Exclusive Interview
Tricia Levenseller Teases Revenge Romantasy ‘What Fury Brings’: Exclusive Excerpt
Tricia Levenseller was strolling through the Louvre when she was handed the pamphlet that would inspire her upcoming adult romantasy, What Fury Brings. It described a time in history when the Romans, faced with a shortage of brides, kidnapped the young women of the neighboring Sabine tribe.
“I thought, wow, that’s a horrible, awful thing — and so like men — but wouldn’t it be funny if I genderswapped that?” Levenseller, best known for her YA dark romance The Shadows Between Us, said. She sat down with Swooon ahead of her adult debut with What Fury Brings, which comes out on September 23 and is available for preorder now.
The novel, which you’ll find an exclusive excerpt of below, takes place in the fictional kingdom of Amarra. Olerra is the royal general of the “matriarchal dystopia,” as the author reveals. In her pursuit of the throne, she abducts the docile second-born prince of Brutus with the intent of marrying him. Only, Olerra accidentally takes the eldest son, Sanos. A general himself, Sanos is anything but docile, but he keeps his real identity a secret from his kidnapper.
Naturally, they both have dominant tendencies, which makes for some interesting interactions both in and outside of the bedroom. Levenseller gives the book a three on the pepper scale. “It is very graphic,” she teases. “I actually thought that that was very important to my world-building in a matriarchal society where women are the ones in charge. How does sex look differently?”
She continued, “I think when you write two strong personalities like that, people who are both royals, both used to being the one in charge and their word being law, and finding a way to suddenly work together and maybe concede a little bit,” Levenseller said, “It’s a really, really fun dynamic to write.”
Olerra is as confident and fearless as you’d expect any battle-hardened warrior to be, and Levenseller wrote her “without the insecurities you’re used to seeing maybe in more contemporary stories.” (“Not always, but sometimes,” she concedes.) Olerra is the captor rather than the captive; she’s wooing rather than being wooed.
“She sends [Sanos] flowers, and she gives him pretty clothes, and he gets to go to a gym and work out and hang out with the bros whenever he wants to,” Levenseller said. “So, just all those things that you’ve come to see, I feel like just the fact that the gender roles are reversed puts that new spin on it. We don’t see enough of women wooing men.”
While What Fury Brings is first and foremost a romance, Levenseller hopes that the backdrop of the love story still gets readers thinking about gender dynamics. However, she clarified that the book isn’t a work of feminism that puts genders on equal footing: It’s about revenge and rage. In Amarra, the women have turned the tables on men due to the way they were treated. The women are even oppressing men.
“It was a good way to put my emotions on the page, but also kind of start up a discourse on this discussion for other people to read and hopefully see the misogyny that does exist in our real world through a different lens,” she said, “Because for some reason, it just hits a little different when it’s happening to men instead of women.”
Levenseller hopes women readers enjoy reading a story in which men aren’t being condescending to them, and by the end, that they feel seen and empowered. “It’s not my intention for women to be like, yeah, we should be in charge of the world and subjugate men,” she said. “I hope that readers think a little bit, like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize that this thing was internalized misogyny that I had, but reading it through this new lens, I suddenly see XYZ.’ Above all else, I hope people just have a good time.”
Read the exclusive What Fury Brings excerpt below:
After a few hours, the women swapped places. Ydra drove the horses while Olerra climbed into the cart. She offered him some water. This time, he was too thirsty to try anything.
After he drained half the skin, Olerra wiped an errant drop from his face with her thumb.
Before he could chastise her for it, he watched as she brought it to her lips.
He wasn’t sure if he glared because he thought it was what he should do, or if it was meant to hide his other physical reactions to her. The way his heart pounded faster. The hitch in his breath. She was brazen and forward. He’d been surprised enough back at the brothel when she’d pushed him against the nearest hard surface, taking charge in their kissing. He’d liked it at the time. Now he realized it must be some Amarran thing.
When she brought her own lips to the waterskin, where his were just seconds earlier, he shivered.
He pulled at his restraints, but they were as tight as before.
Olerra reclined upon the blankets at his feet and slept. She was turned toward him so he could see the smooth features of her face. Those large lips. Long feminine lashes. A light dusting of freckles on her sun-kissed cheeks. She made a face in her sleep, and a dimple appeared on one side.
He made himself stop looking at her, but he couldn’t deny that he was curious.
These women kidnapped husbands, but then what did they do with them? Would he be caged like a dog in her home? Would she give him that horrid toxin and then take him at night while he was drugged beneath her? Would he be gagged at all hours of the night and day except for meals?
His mind continued to spin out of control with possibilities, making sleep impossible. He tried to work at the ropes securing him, but they would not loosen.
The three of them spent all the next day on the road. When Sanos was permitted to relieve himself, the one called Ydra would walk him off to the side of the road and keep a hand on his shoulder while his wrists were still bound. He endured the humiliation of pissing while she was standing at his back. If he tried to shrug out of her grip, she tightened her fingers. Gods, she was strong. It was unnatural. He had no hope of getting away from her like this.
When it was night again, they erected a tent around a nearby tree and tied him to the trunk. They left the gag in while sleeping.
It was only on the second full day of travel, when the two women were well rested, that Olerra bothered to speak to him again, joining him in the back of the cart.
“I have much to teach you and so little time to do it in. What do you know of my people?”
Sanos stared at her. Did she actually expect him to cooperate?
“I know your goddess has made you unnaturally strong and ugly,” he said.
She snorted. “Is that why your breath hitches when I draw closer to you?”
His glare returned. He should know better than to call her unattractive. Not only was it entirely untrue, he’d proven just how attractive he found her when they first met.
I need your skin against mine.
He would not live those words down.
“This will be easier for us both if you make the most of our time together on the road before we reach my country.”
“Things will be easier for you if you release me now, before my father knows where I’ve gone.”
She laughed. “I have met your father four times on the battlefield now. I’m not worried.”
Sanos’s eyes widened. “You’re the Amarran general?” The one who had shamed his father? The one who had stoked his ire and drove him to beat Sanos and Canus relentlessly?
“Yes.”
She came closer, and he flinched backward. The move made her narrow her eyes. “I will not harm you, Andrastus. I don’t know what you’ve heard about me or my people, but I am not cruel. I do not use my strength to harm others. I have taken you because I must in order to win my throne, but this is an arrangement that can be mutually beneficial. You are a second-born prince, set to inherit nothing. Now you will be a husband and sire. You have risen in station. You needn’t work or want for anything. I will care for you.
“I hear you like literature. I have recently restocked our library with books by Brutish writers and poets. There’s a theater in Zinaeya where you can attend plays, operas, and more. I would see you happy and thriving.”
If only Sanos liked any of those things. Sanos preferred hunting and movement. He liked parties and drinking. He read for enlightenment, not for pleasure. And he detested poetry.
But he had to pretend to be Andrastus . . .
F**k that. Anger seemed to be the best approach.
“You think you can bribe me into doing what you want?” he asked.
“It’s not bribery. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“And what would you be getting out of this arrangement?”
“Certainly not your pleasing personality.”
“You kidnapped me.”
She grinned. “I did, didn’t I? Couldn’t have planned the whole thing any better.”
Amarra’s t*ts, she thought he was complimenting her.
“You will have much to prove when we arrive in Amarra,” she said. “Physically, I think we can say the court will be impressed by you, but your manners need some work.”
Was she f**king serious?
“Men are to be seen but not heard unless expressly told otherwise,” she continued. “You are free to speak to me whenever you wish when we are alone. However, in front of the courtiers, you need to behave.”
“And just how are you going to make me do that?”
She leaned farther into the blankets on the cart, propping herself up on two elbows. The crisp breeze in the Brutish air blew the loose strands of hair back from her face.
“Women in my kingdom have been kidnapping and breaking men for nearly five hundred years. It is an art form that is taught to the nobility. While I don’t particularly care for most of the methods, I will do what I must to ingrain some manners in you.”
“Breaking men?” he questioned. He wasn’t overly concerned. There was nothing this woman could do to him that hadn’t already been done. Except, he remembered, any nighttime plans she might have.
He refused to think about it.
“Housebreaking,” she clarified. “Teaching you to be Amarran.”
Housebreaking?
Every word out of her mouth was more ridiculous than the last.
“And what methods do you intend to use on me?” he asked.
“The most common practice is the denying of sexual favors.”
He blinked once. Twice. “You’re going to withhold sex from me?” He laughed. “That only works if I want sex from you, which I can assure you, I no longer do.”
“Your words would have greater weight if you hadn’t been pawing at me just two nights ago.” When he tried to argue, she added, “Let’s not bicker now, as delightful as it is to go head-to-head with you. Let’s become better acquainted. The only things I know about you are what my spies have told me. Tell me something real.”
The question startled him. No one had asked to know anything about him before. How could they when he kept everyone at arm’s length?
“I—” he started, and cut himself off.
After a beat, she said, “Would it be easier if I went first? You already know I’m a soldier and a general. A princess. I also like to sing. I enjoy games of strategy. And… I’m afraid of bees.”
He wanted to make a harsh comment so she would feel its bite, but he couldn’t. He processed the words slowly. Felt how real they were, and something ever so small shifted within him.
“Bees,” he deadpanned.
“Yes, they’re loud. They sting. And they stand between me and the smell of a full blossom. There. Now you tell me something.”
He ought to snap. To yell at her some more and tell her he wasn’t going to play along.
Instead, he found himself saying, “I’ve always wanted to see the ocean.”
Her eyes met his, and her smile was open. “I’ll take you.”
She smiled so damned much. Why did she have so much to smile about?
“I need to sh*t,” he told her, stopping any further conversation.
She showed no reaction to his crass language. She had her friend stall the cart, then Olerra untied him from the railings at the side. She retied his bindings so his ankles and wrists remained close together. He had to shuffle off the road, her hand on his arm the whole way.
When they reached a tree, he turned to her. “Are you going to watch?”
“Of course not. I won’t be far, though.”
“Naturally.”
He really did need to relieve himself, so he took care of business the moment he heard her footsteps recede. After he tucked himself back inside his pants, he looked about for a sharp stick or rock. Anything to cut his bonds.
There was nothing in the near vicinity, so he started to creep farther from the road. He couldn’t see her when he looked over his shoulder, so he picked up speed.
“Are you finished?” she called out to him.
“Not yet,” he said, raising his voice so she would think him closer.
Finally he found a rock. He crouched beside some bushes and began to saw the ropes binding his hands.
It was taking too long.
She’d come for him soon. He looked around desperately for somewhere to hide.
There were some brambles not far off. He lay flat on his back and rolled, careful to hold on to the rock. The thorns bit into his skin, but at least he was out of sight now. No sooner had he resumed his sawing did he hear their voices.
“Told you he’d run off the first time you left him alone.”
“You did.”
“It wasn’t your lack of charm. He’s a Brute. They’re taught to hate us. You picked the most difficult man for housebreaking.”
“To impress the court!” Olerra defended.
“I know. I’m just saying, don’t expect to work miracles after your first conversation with him.”
They were getting closer, and he made his fingers work faster. Until he saw a pair of sandals right next to his head. He paused. Held his breath.
“Where do you think he went?” Ydra asked.
“He couldn’t have climbed with his feet bound. He’s either behind a tree trunk or tucked under some shrubs. Can I borrow your bow?”
“Sure.”
They walked on. Sanos finally made it through the last of the fibers. His hands were free, but he couldn’t reach his feet in this position. He counted to thirty, then rolled back out of the brambles, earning himself some more scratches.
Olerra was there. She’d moved out of his direct line of sight but no farther. She’d known exactly where he was.
Sh*t.
Sanos ran as fast as the ropes would let him, which wasn’t much better than a walk. If he could just get to the horses. Behind a tree. Something!
As he hobbled, he didn’t hear any sounds of pursuit, so he turned his head.
She took aim with the arrow and loosed.
He braced himself for pain—and then tripped.
His hands took the brunt of the fall, and when he tried to rise, he found he couldn’t get his feet under him.
Because he hadn’t tripped at all.
She’d shot the ropes between his ankles, pinning him to the ground. He couldn’t even roll onto his back until she retrieved the arrow. When she did, he planted his a** on the ground and stared up at her.
Olerra spun the arrow over her fingers in such a way that suggested she was very familiar with the weapon, as though the shot hadn’t already proven that.
“Let’s get something clear, Prince. I have claimed you. That means you belong to me now. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. But make no mistake, our fates are bound together from now on. You can fight all you like, but you’re not going home. And by the time I’m done with you?”
She crouched next to him, gave him a heated perusal.
“You won’t want to.”
From What Fury Brings, published by arrangement with Macmillan Publishers. Copyright © 2025 by Tricia Levenseller.
