15 parts Complete When 17-year-old Ren Taylor is swept off a ferry during her family vacation in Scotland, she ends up in a hidden world of bagpipes and whisky, populated by fairies with tails and scales. She learns that she's the kingdom's long-lost princess. Once the shock wears off, she finds solace in the kingdom, from her newfound friendship with the hunky and consistently kilt-clad stable manager to the haughty prince Ren comes to love as her brother. Everything is exactly as the stories said it would be.
Well, not everything. Ren can't perform the magic that should be her birthright as princess. When she digs deeper, she discovers that it was all a mistake. Ren isn't the princess. She isn't even a fairy. Reeling, she sets out to find answers, and the true princess. She finds her, but the princess doesn't seem as ignorant of magic as she claims to be. As Ren learns more, she comes to suspect that the princess is plotting to kill the prince. She could go home now, pretend that the whole thing was a dream, not risk her very human life in this magical battle - but if she does, the prince will die, and the kingdom will fall into the hands of their enemies.
CASTLE OF FLAME is a YA contemporary fantasy, complete at 99,000 words. It is a total of fifteen chapters. The protagonist is biromantic asexual, and there are a bunch of queer supporting characters.
The story includes:
· found family
· Highland ponies
· road trip woes
· one bed trope (but gay)
· coexistence of magic & science
· swoony romance & epic friendships
· sympathetic villain
TW: gun violence, death, kidnapping, torture (implied), homophobia, internalized acephobia (this only comes up twice - this is not a book where the character struggles with her asexuality), destructive house and forest fires.