Colorimetry: On the Nalu Tour with Secrets Kept by JL Mbewe

The Secrets Kept Tour!

This tour will explore the World of Nälu:
Where a story with adventure, action, love, betrayal, and a quest takes place.
We will get to visit sites, learn more about the cuisine, and be introduced to some elves, dwarves, and shape-shifters, at the least.

Secrets Kept

by JL Mbewe
YA Fantasy

October 30th 2013 by AltWit Press

With a curse, she will build an army.
With the dagger, she will undo the last sacrifice.
But first the sorceress must find the secret keeper.

Torn from her homeland and thrust into a betrothal against her wishes, Ayianna learns her family has a deadly secret that now has her on the run. She joins forces with Kael, an embittered half-elf, and Saeed, an elderly High Guardian, to seek answers to her father’s death, the destruction of Dagmar, and the plains people’s bizarre behavior.

Ayianna discovers there is more at stake here than just her mother’s disappearance and her familial duty to her betrothed. The sorceress has cursed the plains people, and it is a race against time to release them before the sorceress resurrects an ancient evil.

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Character intro by JL Mbewe herself:

Desmond, a draper of the finest silks and weaves inherited his father’s business. He is as shrewd as he is handsome and wants nothing more than to be Prince Vian’s right hand man, and to fulfil the position, he needs a wife.

My Thoughts about Desmond in Secret's Kept:

I like this guy... yeah he's super-cute and all the local girls have crushes on him, but he's really nice and thoughtful and wants more in a wife.

That custom of wives walking behind their husbands, though? I'm with Ayianna. That'd be hard to remember to do. Ha!

Desert Rose

Can a desert princess find love with a foreign king?

Johari lives in the shadow of her beautiful sister until a foreign king notices her, but in her haste to prove herself worthy of affection she finds herself compromised and on a difficult journey to make things right.

I LOVE this story!!! OMG - Rating 5.5!

It is hauntingly beautiful, fluid, fast-paced and exotic to the nth degree.

Johari is so stubborn... she abides by her decision even when nothing works out the way she planned. I wanted to shake her and wake her up but at the same time, I totally respect her. She is so strong.

Never mind that she's a desert cat, a shape shifter. *shiver* The best ever-ever. I wish... I can't wait to read more about this desert people and who... who is it that is rescued, huh?!

This is an intro to how JL Mbewe's stories aren't all peachy happy endings, necessarily, how she delivers an entire world, finished and beautiful, with minimal words. With one short story, she gained a fan-for-life with me. (I'm stubborn, too... you're stuck with me now, JL!!) I love this book!!

Dragon Thief

What if all you knew had been a lie?

The teaching of the Guardians has guided Semine’s footsteps since her infancy. When her mentor shows up with information contrary to what she’s been taught, she doubts her decision to follow in their footsteps. She must decide if there is life beyond what she has always known or embrace a new, mysterious path and reject the Guardians’ legacy.

*shudder*

In this case, stealing dragons is not a good idea.

From Semine's pov, I saw the Mer people as very cold and distant, hard to understand and buried under their own rules. The Guardians pick up that... sense of "maybe all is not right, maybe there is another way" - kind of a natural extension of her struggle to adjust.

This story is literally... like holding your breath as you're pulled under. How does someone decide that wrong is right, exactly? Or left is righter... or stealing a dragon is ok?

I didn't find a character in this story that I loved. My reaction was all varying degrees of distaste. I love the cover... and I guess I'm happy that I know who these people are and where they came from, but phewy... they're a rotten lot!

There is suggested intimacy that is both shocking and very PG.

My Rating. Seriously, I don't like it. Lol. 4 Stars 'cause it's well written and very logical and the characters are very real to me, but I DON'T LIKE THEM.

Indestructible

To what lengths would you go to the save the world?

Elothryn keeps the darkest secret of Nälu: The cursed dagger of Raemoja. A weapon powerful enough to release the greatest evil from the underworld. For generations, his family has lived without incident until now. The hunters have his scent and will stop at nothing to reclaim the dagger. Elothryn and his son flee, seeking help, but will they find it?

Oh for cryin' out loud....

This story is exhausting. Elothryn and his son are fleeing, alrighty, but everywhere they turn, they find no help and the enemy gets close, so close...

There is hopelessness, even, and desperate measures. This story, of all of them, though, is a great set-up for Secret's Kept. The son is an important figure... like Secret's Kept launches on the tails of this one, with only time separating them.

And this story jumps into the various peoples of Nalu - all the variety of elves, especially, plus the rest all laid out to see clearly. I am fascinated with the intricate world-building and this book highlights it as these two meet so many of them in a short span of time.

Very short.

And slightly maddening because... this story, like the other two, are only barely complete in itself. It's like taking chocolate away once I've had a taste and hiding the rest in Secret's Kept.

My Rating: 4 stars. It's not a complete story. It is, but it isn't. (It isn't JL... I'll argue stubbornly that I need to know what happened next.) But kind of it is.

Now GO GET THIS STORY!!

FREE right now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

Desert Rose

(A Tale of Nälu #1)

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NOW AVAILABLE: Tales of Nälu (all three short stories in paperback) on Amazon!

Living life balanced between reality and dreams.

Writing as J. L. Mbewe, Jennette is an author, artist, mother, wife, but not always in that order. Born and raised in Minnesota, she now braves the heat of Texas, but pines for the Northern Lights and the lakes of home every autumn. She loves trying to capture the abstract and make it concrete. She has two short stories published in The Clockwork Dragon anthology, and is busily creating worlds inhabited by all sorts of fantasy creatures and characters, all questing about and discovering true love amid lots of peril. Her debut novel Secrets Kept and her short stories set in the world of Nälu: Desert Rose, Dragon Thief, and Indestructible are now available. She is currently living her second childhood with a wonderful husband and two precious children who don’t seem to mind her eclectic collections of rocks, shells, and books, among other things.

For more information about her journey as a writer mama and all things creative please visit her at:

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