Welcome to my so-called life—I live in a post-virus nightmare where supernaturals like me get blamed for the pandemic then locked up by the delightful Federated Human States of America. Stripped of our rights? Check. Shoved into reeducation camps? Double check. My partners in crime—Thaddeus and Huck—attend the mandated university-level education at F.E.A.R. Academy with me. It’s only our second week of classes, but when the humans announce fresh ‘shipments’ of supernaturals, I know something is wrong. What’s a dystopian hellhole without more prisoners, amirite? Surprise, surprise—this is part of the FHSA’s latest genius the first annual Supernatural Unified Challenge of Endurance. Our prize? A ticket to a special community for loyal followers. With the stakes sky-high and my patience running thin, I’ve got to juggle my chaotic feelings about my friends and the three sexy, yet dangerous, new guys they assigned us. We have to work together to survive the first challenge, but the tempers are hot and I’m about to overload. What’s it say about me that I don’t know if I’m going to choose freedom over odd thumping of my heart when they’re around? *** Failed State is book one in the series F.E.A.R. Academy. This is book one in the five book series in the Fury of the Forsaken universe. Fans of The Hunger Games, Their Champion, and Divergent will enjoy this adult dystopian romance series. Tropes in this book mental health rep, body positivity, damaged FMC, betrayal, shifters, magic, FMC with no powers, prison camps, discrimination, a dictator who took over their country, vampires, demons, questionable morals, evil villains, wings/fur/tails/unusual equipment/piercings/tattoos, and more.
Author
Cassandra Featherstone has been writing since she could hold a pencil. She wrote her first story—about a girl picking strawberries—when she was three and has been creating worlds in her head ever since. After winning multiple awards for essays, poems, short stories and a very cheesy academy romance novel in high school, she was selected to attend the prestigious Governors School for the Arts in high school. Her love of the arts extends to instrumental (she plays three instruments and marched flute/piccolo for six years), dance (ten years of tap/jazz/ballet/tumbling), and vocal/acting (musical theater focus). She auditioned for many colleges but selected NYU for musical theater and lived in NYC for several years while she was in studio. After meeting her husband, she moved back to the Midwest and eventually had her one and only mini-me, affectionately known as the goblin. She has worked in many industries from banking to retail management and most recently, a decade in multiple positions at a indie bookstore until COVID-19 permanently closed her educational services department. Cassandra is passionate about literacy, but when she picked up her laptop to write her first published novel in March 2020, she decided to focus on subjects that not only spoke to her soul, but affected many of the women she’d met throughout her twisty life path. Bullying, PTSD, body dysmorphia, mental illness, reinvention, and claiming your space are always themes in her books, as well as a respectful, non-fetishized representation of LGBTQIA+ relationships. Her expansion of the reverse harem genre to include various types of polycules and diverse characters with three dimensional personalities, hopes, and dreams was less common when she first published, but to her delight, becoming a standard reader request in the current atmosphere. Because of her personal experiences in middle and high school, Cassandra is staunch defender of those who are targeted by those with actual or perceived power that attack those who don’t. She’s also known as the Muppet for her outrageous, extroverted personality and her wacky brand of theater kid social media posts and videos. Cassandra currently lives in the Midwest with her computer geek husband, artsy college goblin, and five cats that must have been spawned by Loki himself. Her works include sci-fi fantasy/urban fantasy, paranormal, humorous, and academy RH with characters over 18 and never include non-consensual elements.
