Exiled: Winter’s Curse Book Two of the Chronicle of Caleath by Rosalie Skinner

Alone, Caleath rides south to kill the Tarack queen in her dormant colony, and thus, ensure the safety of the people. His ‘kill or be killed’ mission is not altruistic. Although he justifies his motive, saving the people, gaining his own freedom and acceptance, deep within his soul he battles a yearning for Tarack stim crystal. However, a small child's plea for help dissolves Caleath's simple plan.

His new quest takes him on a desperate path traversed by bandits, dragons, bloody battles, danger, and death. No longer is Caleath alone.

Meanwhile Nasith travels south with Lachlan, Gwilt, and a band of soldiers prepared for the battle with the Tarack. As they travel, Gwilt voices his concern about the malevolence surrounding a newcomer to the group. Convinced his doubts have fallen on deaf ears, he remains alert and wary. His attitude leads to a confrontation from which neither he nor Nasith emerge unscathed.

Winter allows the people of Allorn time to prepare, while other nefarious schemes rise to destroy them.

Winter’s Curse picks up where Autumn’s Peril left off.  Like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Caleath reads as though Ms. Skinner wrote the whole story as one long book.  Yet, each volume can stand on its own.  There is enough exposition and back-story in each book so a person can catch up on what went before without bogging down the action of the current story.  That is a sign of masterful storytelling.

In addition to the cast of characters we met in Book One, new people appear in Winter’s Curse to join the fray, or to detour Caleath, Gwilt and Nasith from their quest.  They prepare for the battle against the Tarak, but they also encounter new challenges and face a few other battles along the way, while we explore more of the incredible world Ms. Skinner has created for us.  Series writing is not easy.  The second book is not always as good as the first.  In this case, it is.  I look forward to reading the next installment, and I encourage you to join me.

Length:  202 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=228&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

NOTE UPCOMING BLOG FORMATTING CHANGE:

In the past if you clicked on the cover art in the right column, a link took you to the book’s buy page.  In 2013, I plan to change the links so they take you to the book’s review on this site.  The buy links are always included in my reviews.  That way, if you’ve missed one and the cover looks intriguing, you can see what I said about it and still follow the buy link in the review.  Thanks for visiting.  RIW.

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.