Shrouds of Silver: A Lost Book From A New York Times Bestselling Author

Lost media truly knows no bounds, and spares nothing from its infinite and seemingly never-ending grasp. Anything can become lost media, with the most well-known cases being the burning of the Library of Alexandria and early 20th century silent films. Today, I'm bringing your attention to the more recent past, the late 2010's, with our subject being a missing book that may be lost to time.

In present day, Carissa Broadbent is an American fantasy author who gained massive popularity on TikTok with her paranormal romance Crowns of Nyaxia series, alongside her other published fantasy romance called The War of Lost Hearts trilogy, leading her to become a New York Times bestselling author. Earlier in her career though, Broadbent had independently published three books: "A Palace Fractured" in March 2017 and "A Crown In Shadows" in December 2017, the first two books in the intended The Valtain Preludes trilogy that was never completed, and "Shrouds of Silver" in December 2016, the first book in an intended prequel/spin-off series titled The Valtain Testaments.

"Shrouds of Silver" follows Valtainian demigod Sisine who, upon the murders of three other members of her Pantheon, is thrust into an unwanted role of leadership. However, when the remaining demigods begin to turn on one another, Sisine struggles to reign control among the worshipping people in a world of politics, betrayal, secrets, and lies. It is connected to The War of Lost Hearts and The Valtain Preludes series, and has considerable overlap with the other two series.

In March 2024, Macmillan's fantasy romance imprint Tor/Bramble acquired a six-book deal for Broadbent's independently published Crowns of Nyaxia series. The three books were then taken down from eBook services as Broadbent transitioned from self-publishing to traditionally publishing her works, and she has stated on an Instagram Q&A livestream that she can no longer finish those series due to the tight deadlines she now works under as a tradpub author.

PDFs of both "A Palace Fractured" and "A Crown In Shadows" have been found and are still downloadable from oceanofpdf, however "Shrouds of Silver" is seemingly unable to be located, despite having been published before the other two books. It was published in both physical paperback and eBook format, but it is unlikely that it will be found physically as it was a lesser-known independent release. I have scoured the archival website Wayback Machine to no avail, and I have found posts on popular international PDF and EPUB sharing sites like VK (based in Russia) of some users asking for a copy of this book, but none have seemed to have been answered. The book can still be viewed on Google Books and international versions of Amazon including Canada, Australia, and Germany, but it is listed as unavailable and cannot be purchased on any of the sites. It can also be viewed on various book-logging sites such as Goodreads.

I know it's a long shot, considering it was an indie release without much popularity at the time, but I figured I would try to find it myself and ask for any assistance. If anyone comes across this and happens to have a PDF, EPUB, or MOBI copy of this book backed up, or happens to have an old Kindle and can retrieve the book from it, that would be immensely helpful. Otherwise, my intended goal was simply to bring awareness to how indie books can be just as appreciated as traditionally published books, and losing any piece of art can be heartbreaking.

At present, a repackaged version of Broadbent's standalone "Slaying the Vampire Conqueror" is being republished on March 25th, and the much-anticipated fourth installment of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, "The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk," will be released on August 5th. Recently announced, Broadbent's independently published The War of Lost Hearts trilogy has been acquired by Macmillan's Tor/Bramble for republication. The first, "Daughter of No Worlds" is set to release on October 14th, the second, "Children of Fallen Gods" is set for December 9th, and the final installment, "Mother of Death and Dawn" will be released in early 2026. With her busy schedule, it seems that a rerelease or continuation of either unpublished series is too far out of the question, at least for now.

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