Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn
Series: The Dharian Affairs Trilogy #1)
Paperback, 346 pagesPublished December 13th 2013
Skyships, saber duels, and lots of royal intrigue... and, of course, kissing.
The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she'll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince's proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince's proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.
Third Daughter is the first book in the The Dharian Affairs Trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance that takes place in an east-Indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, saber duels, and lots of royal intrigue. And, of course, kissing.
My thoughts about Third Daughter ~~
Susan Kaye Quinn has done it again! Third Daughter is her first venture into writing steampunk. And it was my first exposure to the steampunk genre. Since I had read most of Susan's other series and loved them all, I knew I was in good hands as I started my foray into the steampunk world. Third Daughter is called 'East-Indian Steampunk Fantasy Romance ~ Bollypunk', which is a totally new genre to me.
Susan first caught me eye with her young adult science fiction series, The Mindjack Series, which was also a fairly new genre to me. Next for me came her adult future-noir serial, The Debt Collector. Again, something new for me but I absolutely loved it!
I am not really sure what makes a story steampunk, all I know is that I loved this story from the very first page. That's the kind of writer Susan is, she just makes the story so easy to get lost in.
'Soon she would be free: free of the court, free to kiss in broad daylight, free to leave Dharia behind and find the vermin who killed her father.'
There is plenty of action to make me, the reader, want to keep reading. But there was also a romantic side to the story to make it just endearing. And then there is always that question of doing what's right or doing what one wants. And why can't that ever be the same thing?
'For once, Aniri wished the Queen would simply be her mother. To think of her daughter first, before the country. But that would never happen, and it was foolish to wish for it. As foolish as falling in live with a courtesan.'
I absolutely loved Third Daughter and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. I am a huge fan of Susan's works and I know I won't be disappointed .... but I wish she would hurry!
JK, Susan ... no, not really.
'Everything Aniri knew about the world had somehow gone false.'
Excerpt from Third Daughter
“I love you, Aniri,” Devesh whispered.
When he pulled back, she smiled. “I hate to tell you this, Dev, but I already knew that.”
“If you go off with this Prince Malik, and anything happens to you, the Queen may dispense an army to come after you, but I will beat them there.”
Aniri drew in a shaky breath. Prince Malik said he would allow her a lover, even though arranged marriages were expected to be true marriages, especially among royalty. But could she live that kind of life? A secret love on the side while performing the duties of Queen in a foreign land? The idea made her shudder. It pained her every day her love for Devesh was kept hidden. She couldn't imagine a lifetime of it. Nor could she picture Devesh, with his love of the court and all things political, banished to the frozen wastelands of the north simply to be her consort.
He must have seen the emotions warring across her face. “Tell him no, Aniri. Refuse him and come away with me. We could leave today.”
“Dev—”
He cut her off with a kiss. “We could return to Samir,” he whispered against her lips. “We won’t be rich, but we could travel anywhere you wished, all the places your father would have taken you. We would have all the time in the world. To be together. To learn the truth about your father’s killers. To make a family of our own.”
It was precisely what they had planned. Now it all seemed like a hopeless fantasy. “Dev, I can’t simply abandon my country. If I refuse Malik, and there is war to pay, I cannot just run away… Is this the confidence you wanted to tell me?”
Devesh looked torn, like there was something more he wanted to say but was holding it back. “I cannot offer you a Queendom, Aniri. My love is all I can promise. I hope it is enough to convince you to refuse Prince Malik’s offer.”
He stepped back, and with clasped hands and a short bow, he turned and strode away. Her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest to follow him. If she accepted Prince Malik’s offer, she would lose the man she loved.
Unlike the Jungali prince, she wasn't sure that was a price she was willing to pay.
From the author of the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy, The Dharian Affairs is a new series filled with equal doses of action-adventure and romance, meant to appeal to fans of Mindjack.
NOMINATED for the Illinois Librarian's "Soon to be Famous Author Project" wherein librarians hope to discover local authors whose "work will jump off the page for readers."
"Third Daughter is vividly breathtaking. Quinn delivers royal intrigue, exotic locations, and sweeping romance. Not to be missed!" - Pavarti K. Tyler, author of Shadow on the Wall
"Susan Kaye Quinn writes characters that leap off the page... Incredibly well written, the vivid setting was crisp in my mind... As the plot raced on, I was cursing real life for not letting me just sit glued to my kindle, punching the touch screen to get to the next page." - Tiffany on Goodreads
Purchase Third Daughter
Author Susan Kaye Quinn
Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy, which is young adult science fiction. The Dharian Affairs trilogy is her excuse to dress up in corsets and fight with swords. She also has a dark-and-gritty SF serial called The Debt Collector and a middle grade fantasy called Faery Swap. It's possible she's easily distracted. She always has more speculative fiction fun in the works.
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