“Romantasy fans will be ensorcelled and left begging for more.” —Booklist
"An enchanting adventure anchored by a queer romance; this is a welcome spin on a familiar story." —Kirkus Reviews
“A beautifully layered construction of identity that opens the fairy-tale space to people who may not have seen themselves represented before.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review
A sapphic twist on the classic fairy tale, “Snow White and Rose Red.”
The western wood is where Ro’s father built their garden, taught her to forage, and told her tales of the faeries who live there—how to summon them, how to protect herself, and warnings of what they are capable of. Now, her father is gone, the garden has withered, and their family is struggling. Her mother and sister want to move into town, but Ro doesn’t want to give up the memories of her father and his stories—or the charming village girl who shares Ro’s love of the trees. And the forest isn’t ready to let her go either.
One winter night, on her way home from foraging, Ro encounters a fox being attacked by a bear. She fights the bear to save the fox’s life, only to see the bear turn into a boy after her sister shoots him with an arrow. When the boy wakes, he has no memory of who he is—all he knows is Ro’s name and that he has to kill the fox.
Ro never believed in the faeries from her father’s stories, but she can’t deny the magic surrounding her and that both the boy and the fox are victims of a faerie curse. She’ll have to remember everything her father taught her in order to extract herself from this deadly game and keep her precious fox out of harm’s way.
“Poetic and spellbinding. This atmospheric and assured debut is steeped in the tension between familial and romantic love—and the dark histories that can shatter both.” —Eliot Schrefer, Printz-honor author of The Darkness Outside Us