A Thousand Nights

by E.K. Johnston

“A story threaded with shimmering vibrance and beauty, A Thousand Nights will weave its spell over readers’ hearts and leave them captivated long after the final tale has been told.” — Alexandra Bracken, New York Times best-selling author of The Darkest Minds series

A dazzling retelling of Arabian Nights, A THOUSAND NIGHTS is a tale of family, love and power that would not feel out of place if Scheherazade herself were telling it. And maybe she is…

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next. And so she is taken in her sister’s place. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, back in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air. Then at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

Spindle

by E.K. Johnston

“The Storyteller Queen lives, and her name is E. K. Johnston.” — Rachel Hartman, New York Times best-selling author of Seraphina

The follow-up to A Thousand Nights, Spindle is the feminist retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the princess saves herself and owns the narrative.

The prison is crumbling. Through years of careful manipulation, a demon has regained her power. She has made one kingdom strong and brought the other to its knees, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When a princess is born, the demon is ready with the final blow: a curse that will cost the princess her very soul, or force her to destroy her own people to save her life.

The threads of magic are tightly spun, binding princess and exiled spinners into a desperate plot to break the curse before the demon can become a queen of men. But the web of power is dangerously tangled — and they may not see the true pattern until it is unspooled.