S.A. MacLean

A socially awkward but determined phoenix keeper must partner with her longtime rival to save her beloved exhibit from falling into obscurity in this charming, romantic fantasy debut. Aila is a little obsessed with phoenixes.    As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, her childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix-nabbing cripples the flagship program at a neighbouring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.    But saving a species takes more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks — Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That’s another story. Finding the courage to ask for help from the hot dragon keeper at a neighbouring exhibit? Virtually impossible. And don’t get Aila started on her arch-rival from the glamorous leader of the zoo’s wildly popular griffin show, who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve better as a performer than a conservation exhibit.   Aided by both friends and enemies, Aila must conquer her social anxiety if she is to restore her breeding programme. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success isn’t only a matter of keeping her the future of a species depends on her.

Fionamara is a smuggler. Antal is the reason her people fear the dark. Fi ferries contraband between worlds, stockpiling funds and stolen magic to keep her village self-sufficient - free from the blood sacrifices humans have paid to Antal's immortal species for centuries. Only legends whispered through the pine forests recall a time when things were different, before one world shattered into many, and the flesh-devouring beasts crept from the cracks between realities, with their sable antlers and slender tails, lethal claws and gleaming fangs. Now, mortal lives are food to pacify their carnivorous overlords, exchanged for feudal protection, and the precious silver energy that fuels everything from transport to weaponry. When Fi gets planted with a stash of smuggled energy, a long-lost flame recruits her for a reckless heist that escalates into a terrorist bombing - and a coup against the reigning immortals, with Fi's home caught in the crossfire. She's always known the dangers of her trade - and of the power she's wielded since childhood, allowing her to see the secret doors between dimensions, to walk the Void itself. But nothing could have prepared her for crossing paths with Antal. For the deal she'll have to make with him, a forced partnership to reclaim his city that begins as a desperate bid for survival, only to grow into something far more dangerous. A revolution. And a temptation - for how sweet the monster's fangs might feel. From the author of the instant Sunday Times-bestselling The Phoenix Keeper comes an era-defining new fantasy universe where spicy romantasy meets the Cosmere, unmissable for fans of the world-building scale of Sarah J. Maas and the world-shifting stakes of Rebecca Yarros. Voidwalker will be your next romantasy obsession, a deliciously feral story that started with just two words: "bite me".