Reviewed: Novemebr 23rd, 2025 Released: January 26th, 2026 Genre: Fantasy ARC
War has reached her doorstep. She will answer with a sword.
When her little sister dies during an enemy raid, Jenai prays to Holy Afallon seeking protection for her village. What she doesn’t expect is to hear a Voice telling her that she must personally lead the armies of Fraelin against the growing threat.
Joined by a gentle unicorn and a few brave allies, Jenai sets out to liberate Fraelin—even at the risk of her own freedom.
However, the road to war isn’t straightforward. Jenai must first gain the trust of the Crane Prince by convincing him she’s not a fraud. Will the Church of Afallon accept her calling or will they condemn her as a heretic?
I am very fortunate to be the Booktopia SFF December Author of the month, and I was invited to answer the ten terrifying questions on the Booktopia blog. Thank you so much to Mark Timmony for the opportunity to share some of my writing journey.
Booktopia Direct Pty Ltd is an Australian online bookseller. The company also owns Angus & Robertson, a major Australian online bookseller, publisher, and printer.
Interested in finding out my answers? The you can find the Booktopia blog post here.
My fantasy journey starts with Sentinals Awaken, and Booktopia stock the paperback if you’d like to read it. The Sentinals series is now complete with eight books, two novellas and if you sign up to my newsletter, a plethora of short stories and novellas to fill out even more of the story. Enjoy!
When a long-forgotten threat starts to reemerge, one man stands as the last defense against darkness…
Jerrol Haven serves his king without question. When he finds evidence of corruption and is attacked, the loyal soldier’s mind spins after his touch of a sacred tree awakens the dormant spirit of a three-thousand-year-old protector. But he fears he has failed after the crown prince accuses him of treason and orders his execution…
Fleeing the city, Jerrol is stunned when the goddess appears to him, appoints him captain of her warriors, and charges him with a quest to find artifacts that can save the realm. And as he runs into danger and more betrayals, the steadfast hero discovers a rare gift that may be the world’s only hope…
Can Jerrol rally the forces of good to stop a rising evil?
Sentinals Awaken is the first book in the Sentinal epic fantasy series. If you like endearing characters, immersive world-building, and gritty conflict, then you’ll love Helen Garraway’s award-winning tale.
If you enjoy fantasy books then you will love my epic fantasy Sentinal series or the Romantic Fantasy SoulMist series. Sign up to my newsletter and download a free novella called Sentinals Stirring and also Sentinals Discovery, the first few chapters of Sentinals Awaken from Birlerion’s POV and get notified when my next books are published.
By clicking the sign up button above, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and the newsletter platform provider to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.
By signing up to my newsletter, you agree to receive commercial information from Helen Garraway, located at 61 Bridge St, Kingston, Hertfordshire, UK (Data Administrator
Reviewed: November 15th, 2025 Released: September 2nd, 2025 Genre: Dark Fantasy
A captive healer and a mysterious prince are drawn to each other in the midst of war and magic in a beguiling dark fantasy by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.
The kingdom of Cansere is on the brink of war. Young men are conscripted from their homes, and a royal decree from the queen has made healing the only legal form of craftlock. Nym, a healer and beekeeper, is the sole provider for her family of seven now that her younger brother has been sent to the war front. But when a letter comes from the queen, summoning Nym to the palace to heal Prince Renn, the kingdom’s ailing shut-in, Nym finds herself making the tumultuous journey from her family’s apiary to the capital city. Nym is determined to fail the queen’s mission and return to her younger siblings as soon as she can.
But escaping the castle’s hold isn’t as easy as failing a simple test. Prince Renn is cold and distant, and his illness is like nothing Nym has ever seen before, nothing she could ever imagine treating. In a moment of connection with Prince Renn, Nym manages to remedy the faintest symptom of his ailment—only to discover that no healer before has made such progress. Forced to become the prince’s official healer and a ward of the castle, and with her only hope of returning to her family hinging on the prince’s recovery, Nym must navigate the castle’s cruel and twisted court and uncover the haunting truth behind Prince Renn’s illness—even as she finds herself irrevocably drawn to him. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: November 9th, 2025 Released: September 1st, 2021 Genre: Urban Fantasy
I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time.
I’m Jinx. As a private investigator, being a walking, talking lie detector is a useful skill – but let’s face it, it’s not normal. You’d think it would make my job way too easy, but even with my weird skills, I still haven’t been able to track down my parent’s killers.
When I’m hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar – yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish soul who’s as likely to go off the rails as Mother Theresa. Secondly, I’m not the only one on her trail; she’s also being tracked by the implacable and oh-so-sexy Inspector Stone.
Stone and I team up, and he shoves me into a realm where magic is real – a place where there are vampyrs and werewolves, dragons and trolls. And where my skills are more than just detecting lies…
Oh, and my dog? He’s a freaking hellhound who can manipulate the magical realms themselves.
I need to find the girl. I need to discover who killed my parents. And I need to find out more about the attractive but mysterious Zachary Stone… Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: November 7th, 2025 Released: October 1st, 2025 Genre: Fairy Tale retelling
Rumpelstiltskin meets The Serpent and the Wings of Night in this spicy, fairy tale retelling.
Never make a deal with a demon—especially the demon arch king.
Aryana, the vampire princess, has spent her life as a weapon in her uncle’s cruel kingdom. But when the demon arch king, Zarathos, steals her away, she is thrust into a world more treacherous than anything she could have imagined.
Zarathos’s presence is suffocating, his dark power intoxicating. He claims she has the ability to turn straw into gold—a lie. But the real truth is far more terrifying. He needs her for the deadly demon trials, and he’ll stop at nothing to bend her to his will.
Bound together by a bargain neither can escape, Aryana must fight for Zarathos in the trials, even while the magnetic pull between them grows with each passing moment. The more time they spend together, the deeper she’s pulled into a world of lust, power, and ruthless peril.
Zarathos will never let her survive the trials. She’s nothing more than a pawn in his plans. But as the fire between them burns hotter, Aryana wonders if the demon king has claimed more than her life—has he taken her heart as well? Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: October 27th, 2025 Released: October 26th, 2025 Genre: Fantasy
What if you had to give up your divine powers—and no worthy goddess candidate to take them?
Tartie, the Goddess of Small Things, is stuck. To help a friend in need, she has to pawn off her Storms ability – the one that shorts out every electronic gadget in range. With no qualified candidates in sight, Tartie resorts to a temporary fix.
It backfires. Badly.
Now there’s a new God of Storms—unhappy, destructive, and definitely not Zeus material—running around London. One of Piccadilly Circus Tube entrances has already tasted his accidental wrath. Tartie’s left holding the thundercloud, wondering if this disaster was exactly what the ever-meddling Ancient Goddess of Fate planned all along. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: October 19th, 2025 Released: August 7th, 2025 Genre: MM Fantasy
I’m surrounded by two hundred thousand elves, yet somehow, I’m still lonely.
After a rough few millennia, the past decade has finally brought us peace and security—and justified my choices as our leader. But as chaos gives way to calm, I have more time for myself… yet it’s not what I want it to be. I’ve been alone for a long time, but before my people and work needed me more. Now the lonely hours stretch into eternity.
Until I meet Jared.
He’s my perfect match in every way; a teacher, a gardener, a cat dad. He loves books, nature, and interacting with others. He’s sweet, funny, kind, and we’re fire in the bedroom. The only hiccup? He’s human, and he doesn’t know other species exist.
Legally, we haven’t been together long enough for me to tell him I’m not human, and it’s getting harder and harder to keep this secret. To keep part of myself from him… to lie. But what if he learns the truth—a truth that will shatter the core of his beliefs—and can’t handle it?
Reviewed: October 16th, 2025 Released: August 20th, 2021 Genre: Urban Fantasy
I’ve trusted nature spirits with my life, until the storm king decided I had to die.
Did you ever wonder what living on the streets of Berlin is like? My name is Rika and I’ve been homeless for eight years. It’s not too bad, since I’ve got salamanders to warm me in winter and dryads to protect me from stragglers. People say I’m crazy, because to everyone else, those nature spirits are invisible. But they’re real. Real and dangerous, as I learn when I accidentally cross the plans of the Erlking, an ancient and hate-filled spirit. Now he and his deadly storm are after me. My only chance are the Spirit Seekers, an elite group of soldiers trained to battle nature’s wrath. Since their precious commander is missing in action, they need me to be their eyes. Signing up with the Spirit Seekers is the opposite of run and hide, but they offer me protection and the tools to fight for my survival. All I have to do is betray my old spirit friends and try not to die. Read My Thoughts…
Reviewed: October 6th, 2025 Released: October 28th, 2025 Genre: YA Fantasy
The Mother. The Sister. The Daughter of the Forest.
When Ebony wakes in the realm of the Fae, she learns she’s the final link in a bloodline bound by prophecy. But with the Shadow’s mark burned into her skin, darkness creeps into her mind and threatens everything she loves.
With the help of her long-lost aunt, Ebony must confront a haunting legacy and face the fears she’s spent a lifetime running from – because the fight is no longer about her own survival. It’s about saving a world on the brink of falling into shadow.
Reviewed: September 27th, 2025 Released: November 26th, 2023 Genre: Epic Fantasy
Magic is the enemy. When he discovers all is not what it seems, can a young knight survive long enough to protect the world from the forces of darkness?
Adrian Navarro burns for revenge. The lone member of a defunct military sect, the nineteen-year-old can’t shake the horrific nightmare of witnessing his father’s murder by shadowy fiends.
So when a cataclysm devastates a neighbouring kingdom and his superiors blame a powerful sorceress, he gladly agrees to assassinate her to settle the score.
Striking out across another realm’s border, the relentless soldier tracks the evil wielder of the dark arts. But after he’s ambushed by magic-users and captured, he’s shocked to discover his crusade for vengeance could be built on a stunning lie – and now the fate of the world is at stake.
As he’s confronted by soul shattering truths, can Adrian overcome his greatest fear and save the world? Read My Thoughts…
Helen Garraway 