The Reluctant Queen

From the bestselling author of The Spellshop comes the mesmerizing second book in the Queens of Renthia epic fantasy trilogy of malevolent nature spirits, a young queen learning as she goes, a mother with unwanted powers, an unsettled kingdom, and family found along the way-available in trade paperback for the first time. Not long ago, Daleina used her strength and skill to prevent the elemental spirits of wood, earth, water, air, fire, and ice from exterminating the human race and assumed the responsibility as Queen of keeping the peace and protected the humans of her land. But now for all her power, if she leaves the world before a new heir is ready, the spirits that inhabit her beloved realm will run wild, destroying her cities and slaughtering her people. Naelin is one such potential heir, but she couldn't be further removed from the Queen-and she wouldn't have it any other way. Her world is her two children, her husband, and the remote village tucked deep in the forest that is her home, and that's all she needs. But when Ven, the Queen's champion, passes through the village, Naelin's ambitious husband proudly tells him of his wife's ability to control spirits-magic that Naelin fervently denies. She knows that if the truth of her abilities is known, it will bring only death and separation from those she loves. But Ven has a single task: to find the best possible candidate to protect the people of Aratay. He did it once when he discovered Daleina, and he's certain he's done it again. Yet for all his appeals to duty, Naelin is a mother, and she knows her duty is to her children first and foremost. Only as the spirits become emboldened-even as ominous rumors trickle down from the north-does she realize that the best way to keep her son and daughter safe is to risk everything. Sarah Beth Durst established a place of dark wonder in The Queen of Blood, and now the stakes are even higher as the threat to the Queen and her people grows both from within and beyond the borders of Aratay in this riveting second novel of the Queens of Renthia series.

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Spellshop, as well as over twenty-five fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including the Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and Spark. She has won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat.