Sherwood Smith
1) Crown Duel
Sherwood Smith's most popular young adult fantasy begins with Meliara and her brother vowing to free Remalna from an evil king. War is tougher than it seemed. When Meliara is caught by the enemy commander, the elegant Marquis of Shevraeth, it's escape or die. Afterward, Meliara faces a tougher challenge: the battlefield is no longer mud and steel, but palaces, the weapons manners and fans. Toughest of all is courtship, when the one who catches
...The last installment of the Phoenix Feather martial arts epic, which readers are acclaiming as a spiritual cousin to The Goblin Emperor, puts the entire Afan family in action. Once hiding on an obscure island, the elders are drawn into empire affairs, the parents, in seeking their children, as the emperor seeks them. Muin's skills as a commander brings him to prominence in a terrible battle. Yskanda, imperial prisoner, transcends political boundaries
...In a time of rising danger, women go to war, and ghosts walk the walls...
A few years have passed since the Night of Four Kings, when the least expected candidates for rulership found themselves in charge of a disintegrating kingdom. These years of tenuous peace see their children reach adulthood. Threats from the border become raids, led by an idle noble with an eye to kingship. The two princes, Noddy and Connar, newly emerged from the
...4) Firebolt
In the third volume of the epic martial arts adventure, Redbark has broken up. And the three Afans have chosen their paths. Yskanda lives day to day in the silken prison of the imperial court, hiding amidst his paints until a life-changing encounter.
Prince Jion returns to the imperial palace in disgrace, as Ryu, tired of disguises, begins to take her own name. When she isn't crusading as Firebolt—and causing hunters on both sides to come
...In a time of change and danger, peace sparks to war, and sons become daughters...
It's nearly a century after the death of Inda, the unbeatable Marlovan commander. Danet and Arrow, content in their arranged marriage, just want to live in peaceful obscurity and raise their family. But when a treaty sends them to the royal city to meet the heir to the throne, they discover that peace is fragile, old enemies have long memories, and what you
...7) Fleglings
Twenty-five years ago a pair of lovers ran for their lives from an angry prince and washed up on an island where they adopted new identities—and found themselves blessed by an omen promising great things, a single golden phoenix feather.
Their eldest child, a natural martial artist like his father, seems destined for those great things. The second son, an artist and a dreamer, has no desire for greatness—he wants to be left alone
...8) Redbark
Twenty-five years ago, a sworn bodyguard and a reluctant bride fled an angry prince, married in secret, and vanished. That prince is now the emperor, with a very long memory.
The children of the missing pair are now making their way in the world under assumed names, hoping to avoid the emperor's wrath while following their special Talents.
The eldest son Muin is rising the ranks of the army. The second son Yskanda, a remarkable painter, is
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