A new fantasy romance author has burst on the scene and her first book is a visit to a world that doesn’t exist except in her imagination. Alexa Woodiwiss’s first novel Unlocked, Kingdoms of Yria introduces us to fantasy world called Yria. The setting is akin to the 16-17th century in our world.
Alexa has some big shoes to fill—she is the granddaughter of one of the most famous romance novelists that ever wrote—Kathleen Woodiwiss. Kathleen passed away several years ago, but Alexa has obviously inherited her grandmother’s talent for writing.
Unlocked is the first novel in a series of books Woodiwiss has planned. This first one is the story of Navali, a princess of the kingdom called Lynaria and her groom-to-be Ashyre, a prince from Dareknay. Both are kingdoms in Yria. Even though Yria is a fantasy world, we see aspects of our own world there. The residents of Yria struggle over power; have concerns about the future of their various peoples; they love; they are devoted to family and friends; and of course they struggle with cruelty and evil which plague all worlds whether real or imagined.
Navali and Ashyre are being brought together to wed by their fathers to save their kingdoms. Neither Navali nor Ashyre are happy about the proposed union and are looking for ways to get out of the arrangement.
Lynaria, Navali’s country, is a serene, ordered, and most of all, unemotional place. But it is hiding a dark secret which threatens the future of their kingdom. So she is being forced to wed a “barbarian” from Dareknay, whose people are known for their boisterous, free spirits and extreme emotions. Navali knows it is her duty to her people to go through with the wedding, but she is filled with doubt and anger as the caravan travels from her country to Dareknay for the ceremony.
However, fate takes over before she can reach her destination. She is kidnapped by soldiers from Pitan, another country of Yria where a group of sadistic, cruel people live. The exciting story continues as we follow Prince Ashyre’s race to save his bride. Even though they were being forced to wed, he finds his quest to save Navali all-consuming.
The story is told in varying chapters from Navali’s and then from Ashyre’s perspective. We witness the transformation in their attitudes about the proposed marriage—at first they are both angry and afraid and then slowly their feelings become acceptance and then excitement.
Don’t expect Alexa’s work to be a continuation of her grandmother’s. Alexa says she knows that people will naturally compare her work to her grandmother’s, but she isn’t worried about it. She wants to develop her own style, and even though she is writing in the same genre—romance novel—the reader can see definite differences between her style and Kathleen Woodiwiss’s. Alexa’s novel does not venture into the more “steamy” romance scenes that Kathleen was famous for, and Alexa says that is intentional.
She decided that instead of writing a historical romance as her grandmother did, she would create her own fantasy world—and invented Yria and its multiple kingdoms. Alexa says that she creates her stories slowly. Her ideas come to her and the characters and storytelling evolve as she writes. This book took her about two years to write.
Alexa is planning a series of books about the world of Yria and will focus on a different couple for each one. There are plenty of characters to feature—Ashyre alone has five brothers and three sisters. It will be interesting to see whose story she tells in her next trip to the fantasy world of Yria.
