Confronting the Demon: The Seven Circles of Hell, #1

For lovers of Jacqueline Carey, Brent Weeks and Storm Constantine - fantasy with mystery, romance and a paranormal twist.

For Alloran, who practised the fine art of frivolity for decades, life just got serious.

Framed for the heinous crime of demon summoning, he is forced to flee his comfortable life of silk sheets and nightly carousing in the wizard’s citadel for the stinking back-alleys of the city of Ehsan. There he poses as a common labourer to hide from his lover, his best friend and the wizarding authorities.

But beneath the garbage of the backstreets he discovers a new horror: a trail of gruesome bodies, gnawed on by hellcats, and left gift-wrapped for him to find with taunting ‘love notes’ attached. Someone is brutally murdering people from Alloran’s past and threatening all those close to him.

As the body count rises, Alloran must confront his personal demons and risk losing himself to a powerful addiction in order to expose the true villain. Failure means the destruction of the city at the hands of the deadliest demon to inhabit any of the seven hells – or worse, Alloran himself. 

Also including bonus story 'A Magical Melody'.

When a lethal spell is stolen from a locked and warded room, Avram must hunt down the thief before the song of power buries a city of innocents beneath a thousand tonnes of ice.

Praise for CONFRONTING THE DEMON

"...fast-paced and enthralling. I was amazed by how swiftly I got caught up in Alloran's situation. The author uses just the right combination of description and action to get her readers immersed in her fantasy world, causing them to hit the ground running along with the beleaguered wizard. I was surprised and thrilled by how much I was enjoying reading Confronting the Demon. Ballintyne's work shows flashes of inspiration from Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery stories.... an accomplished and impressive debut offering, and it is most highly recommended." - Readers' Favorite

“Ballintyne is a masterful storyteller who manages to get you caught up in the book almost instantaneously... I actually enjoyed a good fantasy novel that didn’t take days and days to read, but still offered the opportunity to get caught up in its world and story.” - Tracy Riva, Global eBook Awards Judge http://tracyriva.com/

"This story wasn't quite what I expected; it was better! The first pages surprised me, reminding strongly of THE WAY OF SHADOWS by Brent Weeks (the scenes, setting and story feel). I was immediately drawn in." - Dr. S. Drecker

“The power-packed action will leave you breathless and the eerie suspense will make you chomp on your own nails, beware!” - Satarupa, Curse of the Bibliphile http://curseofthebibliophile.blogspot.in/

"Ciara Ballintyne magically packs action, intrigue, love and fear into a very short, but intense and dark read! Her writing is crisp, she gets to the point and creates scenes that rolled past my "mental screen" in vivid detail."- Dii Amazon TOP 1000 REVIEWER

"...classic epic fantasy elements that would make Robert E. Howard happy." - M Joseph Murphy