THE PLAGUE DIARIES

Secret Riven—archivist to the mysterious Fewmany, a man who controls nearly every industry in Rothwyke—finally has the opportunity to decode the arcane manuscript her mother left behind. But the translation may throw everything she holds dear into turmoil.

This compelling conclusion to Domingue’s (The Chronicle of Secret Riven, 2014, etc.) Keeper of Tales trilogy deftly twines together elements from fairy tales, the gothic, and the quest journey into a mythology for the fantasy realm of Rothwyke. Rejected from the high academies, most likely because she wears skirts, Secret accepts a job as archivist of the vast libraries of mysterious magnate Fewmany, ne Lesmore Bellwether. Fewmany’s mansion is a veritable Gothic labyrinth, riddled with hidden rooms, locked chambers—all must remain locked, Secret is reminded—and restricted groves. While her beloved Nikolas, Prince of the Realm, journeys on goodwill visits to neighboring kingdoms, Secret finds herself drawn deeply into Fewmany’s decadent world. Soon she has left her father’s home to rent rooms in a less respectable ward and begins drinking wine, attending dinner parties with actors and intellectual glitterati, and even joining in the debauched revelries of a masquerade ball. Eager to put behind her the difficulties of her special abilities, she’s tried to ignore the animals and bees who seem desperate to communicate with her, yet Fewmany’s intentions for her will demand all of her talents and courage. Fewmany sets Secret on a quest that will at last expose the meaning of the symbols she’s dreamed of since childhood, her ruptures into another world, the arcane manuscript, and the mystery of her mother’s ancestry. Fortuitously, Nikolas returns and joins Secret. But the quest will release a Plague of Silences that will disrupt and utterly change their world.

An exciting, genre-melding journey into magical realms and the mending power of love.