Ledger of Souls cover reveal: Ledger of Souls is the first book of Dark Slavic Romantasy by Olena Nikitin, releasing on 27 January 2027. The story follows Vidiana Toraven, an exiled necromancer serving as Warden of the Borderlands, who hides a stolen royal artefact that decides the line of succession, and Prince Zoran Valentian, the man who destroyed her life ten years ago and now needs that book to claim the throne. Pre-order is open, ARC sign ups are open, and the pre-order incentive is live.
Ten years of exile, one dead healer, and a book that picks kings. And to add to the chaos there is a thirty year old necromancer with a chip on her shoulder and a prince who is about to learn that some women do not bow, not even to a king’s orders.
Press play. There is a song, a pretty good one.
Olena
Here is the official blurb, unedited, exactly as it will sit on the retailer page.
Necromancer Vidiana Toraven was chosen by the bastard prince. She has cursed that day ever since.
Ten years after his betrayal, she serves as the exiled Warden of the Borderlands, stripped of everything except scraps of her power and their unfinished Bloodrite bond.
Then, the town’s healer turns up dead, and the investigation of her charred corpse leads Vidiana to the Royal Ledger—a stolen artefact that decides the line of succession.
So she does the only sensible thing and hides the damned book under her floorboards.
But the ledger of kings refuses to stay buried.
As warring factions converge, filling the morgue with bodies, her nightmare finds her—Prince Zoran Valentian. The scorned heir whose claim to the throne hangs on the Ledger’s choice.
His touch completes their forbidden bond, but she would rather kiss a corpse than give the book to the traitor who destroyed her. Yet when danger closes in, Zoran shields her with his body and asks her to trust him.
But trust could kill her. And Vidiana did not survive ten years in exile to burn with the kingdom that condemned her.
Vidiana works with the dead. Not in a candles and soft focus way, in a cut them open and ask them questions way. She was a judicial death mage before the crown threw her out, and she still treats every corpse as evidence. The cover had to carry that. Cold light, old gold, a book that looks like it has opinions about who deserves a throne.
The Borderlands town of Olsha has no magic, one morgue and a healer who is now in it. That is where the story starts. Everything after that is Vidiana trying to keep a royal artefact, a fae child and her own forbidden magic hidden from three different factions who all want at least one of them.
Pre-order. It costs you nothing extra and it tells the retailer algorithms that this book has a pulse on release day. Pre-order here.
Claim the pre-order incentive. Pre-order, drop your receipt in the form, get the bonus. Incentive form here.
Apply for an ARC. You read it early, free, and post an honest review around release. Honest means honest. I have survived two series worth of reviews, my ego is load bearing. ARC sign up here.
No. Ledger of Souls is a standalone in a new world. If you have read Secrets of Dagome you will recognise the flavour of the politics and the general Slavic doom, but nothing carries over. Start here.
Epic fantasy with a romantic subplot. The murder investigation and the succession crisis drive the plot. The bond between Vidiana and Zoran runs through all of it and pays off, so romance readers are safe, but if you came purely for the kissing you will also get a body count.
27 January 2027. Pre-orders are open now and ARC copies go out to the team ahead of release.
Dark, not grimdark. There is murder, blood magic, torture of the political variety and a heroine branded with a confinement rune. There is also dry humour in every other paragraph, because Vidiana copes the way most of us do, badly and out loud.
Wraith of Lilies is a prequel short set in the world of Secrets of Dagome. Free when you join the newsletter, where the Ledger of Souls cover, snippets and release day chaos land first.
Get Wraith of Lilies FreeSee you in the Borderlands.
Olena
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