The Treachery of Beautiful Things

Coming Soon: 05/07/2022
Tenth Anniverary Edition
ISBN 9798819443507 (Paperback)

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The trees had swallowed Tom whole.

Seven years ago Jenny’s brother vanished in Branley Copse. She returns one last time to say goodbye, but the sound of music draws her into the shade of the trees and onto the twisted pathways of the Realm, the place where fairy-tales, and nightmares, are born.

Determined to find and free Tom, Jenny must navigate a strange and frightening world of wonders. Her only guides are the hobgoblin known as Puck, and Jack of the Forest, the Guardian of the Edge, a strange green-eyed man who is duty bound to protect her. And she desperately needs protection.

Hunted by Queen Titania and her servants, with time running out, Jenny and Jack find themselves caught up in an older magic, one bound in rituals of love and death. As it awakens to the presence of a new May Queen, the Realm demands a sacrifice.

The tenth anniversary edition of the much loved fairy-tale fantasy.

Previously published in 2012

The Treachery of Beautiful Things

Dial Books
August 2012

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction…

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she’s lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack’s help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she’s faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice–and not just her own.

Editorial Reviews

“Delicious and wonderfully romantic…Lyrical prose, along with highly imaginative and descriptive phrasing, makes the forest setting–and its creatures and people–immediately present and sparked with magic.”
-Booklist (starred review)

“Entrapment in a faerie forest has never been so delectable…A worthy, memorable read (with movie potential).”
-Kirkus Reviews

“A dazzle of strange creatures, unknowable motives, and threat….Each scene is vividly, often horrifically imagined.”
-Publishers Weekly

“A heady atmosphere of folk tales, suspenseful terror, and passionate romance.”
-VOYA

“The immediate connection forged between Jenny and Jack will melt the hearts of romantic readers and have them rooting for the pair to overcome the impossible.”
-School Library Journal

“[The] malice that underlies the world’s beauty plays out the title to the fullest and adds a substantial bit of true gruesomeness to what is already a suspenseful story.”
-BCCB

Book Trailer

Book trailer by Fionnuala Murphy
Images from www.dreamstime.com and Ruth Frances Long
Music by Kevin MacLeod, www.incompetech.com
Jenny: Laura Jane Cassidy

Excerpt

The Treachery of Beautiful Things