Tear Down the Throne by Jennifer Estep

Item: Tear Down the Throne (Gargoyle Queen, #2)
Author: Nadene @ Totally Addicted to Reading

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Nadene @ Totally Addicted to Reading in Blog Tour / 4 Comments

Today I am featuring Jennifer Estep, author of Tear Down the Throne. Read on for an excerpt and a Question and Answer session with the author.

Title: Tear Down the Throne (Gargoyle Queen, #2)
Author(s): Jennifer Estep
Published by Harper Voyager on May 3, 2022
Pages: 464
Genre(s): Fantasy

Bestselling author Jennifer Estep continues her Gargoyle Queen epic fantasy series where magic reigns, alliances are tested, and a dangerous attraction could tear down a throne. . .
Crown princess. Clever spy. Powerful mind magier. Gemma Ripley of Andvari is all those things--and determined to stop an enemy from using magical tearstone weapons to conquer her kingdom.
Gemma's quest for answers leads her to a trade Summit between the various kingdoms. Among the other royals in attendance is Queen Maeven Morricone of Morta and her son, Prince Leonidas--Gemma's charming and dangerous nemesis.
Gemma knows that Maeven always has a long game in motion, and sure enough, the cunning queen invokes an arcane tradition that threatens the fragile truce between Andvari and the other kingdoms. Despite her best intentions, Gemma once again finds herself thrown together with Leo and battling her growing feelings for the enemy prince.
When a series of deadly attacks shatters the Summit's peaceful negotiations, Gemma realizes that someone wants to tear the royals down from their thrones--and that this enemy just might succeed.

Question and Answer

Tell us about your latest book. Who are the main character(s) and what can readers expect when they pick up TEAR DOWN THE THRONE?

JE: Thanks for hosting me! TEAR DOWN THE THRONE is book #2 in my Gargoyle Queen adult epic fantasy series. The heroine is Gemma Ripley, a princess who secretly moonlights as a spy.

Gemma is trying to get to the bottom of a plot against her kingdom, so she journeys to a trade Summit that is taking place between several kingdoms. At the Summit, she runs into Leonidas Morricone, a charming, handsome, enemy prince that she has a long, complicated history with.

So Gemma has to navigate her conflicting feelings for Leo while trying to stay alive and thwart a deadly plot that could impact all the kingdoms.

If you like fierce heroines, enemies-to-lovers stories, and epic battles, then I think you will like TEAR DOWN THE THRONE.

Who was your favorite character to write in TEAR DOWN THE THRONE and why?

JE: I always enjoy writing my secondary characters. Most of the time, I feel like they get the best/funniest lines in my books. In TEAR DOWN THE THRONE, I had a lot of fun writing Grimley, Gemma’s beloved gargoyle, who takes his nap schedule very seriously. LOL.

I also had a lot of fun writing Queen Maeven, who is a character a lot of readers love to hate. Maeven is a villain, but there’s a reason behind everything that she does, and I hope readers enjoy learning more about her motivations in TEAR DOWN THE THRONE.

What do you like about writing in the fantasy subgenre? What are the challenges?

JE: I’ve always liked books/movies/TV shows with a little bit of everything in them – action, adventure, danger, magic, and romance. So the fantasy genre lets me put all of those elements into my books and write the stories that I want to tell.

But creating an entire world from scratch can be challenging, especially when it comes to adult epic fantasy. Sometimes, I get tired of having to come up with a name for EVERY SINGLE THING in the book/world. LOL. Urban fantasy is a little easier to write in that if you set it in our modern world, then you don’t have to come up with quite as many new names/terms/etc.

What is your writing routine like? Do you have a specific place you write? Time of day?

JE: I’m pretty boring. LOL. I write at home in my office. I’m a full-time author so I start checking my email, social media, etc. about 8 a.m. every morning. Then around 9 a.m., I start working on whatever I need to accomplish that day – writing a rough draft, reading through page proofs, formatting newsletters, etc.

I work until noon, then take a break for lunch. I work another hour or two, then take a longer break in the afternoon to rest, exercise, eat dinner, etc.

After dinner, I will sometimes get back on the computer and work for another couple of hours, depending on my writing deadlines. But being an author is definitely a grind and a lot of work. It’s basically like having your own small business, and there is always something to do, whether it is writing, editing, advertising, accounting, etc.

What’s next for the series?

JE: I am working on revisions for CONQUER THE KINGDOM, book #3, which will be out in March 2023. After that, the book will wind its way through the production process. I’m hoping to write a new/third trilogy in my Crown of Shards would, but we’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I’m so excited for everyone to read Gemma’s next adventure. Happy reading!

EXCERPT

TEAR DOWN THE THRONE

“Gemma!” Reiko yelled. “Behind you!”
I whirled around. Several guards sprawled on the ground around Reiko. Some had died from the stab wounds she’d in- flicted on them, while others were choking on their own blood and clutching their throats, which she’d torn open with her tal- ons.
But one man had slipped past Reiko and was charging at me. He must have been a mutt with some speed magic because he closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye. I ducked his deadly swing and grabbed my dagger.
The man growled and charged at me again, but I stepped up, dodged his defenses, and buried my dagger in his stomach. He screamed, and I ripped the blade free, tearing out a good portion of his guts.
I started to shove him away, but he put his shoulder down and barreled into me. The attack took me by surprise, my feet flew out from under me, and I landed flat on my back, my head bouncing off the ground. Pain spiked through my skull, and I accidentally bit down on my own tongue, hard enough to draw blood.
“Gemma!” Reiko screamed again. “Get up!”
Another guard rushed at her, and she lashed out with her sword, driving him back.
I planted my hands on the ground and sat up. The guard that I’d gutted was looming over me, his face twisting with pain and anger.
My head was throbbing from my hard fall, and I couldn’t get a grip on my magic, so I dug my heels into the dirt, trying to scuttle backward. But I was moving too slowly, and he still had too much speed, despite his gruesome injury. The guard lurched forward, raised his sword high, and swung it down. I lifted my hand and grabbed onto the string of energy attached to his blade—
The sword stopped inches from my heart.
He growled and surged forward, trying to shove his sword past the invisible barrier of my magic, but I gritted my teeth, clenched my hand into a fist, and tightened my grip on his weapon. Pain pounded through my body, sweat dripped down my face, and blood filled my mouth, but I held on, my arm shak- ing from the effort.
“Give me that!” I heard Wexel yell.

Up on the ridge, the captain wrested a crossbow away from one of the injured archers. And that was all I saw before the man in front of me churned his feet again, still trying to force his way past my magic.
The guard must have had some strength power to go along with his speed because his sword lunged another inch closer to my heart.
Then another inch. Then another inch.
I snarled with anger and frustration, but try as I might, I couldn’t hold him back, and it was only a matter of seconds be- fore he punched his blade into my chest and killed me—
The guard flew across the clearing and slammed into the base of the ridge. Rocks tumbled to the ground, and so did the man, his spine snapped like a toothpick and his legs no longer lined up with the rest of his body.
My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn’t done that. A shadow fell over me, blotting out the sun, and my head snapped up.
A man was standing on top of the ridge to my right. He looked to be a year or two older than me, thirty or so. His longish black hair was as shiny as polished onyx, the wavy layers ending in tips that reminded me of the sharp points on a strix’s feathers. His skin was tan, and he had a straight nose and sharp, angular cheekbones, along with those dark amethyst eyes that had haunted my dreams for weeks, months, years.
His black cloak fluttered around his tall, muscled body, pushed back and forth by the chilly breeze, and snapped around his legs like a coral viper lashing out at its prey. He was wearing a long black riding coat over a black tunic, leggings, and boots, and a tearstone sword and dagger dangled from his black leather belt. Silver buttons marched down the front of his coat, and the Morricone royal crest—that fancy cursive M surrounded by a ring of strix feathers—was done in silver thread over his heart, if he even had such a weak, treacherous organ.
As for my own heart, well, it quickened at the sight of him, betraying me yet again—just like he had.
Prince Leonidas Luther Andor Morricone, my childhood nemesis and mortal enemy.

From TEAR DOWN THE THRONE by Jennifer Estep. Copyright © 2022 by Jennifer Estep. Reprinted by permission of Harper Voyager, an

About Jennifer Estep

Jennifer Estep is a New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author prowling the streets of her imagination in search of her next fantasy idea. Jennifer is also the author of the Crown of Shards, Gargoyle Queen, Elemental Assassin, Section 47, and other fantasy series. She has written more than 40 books, along with numerous novellas and stories. In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys hanging out with friends and family, doing yoga, and reading fantasy and romance books. She also watches way too much TV and loves all things related to superheroes.

of William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers.

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Nadene @ Totally Addicted to Reading

Nadene's addiction to reading began at an early age, when a family friend gifted her a copy of Wuthering Heights. From that moment she was never without a book.She will read anything as long the material is compelling enough to hold her attention. She gained many experiences through the pages of the books she had the opportunity to read.She created this blog to share her love of books with like minded individuals hopes that in sharing reviews of the books read visitors to the blog will discover their next addictive read. When not reading, Nadene enjoys cooking, listening to music and watching television.

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