Fable and Legend

Fable and Legend will be released on 28 January! I can’t wait to share Fable’s story with you and introduce you to a host of new characters. Here’s how you can pre-order the book.

Amazon

Pre-order either the Kindle version or the paperback copy.

Barnes and Noble

Pre-order the digital version at Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads

You can also pre-save Fable and Legend on Goodreads.

What’s the book about?

Here’s a reminder of the synopsis. The story follows Fable, one of The Five, on her quest to find her Good twin. Along the way, she meets a boy who can read minds and has to help him evade people who want him dead.

“The beast is out of the cage. And she thirsts for vengeance.”
In the world of Mirrordom, secrets lurk like shadows. For every child that’s born is entirely Good, unable to kill, steal or lie. But immediately after it appears a Mirror twin, capable of only bad things.
Fable, a Mirror girl with a twisted past, dares the impossible: to find her Good twin. Along the way, she meets Cobalt, a mind-reader with secrets of his own. As alliances shift and betrayal beckons, can Fable protect Cobalt from someone who wants to kill him? Or will the darkness consume them both?

Giveaway

I’ll also be running a giveaway on my Instagram and TikTok when I get my author copies. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss it!

Where should you review the book?

I’m so excited to hear your opinions on Fable and Legend. You can leave me a review on Amazon and Goodreads – I’ll be thrilled to hear from you whether you love or hate the book!

Fable and Legend, the second book in my YA fantasy series, The Mirrordom Legends, is out soon – so it seemed like an appropriate time to introduce you to some of the characters you’ll be meeting (some of whom you already know from Venom and Blaze!)

All the books in my series are set in a world where humanity is divided into Good and Mirrors. As their name suggests, the Good are unable to lie, steal or kill – but their Mirror twin can do all those things and more. To protect the world, the Mirrors are taken from their mothers at birth and kept on Mirror Island, where they can’t hurt anyone. The souls of the twins are so bound up in each other that to kill a Mirror would kill their Good twin – so it would be impossible to simply eliminate the Mirrors without eliminating all the Good too.

I know a lot of you are waiting to hear what happens to Venom and Blaze after the events of the first book. However, you’ll have to wait until the third book (City and Shadow) to see what happens to Venom and Blaze.

The setting

Fable and Legend is set directly after the events of the first book and follows Fable, one of The Five Mirrors who were imprisoned in the dungeons of King Viper’s castle. Now, all of The Five have escaped and are navigating an unfamiliar world they’re entirely unprepared for.

Most of the action in this book takes place either in taverns, in a farmhouse or in the infamous Glittering City, renowned for its decadence and wealth.

The characters

Fable

Fable, who occasionally goes by Elegance when she wants to be incognito, is trying her best to blend in and pretend to be Good. She’s making it her mission in life to track down her Good twin, Legend. Fable is clever and resourceful, but also innocent and naïve. She struggles to make sense of the world around her, having been imprisoned in a dungeon since she was a baby. Can she trust the people around her? Will finding her family help her find herself?

Cobalt

The boy who can read minds. Cobalt doesn’t believe in prophecies (even though there’s one about him) and all he wants to do is make money, live richly and capitalise on his abilities. Shortly after crossing paths with Fable, he realises he can use her in his nightly cons. However, after an enemy from the past shows up and someone tries to kill him, Cobalt realises he needs Fable to protect him while he figures out who wants him dead and why.

Legend

Legend is Fable’s twin – and she’s nothing like Fable imagined. The happy-ever-after, fall-into-each-other’s-arms meeting never happened. In fact, if anything, Legend seems unnaturally hostile towards Fable. Just what secrets is Legend hiding? And can Fable ever bridge the chasm that lies between them and truly connect with her twin?

Ballad

Ballad is an old friend from Cobalt’s past – who isn’t acting like a friend at all. She wants revenge for something that happened when they were both fifteen – and she’ll stop at nothing to get it.

There’s also going to be a surprise appearance from another of The Five, who shows up in a most unexpected manner – but I can’t say any more than that!

Which character do you think you’ll relate to most? Driven, confident Cobalt? Determined, stubborn Fable? Or someone else entirely? Let me know in the comments which character you’re most intrigued to meet.

Over a thousand miles. Eight trains. Multiple hotels. Two action-packed days. YALC 2024 is over.

I’ll be blogging about the experience more, but I wanted to share some more exciting news: Fable and Legend took another step closer to publication day! When I got back, the proof copy was waiting for me.

What happens next?

It’s my job to go through the printed book to triple-check everything. This is a very important part of the proofreading and editing process and, at this point, I usually ask my early readers to let me know if they’ve spotted anything too. It’s amazing what can slip through the cracks!

Promoting Fable and Legend

Fable and Legend is one of my favourite books in the series. I love the character interplay and growth and the way Fable develops from a quiet, uncertain young girl to a woman who takes control of her own destiny and makes tough decisions.

The book is dedicated to everyone who ever had to make impossible choices. I hope Fable’s story will resonate with you all.

Many lovely readers will have picked up Venom and Blaze at YALC, so I’m looking forward to when they’re ready to read Fable and Legend.

The blurb

“The beast is out of the cage. And she thirsts for vengeance.”
In the world of Mirrordom, secrets lurk like shadows. For every child that’s born is entirely Good, unable to kill, steal or lie. But immediately after it appears a Mirror twin, capable of only bad things.
Fable, a Mirror girl with a twisted past, dares the impossible: to find her Good twin. Along the way, she meets Cobalt, a mind-reader with secrets of his own. As alliances shift and betrayal beckons, can Fable protect Cobalt from someone who wants to kill him? Or will the darkness consume them both?

I’ll be back very soon with an update of when Fable and Legend is ready to pre-order! In the meantime, back to editing!

Say hello to the cover for Fable and Legend!

Designed by the ultra-talented Ashley of Redbird Designs, this cover was very challenging to brief. Unlike Venom and Blaze and City and Shadow, there aren’t many tangible elements that would make good cover material.

However, Ashley came up with the genius idea of using a mirror to symbolise all the Mirrors. The snake represents betrayal – which is a common theme in this story – and the gold coins also feature within the novel.

Fable and Legend will be out soon and I can’t wait to share it with you. This novel was one of my favourites to write and I feel is one of best I’ve written to date. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I’m glad the cover was designed before YALC as it meant I got the chance to design some lovely merch for the occasion.

If you happen to be in London this weekend, come and see me – and grab yourself some merch!

The blog has been extra quiet lately. This is because I’ve been working on another story set in Mirrordom (once which is likely going to muck up the trilogy concept because it’ll make four in total. And I’m not even going to mention at this stage that I have plans for a fifth.)

I’ve been working on this one over the winter, simply because I felt the character of Quiver’s mother deserved her own story. And because I ended up writing a throwaway remark in Venom and Blaze that I later realised was quite a cool concept I wanted to explore further.

I can’t say too much at this time – and, of course, there’s no guarantee this book will ever see the light of day. Frankly, if I were my publisher, I’d tell me to go and have a good long think about my actions because I seem to have no concept of the words “chronological order.” Other seasoned authors seem to manage to write their books in the order things happen, rather than my haphazard Oh-I-Think-This-Character-Needs-Their-Own-Story-So-I’ll-Go-Back-And-Write-It-And-Give-No-Heed-To-The-Fact-It-Mucks-Up-The-Planned-Order sort of way. Because this book would come directly after the events of Venom and Blaze so it would become the second in the series, bumping City and Shadow down (again) to third in the series.

I know we’re not supposed to have favourites but this one might just be my new favourite. In a way, it’s quite fitting that Quiver’s mother gets her own story because the very first Mirrordom book I wrote began with her. Although she’s largely overshadowed by other characters, it’s her actions that end up setting a chain of events in motion. Writing about her in her own right gave me a chance to explore her complexities and develop her character.

So what can I say about this book?

Well, we have some new settings. Most of the action of the other books takes place around the castle and the caves. This book features the Glittering City, a farmhouse on the edge of the woods and a lot of taverns – all brand-new locations.

We also have some brand new characters, like Cobalt, Legend and Ballad. Every one of them has their own secrets and Fable finds herself caught up in their stories. We also get to see the return of another familiar character, but I can’t say too much about that.

Part of the reason for writing this blog has always been to document the whole process of writing books and aiming to get them published. At the very least, it’ll be something for me to look back on later and perhaps learn from. So here’s another stitch in the tapestry of working on Mirrordom: throwing yet another novel into the mix. I daresay everyone will be quite used to that by now.