About this item
MAGIC RULES. WE SERVE. In a darkly fantastical debut set in modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power - and you. If you're not one of the ultimate one-percenters - the magical elite - you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you're old, and you'll never get through them. Do them young, and you'll never get over them. This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit. Have a quick ten years. . . .Praise for Gilded Cage"Beautifully characterised and compellingly plotted, Gilded Cage is an impressive debut." - The Guardian"Exquisitely wicked . . . a lavishly opulent, yet brutally vivid, alternate England which subtly questions modern beliefs . . . If ever there was a speculative fiction book that captured the zeitgeist of an era this is it." - SFFWorld"An alternate modern-day England where enticing drama and social unrest mix with aristocratic scandal and glamorous magic . . . conjuring up the specters of Les Misrables and Downton Abbey . . . an absorbing first installment that presages an intriguing new fantasy series." - Kirkus Reviews "Gilded Cage is a heart-pounding combination of dark magic, political revolution, and forbidden romance that had me addicted from the first page!" - Danielle L. Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Malediction Trilogy"Devious and deliciously dark with lashings of magic, mystery, and mayhem, this juggernaut of a book will keep you hanging on by your fingernails until the very last page." - Taran Matharu, New York Times bestselling author of the Summoner series "A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain, Gilded Cage kept me up long into the night." - Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings"Brisk plotting, sympathetic characters, and plenty of intrigue will keep readers on the edges of their seats, eager for the next book in a very promising series." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About the Author
Vic lives in London's Notting Hill, but her life is more action-adventure than rom-com.
She studied History and English at Merton College, Oxford where Tolkien was once professor. Relocating to Rome, she completed her doctorate in the Vatican Secret Archives (they're nothing like The Da Vinci Code) , then spent five years living in Tokyo where she learned Japanese and worked as a journalist. She now writes full time.
Vic has scuba-dived on Easter Island, camped at Everest Base Camp, voyaged on one of the last mailboats to St Helena, hang-glided across Rio de Janeiro, and swum the Hellespont from Europe to Asia. But there's little she loves more than lying in bed till midday with a good book and a supply of her favourite biscuits.
