The Midnight Queen

In a nineteenth-century Britain where magecraft has directed the course of history, a ruthless conspiracy plots intrigue, treason, and murder. Only a pair of brilliant misfits suspect anything is wrong. And to avert disaster, they'll have to solve a royal mystery more than a decade cold. As the term at Oxford's Merlin College ends, shy, bookish Gray Marshall accompanies his tutor to the country with nowhere else to go. A misadventure has left him in disgrace with his friends and—temporarily?—without magick. He overheard what sounded like a plan to murder the Master of Merlin. But he has no way to investigate his suspicions, and no one to trust. Until his professor's odd, neglected middle daughter, Sophie, befriends him, and he realizes there is far more to her than meets the eye. According to her father, Sophie's dreams of education are unsuitable to a woman. So her midnight library excursions to learn despite him have left her with subtle skills in gathering information, plenty of daring, and even more frustration. As Sophie and Gray begin to guess the aims of the conspirators, they know they must act. But for any chance at justice, they must risk all they have—and change who they are to each other forever… Praise for The Midnight Queen: "Debut novelist Sylvia Izzo Hunter renders both the setting and characters in vivid detail. The structured system of magick gives the fictional world weight, and Hunter manipulates the seemingly disparate plot elements to create tension that culminates in a satisfying conclusion." — Shelf Awareness "Hunter pulls from a multitude of mystical tales and myths to create her own magical version of Britain that is both innovative and intriguing. ... The Midnight Queen is a novel that readers will be unable to put down." — RT Book Reviews "The Midnight Queen is a love story that will warm your heart, and a story of magic and struggle, truth and might, in the face of all odds, with some stunning writing that will really hook readers and brings them into the colorful world that Hunter has created."—Bookworm Blues "Hunter does a splendid job of confounding my expectations ... A fresh and inventive historical novel ... I can't wait to see what Sylvia Izzo Hunter does next." — Marie Brennan, author of A Natural History of Dragons "Elegantly written, fast-paced and highly original – a stunning story of magic, scholarship, and true love. Sylvia Izzo Hunter brings both rural Brittany and an alternative Regency England to vivid life. A remarkably assured debut." — Juliet Marillier, national bestselling author of the Sevenwaters novels