The Dryad's Crown by David Hopkins

SPFBO10

Four titans sleep beneath the earth. Only one fae can keep them from waking. Silbrey is an orphaned wood nymph, taken from her forest home and raised in the corrupt city of Penderyn. The fae child grows up unaware of who she is, what she can do, and the calling of her kind. Under the control of a cruel guildmaster, Silbrey is trained as an assassin. As an adult, she escapes her violent past to start a new life and a family. But a tragic death brings her back to the familiar cobbled streets to seek revenge. This dark path leads Silbrey to uncover an even darker secret: An ancient evil will wake the titans and break the world. Silbrey must travel with her daughter across a war-torn land to defeat that evil. What begins as a fairy tale transforms into a multi-generational epic fantasy about love and loss—and a woman with a strange connection to nature. The Dryad's Crown is an emotional, coming-of-age fantasy debut. The first volume in a gritty saga, set in the immersive world of Efre Ousel. Booklife describes the story as "a fantasy unlike any other."

Adult • Fantasy • Fantasy/Epic and High

Content Warning: * Reference to child abuse (not shown) * Controlling parent figure * Death of a loved one * Honest, inclusive discussion about polyamory, open marriage, and gender identity * Positive depictions of polytheism, paganism, and religious authority figures * Violence and death (decapitation, shot by arrows, poisoning, disemboweled, burning, hanging corpses, stabbing, scars, drowning, war), NO torture or rape/sexual assault * Violence against animals (livestock) * Trapped in collapsed cave, vivisepulture (character survives) * Natural disasters (earthquakes and flooding) * Imprisonment * Reference to stillbirth (not shown) * Detailed child birth scene (delivery without complications of a healthy child) * Alcohol and recreational drug use (drinking mead, absinthe, and smoking “sweetleaf”) * Partial paralysis due to injury (improvement over time, no cure) * Dementia in old age (implicit) * Sex scenes between consenting adults and declaration of love, “heat level” ranges from warm to steamy, no raunchy or smutty words are used

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