Gracia Phinnean has become one of my favorite, and I think one of the most complex, characters in my trilogy. To the extent that I added content to books two and three for the upcoming second editions, the content I added pertains to her subplots.

Drafting a prequel while working on the second editions really helped me to understand and appreciate Gracia more–even if the prequel still needs a lot of work, Gracia appears only in two scenes there, and you see her in the prequel only as Neslan Dormenor‘s cousin, daughter of the Duke of Riverton.

Gracia grew up as one of the Yangerton nobles. She is the oldest of three children, all girls. When The Magic Council: The Fight for Home starts, three of her four children have been kidnapped, and she is not doing well. She keeps up appearances in public and tries to do the same in private, but in private the mask slips quite a bit.

I have adored exploring the king and queen’s relationship in books two and three. They struggle in realistic, relatable, and honest ways. Of all the romantic relationships I’ve written, theirs is probably the most troubled. They question themselves more than each other, I think. But they are determined not to give up. I admire that about them.

Gracia is introverted, very aware of the need to make a good impression, and beyond excited that her fourth child was a daughter–she never expected to have one. The royal family always seems to have boys born into it.

(Book one is available now on Amazon. Book two drops 5/30/24. Please check them out for clean, fun, adventurous sword and sorcery adventures suitable for 13+. If you have a teen in your life who enjoys fantasy, they might really like the Herezoth trilogy.)