In enchanted India, low-caste guardian Anik must protect forbidden magic and survive a deadly tournament where love and dark secrets could be his undoing.
My Kick-Ass Back Cover Description
Step into a world where magic breathes from ancient scrolls, and secrets can kill…
In an alternate, enchanted India, eighteen-year-old Anik serves in the country’s most powerful magical institution, the Great Library, where books whisper, scrolls shimmer with spells, and danger lurks in every dusty corner. But Anik hides a secret: he possesses forbidden magic tied to his low caste. If discovered, he faces a brutal fate at the hands of the soul-stealing witch known as the Dayan, a fate that claims his master, the Librarian.
When Anik is forced to take his master’s place, he becomes entangled in the lives of the royal maharaja’s gifted twins, the mysterious and brooding Nyan, and the fiery, fearless Ishana, who captures Anik’s heart. Together, they embark on a perilous journey through a haunted jungle to reach the legendary Night of Wonders, a deadly magical tournament where enchanters from across the nation compete for glory.
But something darker than rivalry stirs in the shadows. A terrifying presence, feared even among the most powerful magicians, has awakened. With forbidden romance, caste defiance, magical creatures, and a race against time, Anik must decide who he truly is… before the Library falls and takes them all with it.
A young adult fantasy perfect for fans of The Night Circus, Shadow and Bone, and The Star-Touched Queen, this standalone fantasy novel weaves paranormal adventure, historical re-imagining, and epic magic into an unforgettable tale of love, power, and survival.
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The Story Behind the Story
After finishing my Tudor Throne Series, I wanted a creative break and to write something completely different, so I went back to my historical fantasy roots.
This book came about in stages—complicated ones. I initially took out an old draft and tried to breathe new life into it, but it did not work out well. I struggled to rebuild the threads of a ghostly tapestry formed in my teens, only to decide to create an individual adventure, about a native boy in India given control over a magical library.
I finished a version of it, sent it to a friend, and she said your plot is great, but it needs to feel even more Indian in tone. It is set in India, infuse it with India. So I did. Out went all of my English colonialism subtext, in went a bunch of Hindi gods, myths, and lore, built around an all-Indian cast. And it worked. I fell in love all over again with this world, of a low-caste boy with a secret. With the brooding but kind-hearted Nyan, and his twin sister, Ishana, who has more darkness in her than you might imagine.
I delved into the truly wonderful stories that come from that time and place, such as ghosts that walk with you in the wood and try to lure you away from safety to your death. (They have backward feet, that is how you can tell they are not alive!) And it all accumulates in a Night of Wonders, a magical competition on the shores of an immense lake, which leads to a cataclysmic showdown between good and evil.
When I began the story, I thought I knew how it would end. I was wrong. The ending, which is powerful and holds a kernel of hope, came upon me by degrees, but it felt wrong to end it any other way. What is that ending? You’ll have to read it and find out for yourself, but it’s beautiful.
