we're the ones who live

You are cordially invited to the Dragon Masquerade…

Del has two rules. One: stay away from royalty. Two: don’t fall in love.

The first – because Del is secretly a runaway princess. After the death of her sister at the hand of her boyfriend, Del flees her family, home and all the responsibilities that come with being the queendom’s new heir. With a magically constructed mirrorwoven face, Del is now unrecognisable, and disappears to the faraway opaline lagoon-city of Salato.

The second rule – because the enchantment hiding Del’s identity can only be unravelled by true love’s kiss. But that’s just fine. Del’s had enough of love anyway.

When Del breaks Rule One and becomes court bard to the newly widowed First of Salato, she is resolved to keep her head down. But Clara is naïve and trusts too easily, and soon Del finds herself having to guide Clara through the shoals of court life, somehow without revealing her own secret.

As Del grows closer to both Clara and Nasca, Clara’s brilliant, dangerous sister-in-law, it will only take a push to bring Del’s house of cards tumbling down.

Like, for example, breaking Rule Two.

You can expect:

✨ A Renaissance Venice-inspired setting

✨ A sapphic love triangle

✨ A protagonist who is very good at music and very bad at everything else

✨ Court intrigue

✨ Mirror magic

✨ True love's kiss breaks the spell

✨ ...which must be avoided at all costs

✨ Angst, angst and more angst

✨ Two (2) good jokes

✨ One hundred and fifty-seven (157) bad ones

✨ That clip of Marie Kondo saying 'I love mess'; that's it, that's the whole book

Preorders are live for the UK and Europe from your preferred retailer; North America and ANZ watch this space. If you're interested in the book I would be extremely grateful if you preordered a copy or asked your library to buy it - preorders are really important for debut authors in particular as they signal to a publisher that readers are excited for the book, which can matter a lot for how the publisher chooses to allocate resources. (Waterstones and B&N both have preorder sales a few times a year with very nice discounts.) Alternatively you can add the book on Goodreads if you like, or follow me on Instagram @/sorrynotbori for book updates and cat pictures.

Those of you who were following along with my writing may remember that I initially reworked my fic A Fistful of Stars and tried for publication with it - this is obviously not that (it had structural issues that made it unsuitable for tradpub, which I do one day intend to see if I can fix) but a completely new story that's wholly mine from the ground up.*

I'm so excited to announce this book here. Fandom communities were my very first writing communities, and the encouragement and enthusiasm I received on my early ventures into writing via fanfiction are a big part of what gave me the confidence to pursue traditional publishing. Thank you so much to anyone reading this who ever left me a comment or a kudos or just silently read and enjoyed my fics - this book exists in large part because of you.

- B xx 🐸🌈✨