Heart of Yule: A Winter Tale of the Highlands
About this audiobook
Year of Our Lord, 1229.
Winter has sealed the shores of Miren beneath a veil of mist and ice. In Dunvalen, under the sign of Yule—when the sun seems to die only to be reborn—a wedding is held to seal the peace between the feudal South and the Highlands.
Éliane de Valenne, daughter of a merchant of Norman descent, is betrothed to Rowan MacAven, heir to a Highland clan that values freedom above duty. Between them lies more than a contract: it is the clash of two worlds—silk and stone, song and steel, winter and its inner fire.
What begins as a forced union transforms, beneath the long night of the solstice, into a revelation: love may be born in stillness, not as an impetuous flame, but as a glow that endures when all else has faded.
The brooch Éliane wears upon her heart—heirloom, offering, and omen—will bear witness to that secret passage: from fear to desire, from duty to destiny.
Amid the bagpipes of dawn, the murmur of the fjord, and the snow falling upon the walls of Thornbrae Castle, The Heart of Yule rises as an elegy to beginnings.
Beneath the skies of Yule and the snows of the Highlands, will Éliane and Rowan discover that even in the deepest darkness, love can be the spark that heralds the dawn?
A story of winter, fire, and promise—where two souls find their light in the longest of nights.
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About the author
ANYA LYSANDER: I am a storyteller—a weaver of words born from the soul and rooted in the depths of time. I believe deeply in the power of stories: they do not merely entertain, they heal, awaken, and remind us of who we are. Stories move beyond reason and touch something older than memory itself—the ancestral knowing that still lives in our veins.
My pen wanders among ancient oaks, raised swords, and gazes that cross centuries. I draw inspiration from the misty lands of Scotland—its clans, its battles, its legends—and from the women who, against all odds, fight for true love. In my tales of medieval romance, honor carries a druidic echo, time folds upon itself, and the stone circles guard secrets that still whisper to those who know how to listen.
I have written about the lament of storms, the Hidden Land, and that love which is born in the soul before it reaches the eyes. For me, time travel is not an artifice but an inner bridge between what we were and what we still are.
As I write from this place of deep intuition, I have discovered that many readers feel called to these stories. Perhaps because, deep within, there are truths we recognize without knowing how, and stories are the keys that allow us to remember them.
Thank you for walking beside me on this path of words. From my corner of the world, I will continue weaving my thread into this tapestry of ancient voices—with love, with gratitude, and with the certainty that stories born from the heart always find their home.
«In poetry, Sylvia Plath, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Alejandra Pizarnik have deeply influenced me. To me, they—along with Mary Oliver and Virginia Woolf—are the great ones. In historical romance, Ava Krol, Karen Marie Moning, Julianne MacLean, Julie Garwood, Anna Markland, Samantha Holt, Monica McCarty, Cathy MacRae, Eliza Knight, Tanya Anne Crosby, Hannah Howell, and many others have also been essential inspirations...»
