It’s the release day for Breath and Bone, K.V. Johansen’s gorgeous new sapphic fantasy. Johansen is well known for settings that feel steeped in history, where the past always intrudes to complicate the present, and for complex, often conflicted characters struggling to live with the consequences of their own actions. Like her earlier fantasies The Wolf and the Wild King and the epic fantasy series Gods of the Caravan Road, Breath and Bone takes us into a richly detailed world shaped by impossible choices. This time, the story is told by Thallyn, known as Pony for her other shape, a wild godling turned minstrel, whose unique voice is one of the joys of the novel.

Naskanna was the emperor’s vhalgod daughter, and then she became Naskanna Deathdealer, who killed the emperor her father, and disappeared with her lover, the wild godling Thallyn, when that war was over. Now she is known as Hedge, and she and Thallyn live quietly in the northwestern hills. But a desperate girl has heard their names, and comes seeking their help to rescue her lost brother — and the witch who holds him in thrall is their old enemy…

Experience the tale Pony unfolds as she and Hedge take to the road along with the ghost of Hedge’s brother to face down forces they thought they’d defeated long ago.