The Vitruvian Heir

1st Place Winner in Chanticleer Book Reviews 2015 Cygnus Award for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction! 2016 New England Book Show Winner “I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t write, where I’m considered inferior, where I’m at the mercy of men all the time.” First, a series of natural disasters devastated the land. Then came the famine. Soon, fear and panic spread throughout the United States. And out of the rubble of a broken nation, rose an empire. That is how Vitruvia was born. Vitruvia, established during the regime of a heartless emperor and governed by an arrogant ruling class. Here society has regressed to repressive Victorian standards. Women have slowly lost their rights and those who rebel are severely punished. Bishops and lords impose their will on the segregated regions, but no one pays much heed to the Nits – rundown areas often unofficially policed by bribed criminals and inhabited by the poor, the desperate, and the dregs of society. Lorelei Fetherston is a daughter of the aristocracy. Inherently rebellious, eighteen-year-old Lore is torn between accepting her impending role as a dutiful wife or escaping to the bordering nation of Hopespoke to seek the truth behind her grandmother’s secret legacy. There everyone is free and, according to legend, an enigmatic woman runs an underground squadron of girls and wields much influence. There Lore could pursue her writing without fear of punishment. But this isn’t her only dilemma. Following graduation, she is to wed to her childhood friend, Gideon, but her heart is with their mutual best friend, Fallon, the current emperor’s ward and heir to the throne. Then one fateful night everything changes. Her free-spirited friend, Sawyer, is in grave danger and Lore is forced to make a critical decision. From mysterious woodland strangers to underground clubs to spectacular fêtes and a clandestine rebellion, Lore’s life is about to change forever…that is, if she can survive.