Part of Series
In a world where kindness is for the weak, can a boy find a way to be a hero? Born in the Commonwealth of Ashes, where citizens live and die by the tenets of the Seven Deadly Sins, teenager Ari Westergaard has known little but violence and deprivation. Though attachment to others is forbidden, he’s struggled all his life with the desire for connection—and the sin of pride—only to be rebuffed and punished repeatedly. Then, one day, during a routine execution of a sinner, he sees a girl dare to defy one of the Commonwealth’s High Priests…and falls hopelessly in love. Lust is one of the Seven Sins, and love is seen as the first step down the road to dissolution. Ari’s feelings for Eva Marteinn are forbidden—a temptation and a secret, a virtue and a sin. Though Ari and Eva have never spoken, his thoughts of her sustain him as he battles his instincts in order to survive in a world where cruelty is the norm and kindness is for the weak. But when Ari is faced with a fellow citizen in need of protection, he must make a difficult choice: Stand up for what he believes in—or pay the ultimate price.
Author
Emily Colin writes love stories with supernatural twists for adults and teens. Her debut novel, THE MEMORY THIEF, was a New York Times bestseller and a Target Emerging Authors Pick; she followed it up with THE DREAM KEEPER’S DAUGHTER. Emily is also the author of the Gold Moonbeam Award-winning, young adult romantic dystopian fantasy series, The Seven Sins. SWORD OF THE SEVEN SINS, the first book, was a Foreword INDIES Award finalist, won the YA fiction award of the North Carolina Indie Author Project, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Manly Wade Wellman Award for North Carolina Science Fiction and Fantasy. The second novel of the series, SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SINS, is a 2021 silver IPPY Award winner and Foreword INDIES finalist. Emily co-edited and contributed to the young adult anthologies WICKED SOUTH: SECRETS AND LIES and UNBOUND: STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION, LOVE, AND MONSTERS, which was a SUSPENSE MAGAZINE “Best of” 2021 pick as well as a 2021 Foreword INDIES Award finalist. DISSENT, the 2022 romance anthology to which she contributed a short story, was a #1 Amazon category bestseller in over eight countries. Emily's diverse life experience includes organizing a Coney Island tattoo and piercing show, hauling fish at a dolphin research center, roaming New York City as an itinerant teenage violinist, helping launch two small publishing companies, and working to facilitate community engagement in the arts. A former Pitch Wars mentor and KissPitch mentor, Emily is a writing instructor, freelance editor, and book coach. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina. You can find her at www.emilycolin.com and on IG at @emilycolin.books.
