Dawn Rising

A.F.E. Smith

Nov 2020 · Marked Book 1 · IronWright Books

About this ebook

Alyssia Gale is a daydreamer. A liar. An attention seeker. Everyone she's ever known has found a label to stick on her, but one thing's for sure: she can't be telling the truth. The flashes she sees of the dark and difficult lives of four other people, living in a world that's not her own … they can't be real. Alyssia understands that as well as anyone, even if she does keep catching herself thinking of the people she sees as friends.

Then she's pulled into that other world by blood and dark magic, and realises that everyone she's ever known was wrong.

To start with, her focus is on surviving until she can find a way home. Yet it doesn't take long for her to figure out that where before she was merely a spectator, now she can change things. And with one of her friends being forced into an abusive marriage, and another trapped in the cruellest of prisons, there's plenty that needs changing. She just needs to survive long enough to do it.

What she doesn't know is that something connects her to these four people. Something she never could have imagined. And it's not long before she isn't just fighting to find her place between the worlds – she's fighting to protect her closest friends from a narrative that wants them dead.

Ratings and reviews

I was already a fan of A.F.E. Smith but this book is in another league again from her Darkhaven books. It's a gorgeously written, complex fantasy with a cast of fascinating characters and a plot that had my heart racing at several points. The MC Alyssia is prickly, determined and a thoroughly loyal friend, she will be recognisable to anyone who's ever been through school feeling like an alien in a strange world. Although it's technically a young adult novel I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy. Roll on book 2.

About the author

A.F.E. Smith is an editor of academic non-fiction by day and a fantasy writer by night. She is the author of the Marked series for young adult readers, and the Darkhaven fantasy novels for adults.