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Lizzy Appelquist is the debut author of Heartbeats of the Prey, a slow-burn fantasy romance featuring hidden identities, epic prophecies, and at least one morally questionable love interest. A California mom of three, Lizzy spends her rare “me time” living in fantasy worlds. Growing up, you could usually find her squirreled away in some corner, having a good angsty cry over a book.
New Book
May the heartbeats of the prey beat as one, and may the predators be made to account for their crimes.
Ryia Ayllorian, an 18-year-old citizen of Rensgrath, is still reeling from her father’s death when she accepts work as a summer servant in the Deities-forsaken Inkord territory of the Kingdom of Ashan. There, the sadistic, faerie Duke of Inkord rules with unchecked cruelty, and humans are little more than prey—degraded, violated, and slaughtered for sport by the Fae.
Upon turning nineteen, Ryia returns home to her village for the mandatory magical testing all humans must undergo. To her horror and revulsion, a spell reveals that Magic has chosen her to become one of the Fae—the very creatures she loathes, the very beings who have brutalized her people—and the timing couldn't be worse, as she learns this news during a pivotal moment in their history: the once-in-a-century Ascension Trials, which will determine who rules the kingdom for the next one hundred years. Charged with learning her new magic and struggling with her identity, Ryia is also pulled in two directions romantically—her original love of the human Lord Andel and her intense, almost unnatural, feelings for Cian, the faerie Archduke of Rensgrath. Torn in two and consumed with shame over what she has become, Ryia must work to unseat the ruthless Duke of Inkord or face the harsh reality that her people will remain subjugated prey for centuries to come.