Ages: 13 and up
A musician is swept away to the Celestial Realm by a handsome duke in this new YA standalone from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison.
Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at the most esteemed entertainment house in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of the House of Flowing Water.
With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. One night she's called to the garden to give a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue with an offer: perform at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.
But the Duke’s motives become suspect when they barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks Xue away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. She learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by bloodthirsty demons are growing more frequent. The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock the secrets of how to stop the impending war… but first she'll need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.
Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison, weaves a dreamy gothic romance worthy of the heavens in Song of the Six Realms.
