The World of the Blue Bells Trilogy

April 10, 2018

The Battle is O'er is now available for pre-order in print!

The Battle is O'er is now available for pre-order on Kindle!

The Battle is O'er is now available for pre-order on Kobo!

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Congratulations to Dan Blum, whose book The Feet Say Run has been optioned for movie rights!

Today, I feature Seventh Born, by Rachel Rossano

Scroll down for the giveaway and my review.

Having seven sons is a honor above no other. Which is why she is a disappointment. The only girl of seven children, she brought shame to her family. Who knew something like this could be turned into a book, but Rachel Rossano has done just that with her book, Seventh Born. Read on to learn more about the book and enter the giveaway.

About the Book

In a world where seventh born sons are valued for their strength and power, she is born a daughter.

Zezilia Ilar is the disappointment. Born after six brothers, she was supposed to be the son to restore her family’s prestige. She intends to remedy her shortcomings by being a dutiful daughter, marrying well and producing children, preferably a set of seven sons. But when someone offers her an alternative, she begins to dream of more.

In a society that worships a goddess, he follows the Almighty.

Hadrian Aleron, as a seventh son of a seventh son, stands to take up the second highest position in government, Sept Son. His main qualification for office is his birth. Despite preparing for this role from childhood, he does not desire what is to come. As a follower of the Almighty, he knows he will be the target of many, and his faith might eventually lead to death.

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Z2PPJL

iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/seventh-born/id1351646000

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/seventh-born-2

Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seventh-born-rachel-rossano/1128018000

About the Author

Rachel Rossano lives with her husband and three children in the northeastern part of the United States. Homeschooled through high school, she began writing her early teens. She didn’t become serious about pursuing a career as an author until after she had graduated from college and happily married. Then the children came.

Now she spends her days being a wife, mother, teacher, and household manager. Her evenings and free moments are devoted to her other loves, writing and book cover design. Drawing on a lifelong fascination with reading and history, she spends hours creating historical feeling fantasy worlds and populating them with characters who live and breathe on the page.

Follow Rachel on:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RachelRossanoRambles

Twitter – https://twitter.com/RachelRossano

Google+ – https://plus.google.com/+RachelRossano

Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/rachelrossano/

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1430209.Rachel_Rossano

Blog – http://www.rachelrossano.com/

Amazon Author Page – http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Rossano/e/B004MV17GE/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/anavrea

Newsletter Sign Up – http://eepurl.com/4sbsv

Giveaway

Rachel is giving away an eBook of her book. You can enter here. Your odds of winning increase with every person you refer so spread the word! Good luck, and I hope you win!

Review

Seventh Born! A book about a society centered on the hope of having sons. As the mother of seven sons myself, I couldn't help but be intrigued by such a concept, and by a whole fictional world where my life is almost the norm. Believe me, I see few enough books where anyone has seven children, and one where it's not only normal, but aspired to--never!

So, despite my limited time to read, I signed up and really enjoyed this book that had some pleasant surprises for me. I have become an enthusiastic fan of the book, and the characters, I was disappointed when it ended, and look forward to parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy!

Seventh Born is set in a fantasy medievalesque setting. It is not our world, not our history. Some of the boys, and very few of the girls, have the gift of telepathy and also of telekinesis. Seventh sons are especially prized as they often have stronger powers--and one of them will become the second in command of all the kingdoms, below only the high king himself.

Into this world is born Zezilia Ilar--a daughter in the wake of six older brothers. With her birth, her parents' hopes of having a seventh son, and perhaps the seventh son, the Sept Son, crash. It turns out, however, that their daughter has perhaps the greatest powers of all. She is discovered by

I wondered in the opening page or so if this was going to be a formulaic story with stock characters. However, I quickly found Zezilia to be well-rounded. Too often, 'strong' in modern fiction seems to mean brash, headstrong to the point of foolish, and frequently rude and disrespectful. I appreciated that Zezilia was none of these.

She is simply a girl dealing as best she can with her own difficult and sad situation--which suddenly turns on its head as she realizes she has unexpected gifts. These gifts appear not to go to her head, but rather she remains down to earth and willing to learn and work--and apologize when need be.

The book opens with the suggestion of potential romance between Zezilia and Hadrian, the soon-to-be Sept Son. But this will clearly not be a typical romance. Nobody rushes into anything. Rather these are two people who have duties to fulfill and put those first.

This will not be a romance following the common trope of two people who start off hating each other and finding fault and finally discover they're in love. No, these are two people living in challenging times who have a great deal of respect for one another. It is perhaps more realistic and a better view of what romance and love should be.

I appreciated the book's brief comment on how the young Talents are coming to their education without proper social training. We see a society springing up that has decided there is no reason to follow rules they consider archaic and not applicable to themselves--and we see the harm already resulting to others as a result of that. We also see the impending chaos to all of the kingdoms that is coming in books 2 and 3. And we already sense that these young Talents, whose job it will be to protect the kingdoms, may fail because they themselves have not learned some basics of social etiquette and order.

I appreciate books that have something of value to say about how we live our lives, and the impact our choices have on others--and do it while simply telling a good story. Seventh Born has done that.

I greatly look forward to the next installments!

If you would like to learn more about Rachel and Seventh Born, visit her social media, linked above, and follow her on her book tour, where you'll find her guest posts, book spotlights, and character spotlights. The winner will be announced at the end of the tour!