A Cultivation Fantasy written like a C Drama about a reluctant couple. She is a cultivator fostering a forbidden friendship with a dragon and he is a spirit catcher who moonlights as a smuggler. Now these two are going to have to learn to rely on each other and become partners in crime to avoid drawing the censorship of the imperial court. All while working together to solve supernatural crimes.
This is book one in the Crimes of Da Xian series. A mystery fantasy series that follows Fanqing and Shu through their marriage and revolves around solving and committing crimes all whilst surviving the imperial court.
Releasing July 21st: Preorder
First 50 preorders will receive this art card (valid in the continental US only). Fill out this form to redeem.
I’m releasing a deluxe hardcover edition this September that will have dual endpapers, printed edges, gold foiling, and a reversable dustjacket.
Follow my Kickstarter page to keep updated on the deluxe edition and to see the exclusive artwork first as it is revealed!
Genre: Romantic Fantasy, Crime & Mystery
Tropes: arranged marriage, forbidden friendship with a dragon, cunning FMC, martial artist MMC, a couple who commits crimes together avoids a divorce together (because they have too much dirt on each other), solving supernatural mysteries
Content: Violence (blood/killing/death), Romantic elements (up to fade to black between married couple), Use of fantasy curse words, Monsters and frightening scenes
About Crimes of Da Xian Book One: Desire of Dragons
An ambitious scribe, a cunning spirit catcher, and their arranged marriage. May they survive it.
Mu Fanqing may be a lowly official’s daughter, but she has grand plans to study at the academy to become an imperial cultivator, chosen by the emperor himself. That is, until she receives an imperial edict commanding her marriage to Xiao Shu, a reclusive spirit-catcher with a reputation of being an all-around scoundrel.
She thinks her life is ruined, but it turns out that her husband-to-be is just as reluctant to be wed as she. They decide to make a pact, signed in blood, that they will be a couple in name only and stay out of each other’s business.
However, that is far easier said than done when Fanqing discovers that her husband has a secret criminal double life. He uses spirit-hunting as a front for an opportunistic smuggling business. This is especially deadly since Fanqing has her own crime. She has taken on a dragon as her magical master. The only problem is that associating with dragons is forbidden. Upon pain of death.
His secret could get them inspected by the imperial court. Her secret could get them both killed.
Fanqing wonders how long she can keep both secrets from being discovered. Especially as her own sister joins a band of investigators hunting down the leader of the smuggling ring, and a string of grisly murders point to a shapeshifting spirit who has a grudge against Shu. What will she do if it comes to choosing between keeping her secret, or protecting the husband she never wanted but is starting to fall for all the same?
nickichapelwayauthor 