“All you can do is try your best, Isla. And never let your mind convince you that empathy is a mistake, because it will try. If you can face the mirror, look yourself in the eye, and admit that you’re doing everything you can to make the lives of as many people as possible as good as it can be, then you’re doing your job to the best of your ability. And even if everybody doesn’t see that — and everyone will not see that — at least you can rest your head at night knowing it to be true.”
The Kingdom of Isle was created to be a haven for people who didn’t possess unnatural powers, magical abilities. It was built to be a place where families could live without fearing for their lives when they lay their heads down to sleep. These days, mothers have to fear for their children when they travel home from school. Friends have to stick together when they go out to get groceries at their local bazaar. Nobody is willing to leave their homes after the sun has gone down and the day’s light has been drained from the sky.
A serial killer is plaguing the once utopic Kingdom of Isle, and the Queen is being berated by her citizens for not doing anything about rising body count. Makenna isn’t allowing her daughter to remain sidelined through these trying times. She’s showing her, first-hand, what it takes to be a leader people could count on, whether Isla is ready for it or not. This responsibility will solely rest on her shoulders one day, whether she likes it or not. So alongside her mother and a trusted advisor, Isla is tasked with finding the individual ruining the peace in their Kingdom, ending their reign of terror, and bringing them to justice, once and for all.
Elsewhere in Rhean, Devon continues the quest that found her climbing up Mount Procella and confronting the Warlock. She’s trekking through the small island country, en route to its southern border, where she hopes to reunite with her sister after all these years. The young Prince that she took the journey north with is nowhere to be found at this time, no matter how many resources Isla and the Queen expend in search of their beloved Leon.
That description for this sequel hints at a few key decisions that were made in its creation that are commonly discouraged by those in the know. First off, I spent a lot of time describing what Isla is doing in this book — the character that was sidelined for much of the first novel (her sidelining, in fact, being the inciting incident for the story to begin with). I decided to take this tertiary character and put her at the center of this sequel. You got to know Leon. You got to know Devon. Now, it’s time to get to know Isla.
Another thing you may have noticed about that description is that there’s no mention of any cool fantastical beings that the characters will encounter like in the first book. A lot of the fun in Wardens is had in those enchanted forests, coming across all of those magical creatures. That book fell firmly in the Fantasy / Action-Adventure category. This book, does not. Not only am I centering this book around a character you did not follow in the first one, but I’m also changing the genre. This sequel is a Murder Mystery with a strong focus on Character (with a capital C).
The first novel introduced you to these characters. This novel lets you dive into their psyches and wade in those waters — often to excruciating ends. These characters are falling apart at the seams and you get to be there, by their sides, as they make their way through it. They were faced with daunting physical obstacles in the first book. They’re faced with grueling psychological challenges in this sequel.
It is for these reasons I was chomping at the bit to finish writing Wardens — so I could finally dive headfirst into the minds of these characters I’ve learned to love. I was so excited to explore how they would react to the strongest punches life could throw at them. I wanted to see what they were made of.
Writing Friends of the Fallen was an absolute joy. In a lot of ways, I wrote the first book to get to this second book — this was where I knew I would have most of my fun as an author. And it delivered in all the ways a writer hopes it would in the process of creating it.
I started writing this book on August 24, 2020. I finished the first draft on February 10, 2021. A total of 892 days later, it’s being published for the world to consume. I’m so proud of this novel, of this misguided sequel, and I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life.