Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Dec 8, 2025  
As December settles in and the world feels edged with starlight, it feels like the perfect time to share a story shaped by winter magic and myth. ❄️✨

Whispers and Wings (Brodyr Alarch #6), coming 3rd January 2026, follows Gerallt—marked for twenty-four years by Arianrhod’s blessing of a swan’s wing—and Aderyn, the humble girl who hears the quiet language of geese.

Through lingering shadows, divine bargains, and the echoes of old betrayals, the two must discover whether love, patience, and courage can heal a curse that has lasted a lifetime.

Tell me: what winter release are you most excited for?

Add to your TBR list: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243137161-whispers-and-wings

#WhispersAndWings #YuleReading #WinterMagic #FantasyLovers #WelshMythology #FairytaleRetelling #BookishWinter #BrodyrAlarch6 #GooseGirl
     
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Jun 8, 2026  
I've been thinking about swans again, which probably means I'm deep enough into the Brodyr Alarch world that it's starting to think back at me.

Swans in Welsh and Celtic mythology are rarely what they appear. They carry enchantments, wear transformations like second skins, and move between worlds with a grace that makes the crossing look easy when it never is. The Mabinogion is full of creatures that belong to two states at once — neither fully one thing nor the other — and swans embody that ambiguity more completely than almost anything else in the tradition.

There's something about that liminality that feels endlessly useful for storytelling. A character who exists between worlds is a character with a particular kind of loneliness and a particular kind of power. 🦢

#WelshFolklore #FolkloreFantasy #TalesFromWales #BrodyrAlarch #FantasyRomance
     
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Jan 5, 2026  
✨ January’s Newsletter is Here ✨

The year is turning, the light is slowly returning, and I’m stepping into January with hope and new stories to share.

In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find:
📚 Free fantasy, historical, & sweet romance books
🤩 Celebrating the release of Whispers and Wings, the final Brodyr Alarch story
✍️ A peek at what I’m writing next (contemporary fantasy romance & magical realism)
🌙 Folklore, gentle beginnings, and winter magic

If you love stories where legends live, fairy tales are rewritten, and magic slips quietly into the everyday, I’d love for you to read along.

Read the January newsletter here ➜ https://morgan-sheppard-author.kit.com/posts/january-s-quiet-promise

As always, thank you for being part of this journey — it means more than I can say 💙
     
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Jul 20, 2026 - 2:21 PM  
Annwn — the Welsh Otherworld — is one of the most distinctive and most frequently misread concepts in Welsh mythology, and it runs through a significant portion of my catalogue.

It isn't an underworld in any conventional sense. It's a realm of plenty and beauty existing alongside the mortal world, ruled by Arawn, pressing against lakes and hills and liminal thresholds where the boundary between the two has worn thin. The first branch of the Mabinogion gives us a year inside it, through Pwyll's eyes, and what he finds is a functioning court with its own honour, its own rules, its own sovereignty.

It's the Otherworld that shapes the Brodyr Alarch series, the Between Hill and Sea world, and the broader mythological texture of almost everything I write. A realm that doesn't need the mortal world to define itself against. One that simply is, and waits.

#WelshFolklore #FolkloreFantasy #WelshMythology
     
Feathers and Foxes (Brodyr Alarch #2)
Feathers and Foxes (Brodyr Alarch #2)
Morgan Sheppard | 2024 | Paranormal, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I love hearing from everyone! It fills the bigger picture with more colour and detai!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 2 in the Brodyr Alarch series, but it's not necessary to have read Slippers and Songs, which is book one, nor is it necessary to read Sealed with a Curse, which is the sort of introduction to this world and to the princes who are Brodyr Alarch. Not necessary, but I think you should. It will give you a better view of what the princes did to warrant getting the curse that turned them into swans, and how they got out of their predicament. They are very good books, I gave them Sealed 4 stars and 5 stars to Slippers and Songs.

And 5 stars for this one too!

Two things I'm loving the most about these books.

I don't know the Brothers Grimm tales that Sheppard is using to form the basis of these books. They are the lesser known ones, and I'm almost intrigued enough to go and read The Brothers Grimm tales, just to see if I can match them up! Almost, but I won't. Cos it might spoil my enjoyment of these books.

They are CLEAN. Totally and utterly and so beautifully clean. I will, more often than not, say I like my books on the steamier side and I make no apologies for that, but I am LOVING that these books are not at all like that! Oh don't get me wrong, there is love and passion here, but there is no explicit steam. Not for Terrwyn and Sulien, nor for Selene and Conway (from Sealed) as we catch up with them a couple times in the book.

In my review for Slippers, I said I wanted to hear from Tesni, but we didn't. But here, we get Sulien! And a few others too. I love hearing from everyone! It fills the bigger picture with more colour and detail, and I loved that.

Again, the Welsh Gods play a part, and again, I'm not going to try to name them cos I can't say them, let alone spell them, but they get up to their tricks in helping the Brodyr Alarch find their love, even if things do go a little off plan here!

Macsen is up next, given the little epilogue that those aforementioned Goods have, and I can't wait to get my hands on it! But Gerallt's book is the one I'm waiting for, and I strongly suspect his will be the last one! Gerallt is the prince who kept a swan wing, to remind himself of what he did. I want in his head so bad!

Anyway, enough rambling, but in case I forgot to say:

I loved this book!

5 full and shiny stars!

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Feb 19, 2024  
Slippers and Songs (Brodyr Alarch #1)

“Don’t worry, they can’t see us. Who are you? And why are you wearing my friend’s blanket like a cloak? The old man had silver-grey hair swept back off his face, his moustache and beard matching. His robes were of dark blue, brown, and gold, showing off the golden tones of his skin that looked youthful, belying the colour of his hair, with startling blue eyes that shone with intelligence as he watched Brenin carefully.

“Me? Friend?” Brenin gulped as he tried to still his racing heart and make sense of what was happening.

The old man chuckled softly. “Ah, I forget what it’s like to speak to us, especially when you’re not expecting it, eh? Let me introduce myself. I am Taliesin, also called Taliesin Ben Beirdd, known as a god of inspiration, magical transformation, poetic wisdom, and dancing.” He gestured with his arm to the Great Hall, where everyone had moved onto the next dance.

#Fantasy
#Romance
#WelshGods
#BrodyrAlarch
#BrothersGrimm
#FairytaleRetelling

https://books2read.com/SlippersandSongs
Art from https://oldworldgods.com/brythonics/taliesin-celtic-god
     
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Jan 3, 2026  
🦢 Release Day 🕊️

Whispers and Wings is officially out today, and I’m equal parts thrilled and emotional to finally share it with you.

This book has lived in my heart for a long time. It’s a story of quiet courage, healing that comes through patience rather than strength, and love that dares to mend what a lifetime has broken. It also brings the Brodyr Alarch series to its close, weaving the final threads into one mythic tapestry.

If you’ve been reading along, I’d love to know
✨ Who has been your favourite character across the series?
✨ What kind of mythic stories do you love most?

If you’re starting the journey today, welcome. If the story resonates with you, please consider sharing this post or leaving a review—it truly helps these books find their wings and reach new readers.

Thank you for walking this road with me, for your support, and for believing in stories shaped by song, myth, and starlight. 💙🦢

📖 Available now: https://books2read.com/Whispers-and-Wings
#ReleaseDay #WhispersAndWings #FantasySeriesFinale #BrodyrAlarch6 #EpicFantasy
     
40x40

Morgan Sheppard (1033 KP) created a post

Apr 22, 2026  
There's something I love about a character who holds a clear vision of the world they want to help build. Harri carries that quality throughout DAFFODILS AND DREAMS. 🦢 He's a man on the threshold of kingship who hasn't lost sight of what matters, and the quest at the heart of this story grows naturally from who he is.

Ffion wasn't expecting to be moved by any of it, and I think that's what I enjoyed most about writing her. She arrives with her own sacred role to fulfil and her own quietly formidable sense of self, and the romance that unfolds between them is all the more tender for being unexpected. 🌿

As a retelling of Little Briar Rose, it carries the familiar shape of the tale, but the heart of it belongs entirely to these two. 💙

The fourth instalment in the Brodyr Alarch series, it continues a journey that began with SEALED WITH A CURSE, and I hope it feels like a worthy chapter in that larger story.

What do you love most about fairytale retellings that take the romance seriously?

#Fantasy #Romance #WelshGods #BrodyrAlarch #FairytaleRetelling #BrothersGrimm
https://books2read.com/DaffodilsAndDreams
     
Daffodils and Dreams (Brodyr Alarch #4)
Daffodils and Dreams (Brodyr Alarch #4)
Morgan Sheppard | 2025 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
wonderful instalment!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, but I also purchased my copy of this book.

This is book 4 in the Brodyr Alarch series, and while not necessary, I do recomend that you read the other three boosk before this, or at LEAST, Sealed with A Curse, which is the prequel to this series. That will give you why these men were cursed, and what they did to be free of it. Harri mentions it a time or two in his musings. I loved them all.

Harri is preparing to be crowned the king of Melthkior, a middle brother in the Brodyr Alarch. His older brothers have no wish to be king, and Harri was always going to be crowned. Adding the Druids to the ceremony, and wanting to build a healing centre with their knowledge, was all Harri's idea. Ffion is the daughter of the head of the Druids. The two meeting start a cascade of events that leads to some dark times for them both. Will their choices, when the time comes, prove them worthy?

I've said this before and I will say it again, I am LOVING that these books are clean. Harri and Ffion take time to get to know each other, it's well over halfway through the book that they kiss, and I loved being made to wait. They both have a powerful reaction to the other, but it's kept low key. They know about it, but they don't voice it, not until things begin to go wrong.

I loved that Harri and Ffion both have to face their demons. I love that the tests are intriguing. I wasn't sure how they would go down. I loved that, while confident on the outside, both Harri and Ffion had doubts. Not about their love, that is clear, but about who they are inside and if they are good enough for each other and the roles they have been dealt.

This one is based around the Sleeping Beauty type tale. Harri and Ffion work hard to remove all chance of the curse being activated, but it takes a tiny slip of the foot to set it in motion and there is nothing harri can do then, but battle himself, almost.

I really REALLY enjoyed this instalment and I can't wait for the next one. I'm left feeling 4 stars, though, rather than 5 and I can only assume that it's a "me, not you" thing.

4 very VERY good stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Bridge of Bones (Brodyr Alarch #3)
Bridge of Bones (Brodyr Alarch #3)
Morgan Sheppard | 2025 | Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved how Mascen and Delyth had their own paths to tread and that they went off in different ways for a time
I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 of the Brodyr Alarch series and it can be read as a stand alone. However, I personally think you should read the previous books first. It will give you a better picture of this world, the people in it, and most importantly, of the Gods who meddle with the lives of their subjects! Arianrhod and Cerridwen love their people, and only want what's best for them. They don't make it easy for them though!

Mascen is pulled away from his schooling, and he doesn't know why or where he is going. He only knows he needs to leave and find the girl in his dream, literally. Delyth has lived in the tower forever, and it's all she knows. The handsome stranger popping up at her window was a bit of a shock, but he made her think. About why she was there and who Eirlys is and what she wants from Delyth.

So, a couple things! I said in my review for book 2, Feathers and Foxes, that I was loving the fact that I did not know the tales that Ms Sheppard is using as the basis for these stories. HERE, she uses the Rapunzel tale so I knew that one. I could not remember how she got out of the tower, though. And I think that's why I loved this so much, because my mind was not clouded with Rapunzel's tale, it was all about Mascen and Delyth.

I also said I loved the fact that they are clean! Still stand by that! I don't think these would work so well if they were explicit. There is love and passion, it's just all laid out for you!

I loved that it took time for Mascen and Delyth to meet! Nearly half way through the book until they meet. I loved how they had their own paths to tread and that they went off in different ways for a time.

It's full of wonderful descriptions of every day things. Like getting up and having breakfast! Simple things made wonderful. People, places and things. The world building is fabulous and I loved reading about new places in the world.

Couple of characters from previous books pop up and it was great catching up with them. I still think I'm going to have to wait for Gerallt's book though!

A wonderful 5 star read.

*same worded review will appear elsewhere