Blade and Dagger: a new series by Grace Draven

Grace Draven needs no introduction, but I will introduce her anyway. She is a USA Today bestselling author known for her lyrical romantic fantasy novels. She writes love stories that demand steep sacrifices, set in the worlds where arcane magic mixes with volatile currents of human passion, and beauty and horrors coexist side by side.

Grace is most famous for her Wraith Kings series, which starts with an arranged marriage between a human princess Ildiko and Brishen Khaskem, an inhuman prince of the Kai. However, today, we are going to talk about something completely different, because she has a new series coming out.

The series is called Blade and Dagger and it will consist of a trilogy and a prequel. The prequel is out now in ebook.

Disaris jin Gheza’s rare gift for code-breaking means she must flee a conquering army and a fanatical cult, or become their prisoner and pawn. To evade capture, she will cross perilous territories and sorcerous borders, her aim, two-fold: rescue her sister from captivity and stop a zealot from remaking the world through destruction and bloodshed.

But she won’t be facing danger alone. The battle mage known as the Moon Raven travels by her side. Once Disaris’s best friend and lover, Bron is now an uneasy ally with a death bounty on his head for desertion.

Bound together by memories and a bond that they both believe broken, the two fugitives must outrun a deadly tracker, save a loved one, and defeat a horde of fanatics – all without dying in the effort.

A tale of loyalty and longing. 

LEARN MORE

Full disclosure: we are friends, and I love her writing, so I am biased, but when I found out that this was actually happening, I made undignified noises. I’ve been watching her circle this idea for years now. She finally wrote it. Yes!

But wait, there is more. I wasn’t the only one who found all of this terribly exciting. Bramble UK did as well, and they bought UK rights to the series. This isn’t how things normally work, by the way. Usually US based writers sell to a US publisher first, and then that publisher shops UK rights. I wanted the tea, and now I bring it to you. I took shameless advantage of our friendship and sent her this interview, and Grace was too nice to tell me no.

Eight Questions With Grace Draven

First things, first: the cover is stunning! Can you tell us who the artist is and who is that on the cover?

Isn’t that cover beautiful? Created by my longtime artist, Louisa Gallie, who is a sorceress when it comes to illustrating amazing book covers. She and I have collaborated for more than 20 years, starting with the MASTER OF CROWS cover. I have her tagged to create a lot of art for me in the near future, including stuff for a special edition.

Blade and Dagger found a home with Bramble UK. Usually, this happens the other way around: an US author gets a deal with a US publisher first. Can you tell us how that came about?

My life is defined by working backwards. 😆 In late 2025, Gillian Green at Bramble UK reached out to my agent, interested in some of my backlist titles as well as the BLADE AND DAGGER trilogy which I’d started working on in tandem with THE MOON RAVEN. Agent Sarah sent Gillian the proposal and first 20k words for book #1 in the trilogy as well as the in-progress THE MOON RAVEN.

Gillian came back and basically said “Hey, we’d like to offer for the upcoming trilogy as well as THE MOON RAVEN for publication in the British Commonwealth.” And we were off to the races. Gillian and her team have been fabulous to work with, and I’m thrilled to be part of the Bramble UK family!

Tell us a little bit about the world of Blade and Dagger. What attracted you to it? What started it?

Since I write fantasy romance, I obviously wanted to dive into a world heavy with sorcery but also one that’s gritty and lived-in, where ordinary people are thrust into extraordinary circumstances, where continuous long-term warfare has enormous impact on societies and the collective trauma it leaves in its wake.

And I wanted to delve into the folklore of fae societies, not just those steeped in western European tradition but across the world. There are so many cultures out there with their “hidden folk.” What’s so striking isn’t the differences between them; it’s the similarities. I love that and the idea that in some ancient and nebulous alternate past, there is a singular origin point for all of it. A tree from which many branches grew and spread.

I wanted to populate a world and story with all these things, and once I got started, I found I had more than enough material to easily fill four books and maybe a novella or two.

When you write, what comes first, the characters or the world and how did that happen when it came to Blade and Dagger?

Character always comes first for me in any book I write. It’s the engine that drives the book’s plot in my opinion. While THE MOON RAVEN is the first book in this world, and the one I completed first, it was the heroine and her twin sister from THE BLADE MAIDEN that fired everything up.

I was always fascinated by the story of Bronte and Astrape, the feminine personifications of thunder and lightning. Most of the time, a small bit of info. like that allows me to springboard into a story and start developing characters and worlds. It’s the characters’ wounds, motivations, goals, misbeliefs, and growth that moves the story forward and builds the world around them.

For The Moon Raven, the ML and FL meet in childhood. Why was that important for the story?

I’ve never tackled the idea of first love in a book before, and I wanted to approach it as something that occurs at its start as a platonic connection in early youth. I’m of the opinion that first love which lasts over several years is rare and beautiful, but it does happen, and having it naturally evolve from an early stage of friendship into a romantic connection that somehow manages to survive the trials and tribulations of life was something I really wanted to explore in this story.

Can you tell a little bit more about the types of magic that The Moon Raven features and if there is any significance to that?

My heroine is known as a code-breaker or an “itzuli.” She’s basically a living enigma machine, which makes her highly sought after by opposing armies as well as a fanatical cult, either to recruit her or kill her. My hero and one of the story’s antagonists are both battle mages, so they have a plethora of spells at their command, especially ones that enhance their abilities on the battlefield. My heroine’s magic in THE MOON RAVEN will also play a pivotal role in THE DAGGER WIFE (book #2 of the trilogy).

All writers have themes that reoccur in their work. Could you tell us which of those themes are important to you and give us a hint as to how they develop in The Moon Raven and the world of Blade and Dagger?

The primary themes across all four books, besides the obvious one of love conquering all (as these are romance novels), are devotion between siblings and found family. You’ll see a lot of the second as a running theme in most of my books, and it’s really highlighted in my Beauty and the Beast retelling ENTREAT ME. I wanted to revisit both of those themes in these four books, especially the siblings and what they will sacrifice for each other.

In THE MOON RAVEN, the heroine will marry a man she despises and turn away from the man she loves in order to protect her sister.

In THE BLADE MAIDEN, the heroine will accept the fatal task of killing a king to free her twin from sorcerous bondage.

In THE DAGGER WIFE, a woman will infiltrate a royal court to steal an artifact and betray a monarch in a bid to break her brother free from a curse.

And in THE KNIFE PRIESTESS, a woman will imprison the power-mad spirit of a changeling inside her own body in an attempt to save both her sister’s soul and a kingdom.

This will all happen in a world populated by humans and a magical race of beings I’m calling the Lim (short for “liminal”). While THE MOON RAVEN takes place in two human kingdoms, with their own, very real dangers, the trilogy is mostly centered in a non-human Lim kingdom, where the danger is just as present and, for my human protagonists, often strange, otherworldly, and eerie.

The final and most important question: are we going to see The Moon Raven and Blade and Dagger in print in US? Do you have a local publishing partner for the trilogy or are we left bereft?

To your first question – YES! Both hardback print and audio will be available in early December to coincide with Bramble UK’s release of both those formats. The UK/British Commonwealth (excluding Canada) will have a different cover than the one showing on the ebook right now. The U.S./Canada/non-British Commonwealth territories will keep the current cover for the print and audio as currently shown on the ebook.

As to your second question – at this time, Bramble UK is my publishing partner for the trilogy in all British Commonwealth territories. For the moment, my plan for the non-British Commonwealth territories is to indie/self-publish the trilogy, just like with THE MOON RAVEN. That being said, the plan isn’t written in blood as we intend to go out on submission with the trilogy at the end of August. So, super busy for the rest of this year and all the way into 2027.

Thank you so much to Grace for joining us today and being such a good sport. If you want to keep up with her future releases, don’t forget to sign up for her newsletter.