'Our kind has many names. Planetborn. Sorcerer. Witch or wizard. Magician.' In Alvion, magicians have influenced and ruled beside kings for thousands of years. Blessed at birth by one of the seven planets, their abilities are miraculous and extremely rare. Magicians born under Saturn can speak to the dead. Venusborn charm the living. Moonborn manipulate emotions and memory, and alter their own appearance. Mercuryborn create new languages and decode ciphers.It’s been years since Moonborn magician Bianca was forced to leave court. Even longer since she has seen her old childhood pink-haired, Venus-ruled Roland who has risen to become the most dangerous living magician and courtier in her absence. When Bianca is invited back into the fold for the new queen’s coronation, she agrees; she’s eager to use this as an opportunity to investigate the mysterious death of Prince Hal and mourn the more recent loss of her and Roland’s former mentor Prospero. But court is not as she remembered it’s now on the brink of chaos.Roland - sensual, beautiful, and infuriating - has taken over Prospero’s role as the King’s advisor. And he’s been tasked with the same impossible assignment that saw Prospero and multiple queens’ heads helping the King secure an heir. For the sake of their mutually beloved Hal, and to save themselves from the surrounding scheming courtiers, Bianca and Roland reluctantly become allies. But their investigation will uncover more than they’d bargained for. It will upend everything they thought they knew about each other— and magic itself.Set in a fantasy world inspired by Tudor England and the real astrologers who advised kings, THE COURT OF VENUS is Bel Banta's fantasy debut and a beautifully written historical novel about rival magicians.

“No killing Goblins.” So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours. It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die. In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn. She’s an [Innkeeper].

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington. AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me. But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.

“No killing Goblins.” So reads the sign outside of The Wandering Inn, a small building run by a young woman named Erin Solstice. She serves pasta with sausage, blue fruit juice, and dead acid flies on request. And she comes from another world. Ours. It’s a bad day when Erin finds herself transported to a fantastical world and nearly gets eaten by a Dragon. She doesn’t belong in a place where monster attacks are a fact of life, and where Humans are one species among many. But she must adapt to her new life. Or die. In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn. She’s an [Innkeeper].

'Our kind has many names. Planetborn. Sorcerer. Witch or wizard. Magician.' In Alvion, magicians have influenced and ruled beside kings for thousands of years. Blessed at birth by one of the seven planets, their abilities are miraculous and extremely rare. Magicians born under Saturn can speak to the dead. Venusborn charm the living. Moonborn manipulate emotions and memory, and alter their own appearance. Mercuryborn create new languages and decode ciphers.It’s been years since Moonborn magician Bianca was forced to leave court. Even longer since she has seen her old childhood pink-haired, Venus-ruled Roland who has risen to become the most dangerous living magician and courtier in her absence. When Bianca is invited back into the fold for the new queen’s coronation, she agrees; she’s eager to use this as an opportunity to investigate the mysterious death of Prince Hal and mourn the more recent loss of her and Roland’s former mentor Prospero. But court is not as she remembered it’s now on the brink of chaos.Roland - sensual, beautiful, and infuriating - has taken over Prospero’s role as the King’s advisor. And he’s been tasked with the same impossible assignment that saw Prospero and multiple queens’ heads helping the King secure an heir. For the sake of their mutually beloved Hal, and to save themselves from the surrounding scheming courtiers, Bianca and Roland reluctantly become allies. But their investigation will uncover more than they’d bargained for. It will upend everything they thought they knew about each other— and magic itself.Set in a fantasy world inspired by Tudor England and the real astrologers who advised kings, THE COURT OF VENUS is Bel Banta's fantasy debut and a beautifully written historical novel about rival magicians.

At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington. AUDI. VIDE. TACE. The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do. I tell them that I belong, and they believe me. But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart. And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family. To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me. And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.