Dorchester has acquired the first fantasy romance (actually a trilogy) by new author Lori McDonald. They expect to publish the first volume in February 2010. McDonald is represented by 3 Seas Literary Agency.
The book is set “In a fantasy world where elemental beings known as sylphs are enslaved and used for almost every purpose, mundane or magic, the most potent of these are ‘battlers’. Full of hatred and dark magic, they can be summoned and tamed only by a maiden—and by her bloody sacrifice. They are bonded to royalty alone, princes of the realm, for their power can determine the rise and fall of empires. Part Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass and part straightforward romance, Lori McDonald’s The Battler is a tale of a peasant girl who saves herself from sacrifice and pits herself and her sylph, Heyou, against everything she once believed in.”