Melissa Grey – författare

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she''s ever known.Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she''s fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it''s time to act.Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it''s how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.But some jobs aren''t as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

Everything in Echo''s life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to bring peace.The firebird has come into the world, but it has not come alone. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and Echo can feel a great and terrible darkness rising in the distance. Cosmic forces threaten to tear the world apart.Echo has already lost her home, her family, and her boyfriend. Now, as the firebird, her path is filled with even greater dangers than the ones she''s already overcome.She knows the Dragon Prince will not fall without a fight.Echo must decide: can she wield the power of her true nature - or will it prove too strong for her, and burn what''s left of her world to the ground? Welcome to the shadow hour.

The sides have been chosen and the battle lines drawn. After awakening the firebird, Echo is now the only one with the power to face the darkness she unwittingly unleashed upon the world . . . right into the waiting hands of Tanith, the new Dragon Prince. Tanith has one goal in mind: destroy her enemies, raze their lands, and reign supreme in a new era where the Drakharin are almighty and the Avicen are nothing but a memory.The war that has been brewing for centuries is finally imminent. But the scales are tipped. Echo might hold the power to face the darkness within the Dragon Prince, but she has far to go to master it. And now she''s plagued by uncertainty. Is she strong enough to stare into the face of evil and not lose herself in its depths?The war has begun, and there is no looking back. There are only two outcomes possible: triumph or death.

Two teen vigilantes set off on an action-packed investigation to expose corruption and deliver justice in Valiant Ladies, Melissa Grey''s YA historical fiction novel inspired by real seventeenth century Latinx teenagers known as the Valiant Ladies of Potosí. By day Eustaquia “Kiki” de Sonza and Ana Lezama de Urinza are proper young seventeenth century ladies. But when night falls, they trade in their silks and lace for swords and muskets, venturing out into the vibrant, bustling, crime-ridden streets of Potosí in the Spanish Empire''s Viceroyalty of Peru. They pass their time fighting, gambling, and falling desperately in love with one another.Then, on the night Kiki''s engagement to the Viceroy''s son is announced, her older brother—heir to her family’s fortune—is murdered. The girls immediately embark on a whirlwind investigation that takes them from the lowliest brothels of Potosí to the highest echelons of the Spanish aristocracy.Praise for Valiant Ladies: “Ana and Kiki are the sword lesbians of my dreams. This is the queer Latina historical fantasy you didn''t know you wanted until you got it—and then you''ll want more.” —Sam Maggs, author of The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope"Grey’s actionpacked love story offers a fresher, more nuanced take on The Three Musketeers, with a fastpaced plot and well-developed characters... Kiki and Ana are not the traditional demure ladies that swoon at the slightest provocation of violence; rather, they are the vigilante heroines that every patriarchy needs." -- Booklist, starred review“Valiant Ladies brings the remarkable lives of two forgotten women to vivid, riotous life. Delightfully ahistorical, terribly romantic (have you ever shipped sword lesbians harder??), and all steeped in vigilante justice hell-bent on taking down a violent patriarchy—there’s only one word for it: badass.” —Mackenzi Lee, author of the New York Times–bestselling The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue