Description

The Truth of Heldernesse, Book One of the Heldernesse Chronicles.

Katherine Arden’s, The Bear and the Nightingale meets the Handmaid’s Tale.

The Pledge of Paragon

I pledge allegiance to the Isle of Paragon

I believe in the purity of single births

I give thanks for stability and protection

from the abomination of doubles

On the Isle of Paragon, the Ministry’s pledge governs life.

But Talitha breaks every word of it when her younger sister gives birth to forbidden twin girls.

They flee into the Heldernesse Forest where a hidden settlement survives beyond the Ministry’s reach and Talitha uncovers a truth that could shatter the Ministry’s grip on the island.

The Ministry calls them doubles. In the forest they are simply twins.

Before Paragon there was Heldernesse

Heldernesse Remembers.

There are no dragons, elves or wizards in the world of Heldernesse, just identical female twins with supernatural qualities who the Ministry who wants to eradicate.

I write epic fantasy fiction about control, hierarchy and the resilience of women in pre-industrial worlds shaped by ideology and fear.