Grief and an Awakening Darkness Shape Lucas Hanley’s Call of Shadow: Talira

Transported from Earth to Letherim, three friends face a death sentence while searching for the reason a mysterious necklace chose Ezrah.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, November 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — In Lucas Hanley’s Call of Shadow: Talira, a teenager struggling after his sister’s death is pulled into a world that threatens his own life. Ezrah’s arrival in Letherim sets a fantasy adventure in motion, but his bereavement remains central: the dangers he encounters give outward form to a struggle already underway.

The passage from Earth begins with a mysterious necklace that transports Ezrah and his friends, Hugo and Olivia, into a realm of kingdoms, dangerous magic, and buried secrets. Their displacement brings more than unfamiliar surroundings. They must confront threats they do not yet understand while trying to discover why the necklace chose Ezrah.

That search becomes a fight for survival when the three friends are branded as spies and sentenced to die. Escape is an immediate necessity, not the end of their predicament. The accusation places all three in danger and gives their search for answers an urgency beyond the mystery of how they arrived.

Ezrah also faces a threat within himself. A power is stirring inside him, and a shadowy voice knows more about his fate than it should. The possibility that darkness could take control makes his emerging abilities a source of uncertainty rather than an uncomplicated advantage. Discovering what that power means is part of the danger.

The trail leads toward the Tome of Talira, bringing further dangers, uneasy allies, and choices that could change the friends. This quest joins the book’s central questions: why Ezrah was chosen, what is awakening within him, and whether he can uncover the truth before the darkness gains control.

Friendship gives the adventure a shared stake. Hugo and Olivia cross into Letherim with Ezrah and face the same death sentence, even as the necklace’s choice and the awakening power single him out. That distinction places an intensely personal mystery inside a predicament that all three must survive.

For Hanley, the fantasy and the grief are inseparable. He describes the monsters and dark corridors as reflections of the weight of sudden loss, rather than diversions from it. Ezrah’s sister died several months before the story begins, and the grief he carries into the opening chapter remains a driving force throughout the adventure.

The imagined world has its own history in Hanley’s life. In his account, it began at the kitchen table as a D&D campaign, through hours spent mapping dungeons and inventing continents. Building that world offered a sense of control: monsters had weaknesses, and even tragedy could be answered with a better roll of the dice.

Hanley connects the novel’s emotional foundation to the sudden death of his father. He recalls setting aside his notebooks during his grief, then returning to his story after watching his mother write through her own sorrow. Ezrah’s loss is different from his author’s, but Hanley identifies the shock of bereavement as their point of connection.

That connection also informs the readership Hanley hopes to reach, particularly teenagers and young adults experiencing significant loss. Call of Shadow: Talira approaches that experience through a fantasy narrative: three friends far from Earth, a quest toward a mysterious tome, and a protagonist whose struggle with grief continues amid the demands of survival.

Available now on Amazon.

Secure your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQGLHKKC

For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:

Lucas Hanley
BrightKey PR
media@brightkeypr.com

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