A Cornish author has released a new novel which transports readers into a world of glittering courts, dangerous bargains and dazzling trickery.

Bex Hogan’s latest offering, Owl King, is a dark, captivating tale of deception and survival.

The author has always loved fantasy and faery tales, particularly the dangerous and somewhat unsettling ones her mother would tell her on long journeys, stories that often left her feeling thrilled and scared, but never in danger because of her trust in the storyteller.

Writing her stories down was a natural progression and she enjoys sharing her time between the real world and escaping to her imagination.

Bex’s new novel was inspired by her childhood, having grown up on a diet of Cornish folklore. These stories sparked a curiosity that, in adult life, led Bex to dig deeper.

In a genre created by women and long retold by men, Bex is reclaiming the fairytale with Owl King, a story that centres on two women, sisters; one who battles fae trickery to save the other, and one who must tell stories to a tyrant king if she is to save her own life.

Bex learnt that many beloved fairytales were originally told by women, only to be altered by men as moral lessons for children, and women.

Her research led her to discover brilliant women writing centuries earlier, including French author Madame d’Aulnoy, who even coined the term “fairy tale” in the 1600s. Bex has taken this long forgotten female history to write Owl King, a captivating tale of sisterly love and the stories of women.

A Cornish girl at heart, Bex, who now lives in Cambridgeshire with her family, has previously published the Isles of Storm and Sorrow trilogy and Black Heat with Hachette. Nettle was her first novel for Zephyr and the first faery tale set in the Faery Realms kingdom.

For more information about Bex and her books, visit: bexhogan.co.uk