The Queen of the Spirit Woods

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea meets The Cruel Prince in this epic, lush young adult romantic fantasy following a royal kitchen maid who gets swept up in dangerous palace intrigue and a forbidden love triangle...and accidentally becomes the vessel for thousands of spirits and deities.

A kingdom on the brink of colonisation.
Ten thousand nature spirits and deities seeking a vessel.
A genial nobleman and a grumpy prince uncovering the secrets at Court...
And the girl at the center of it all.

Mirae has a dangerous secret: She has faked her way into a job as a royal kitchen maid with the hope of sending money to her family. And life in the kitchens isn't easy. The palace is in an uproar after a recent assassination attempt on the king, and Mirae nearly gets fired after inadvertently getting in the crosshairs of Jae, the prickly crown prince, during his investigation.

Her position gets even more precarious when a chance encounter with a witch in the mysterious spirit woods makes her the vessel of ten thousand spirits and deities. When her new powers spill out into the palace kitchens, Wonshik, a kind nobleman, lends a helping hand. Soon Mirae finds herself embroiled in a power struggle between the queen and Wonshik's best friend, Prince Jae.

With the help of a fellow kitchen maid and a meddlesome ghost, Mirae must untangle the web of lies to find the traitor within the palace. But an encroaching threat from the empire to the east looms ever closer, and the palace is rife with lies and shadowy allegiances. Who can Mirae trust?

• Publication date: 5 November 2026
• Page count: 352
• Dimensions: Height 198 mm; Width 130 mm; Thickness 24 mm
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781398566828