BRITTANY ENGSTRAND
Alternity Series
College freshman Maaya Hasan is just trying to survive on minimum wage while avoiding emotional commitment, especially toward her unfaithful boyfriend, at all costs. She’s then devoured by her late grandmother’s mirror and learns a powerful shadow demon is after her soul and the souls of five dead gods. To remain alive, she is forced to ally with her enemy's heir—a flirty, cursed assassin who hides the truth about his broken past. With Ares’s help, she must collect the gods’s souls first and learn to control their magic in order to return home.
Throughout their journey, Maaya struggles with her desire for Ares despite her resistance. They were fated to be enemies and doomed to separate, after all. Amidst this tension, they join forces with a fierce warrior, the last of her tribe, and a quirky prince, whose pasts are already entwined. They struggle to survive encounters with merciless demons, spirits, and otherworldly creatures like seer plants, heart-stealing vultures, and a demon of illusions. Maaya must become stronger both physically and by learning to cope with harsh realities like death and destiny, and healing from her traumatic past. Together with her new friends, Maaya uncovers deeply-rooted secrets about her family, the gods, and this alternate world.
When the shadow demon exposes Ares’s secrets, he also reveals Maaya is just as much a part of the darkness as he is. She learns her soul is not the only life at risk, and Maaya must sacrifice the love she couldn’t help but become entangled in, or risk the lives of innocents across the universe.
Ascension, Alternity Series Book One, will be released from Shadow Spark Publishing on October 20, 2024
Before she was a self-proclaimed master of escapism, Brittany grew up craving imaginary new worlds. Most of her teen years were spent secretly diving into any forbidden book or manga she could get her hands on, and thus, her love of books began. She soon created her own worlds, taking inspiration from dreams and wishes, which can be explored in her works. She primarily writes darker fiction, challenging herself to write from the most misunderstood depths of her mind.
When she’s not daydreaming, Brittany can be found doodling original character art, traipsing around Virginia Beach with her husband and three kids, or obsessing over her most recent temporary hyper-fixation.
To find out more about her musings and shenanigans, visit: https://linktr.ee/beestree