ldquo;The pages turn quickly and this first installment in the story is over before the reader will want it to be. The ending is perfect, too.” —Huffington Post
 

• “Cluess gamely turns the chosen-one trope upside down in this smashing dark fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred
   
  “A fun, inventive fantasy. I totally have a book crush on Rook.” —Sarah Rees Brennan, New York Times bestselling author
   
  “Pure enchantment. I love how Cluess turned the ‘chosen one’ archetype on its head. With the emotional intensity of my favorite fantasy books, this is the kind of story that makes you forget yourself.” —Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen
   
  “A glorious, fast-paced romp of an adventure. Jessica Cluess has built her story out of my favorite ingredients: sorcery, demons, romance, and danger.” —Kelly Link, author of Pretty Monsters

Autorentext
JESSICA CLUESS is a writer, a graduate of Northwestern University, and an unapologetic nerd. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, where she served coffee to the rich and famous while working on her first novel, A Shadow Bright and Burning. When she’s not writing books, she’s an instructor at Writopia Lab, helping kids and teens tell their own stories. Visit her at jessicacluess.com and follow her on Twitter at @JessCluess.

Zusammenfassung
In the gripping fantasy sequel to A Shadow Bright and Burning that Justine Magazine says is "a pinch of Potter blended with a drop of Infernal Devices (Cassandra Clare)", Henrietta wants to save her love, but his dark magic may be her undoing.

“Devastatingly magical and monstrously romantic.” —Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of CARAVAL
 
Henrietta wants to save the one she loves.
But will his dark magic be her undoing?
 
In the second book in the Kingdom on Fire series, Jessica Cluess delivers her signature mix of magic, passion, and teen warriors fighting for survival. Hand to fans of Victoria Aveyard, Sarah J. Maas, and Kiersten White.
 
Henrietta came to London to be named the chosen one, the first female sorcerer in centuries. Instead, she discovered a city ruled by secrets. And the biggest secret of all: Henrietta is not the chosen one.

Still, she must play the role in order to keep herself and Rook, her best friend and childhood love, safe. But can she truly save him? In order to try, Henrietta persuades Blackwood, the mysterious Earl of Sorrow-Fell, to travel up the coast to seek out new weapons. And Magnus, the brave, reckless flirt who wants to win back her favor, is assigned to their mission. Together, they will face monsters, make powerful allies, and discover that some old wounds are still full of poison.
 
Praise for Jessica Cluess's A Shadow Bright and Burning, Kingdom on Fire, Book 1:
 
“This is a novel that gives off light and heat.” —The New York Times
 
“The magic! The intrigue! The guys! We were sucked into this monster-ridden alternative England from page one. Henrietta is literally a ‘girl on fire’ and this team of sorcerers training for battle had a pinch of Potter blended with a drop of [Cassandra Clare’s] Infernal Devices.” —Justine
 
“Unputdownable. I loved the monsters, the magic, and the teen warriors who are their world’s best hope! Jessica Cluess is an awesome storyteller!” —TAMORA PIERCE, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Leseprobe

1

London was waiting, and so was I.

Tonight was an official gathering of Her Majesty’s sorcerers--my first since being commended to the royal Order--and as the city’s church bells tolled seven o’clock, my stomach fluttered with nerves. We were a country still at war with monsters, but at that moment attacking hellbeasts were the furthest thing from my mind. The thought of going inside the palace made me wildly uneasy.

From out Blackwood’s carriage window, I watched the sorcerers as they rode up to Buckingham Palace on horseback or floated out of the evening sky to alight upon the ground with ease. They adjusted robes and ran hands through their hair as they hurried inside, trying to look presentable. I stayed hidden inside the carriage, my gloved hands folded tightly in my lap.

Two months before, when I’d arrived at the palace, it had been blazing with lights, ready for a grand ball. Now it was darker, more somber. It was a place of business. My business now.

“Your first Order meeting,” Blackwood said, sitting opposite me. “You must be excited, Howel.”

“Excited or numb with terror?” That was a joke. Mostly. “What should I expect?” I still felt awkward in my black silk sorcerer’s robe. It wasn’t designed for a woman. I was the first female to be inducted into the royal Order by a monarch, at least in recent memory. And so I fidgeted, pulling at the collar.

“I’ve never been inside.” He patted the handle of his stave. “Only commended sorcerers may enter. But I have heard,” he said, attempting to sound all business and knowledge, “that it’s quite impressive.”

“Something that might impress the great Earl of Sorrow-Fell?” I said. Flicking my gloved fingers, I shot a few embers at him. The cool night air quickly swallowed my fire. Blackwood laughed, bolstering my courage. He wasn’t much in the practice of laughter, though I liked to think he’d got more used to it after months of living with me.

“Do I have to worry about you bursting into flames every time you mock me?” he asked, wiping at his sleeve as the footman opened our carriage door. Blackwood stepped out and handed me down. I shivered. The evening was cool, a reminder that summer was nearly done.

“Don’t be absurd. I mock you far too often to set fire to myself every single time.” I took his arm, and we made our way to the palace’s entrance. Around us, sorcerers were greeting each other. I searched for my friends, Dee or Wolff or Lambe, but saw none of them.

Blackwood cut through the crowd gracefully, men twice his age stepping aside for him and nodding. I’d never have imagined this was his first Order meeting. He moved about in his robe with ease, as if he’d been wearing it all his life. Perhaps he’d practiced? Or it could be that he was simply good at everything to do with being a sorcerer.

I was surprised how many of the sorcerers were young, my age or only a few years older. I knew I should have expected it--a group of tottering old men couldn’t be expected to win a war--but seeing others plucking awkwardly at their robes, laughing too loudly and then ducking their heads in embarrassment, made me feel less alone. We entered the palace through a large, arched doorway and turned down a carpeted hall before making our way outside again, into the grand courtyard. In the center of the yard, a great black dome awaited us. We filed through the door, and I gasped as we entered a room of pure night.

I’d been inside obsidian rooms before, but this was an obsidian cathedral. The ceiling soared above us, fifty feet at least. No windows interrupted the smooth, dark expanse of stone on either side. The only source of natural light came from the large, round glass ceiling. It allowed the moon to cast a baleful eye upon the proceedings. Sconces lined the walls, the flickering fire lighting the way to our seats.

Whoever had desig…