Amber Sumner (pen name: Meghan Spelbrink) was raised in the Midwest on a steady diet of fairytales, mythology, old school Star Wars novels, and making up stories for her brother’s Lego battles. Her love of fantasy must be genetic because her parents named her after a Terry Brooks character, and she named her son after a Sarah J. Maas hero. She lives in California, is a stay-at-home mom to a feisty three-year-old, wife to a wonderfully nerdy virologist, and a dog-mom to an ornery rescue. She is the President of the Bay Area Romance Writers, a finalist in The Emily Contest 2025, and holds BAs in English Literature and Secondary Education from William Jewell College and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She writes stories about brave women and intelligent men forced to work together to solve supernatural problems while falling in love along the way.
When the king is assassinated without a male heir, his daughter (Sapina) tries to take her place as Karop’s first ruling queen, but Councilor Quillon betrays her in a bid to get his son on the throne by proposing a contest to choose a new king. Enraged and determined to prove her worth, Sapina disguises herself as a man (Asher) to compete. Her ruse works until she meets Howen, a fellow contestant whose disarming banter and charm pit her desire to win against her longing for true connection.
Howen doesn’t want to be king. He is only competing to keep his homeland safe from a colonizing power. But when the trials begin and a long-forgotten magic manifests, Howen teams up with Asher (Sapina) for survival. He grows close to both of Sapina’s identities, friendship and trust with Asher, white-hot chemistry with the princess.
But nothing in this competition is what it seems. Together they uncover a lost history, a possessed dynasty, and a connection to the past neither of them expected. Can Sapina accept the truth in time to seize the future within her grasp – the throne, the man, safety for her people and his – before a phoenix-demon destroys them both?
HEIR OF NIGHT is a dual-POV novel perfect for adult readers of Roseanne A. Brown’s A Song of Wraiths and Ruin series who like a little spice and the feminine rage of Netflix’s Damsel. It’s a current finalist in The Emily Contest and champions feminism, hope, overcoming adversity, making tough choices, and earning happily-ever-afters while flipping a familiar premise upside down.
