Walter brings her debut duology to an unhappy close with this moody, jam-packed sequel, set 100 years after events of Malice. The kingdom of Briar has fallen to the fury of Alyce, a Vila, or dark sorceress. With Regan, another Vila and potential love interest, at her side, Alyce makes it her mission to provide refuge to dark creatures--among them goblins, demons, and imps­­--that are reviled by the rest of the world just as she was once reviled by Briar. Any humans who survived Alyce's ascension have been bound as servants, and the remaining Graces, benevolent fae, are imprisoned. Meanwhile, Alyce does everything she can to try to wake her love, the sleeping Princess Aurora--including using the miraculous blood of the Graces--but she refuses to consider the one surefire way to break the curse. With tensions rising between the Fae and the Dark Court, Alyce finds herself caught between her kingdom and the woman she loves. The introduction of Regan's character is promising, but goes nowhere, and the story's ending, while logical, will leave fans who've invested in Alyce and Briar feeling cheated. Still, the many twists and dark moral questions keep the pages flying. Agent: Laura Crockett, Triada US. (May)

At the end of Malice (2021), Alyce, always despised for the magic in her green Vila blood, became the monster everyone expected and destroyed the Briar kingdom. One year later, having renamed herself Nimara, she destroys any human fleets seeking to invade what remains of Briar while trying to free Princess Aurora from the sleeping curse--a spell that can be broken with a kiss, but not one given by her. When a shipwrecked Vila appears on the shores of Briar, Nimara is glad for the company and taken with the idea of creating a new land that welcomes creatures displaced by the Fae and persecuted by mortals. A hundred years later, still keeping the cursed Aurora safely hidden, Nimara is Mistress of the Dark Court and immersed in a decades-long war against the Fae. Then another shipwreck victim arrives in her realm, a young, human male. Having bound him to her service with her blood, as she has done with all the mortals within her domain, Nimara has no concerns about any real danger as long as Aurora remains undiscovered. Fans of reimagined fairy tales and LGBTQ+ themes will be delighted with the conclusion of this fantasy duology.

In the much-praised Malice, librarian Walter's thorny reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora saw the best in the Dark Grace Alyce, which others didn't see. Now she lies sleeping endlessly under a terrible curse that cannot be lifted even by powerful Alyce, who become the utterly wicked villain everyone imagined her to be to save her beloved.