#GuestPost :: The Moreva of Astoreth: A Story of Love and Redemption by Roxanne Bland - @RoxanneBland2 #Paranormal #UrbanFantasy

 

Award-winning author Roxanne Bland grew up in Washington, D.C., where she discovered strange and wonderful new worlds through her local public library and bookstores. These and other life experiences have convinced her that reality is highly overrated. To escape, she writes fantasy, science fiction, romance, and a few other genres, sometimes all rolled into the same book. She was named IAOTP's Top Fantasy & Science Fiction Author of the Year for 2019.

Learn more about my books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books2Read (Apple, Kobo, Scribd, and many more). My new website is under construction, but if you’re interested in joining my mailing list, you can contact me at roxanne@roxannebland.rocks and I’ll add you. By signing up, you’ll get a free copy of my novella The Final Victim, set in The Underground’s world. And of course, you’ll be the first to hear about my new releases and other promotions! 

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The Moreva of Astoreth: A Story of Love and Redemption

The science fiction genre has been used by writers for social and political criticism since its inception. Some are cautionary tales, like George Orwell’s 1984, depicting a world of perpetual warfare, continuous surveillance, mind control, and psychological manipulation. Others, like Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, is an exploration of what society might be like if our norms didn’t exist. And of course, there is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, considered by many to be the first true science fiction novel, a warning about the dangers of hubris in the pursuit of scientific and technological achievement.

The Moreva of Astoreth, a science fiction romance, falls squarely within the realm of social criticism. Its theme is bigotry, the scourge of nearly all human societies. Most people have been subjected to another’s bigotry at one point in their lives. Sometimes the bigotry is blatant, such as flinging a slur at another based on race or social class. Other times, the bigotry is subtle enough that it may go unnoticed, such as a back-handed compliment that one doesn’t realize was bigoted until long after the fact.

The roots of bigotry are varied, so varied it may not be an exaggeration to say there are as many causes of bigotry as there are bigots. It may be based on fear—fear of not getting what we want, fear of getting what we don’t want, or fear of “the other,” that is, those who are not like “us.” When we fear, we feel threatened. When we feel threatened, we get angry. If that anger is internalized, it turns into hate. Put succinctly, we hate what we fear and act accordingly. There are times, however, when the bigot’s anger and hate are not only directed outward, but also inward. Here, it may be that the bigot despises a race of people considered inferior by her society, yet the bigot herself is of mixed race. Her loathing, then, is directed at those she deems inferior, as well as herself.

Moreva Tehi is the latter type of bigot. Serving as a priestess in her goddess’s Temple, her social status is beneath only the gods themselves. All the priestly class are of mixed blood, born of temple slaves and the gods. But Tehi is different. She too is of mixed blood, but the peculiar circumstances of her birth gave her a significantly higher ratio of the gods’ blood flowing through her veins, enough that she shares their psi power, although to a lesser extent. More than that, her grandmother is the goddess who rules the temple. Yet, despite her lineage and privilege, Tehi’s early years were marked by constant rejection from the other children, and it was during this period that her bigotry took root.

How does a person overcome their bigotry? There is an old saying in the United States, that “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” And so it is with the bigot. One can drop a bigot into a sea of the people she despises, but nothing will change for her unless she opens her heart and mind through acceptance and love. It may happen gradually, as she comes to know the people around her and learns that they are intrinsically worthy. The change may also be triggered by a cataclysmic event or series of events that act as a mirror, her reflection showing the ugly, twisted thing she really is. At this point, the bigot has arrived at a crossroads. Will she choose to remain in the darkness of her bigotry? Or will she grab the last scrap of humanity that remains to her, and take her first step in the rocky journey that leads into the light?

The Moreva of Astoreth can be purchased worldwide from the retailers below.

Exiled for her intolerance. Seduced by a dangerous attraction. One woman must risk her life to open her heart.

Priestess Tehi won’t hide her headstrong opinions. So, against the rules of her goddess grandmother, the gifted scientist boycotts her religion’s orgiastic ritual to avoid mixing with a race she despises. And when she’s banished for her act of defiance, she’s forced down a treacherous path into the belly of her own bigotry.

Exiled and tasked with heading the garrison stationed at a landing beacon located in a remote, technologically backwards village, Tehi desperately shields her secret medical research from unworthy eyes. But when an irresistible chieftain ensnares her senses, her sacred vows and closed mind are challenged by the power of love.

Will Tehi’s forbidden desires survive the wrath of her gods?

The Moreva of Astoreth is the first book in the epic Peris Archives science fiction romance series. If you like whip-smart heroines, wild rituals, and lessons of redemption, then you’ll adore Roxanne Bland’s eye-opening tale.

Book Links:
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