A Clockwork Fairytale
Highlights!
A Victorian-style, historical fantasy world.
Magical Earth Jinns, Foul Jinns and Silver Serpents.
Clockwork devices powered by Jinns.
A lost princess and the handsome young spymaster who finds her.
First love, coming-of-age story.
Summary
Abandoned as a young child, plucky, seventeen-year-old Melba was raised like a boy to pick pockets and run messages in the poor outer circles of Royal Malverne Isle. But She longs to move up the criminal hierarchy and become a spy. When nineteen-year-old Turk, a spymaster and local folk hero, accepts her pledge to join his gang, she thinks the Great Earth Jinn has heard her prayer. With his exotic, dark southern looks and wealthy lifestyle in the inner circle, Turk fascinates her. Not only is he a famous spy, he also wields earth magic, and he teaches her to raise tiny, playful Jinns from flowers. But Turk is not who he seems. He follows the orders of a higher power and his master has secret plans for Melba, plans that make her a target of the evil Royal Victualler's foul magic, plans that challenge Melba and Turk's beliefs about life and duty, plans that tear them apart, just as they discover what it means to fall in love.
Suitable for adults and teenagers.
In ancient times, psychics were the most feared sorcerers in the world, able to wipe out legions of men with a single thought.
Now there is only Melanthe. Stuck working as a servant with no sign that her attempts to control her powers are working, she is running out of time. When the inevitable happens and she lets her magic loose by accident, a werewolf guardsman, Rowan, steps in to save her--shifting in the process. They are both arrested for unlicensed use of magic, a major crime in the eyes of the paranoid royal family.
In a last, desperate bid to help her learn to use her magic safely, Mel is sent back to the ruins of her mother's hometown of Highhold, where her fellow psychics perished eighteen years ago. Her only companion on her journey is Rowan, and Mel's heard all the stories about werewolves and their beastly tendencies. To protect herself, the Captain of the Guard gives Mel a silver knife. One cut, and Rowan will die.
However, it soon turns out that Rowan is no monster, leaving Mel wondering who she really needs to protect herself from.
Cover by clarkethevirus