Kings and Bones: A Northgall Novella

A Rise of Northgall Standalone

By: Juliette Cross

Narrated by: Troy Duran, Meg Sylvan

When Murgha's degenerate father bets their last bit of coin—and her—in a high-stakes game of kings and bones, she fears she will become the property of the lecherous ambassador.

But when the most fearsome dark fae she has ever seen steps into the game and wins the pot, she knows her fate is much worse. She is now owned by the enemy.

Now in the hands of a shadow fae priest with an agenda of his own, Murgha mistrusts his motives and the secrets he keeps. But she realizes quickly that her unexpected fall into the keeping of Vallon isn't so surprising after all. The gods have plans for them both, and their new path together is just the beginning.

Includes a bonus Northgall short story, "A Beast Fae's Bargain."

©2024 Juliette Cross (P)2025 Podium Audio

zshort Steamy Novella

FMC~MURGHA~
MMC~Lord Vallon of House Hennawyn, high priest of Gadlizel~
▪︎one bed
▪︎found family
▪︎touch her and die
The wood nymph ~Gwenda~

Includes the short 'A Beast Fae’s Bargain'
The night Tessa meets Bezaliel.

This tied so much of the other two books together I loved it

This is one of my favorite authors and this whole book was exactly what I wanted it to be. Highly recommend and it ties the other two books together perfectly!

Perfection!

This story was really well done and has the perfect communication I love in romances!! I want more like this! Also, these VAs couldn’t get any better!!

Convinced me to give the series a second chance

If I had noticed this was part of the Northgall series, I wouldn’t have touched this. I found book 1 to be supremely underwhelming, barbaric, misogynistic, and just plain distasteful. But, I got this during a buying frenzy in the last sitewide sale, purchasing a bunch of shorts, novellas, and anthologies. Lo and behold, I quite liked this standalone. While I stand by my dislike of book 1, I have now wishlisted book 2.

As for this novella: it’s a four hour, low angst, forced proximity story of shadow-fae Lord Vallon swooping in to save delicate, mixed-fae Murgha. I enjoyed the romance here (perhaps because Vallon was respectful and there’s zero coercion) and was entranced by the world of wildly different fae realms (not to mention fae body types). There’s a darling pixie, troubled King, and glimpses of a looming danger, but nothing beyond the fast-moving romance really materializes here. If there is a book 3 after this one, I’m in.

Minor nitpicks: The two sex scenes are narrated by Ms. Sylvan with yes, YES, YESSS enthusiasm. Lol. Sadly, Mr. Duran’s melty narration didn’t get to participate much with the nooky, just the lead ups. The 45 min bonus short for Murgha’s sister goes from meet cute to yes, YES, YESSS too quickly for me to take it seriously.