Fire and Claw

When the phoenix met the cat, sparks flew. Will they be hot enough to burn away everything keeping them apart?When the phoenix met the cat, sparks flew. Will they be hot enough to burn away everything keeping them apart?Caterina de Serpens never wanted to marry, but as the eldest daughter of Lord Osman Irontooth she had little choice in the matter. She expected to be paired off with a prince or perhaps a king. What she got was an arranged marriage with the feared Black Duke of Dragon Ridge. Even worse, her father hired a knight from the Order of the Sun to guard her chastity until her intended husband arrived to claim her.Curran Flameborn pledged himself to the Order long ago, and he's regretted it ever since. The Order frowns upon all forms of happiness, and discourages its members forming attachments, from simple friendships all the way to marriage. But the Order allows the knights to take a year's sabbatical after every ten assignments, and Curran's tenth assignment is an easy job guarding a spoiled princess until her wedding day.When Caterina and Curran met, two things became clear: she wasn't the vapid princess Curran had anticipated, nor was he the rigid, pious knight Caterina had dreaded. Instead, they felt a connection neither had ever hoped to find. But with Caterina promised to another, was their love doomed before it began?The Phoenix and the Cat is a story of forbidden love, fated mates, and defying the odds. Jennifer Allis Provost is a native New Englander who lives in a sprawling colonial along with her beautiful and precocious twins, a dog, two birds, three cats, and a wonderful husband who never forgets to buy ice cream. As a child, she read anything and everything she could get her hands on, including a set of encyclopedias, but fantasy was always her favorite. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behavior.

She's a quiet bookworm. He's the last dragon shifter. Together, they will bring a kingdom to its knees.Rosalie Greenwood's been called worthless since the day she was born. The neglected second daughter of a pirate turned landowner, she spent her days hiding in her room and begging her father to send her to a convent. Her only real ally was her older sister, Caterina, but she was contracted to marry the infamous Black Duke of Dragon Ridge. Then Caterina ran away with her lover, and Rosalie was forced to marry the duke instead.Lochlyn Blackmoor was resigned to his fate. Thanks to a war he wasn't allowed to fight in, he became the duke at fourteen, and the only dragon shifter left in Alessia. Lochlyn spent the next ten years reclaiming his family's honor, but what he really needed was an heir. He agreed to marry out of duty, but he never expected to be swept away by Rosalie, a beauty with fire in her heart that matched his own.Once they're home at Dragon Ridge, their marriage doesn't go smoothly. Rosalie and Lochlyn stay on opposite sides of the castle, until the last person they expected arrived on their doorstep. Thrown together by a situation out of their control they find solace in each other, but harmony doesn't last.After being abruptly summoned to the capital, they uncover a conspiracy linked to the legendary phoenix knights, the Order of the Sun, and learn how far the king-a weak shifter trapped in a half form for the last twenty years-is willing to go in order to keep his tenuous hold on the throne. What none of their enemies realize is that Rosalie is hiding the biggest secret of all.Phoenix Rising is a romantasy featuring arranged marriage, fated mates, and reclaiming your power. Jennifer Allis Provost writes books about faeries, orcs and elves. Zombies, too. She grew up in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and had read every book in the local library by age twelve. (It was a small library.) An early love of mythology and folklore led to her epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Parthalan, and her day job as a cubicle monkey helped shape her urban fantasy, Copper Girl. When she's not writing about things that go bump in the night (and sometimes during the day) she's working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction. Connect with her online at www.authorjenniferallisprovost.com