundry or washing kids👶.
The title is what came to me first. Three Coins from a Dead Man’s Pocket. I feel like I heard👂 it somewhere, but don’t really remember. And I had questions❓…like, a LOT of questions. Why is he dead☠️? Why does he have coins🪙 in his pocket? Are they special✨ somehow? Why?
And I couldn’t stop thinking🤔 about the possibilities. Hence…the butcher paper.🤣
Three Coins From a Dead Man’s Pocket is Book One of the Realms of Souls Saga. This fantasy✨ steampunk ⚙️ romance💖 is everything I love💗 in a can’t-put-it-down kind of story: a damsel to the rescue with a huge 💖(and she can wield a laser whip 😲), a love L in a steampunk⚙️ setting with elemental magic and airships, a little instalove 😍 with a strange but interested suitor ♨️ who makes her pulse race every time his stormy gray eyes gaze into hers, a glimpse at immortality ☠️ in a complex world 🌍 with a plane of existence between the real and the afterlife, an antagonist who craves power over the realms and doesn’t care how he gets it, and a found family that has their own long buried secrets🔐…
After that description, how can you not want to read📖 it? 😲
Okay, I hear you asking❓…but, Myrenne, what is the spice♨️🥵 in this book? Am I going to want to find my SO and, well, you know? 😏
Ahem…how about an excerpt?
Ava placed a hand on his face, his stubble coarse against her palm. The roughness scratched her skin, suggesting other places it might touch, and her body began to wake up. The ideas sank into her, sending tingles up her arm and nudging her heart into a light patter. “Everyone’s fear has its own price. I’m thankful she values you more than her fear.”
“I am too,” Thorben whispered, his gray blue eyes misting as he studied Ava’s face. He leaned in, touching the silkiness of his lips to hers. Ava tasted mint, reminding her of the first kiss they had shared. His tongue lightly caressed her lips, leaving a trail of cool wetness. Ava scooted closer.
“I want to stay here and kiss you all night,” Thorben whispered, planting another soft kiss on her lips. “But you need your rest.”
“Hmm.” Ava recognized his words but didn’t pull back. The coolness of his mouth was intoxicating after the hot tea. Thorben’s arm circled her waist, drawing her to his side. His other hand moved to her cheek, his thumb caressing her bottom lip. Ava’s mouth silently parted and her lids slipped closed.
“Let me hold you,” he murmured against her lips. He rubbed his stubble along her jaw making Ava shiver. “I want to do so many things to you, but I need you to heal before…”
“Before what?” Ava said, in little more than a whisper.
Thorben grinned. “Before I make you moan for other reasons.”
Ava’s cheeks burned, and she looked in those glorious, dark and stormy eyes. “What would you do to make me moan?”
Thorben’s grin widened, showing straight white teeth even as his eyelids lowered. He lifted her hand, his lips worshiping her knuckles, one by one, leaving a coolness that raised the hairs on her arms.
“First,” he murmured, turning her hand over, exposing her palm. “I will kiss you until you beg for breath.” His tongue flicked out, teasing the inside of her wrist. “I will dip my tongue into your delicious mouth.” His breath whispered over her sensitive flesh, marking a path to her inner elbow. Ava’s breath caught, and her mouth dropped open. “I want to nibble your neck and press my nose against the skin behind your ear…inhaling the perfume of your hair.”
Thorben paused, the tip of his nose sliding along Ava’s jaw. Her eyelids dropped closed, her entire being hyper focused on his words and his touch.
“Then what?” she whispered. Thorben smiled against her skin, dropping baby kisses along her jaw.
“This blanket will get tossed across the room so I can feel the silky skin of your back, the smoothness of your ass cupped in my hands. My lips crave the taste of you…I want to dip my tongue into the hollow of your belly button, and lick my way to your breasts…”
Ava’s heart pounded against her ribs, his words skimming along her skin and leaving a trail of wanting more.
“I want you to scream my name as I make you come.” His tongue tickled the side of her ear and she shivered.
Ava’s core clenched, and her nipples torturously dragged across the rough fabric of the blanket. Wetness escaped her center, her inner thighs slippery with her arousal. She wanted it, wanted him…
“I want to suck on your beautiful nipples,” he continued and a small whimper escaped her. “I want to worship them, devour them, and taste their sweetness. I want to feel those hard buds in my mouth and roll them against my tongue.”
Ava moaned, her free hand gripping the blanket, her head dropping back, exposing her throat.
Thorben’s breathing had become quick against Ava’s ear, and he dipped his head, nibbling the delicate skin on her throat. “I want to see you,” he insisted. “I want to see all of you and put my fingers against your softness, to part you and feel your slick flesh. And I want you to beg for more.”
Ava cried out as he bit her shoulder, a penetrating jolt zinging to her core. She throbbed, dying a little each second she wasn’t touched, needing him more with each word he spoke.
“I want to feel you beneath me,” Thorben pressed his nose against her hair, inhaling deeply. “I want you quivering, gasping, as I pleasure you.”
Their heavy breathing filled the cabin, the crackling fyre giving them permission for more.
“I…” Ava swallowed and tried again. “I want you to touch me,” she whispered. Thorben leaned back, studying her with his heat filled gaze.
“I want your fingers to touch me. I want…” Ava looked up at him through her dark lashes, the heat from her words burning her cheeks. “I want you inside of me.”
Thorben’s stormy eyes darkened into a tempest. “Ava…” he whispered, his gaze dropping to her lips.
“I’m not finished.” Ava pressed her fingers to his mouth. He took a single finger inside, suckling, churning it over his cool tongue. The velvet of his lips and the bumps along his tongue had her toes curling.
“I want your mouth on me,” Ava whispered.
Thorben pulled out her finger, sucking on the very tip before letting go. “Where?”
Ava’s blush deepened. “My…”
“Where, Ava?” Thorben whispered again, leaning forward. Ava couldn’t. She couldn’t speak anymore. Her core was tight, her nipples hard, her skin practically on fyre while flames of need melted her from the inside out.
“I know where I want to lick you,” Thorben said, brushing the lightest of kisses on her lips. “I want to taste your secrets. I want to devour you.”
Ava dove forward, consumed by a desperate need to feel him. She pressed her lips against his own silky, firm ones, wanting more—needing more. Thorben hungrily opened her mouth with his tongue. Lacing her hair through his fingers, he tipped her head to deepen the kiss, an unspoken declaration of his insatiable desire for her.
Suddenly, voices drifted in from outside the door. Thorben drew back, his expression wildly lost. He slowly withdrew his fingers from her hair, mesmerized as the strands slipped through his fingers.
I mean….technically they aren’t even doing 👀anything yet! 😅This is not the spiciest🥵 scene in the book–nope, not by a long shot. But, I can’t give all the goods away at first, now can I? 😏
If I’ve got you hooked and you are burning🔥with curiosity to read 📖⚙️Three Coins from a Dead Man’s Pocket, ⚙️let me first say…YAY🙌! Secondly, how would you like to join me on Kickstarter?
This will be the very first printed edition of Three Coins from a Dead Man’s Pocket! To tell you I’m excited is an understatement!
I will be offering Ebook, paperback, hardback, locally made teas, a micro album with songs and poems locally composed🎶 and recorded by yours truly😁, bookmarks, stickers and LOTS of upgrades when we hit our stretch goals like a double sided dust jacket, full page color headers and digitally printed edges. It is going to be epic. 🤩
And, I’d love to have you along for the journey as I post on all my social media and send out newsletters with snippets of what I’m working on, new artwork, and new cover designs! You can find all of those links HERE.
And a very HUGE thank you (a yah ageré in the language of the realms) to Cameron Allie for allowing me space on her blog to share my excitement 🤩and my journey through my first book📖. I am truly grateful🙏.
~Maió yah aríla vylá efusar, obúmes. ~May your soul fly freely, friends.
Myrenne Mae
Campsite (where everything is)
