THE MIDNIGHT QUEEN

This novel is a perfect marriage of Susanna Clarke and Naomi Novik, a historical fantasy of magic and menace, music and romance, rife with intrigue and atmosphere...

We begin with Gray Marshall, erstwhile graduate student of Merlin College, Oxford. Disowned by his father and humiliated by Professor Callender, his domineering tutor, Gray is now bereft of his magic and a virtual prisoner on the Professor's country estate in Brittany. He feels betrayed by his friends and abandoned by the gods, but has found an unlikely ally in Sophie Callender -- who has her own excellent reasons to dislike her father.

Their isolated existence is disturbed by an unprecedented visitor: Lord Carteret, chief advisor to King Henry XII. His visit is no mere social call; to their horror, Gray and Sophie learn that their ultimate goal is regicide, and to install the young Crown Prince as puppet ruler. With some surprising help, Gray and Sophie flee Callender Hall on what is at once an escape and rescue mission, which takes them from the Breton countryside across the Channel and ultimately to the Royal Palace in London -- as well as from a once-fraternal affection to a deep and ardent love.

THE MIDNIGHT QUEEN is the first novel in the projected Midnight's Daughters trilogy (see attached synopses for sequels). By day, Sylvia works as a copy editor for a scholarly press, and holds a B.A. in English and French literature, with a particular interest in the medieval and early modern periods.