cover image Jala’s Mask

Jala’s Mask

Mike Grinti and Rachel Grinti. Pyr, $18 trade paper (300p) ISBN 978-1-61614-978-9

Sentimental romance makes friends with lost-race fantasy in a terse, psychologically robust fable of star-crossed lovers. After Jula of the Bardo tribe and Azi, Kayet King of the wealthy Five-and-One Islands, marry against their families’ wishes, political upheavals, encouraged by Azi’s uncle Lord Inas, ensue. Inas’s machinations are interrupted by invading sorcerous ships, which are filled with corpses. Jala receives a grim portent from a sorcerer of Fire Mountain and struggles to avert destiny by merging her two fractured families as Azi battles his fears and becomes a true king. Supernatural horror, court intrigue, and intricate social allegiances breathe life into a familiar coming-of-age story that also includes plenty of forbidden sorcery and pulpy adventure. [em](Nov.) [/em]