Today I am so pleased to welcome Charlie Cochet to Joyfully Jay. Charlie has come as part of the Coastal Magic Blog Tour to talk to us about her latest release, The Soldati Prince. She has also brought along a tour wide giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!
Hello, all! Thank you so much for joining me here to celebrate my upcoming release The Soldati Prince, the first book in the Soldati Hearts series, out tomorrow from Dreamspinner Press! The Soldati Prince is a shifter fantasy about an average guy who turns out to be not so average.
Riley Murrough goes from serving lattes to being chased by demons, and discovering he’s the mate of a magical tiger shifter king from a world parallel to his own. The Soldati Realm is a kingdom inhabited by creatures who shift into various animals, all of whom have very distinct looks and personalities.
I had such a great time with the worldbuilding in this series. One of the best parts has been creating the shifters of this world. Like any paranormal or fantasy story, the world of the Soldati has its inhabitants and the rules that govern them. There’s an order to things, a history that dates to the beginning of mankind. That’s how long the Soldati have been hunting demons, secretly keeping the human world safe.
The Soldati are a race of tiger shifter warriors led by Khalon King, king of the Soldati. They are fierce, possess great power, and the light emitted from their Soldati souls turns demons to dust. They’re strong, muscular, stealthy, and although they look like humans, they’re bigger, much bigger. All the Soldati in the realm are either nobility or related to nobility. They’re the ruling monarchy.
The Soldati Realm is also home to various species of foxlings, lynx shifters, wolf shifters, ocelots, margay, and leopard cat shifters. They live in villages around the realm with foxlings outnumbering all the other shifter species. Inside the king’s castle, foxlings make up the whole of the staff serving the king. They’re the royal tailors, personal courtiers, cooks, court servants, and messengers. They’re swift, efficient, meticulous, and playful. They keep the king’s castle running smoothly. Being a foxling servant for Khalon King is a position of honor and pride. They’re respected, and under the king’s protection. Each foxling servant is born into the role, their positions handed down from generation to generation.
Unlike the Soldati who look much like humans, with tiger traits showing through in their personalities, foxlings don’t simply demonstrate their fox traits, they wear their fox features in their human form. For example, Toka is a foxling servant for Khalon King who’s lost his heart to Rayner Durant, the king’s second and most powerful Soldati warrior next to Khalon. Toka’s fox form is a red fox. His hands and feet are a smoky color that travels up his forearms and calves to fade into bronze colored skin. He has large amber eyes rimmed in black kohl, and his hair is a fiery red that falls over his brow. His face is heart-shaped, and like most foxlings, Toka has delicate features. He’s sinewy, graceful, and agile. He’s also sweet, mischievous, and playful.
In the Soldati Prince, Riley meets several species of foxlings, from Tura—Rayner’s tailor—who’s a marble foxling, to a kit foxling family who comes to his aid in one of the villages. We’ll also be meeting fennec and bat eared foxlings in the upcoming books, as well as several Orso members from the neighboring kingdom of Dell’Orso, who as you may suspect, are various species of bear shifters. Getting to play with various types of shifters, and infusing the animal traits into their looks and personalities has been so much fun. A big thank you to everyone who’s dropped by, and I hope you enjoy Riley’s adventure to romance in the Soldati Realm!
Blurb
One moment, Riley Murrough is living a normal life working in a coffee shop, and the next, he’s running for his life from demons, learns he bears the mark of a shape-shifter king from a magical realm, and—worst of all—he’s destined to become the mated prince to the arrogant tiger-shifter he would rather strangle.
Khalon, the shifter king, is equally distraught at the idea of being bound to a human prince, and along with his Soldati warriors, he sets out to return Riley to his own world, where he belongs. On their journey, they might discover why the goddess brought them together—if they can escape the demons and make it to her alive.
PURCHASE LINKS
DREAMSPINNER PRESS :: AMAZON :: ARe :: BARNES & NOBLE
Bio
Charlie Cochet is an author by day and artist by night. Always quick to succumb to the whispers of her wayward muse, no star is out of reach when following her passion. From adventurous agents and sexy shifters, to society gentlemen and hardboiled detectives, there’s bound to be plenty of mischief for her heroes to find themselves in, and plenty of romance, too!
Currently residing in Central Florida, Charlie is at the beck and call of a rascally Doxiepoo bent on world domination. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found reading, drawing, or watching movies. She runs on coffee, thrives on music, and loves to hear from readers.
Website | THIRDS HQ | Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Instagram | Newsletter | DSP |Amazon |Goodreads
Giveaway
Charlie has brought a great giveaway for one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter.
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Congratulations on the new release, Charlie. I’ve been waiting for this story since I read the short in the Charming and dangerous anthology.
Like Susana, I read and enjoyed your story in the Charmed and Dangerous collection. The Soldati Prince sounds like it will be a fun read; congratulations on its release. In response to the giveaway question: panda shifters would be novel.
I am really looking forward to reading this new series. Can’t wait. Love your THIRDS series and am looking forward to seeing what else is out there from you.
Bird shifters (especially hummingbirds) appeal to me, to answer the Rafflecopter question…
I’ll always be partial to wolf shifters. I know it isn’t exactly unique, but …
Really like all your shifter stories. You are an automatic buy author.
Oh to be a nerd. Third of course.
Thanks
Always looking forward to Charlie Cochet works!! The THIRDS series has me hooked and I hope to read this book really soon!
So looking forward to giving this a read. I think go unique with the shifters, let’s say panda, koala or something small like a ferret?
I enjoyed the original story in the Charmed and Dangerous anthology and I’m looking forward to reading this. I’d love to see more unusual shifters.
I always enjoy wolf shifters. Bear shifters are a close second.
I like wolves but love the unusual–I read a great honey badger story where he was pretty fierce–a cobra was the other mc. Squirrels are always cute too! looking forward to reading the new book. dena dot jones13 at yahoo dot com tks