City and Shadow

The moment that’s been three years in the making is finally here. City and Shadow is out in the world.

If you want to know what happened to Venom and Blaze, this is the book for you.

You’ll also get to meet three brand-new characters; City, Shadow and Quiver.

“At first, they tried to co-exist. The Good and their Mirror. The firstborn and the twin that emerged immediately after…”

In a world where every person has a Mirror twin capable of doing only bad things, Quiver is the only one born Mirrorless. Along with his best friend, City, the two must navigate a society ruled by a tyrannical queen and threatened by a dangerous rebel. And, when City’s Mirror escapes from her island prison, a chain of events is set in motion that thrusts Quiver, City and her Mirror into a dangerous struggle for power and survival.

Who will your favourite character be?

I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth novel, and the third in my series The Mirrordom Legends, is due out 11 August!

City and Shadow is my most ambitious novel yet. Told solely from City’s point of view, the book follows the story of a brand-new set of characters in the world of Mirrordom (along with some very familiar returning characters!)

Here’s the blurb:

“At first, they tried to co-exist. The Good and their Mirror. The firstborn and the twin that emerged immediately after…”

In a world where every person has a Mirror twin capable of doing only bad things, Quiver is the only one born Mirrorless. Along with his best friend, City, the two must navigate a society ruled by a tyrannical queen and threatened by a dangerous rebel. And, when City’s Mirror escapes from her island prison, a chain of events is set in motion that thrusts Quiver, City and her Mirror into a dangerous struggle for power and survival.

Pre-order yours

City and Shadow is now available to pre-order on Amazon.

If you’re not already, pop over to my Instagram and follow me. In the build-up to release day, I’ll be posting seven random facts about the book, giving followers the chance to win their own copy and sharing teaser quotes.

I have so much pride, love and affection for this book. It was written in the spring/summer of 2023, a pivotal point in my life professionally and personally. I poured so much passion and energy into this book and I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it (which was a lot!).

It’s time to step back into Mirrordom. And it’s going to be a dark and wild ride.

The blurb and cover for City and Shadow has now been finalised!

As always, Ashley of Redbird Designs did a phenomenal job.

The question I’m sure you’re not asking is “Hang on… City and Shadow is the third in the series, right? So how come we’re seeing the cover for it before Fable and Legend?” It’s an excellent question.

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you’ll know that City and Shadow was actually the first in the series and intended to be a standalone novel… So after I mucked up the order and wrote not one, but two, prequels, you can understand some confusion arose. Leading to City and Shadow‘s cover being ready before Fable and Legend‘s.

The blurb

“At first, they tried to co-exist. The Good and their Mirror. The firstborn and the twin that emerged immediately after…”

In a world where every person has a Mirror twin capable of doing only bad things, Quiver is the only one born Mirrorless. Along with his best friend, City, the two must navigate a society ruled by a tyrannical queen and threatened by a dangerous rebel. And, when City’s Mirror escapes from her island prison, a chain of events is set in motion that thrusts Quiver, City and her Mirror into a dangerous struggle for power and survival.

The cover

Ready to find out what happens to Venom and Blaze now they’re all grown up? Venom and Blaze is essentially their origin story – but City and Shadow is when they truly embrace their dark sides.

Venom is now queen and still has spiders and snakes at her command.

Fable, too, is all grown up and makes a major appearance in the story. (I can’t say too much more without giving away some important stuff!)

I know I’m not really allowed to have favourites, but I do have a soft spot for City and Shadow. City is a very special character for me and I hope you love her, Shadow and Quiver as much as I do. I can’t wait for you to meet them all next year!

What 2025 releases are you most excited for?

UPDATE: As of 28 December, City and Shadow‘s release date has been changed. It was originally due out in Summer 2024. I have not edited the blog to reflect the change.

My debut novel, City and Shadow, is due out in Summer 2024. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the release date:

What’s the book about?

“At first, they tried to co-exist. The Good and their Mirror. The firstborn and the twin that emerged immediately after…”
In a world where every person has a Mirror twin capable of doing only bad things, Quiver is the only one born Mirrorless. Along with his best friend, City, the two must navigate a society ruled by a tyrannical queen and threatened by a dangerous rebel. And, when City’s Mirror escapes from her island prison, a chain of events is set in motion that thrusts Quiver, City and her Mirror into a dangerous struggle for power and survival.

Who are the main characters and what are they like?

My book ended up having three main characters, all of equal importance. It centres around the story of three very different teenagers, who each have their own complexities and problems.

Quiver is a revolutionary. He’s never fitted in and he channels that to create a world of chance. He’s not afraid to make the tough choices, even if that means sacrificing something he cares about.

The story is told through the eyes and from the perspective of his best friend, City. City is a quiet girl who just wants to maintain the status quo. Unfortunately, for her, life has other plans…

Shadow is City’s Mirror – and my favourite character, if I’m allowed to have favourites. Funny, sarcastic, slightly aggressive and never taking no for an answer, Shadow has personality in bucketloads and she’s not afraid to make it known.

What about the villain?

I couldn’t pick one protagonist – so I definitely couldn’t pick one villain either. This book has two.

Queen Venom is a cool, calculating monarch who’s found a way round the fact that she’s Good and unable to kill, lie, steal or do anything particularly bad. At least, not directly. As you’ll find in the book, she can do quite a lot of bad things.

Blaze is the other villain. He pops up later in the book but makes up for it by doing an awful lot of damage in a short space of time.

Villains are my favourite characters to write as you can have such fun describing them, what makes them tick and why they made the choices they did.

Does the book come with a trigger warning?

It’s very dark, so I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart.

What ages should read the book?

Ages 13+ would be able to read my book. There’s one swear word in it (sorry, Mum) but that’s about it, apart from the aforementioned darkness.

What’s with all the spiders?

Early on, I had a vision for a character that wore a dress of live spiders. This morphed into a character that literally just wore spiders. Queen Venom became that character. She’s covered entirely in spiders that reshape themselves, depending on what sort of outfit she needs. I anticipate this will gross a few people out, but I’ve always been very fond of spiders.

Will there be another story in the Mirrordom universe?

I’m already planning a prequel and a sequel. Whether they ever see the light of day or not is another matter. I have working titles and vague plots for both, but the prequel will aim to explore the relationship between Venom and Blaze, while teeing up the City and Shadow sequel. The sequel will explain how Quiver came to be Mirrorless.

Summer 2024 is ages away. What about right now?

Right now, you can take my Which City and Shadow Character Are You? quiz, which will let you know which of my three protagonists you’ll resonate with the most. And I’m planning a blog post on books I’ve loved that you might want to check out.