Dear bookseller,
My whole life as a reader, and as a writer, has been about fantasy.
The fantasy of romance is the promise of “happily ever after” despite all obstacles, and there’s such joy and comfort in that. I grew up in a remote area. Neighbours… other kids were not even in walking distance. My older brothers were not very interested in playing with a little sister, so books were my salvation and none more than romance novels.
The fantasy of romance, of big sweeping sagas, and, specifically, medieval romance, did something to the wiring in my brain. Castles. Knights. Warrior princesses. A world steeped in impossible danger. There’s just something about characters finding their “happily ever after” amid the bleakest of times. It’s uplifting. Thrilling. Inspiring. It’s the countless fairy tales injected into my veins since preschool.
So when I found myself sitting down at my keyboard in the summer of 2023, the world of A Fire in the Sky spilled across the screen. As the adage goes, I wrote what I know… what I love, what I crave, what I long to read. Castles. Knights. Warrior princesses. A world steeped in impossible danger.
Oh, and dragons.
The story of a royal whipping girl, the quintessential underdog brought up to stoically accept punishment as her due, materialised fully formed in my mind. It was like she was waiting to emerge.
“I couldn’t type this story fast enough.”
Tamsyn is more than she seems, struggling against secrets dark enough to topple a kingdom—a heroine getting it done (eventually) against all odds and finding love (the star-crossed/hopeless kind) in the process. Yesss. It’s the ultimate fantasy. Epic. Transformative, even. The seeming ordinary becoming extraordinary. Tamsyn is me. You. Every woman breaking free from the constraints of a world that seeks to define and subdue her. I couldn’t type this story fast enough.
So there we have it. Medieval vibes and magic (aka, dragons, witches, and more). Castles, knights, steamy kisses and a royal whipping girl rising from the role forced on her since birth. It’s all there – everything I’ve ever loved in a book plus everything I could never find in a book (but wanted) coming together. It’s an amalgamation of all my joys, and I hope you, too, will find joy within the pages.
xo
Sophie
About the book
Hardback: 9780008712341 | £18.99 | Available Now
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous – especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. So when she is tasked with the ultimate sacrifice of pretending to be one of the true royal princesses and marry Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, son to the great dragon slayer, Tamsyn accepts her fate even if it means tricking the deadly warrior.
The wedding night begins with unexpected passion, but ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride . . . but Tamsyn isn’t what she seems. She harbours dark secrets, secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist.
For Tamsyn is more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.
Magic is not dead . . . it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.
