The Ascendancy of Warriors

The Womara Series, Book Three

The thrilling conclusion to the epic fantasy series and the battle for all time…

On the brink of peace between the clans of her realm, Seanna, the solitary warrior scout from a clan of elite women fighters, leads a quest to unite two continents under a powerful new alliance and backed by the love of a king. She stands ready to fulfill an ancestor’s prophecy that through her lineage of warriors, a new time will rise for women and the men who love them.

But the future is overshadowed by a looming threat from across the sea, as clans must now stand together to face down invasion and war. Seanna is caught in a web of deceit and a betrayal that will place her life in the hands of Lord Orman, the king’s treacherous advisor, who joins forces with a new nemesis, the self-proclaimed barbarian queen, Halla, as she leads a rebel army to invade Seanna’s lands.

Seanna’s secret bloodline could unite kingdoms, but at a costly price. Will she sacrifice herself, knowing that she may never again see her home or the man she loves?

Praise

The Ascendency of Warriors is the third book in the Womara series. The story provides a focus on Seanna, a descendant of a clan of women warriors who confront and take charge of their world as she embodies an ancient prophecy that predicts that women warriors will rise again to define their legacy.

Women are strong warriors and empowered leaders in this story. The story will especially please those who look for compelling female forces that strive for equality and balance with their male counterparts.

Readers are swept into an epic saga that requires no prior familiarity with the other books to prove compelling and understandable. The result is a gripping narrative covering exile, alliances, loss, and live in a vivid epic fantasy that brings women's struggles and strengths to the forefront against a backdrop of a world facing chaos.

— Diane Donovan, Senior Editor, Midwest Book Review

The book series continues to expand upon its theme of female empowerment, working towards balance and equality, and we see that struggle come to fruition here. What makes it really interesting is the way the story expands its cast to explore that question of gender on new levels, most notably with the introduction of Halla, reluctant wife to the traitor Thomas and would-be barbarian Queen. In many ways, she represents everything that men fear about powerful women, but the truth is that she’s more like those men than she is the Womara. There were so many ways Nicely could have resolved her character, I was fascinated to see how she ultimately defined herself.

Where Warrior Rising was largely about what happens after battle, about the personal relationships that build community, The Ascendancy of Warriors is much more about gathering that community to prepare for battle . . . even while finding ways to transform conflict into community. There are betrayals aplenty to this volume, dark acts that threaten everything, but there are also surprising alliances and compromises to be found – some of which smartly subvert reader expectations. Where so many epic fantasies focus on simply defeating the enemy and declaring victory, the battles here are all fought with an awareness of what peace may look like.

There’s a fourth romance added to the mix in this volume, a young love between a Womara scout and a young man raised by the clan, and I loved the way Nicely used that relationship to explore what it means to be a man who bridges so much. The story does deliver on the violence and bloodshed to which we’ve been led to expect, and it isn’t afraid to placed beloved characters in jeopardy. Characters die, and for every one we cheer, there’s another that we mourn. Overall, The Womara Series is well worth the read, and well worth discovering.

— Bob Milne, Book reviewer, Beauty in Ruins