THE RUIN OF KINGS by Jenn Lyons Blog Tour | Spotlight, Guest post & #giveaway @JeanBookNerd @jennlyonsauthor @TTCBooksandmore ~ '

Series: A Chorus of Dragons (Book 1)
Hardcover: 560 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (February 5, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250175488
ISBN-13: 978-1250175489

Praise for THE RUIN OF KINGS

"[A] jaw-dropping, action-packed story of betrayal, greed, and grand-scale conspiracy . . . Lyons ties it all together seamlessly to create literary magic. Epic fantasy fans looking for a virtually un-put-down-able read should look no further." ―Kirkus, starred review

"Rich, cruel, gorgeous, brilliant, enthralling and deeply, deeply satisfying. I loved it." ―Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians

“It was one hell of a ride. I gobbled it up and was hungry for more.” ―Glen Cook, author of The Black Company

“The Ruin of Kings is a fascinating story about a compellingly conflicted young hero in an intriguingly complex world.” ―L. E. Modesitt, Jr., author of the Recluse series

"A thriller plot of revenge and loyalty with a get-under-your-skin and keep-you-reading-all-night mysetery at its heart. I loved it."―John Gwynne, author of Malice

"The Ruin of Kings revs up with the glitz of a high-speed, multi-level video game, with extreme magic and a teen hero with angst." ―Janny Wurts, author of The Curse of the Mistwraith

There are the old stories. And then there’s what actually happens.

Kihrin is a bastard orphan who grew up on storybook tales of long-lost princes and grand quests. When he is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a treasonous prince, Kihrin finds that being a long-lost prince isn't what the storybooks promised.

Far from living the dream, Kihrin finds himself practically a prisoner, at the mercy of his new family's power plays and ambitions. He also discovers that the storybooks have lied about a lot of other things things, too: dragons, demons, gods, prophecies, true love, and how the hero always wins.

Then again, maybe he’s not the hero, for Kihrin isn’t destined to save the empire.

He’s destined to destroy it . . .

Uniting the worldbuilding of a Brandon Sanderson with the storytelling verve of a Patrick Rothfuss, debut author Jenn Lyons delivers an entirely new and captivating fantasy epic. Prepare to meet the genre’s next star.

You can purchase The Ruin of Kings at the following Retailers:

Guest post with Jenn Lyons...

Who's your favorite historical King and why?

My favorite historical king is probably the Egyptian king Hatshepsut.

Who was, of course, female. And that’s honestly a large part of what I adore about her—that she refused to stay relegated to queen or even let herself be called such. Her tale is one of power and incest (so much incest—she originally became queen of Egypt when she married her half-brother Thutmose II). After her husband’s death, she became regent of Egypt, overseeing and ‘co-ruling’ with her husband’s son, Thutmose III. (Note that little Thutmose III would have been around two-years-old when he first took the throne.) It apparently didn’t take long for Hatshepsut to wonder why she was sharing the throne with a toddler when she was Thutmose I’s only surviving offspring. So she declared herself Pharaoh.

What I love about this is that in response to the perception that she had to be male to be Pharoah, she assumed male trappings. Many of the surviving carvings of Hatshepsut depict her use the traditional Egyptian royal beard and male regalia of an Egyptian king, even while using female pronouns to refer to her deeds. She reigned for twenty-two years, accomplished feats of engineering, diplomacy, and trade which would enrich Egypt for generations, and finally died in her fifties of bone cancer.

I grew up with the story that her step-son Thutmose III was so resentful of her taking the throne from him that he spent the rest of his reign taking credit for her achievements and destroying her images in public places, but the truth may be more complicated. Hatshepsut couldn’t have been too afraid of her step-son’s disloyalty: apparently, she made him her top-ranking general. He served in that capacity for years, so if he’d really wanted to be in charge, he could have arranged it much earlier. It’s beginning to look like it was Thutmose III’s son, Amenhotep II, who did most of the defacing. Probably nothing personal: his own claim to the throne wasn’t as strong, and it was to his benefit to make it seem like the throne had gone straight through three generations of Thutmoses before reaching him.

Oh, and that bone cancer? Likely caused by a highly carcinogenic skin lotion Hatshepsut used for decades to treat a painful skin condition that was, in all likelihood, a side effect of all that incest.

Photo Content from Jenn Lyons

Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, three cats, and a lot of opinions on anything from the Sumerian creation myths to the correct way to make a martini. At various points in her life, she has wanted to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, architect, diamond cutter, fashion illustrator, graphic designer, or Batman. Turning from such obvious trades, she is now a video game producer by day, and spends her evenings writing science fiction and fantasy. When not writing, she can be founding debating the Oxford comma and Joss Whedon’s oeuvre at various local coffee shops.

WEBSITE: https://jennlyons.com/

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