Today, we are thrilled to not only host an excerpt from Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra, but also offer a giveaway. Markswoman releases Januray 23, 2018 but you can get a brief look below! And in case you missed my review last week, be sure to check it out. The tl;dr? Markswoman has a great mix of badass women, action and an interesting world. Assassins, magical blades, betrayal and more. Enjoy the excerpt, enter our giveaway and be sure to check out the book! Excerpt from Marskwoman  By Rati Mehrotra   Giveaway     About the Author Born and raised in India, Rati Mehrotra now lives and writes in lovely Toronto. She is represented by Mary. C. Moore of Kimberley Cameron & Associates. Markswoman is her first book. You can check out her short stories at http://ratiwrites.com/short-fiction/       About the Book Kyra is the youngest Markswoman in the Order of Kali, one of a handful of sisterhoods of highly trained elite warriors. Armed with blades whose metal is imbued with magic and guided by a strict code of conduct, the Orders are sworn to keep the peace and protect the people of Asiana. Kyra has pledged to do so—yet she secretly harbors…

This debut was such an enjoyable read for me. It had a great balance of world building and character drama and the pace kept things moving. The world in this is definitely interesting. It starts out feeling like a standard fantasy world with magic and swords, etc. But then as you keep reading and details are revealed, you come to realize it also is post-apocalyptic. I’ve seen this in a number of other books, but that certainly did not prevent me from enjoying the reveals in this one at all. There are orders of women called Markswomen, who serve essentially as assassins. They are meant to uphold the law and enforce order, so they are feared as their skills are almost legendary. Plus, as I mentioned before, they are assassins, so its probably natural that the commoners don’t want to buddy up with them and instead keep a respectul (and slightly fearful) distance. One secret to their power is that they are telepathically bonded with a special type of blade, so it becomes a sort of extenstion of themselves. These blades are magical, and provide their owners strength and the ability to do more than just cut or slice. Even at…