Title: The Mortal Trials
Author: Casey L. Bond
Genre: New Adult Epic Fantasy
Editor: Stacy Sanford/ The Girl with the Red Pen
Cover: Melissa Stevens/ The Illustrated Author Design Services
Publication Date: Sept. 7, 2026
Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR
Blurb:
In a game of gods… If you win, you lose. If you lose, you die.
Callalie Ryan came home from war in pieces—her body broken, her name smeared across headlines, and her family in ruins. When the goddess Morrigan drags her from her desert home and orders her to Olympus, Callalie is forced into The Mortal Trials: five brutal contests staged by gods who find delight in mortal suffering, hosted by Ares, Greek god of war.
With a rusted prosthetic that shrieks with every step and a family the gods use as leverage, Callalie must outlast god-conjured beasts, shifting rules, and posturing pantheons long enough to secure a divine champion. But she’s not the only one paying the price… She soon learns that many of the other contenders have been drawn into the games by their connection to her.
How do you play a game where every victory is a punishment and showing mercy might get you killed? As heroes fall and tentative alliances are tested, Callalie must decide how much of her humanity she’s willing to sacrifice to survive the gods betting on her ruin.
Welcome to The Mortal Trials, where victory is just another kind of death.
Casey Bond lives on a rural farm in West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. She writes phoenixes – gloriously flawed and morally gray characters that fiercely rise from the ashes of their circumstances. World building is one of her favorite hobbies, along with stamping metal jewelry, swimming, and enjoying the beauty of nature. She thinks thunderstorms are better than coffee and that watching a meteor shower is the closest thing to magic you might ever see. She’s a firm believer that every amazing book needs a world you want to wrap yourself in, a character you want to win, and a love you would fight for.
Casey is the award-winning author of When Wishes Bleed, Gravebriar, and House of Eclipses.
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