The Unwilling

by Kelly Braffet, Tia Rider (Read by)

Overview

A penetrating tale of magic, faith and pride…

The Unwilling is the story of Judah, a foundling born with a special gift and raised inside Highfall castle along with Gavin, the son and heir to Lord Elban’s vast empire. Judah and Gavin share an unnatural bond that is both the key to her survival…and possibly her undoing.

As Gavin is groomed for his future role, Judah comes to realize that she has no real position within the kingdom, in fact, no hope at all of ever traveling beyond its castle walls. Elban—a lord as mighty as he is cruel—has his own plans for her, for all of them. She is a mere pawn to him, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

But outside the walls, in the starving, desperate city, a magus, a healer with his own secret power unlike anything Highfall has seen in years, is newly arrived from the provinces. He, too, has plans for the empire, and at the heart of those plans lies Judah… The girl who started life with no name and no history will soon uncover more to her story than she ever imagined.

An epic tale of greed and ambition, cruelty and love, this deeply immersive novel is about bowing to traditions and burning them down.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781094097787
Publisher:	Mira Books
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	892,933
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Kelly Braffet is the author of the novels Save Yourself, Last Seen Leaving, and Josie and Jack. Her writing has been published in Fairy Tale Review, Post Road, and several anthologies. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA in creative writing at Columbia University. She currently lives in upstate New York with her husband, the author Owen King. A lifelong reader of speculative fiction, she had the idea for The Unwilling in college; twenty years later, it’s her first fantasy novel.

Editorial Reviews

"Kelly Braffet is extraordinary... Familiar yet entirely unique, The Unwilling is the sort of story that seeps under your skin and pulses there, intimate and vibrant and alive. Fantasy at its most sublime."—Erin Morgenstern, NYT bestselling author of The Night Circus

"A juggernaut of an epic fantasy novel with ingenious, thrilling twists and turns. Put this on the shelf beside Naomi Novik and George R. R. Martin. Kelly Braffet is a marvel and I'll read anything she writes."—Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

"Kelly Braffet's The Unwilling is a viscerally powerful book. Full of complex and compelling characters, this is the story of the corruptions of power and the strength it takes to resist. This is an incredible, brilliant story."—Kat Howard, author of Roses and Rot

"Gorgeously told, The Unwilling is at once a sweeping epic and an intimate portrait of being trapped in an oppressive regime. Meet your new favorite fantasy writer."— Gwenda Bond, NYT bestselling author of Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds

From the Publisher