Finally, a firm date for Ride the Storm, the eighth Cassie Palmer novel, is here!
And it’s August, 2017!
That’s later than I’d hoped for, honestly, but better than the November date Penguin had originally rescheduled it for. That date may still be showing on a few online sites, until they get their computers updated, but August is the finalized date. And I am happy to report that there was no argument over length this time. I have no idea why, but I’m thrilled, because this book would have been very difficult to cut substantially. There’s simply no fat in there to trim. At almost 200,000 words, it’s my longest book yet, but it needed to be to wrap up previous storylines. A lot of questions are answered, a lot of fun is had. It was easily the hardest book I’ve ever written, but I hope you’ll also find it to be the best. Thank you for your patience.
I am super excited about “Ride the Storm.” Thank you for seeing it through. : )
-Amber G.
Brilliant! You must be so relieved!
Aug 2017 is perfect for rereading all the other books before RtS comes out. Really excited it’s a longer book too!!!
200,000 words to read?!! Yay!!! Love it. The longer the merrier – isn’t that how the saying goes? :) Cannot wait. So excited!!
Is this going to be the last Cassandra Palmer book?
No.
Wow! I can’t wait for the next book! I can’t believe it will be longer than Reap the Wind. That was about 18 hours as an audiobook. I love this series and have been following it since 2009. Keep up the great work.
Every bit of it is needed. You’ll see what I mean. Hope you enjoy!
Best news I’ve heard all year! I love your books so much! Thanks for sharing your wonderful characters, stories and writing with the world.
Thank you for reading!
I can’t wait! I’m so excited! I wish it was going to be here sooner! 11 months is too long to wait!
I feel exactly the same way. I just hope that you’ll find it to be worth the frustration. :-)
Love your work. Seriously anxious about getting my copy (which I pre ordered). I wish I could peek into your brain!! Not sure how I’ll make it till the date (Amazon had a March date and it got me so excited) then I got the correction :(.
Cassie is by far one of my all time favourite heroines – and let’s face it, this is my favourite series. I am seriously looking forward to the next book and I’m so glad that there wasn’t any argument about the final word count. Thank you for all your hard work and I’m sure we’ll find it the best as they just keep getting better. Now, I can plan some hermit time in August, how exciting!
Thank you! I think you’ll enjoy this one. :-)
I am beyond excited for this and it will be worth the wait. I have watched series after series that I love collapse into books I can hardly stand to open because of deadline rushing. It hurts my heart to see my favorite characters shoddily thrown together like playing cards instead of the 3D images I used to see in my head. So THANK YOU for being the author of the one series that has NEVER disappointed. The characters in your novels are so complex and real, they do what fiction is supposed to and they come out and hold my hand and walk me through someone else’s life. Excited for the next stroll through time! <3
Wow, thank you so much. That means a lot! And I hope (and believe) that you will find RTS worth the wait. :-)
I see that Amazon has this on Kindle format and I’ll probably get it and buy the book after since I can’t wait. What comes after?
The book, e-book, and audio version are all out on the same day, August 1, 2017. The e-book is not out now. They try to release everything at the same time, as it saves people who like a particular format from being stuck with one they don’t. What comes after is a Dory book.
No my mistake! They have a sample and in my excitement for the book I thought… Patiently waiting for August.
I hope you find it’s worth the wait! :-)
A) The book is long B) It wraps up story lines. HOW could I possibly be disappointed? We’ll have room for new adventures after. I just discovered these books recently and plowed through them all in about 3 weeks. Loved them and I’ll read Dory books while I wait!
:-)
I wondered if you had considered writing a novella about the time Mircea spent with Cassie as a child. If you have something in mind and/or already addressed some of that great, and if the mood just doesn’t strike you that’s fine too. It’s just something that piqued my curiosity, something I’d find interesting to read. Thanks for all the really great stories, I got a bit lost in them and the novellas you wrote really added to the story line =)
There’s a little of that in Ride the Storm. A flashback in a larger piece sort of thing. :-)
Long book, wrapped up storyline… that’s 2 out of 3 of my wishes for Ride the Storm. Any chance you could throw Pritkin’s safety in there too? *gives the cutest of puppy dog eyes* — that’s just me trying to hint that you shouldn’t go all George R. R. Martin and off Pritkin.
In all seriousness though, this is my favorite series ever. I can’t even put it into words how much I love what you managed to create with the characters, the world-building, and especially the humor that gets thrown in. I think it’s sometimes kind of hard to integrate that part with fantasy because often it results in silliness instead of coming across as a sort of my-life-sucks-so-much-so-that-this-happens statement. But with the Cassandra Palmer series it just works. Cassie is always tripping over trouble, and I guess if she just walked into it it would eventually get tiring b/c it would be action and adrenaline all the time with romance making an appearance sometimes. But with the outfits, the quips and her being so freaking adorable while still managing to always survive against all odds, it just works.
I’m trying to restrict my rants about how wrong Mircea is for Cassie because I do understand his use, but it’s also so so so hard. I can never decide if I envy people that don’t go overboard with the fangirling or if I just pity them b/c then they’re being deprived of all the emotions that a good ship calls to surface. That being said, I need to make at least a few comments about how I perceive this Cassie/Pritkin/Mircea thing. Cassie spent her whole life trying to escape being a commodity. All she’s ever really wanted was to be a person. It wasn’t even to be a normal person without her abillities because okay, it’s not what she wanted but it’s the hand she was dealt. Then came the Pythia thing and again —> not what she wanted. And sure, she complained. Tried to refuse. Whined a little. But in the end she accepted and moved on. People tried to kill her all the the time and well, no one wants that. At all. But I still think that if she could make a choice between no one trying to kill her, no one trying to use her, or being normal, she would choose the second option. The temptation for the third would be great, but then I think that the only thing that makes her want for the normality is the whole being used and having people trying to kill her all the time thing. So, okay, that’s who Cassie is (or how I see her, anyway)= someone who doesn’t want to be used. At the same time, she also wants safety. Which, duh, anyone who has had to take care of herself practically her entire life is going to yearn for. And then comes this guy who protected her when she was little. And she’s so used with the whole being used thing, that she doesn’t even realize that just because someone loves you doesn’t mean they’ll take your choices into account. They’ll try to protect you, sure. But then they’re not you and they can’t know what’s best for you. So Mircea cultivated took care of her b/c he wanted to use her. And sure, he developed feelings along the way. But she just totally ignored the fact that it all started the same as pretty much every other relationship. Tomas wanted to use her, the Consul, Tony, Mircea, the Circle… hell, even Pritkin (as bait, but still). The difference is that I believe if Cassie had tried to help Tomas with his old Master he wouldn’t have asked any more of her. Why? Because that’s all he really ever wanted. To be free. He wouldn’t go into politics or anything at all. In fact, I believe if she had said ‘hey, let’s disappear from all this shit’ he would’ve gladly gone. Pritkin just wanted to make sure the power would be used the right way, he wasn’t even after her really. He was trying to find the right side. And once he put his trust on Cassie he didn’t expect anything else from her other than for her to be the best pythia-clairvoyant-person she could possibly be. But Mircea? He took an interest in her because he wanted to use her to save his brother. Then there was the Senate’s desire to have a Pythia allied with the vampires. Feelings came up. He basically forced a marriage upon her. He saw her as fragile, vulnerable. Tried to control her because he wanted to ‘protect’ her (sure, part of it may be because he wanted her to be safe, but if that’s all he wanted he wouldn’t have wanted for her to be Pythia — which he does want, very much so). She asked for them to date because she wanted to know him, as a person. And he wasn’t even a little bit interested in it. He said he loved her and I believe it. It’s like he said in Hunt the Moon: he fought Gods for her. But they have a giant distance between each other. They may know how they react to things and what makes each other tic, but they don’t get each other — or if they do, they just ignore it. I think what Mircea said about them having two relationships nailed it. But the problem is that one of those relationships is stronger — and considered more important — than the other. He’ll always put his relationship with the Pythia, as a vampire and Senate member, before his relationship with Cassie. And therein lies the biggest problem: she deserves more than that. Her whole life has been based on her abilities. She shouldn’t have to have a relationship based on it too. And it’s not even about how much I adore Pritkin and Cassie’s relationship — how much they trust each other, fight for and with each other, their knowledge of who they are as people and what has made them this way and how much they understand and accept it on the other person –, she could be with anyone else and I’d probably be happier than her being with Mircea. As long as that person was interested in having a relationship with her. Which, again:::: Mircea is not. He loves her, yes. I honestly see that and sometimes I even cry when reading some of their scenes because it’s so bittersweet, but he will never love her enough to put her personality and her desires and hopes above his duties and his desires and his hopes. And his personality will always come as a hindrance for their relationship. I understand the controlling thing and I could’ve even gotten past it, gotten past the bodyguards and the not letting Pritkin in sometimes, the handcuffs and everything, but what I can’t get past is the not putting her first. Because being in a relationship that makes you happy is great since hellOOoOO happiness, but being with someone that makes you feel everything all at once is even better.
So, yeah, the point I was trying to make amidst all this is that I love Cassandra too much to be ok with the thought of her settling. She deserves more than that. Especially after all the trouble she gets thrown into. And maybe that won’t be Pritkin, maybe her happily ever after will be a great friendship or a familial type of relationship. It won’t bother me if the books don’t end up with a great romance, as long as it ends up with a great love. But what many authors of this genre forget just because they’re fantasy instead of romance or pnr is that just having an amazing plot isn’t enough. It’s like having a great job but not having any relationships: you’ll feel that there’s something lacking. People need connections, which is why the romance is a big part of pretty much every genre out there. It’s not used just to build something, to have a reason to do something. It’s also a dream, a hope, something to achieve.