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VII Publishing is excited to announce the release of the third installment of journalist and author August Arrea’s magical “Tales of the Nephilim Brotherhood” fantasy adventure series.

Following on the heels of Arrea’s acclaimed debut book “The Crossing Point” and its highly anticipated follow-up “The Seventh Grace,” “The Beloved Exiles” continues the coming-of-age story about a young teenaged boy named Jacob Parrish whose life is turned upside-down when he learns he is the son of an angel—or a Nephilim.  

“The Beloved Exiles”’ ominously arresting cover of a mysterious, shadowy figure wearing a bird-like mask and surrounded by a flight of ravens might bring readers to recall the Shakespeare-penned line in Macbeth “something wicked this way comes.” And, indeed, it is the first hint of the dark twists and turns residing within the pages of the rousing new book. 

“Towards the end of the last book—‘The Seventh Grace’—readers were hit with a pretty traumatic blow. ‘The Beloved Exiles’ deals with picking up the pieces of that blow, and in doing so takes its characters on an unexpected adventure—some of it good, some of it not so good. And along the way they cross paths with some captivating new faces—some of them good, some of them really not so good. What I enjoy about it is the sense of fun and humor that is retained throughout, even when things get a little dark,” Arrea explained.

“The Beloved Exiles” opens with Jacob back home in Cain’s Corner where he tries to forget the tragic events that unfolded atop Broken Earth as well as his Nephilim ties, and focus instead on being a normal teenager by reuniting with his friends. Eden’s reach, however, proves to be one Jacob finds difficult to outrun when the echo of a name inside his head proves unrelenting: “Zophiel!” Convinced the name is a cryptic key to unlocking a riddle in need of solving that is linked to his nightly dreams of the horrific incident he’s desperate to purge from his memory, Jacob manages to persuade Damiel and his Nephilim band of buddies, when they come looking for him, to join him on a quest to find the answer. But when his non-Nephilim friends Ty and Wray come looking for their friend who has suddenly disappeared from their lives once again, Jacob finds himself in the precarious position of keeping hidden the one great secret he has struggled to keep concealed from the two persons closest to him.

“When I started writing this book, I was most excited about bringing Wray and Ty back into the fold. They were introduced in the first book, ‘The Crossing Point,’ and then they disappeared when Jacob left Cain’s Corner. But I always knew they’d be back, and that they’d play a big part in the remainder of the series,” Arrea said. “They definitely bring a unique element to the book that helps to ground the more fantastical nature of the story to the ether of believability.”

As for what he hopes his readers will glean from his latest tale, Arrea says his mission when he sits down to write is always the same: to provide a worthwhile escape from the banalities of life.

“I’m always of the hope that my stories aren’t just a way to pass the time on a lazy afternoon, but that the characters and their journeys, both physically and emotionally, stay with you like the smell of the ocean when you visit the beach,” he said. “It’s a total cliche for writers or actors or singers to say their latest project is their best work or their favorite whenever they release something, but I am being a hundred percent honest when I say, whether it sounds cliche or not, that ‘The Beloved Exiles’ is my favorite in the series so far. It has adventure, it has struggle, it has humor and, most importantly, it has heart. It offers the hope that light does still exist no matter how murky the situation may seem, and that forces beyond the lens of our eyesight surround us and guide us along this path we call life.  And I think in today’s restless and truculent times, that’s an important message to embrace.”

Arrea is currently writing the fifth installment of his six-book series. The fourth book, “The Quietus Hour,” is currently slated for release in Spring of 2024. 

“The Beloved Exiles” is available now.