Pushed aside due to her disability, Salandrine had always accepted she’d never be the princess her parents had wished her to be. But no more. Circumstances force her out of the shadow of her brother, where she finally discovers she has a role to play.

• Black Autistic princess
• Romance subplot (f/f)
• Non-European inspired high fantasy
• Trans and non-binary characters

 

Book description

Salandrine is second in line to the paradisiacal desert country Mnaluria, but her many cousins would inherit the throne before she ever will. Ever since she’d been diagnosed with Autism, her parents and the courts stopped believing in her. Only her brother Kasim and the courts’ advisor Oba see her potential. The only question is; potential for what?

Gradually she’s forced to come to terms with the truth. She’ll learn the difference between being useful and being used. Between being taken care of and being loved. She’ll struggle to survive, have to learn to stand her ground in the face of abuse, and that she has a right to be herself.

But Salandrine isn’t only confronted with an inner struggle. Along her journey, Salandrine will find love and support in Amal, who immigrated to Mnaluria as the country’s new Shaper; a mage detrimental to the health, stability, and growth of the lands. Together, they search for the answers their country needs when Mnaluria is stricken with a mysterious draught and people are losing their magic.

 

Named after its main star, my high fantasy book SALANDRINE is about surviving abuse and learning self-love and self-confidence. It has rich and diverse world-building, with an all-Black and brown cast of characters, in Mnaluria’s dominant culture where polyamory and queer identities are the norm, portrayal of characters of different cultural backgrounds (in-world cultures). Inspiration for developing the cultures and other aspects of the world-building came from north-African and middle eastern cultures, if not spawned inside my own mind.

 

You can read the first chapter here!