Magic Thursday: Finishing a Series with Claire Leggett

This week marks the release of The Servant’s Grace, the final book in my Emperor’s Conspiracy series. For me, the last novel in a series holds so many emotions. First there are the nerves. This is the last book, the one where all the loose threads have to be tied up, where the bad guy has to get his comeuppance and everyone needs to live happily ever after. That’s a lot of expectation to deal with.

Next is the excitement. It’s the last book. I can soon look forward to working on the shiny new idea which has been nagging me for the past several months. I can build new worlds with new maps and new species and wreak havoc on some other poor souls.

Finally there’s the sadness. I’ll be saying goodbye to my characters who I’ve cheered for, cried with and grown to love. It’s bittersweet to know their lives and mine will never cross paths again and I have to leave them to their own devices. I will miss them.

When I wrote The Servant’s Grace I was particularly nervous. Each story in the series is told by a different heroine, but the first two books revolved around the Rhoran, a Mongolian-like people living on the steppes in yurts. The Assassin’s Gift is a fish-out-of-water tale where the heroine’s whole belief system is turned upside down by these barbarians. The Healer’s Curse features a race against the clock with the heroine having to find a cure for a deadly disease before it wipes out her whole people.

In contrast, The Servant’s Grace is set in the refined comfort of palace life and the heroine is sent to the imperial city, not unlike the Forbidden City in China. My heroine comes from a poor background, has always been told the Rhoran are the enemy and is thrown into a web of intrigue where one wrong comment to the wrong person will have her executed. It’s a spy-thriller with a romance.

Many of the characters I’ve grown to love don’t make an appearance until almost halfway through the book and I worried my readers would be disappointed. But when they finally did appear, I could hear the trumpets blaring and the ancestors celebrating and I wanted to high five each character as they charged onto the page. I can only hope my readers will feel the same way!

So while the launch of The Servant’s Grace is bittersweet, I am currently writing the first book in a new series filled with fae, mystical creatures and a land on the brink of collapse. And I’m having the time of my life. 😊

The Servant's Grace

A tyrannical ruler. A hidden heir. Can a simple handmaiden save her realm from doom?

Lady’s maid Shan works for a privileged family, though she longs to see all servants treated fairly. But when she’s caught with equality propaganda, no favours can keep her from execution. With no other way to save herself, Shan reveals her ability to turn invisible and agrees to a risky mission spying on the emperor.

Slipping through the palace corridors to collect evidence of the callous monarch’s plans, Shan discovers the true heir to the throne may be alive. But with attempts on her mistress’s life and the emperor determined to root out any plot against him, even her power to vanish might not be enough to save her.
Can a lowly servant become the key to saving an empire from a bloodthirsty despot?

The Servant’s Grace is the thrilling conclusion to the Emperor’s Conspiracy fantasy series. If you like determined heroines, high-stakes espionage, and epic power struggles, then you’ll love Claire Leggett’s action-packed finale.

Buy The Servant’s Grace for the final battle against tyranny today!

 ~~~

Claire Leggett has loved dragons, magic and everything fantastical since she read The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. As a child she used to sneak to the bottom of the garden in the hope of finding fairies. Alas she never found any, so she brought them alive in her own imagination. Her stories are full of magic, adventure and escape.

When Claire’s not writing she can be found creating her own handmade journals, swinging on a sidecar, or in the garden attempting to grow something other than weeds.

Claire lives in Western Australia with her husband, who loves even her most annoying quirks, and is currently learning how to crochet.

You can connect with Claire by joining her reader group. 

Visit Claire at her website or on Goodreads.