422pp., paperback, Flare Books, EL Paso, 2026
ISBN: 9781963511642
A fantasy novel for young adults.
In the forest behind her new home in Gloucestershire seventeen-year-old Willow McBane meets Raff Dunaid, heir to Emberlyn, a hidden realm powered by the currents that sustain life on Earth, currents that are now failing, and joins him to save the trees of Deepwood, the last place where magic still seeps between the worlds.
"A triumphant YA debut. Warm, witty, and original, this portal fantasy is, at its heart, a story about what we inherit and what we fight to keep. Readers will root for the bad-ass girl who refuses to be saved, a world that needs her, and a love story that straddles the ordinary and the impossible." Harper Ross, author of The Unwritten Rules of Magic
Elise Chidley was born in eSwatini, went to school and university in KwaZulu-Natal, and lives in Connecticut, where she teaches creative writing at The Westport Writers' Workshop. She is the author of the novel Your Roots Are Showing, published in the UK as The Wrong Sort of Wife.