Alina Bellchambers grew up in her family’s bookstore and spent a childhood immersed in Fantastical worlds. Armed with a degree in psychology, she now writes fantasies featuring fierce female protagonists, morally grey characters and magic.
Sixteen year-old circus performer Mira seemed to have spent her whole life on the run and she didn’t even know her mother Celeste’s real mane. She is determined to turn her life around by competing in the deadly Trials and winning a place in one of the three magical royal Orders.
Princess Scarlet has also spent most of her life looking over her shoulder since Emperor Kalias decided to include his bastard daughter in the line of succession, and her step brothers Cassius and Roran want her out of the way.
The three Orders are the Order of Artisans with people who can glimpse into the future; the Order of Warriors and the Order of Masks, which is mysterious and out of reach to all but a few. Those who make it into an order are promised wealth, status and protection and an elevated status about ordinary citizens.
Just entering the Trial has meant that Mira has come to the attention of people who want to kill her and her mother, even though she doesn’t know why this is so. When Scarlet comes to her rescue, the two of them form an unlikely alliance and they must decide whether they are co-conspirators or rivals.
Both Mira and Scarlet want to prove themselves and get revenge on the people who have wronged them, but they have to navigate court intrigue, forbidden romances and a glittering world of magic.
Lezly Herbert
