An Affair of Poisons

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What to expect

No one looks kindly on the killer of a king.

After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. She herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters whom her mother vows to purge.

Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half of the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant dauphin. Forced to hide in the sewers beneath the city, Josse’s hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible―until his path collides with Mirabelle’s.

She’s a deadly poisoner. He’s a bastard prince. They are sworn enemies, yet they form a tenuous pact to unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. But can a rebellion built on mistrust ever hope to succeed?

Critics Review

  • This debut novelist manages to set the tone, introduce the characters, and kill the King of France all in the first chapter… [a] fast-paced and refreshing page-turner.”

    School Library Journal (starred review)
  • “Accomplished narrators Emily Woo Zeller and Tim Campbell impressively narrate Addie Thorley’s debut historical fantasy…As Mira and Josse join forces, the dual narration brims with the intensity of the riveting plot. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

    AudioFile
  • “An indulgent and exhilarating adventure.”

    Lyndsay Ely, author of Gunslinger Girl
  • “A rich immersion into a dangerous, alternative world of seventeenth century France…Thrilling, romantic, and addictive.”

    Rosalyn Eaves, author of the Blood Rose Rebellion trilogy
  • “A stunning, immersive adventure, filled with magic, self-discovery and sumptuous period detail.”

    Lee Kelly, author of A Criminal Magic

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