5 Things to Look Forward to in The Curse of Broken Shadows

Laura Winter
7 min readSep 24, 2021

Just over a week left until my brand new epic fantasy lands in your hands or on your e-reader! The Curse of Broken Shadows hits Amazon on October 5, and you can preorder it now so it downloads straight to your reading device at midnight. This 744-page series starter is packed full of incredible things that you do not want to miss! Just look at a few of these early reviews.

There’s so much packed into this book that you’re going to be hanging on the edge of your seat the entire time! We have love, friendship, found family, mystery, magic, snarky leads, enemies to lovers, and some fun fight scenes that may or may not turn flirty.

What else can you look forward to with book 1 in the Smoke and Shadow series?

1 — A mysterious wall made of extinct magic

Hundreds of years ago, the other magic kingdoms turned on Valisea (the shadow kingdom). To protect her people, the shadow god Ryia created the Veil-a wall of purple and black obsidian-just outside Valisea. The problem? Only the pure shadow-kind can get through. If you’re unlucky enough to have another magic mixed in your blood, you’re stuck in Valisea where the other kingdoms have waged war. The shadow god didn’t even bother to save the non-magic users who worship her (known as Veil Worshippers).

Brela, our lead, has some issues about this. Even worse, she’s inherited the title of Veil Scholar after she finds her father’s dagger. The Scholar is the leader of the Worshippers, and a leader who doesn’t really respect her god might not go over well.

2 — Snarky assassins

We meet our trio of friends/family/assassins/lovers on page one. Brela has it all-intelligence, sass, tenacity, and an extinct shadow magic. Oh, yes. That piece of obsidian embedded in her collarbone has infected her with a magic that should not exist, which is sure to cause some problems. That kind of secret, beyond her secrets of being an infamous assassin in the forest, will be a mystery that unravels throughout the series.

Elias is next, our earth-blessed magic wielder. You’ll never hear him say that his herbal affinity is better than his strength magic, but he will never be ashamed of his braiding…

Laura Winter

Creator. Writer. Author. Join my tribe and get introduced to my fantasy worlds! sendfox.com/laurawinter