Part of Series
From Emily Colin, author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Memory Thief. WINNER of the 2021 North Carolina Indie Author Award in Young Adult Fiction FINALIST for the 2020 Foreword INDIE Award in Young Adult Fiction SHORTLISTED for the The Manly Wade Wellman Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy From New York Times-bestselling author Emily Colin comes a story of one young woman’s battle for freedom in a future world where love is the ultimate sin. Eva Marteinn never wanted to be a killer. But the Commonwealth didn’t give her a choice, and she is eerily good with a sword. The Commonwealth, where citizens are terrorized by the code of the Seven Deadly Sins and the barbaric punishments of the High Priests. The Bellators of Light, the Commonwealth’s conscienceless executioners. Eva, horrified to be chosen as the first female bellator, but strangely gifted at killing. Her mentor, Ari Westergaard, who alternates between taunting her and tempting her with feelings she doesn’t understand. Ari hides a gentle heart behind a brutal exterior. He’s loved Eva since they were children. When Eva falls for Ari too, she knows they must do anything to hide it. In the Commonwealth, love equals death. Balanced on a razor’s edge, Ari and Eva uncover a secret that would overturn the Commonwealth itself. Now Eva must make an impossible choice: turn her back on Ari’s rebellion and remain loyal to the Commonwealth—or risk her life for the boy she’s come to love and a chance at freedom. This young adult post-apocalyptic romance with wildly unexpected twists will appeal to readers of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Selection.
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.
