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The series begins with Whisper of Weapons, but all five books contain magic potions, animal familiars, a high-stakes confrontations, and sweet no-spice romance!
It's about a barely upper-class castor named Mella striving to produce the best animal familiar so she can win the Castling Competition and save her family's fortune. When everything goes wrong and she falls on the kindness of strangers and an illegal animal familiar, she learns that social status may not really be what's worth fighting for.
Told from four points of view (Mella, an undercover boy with a hopeless crush, the princess ex-friend Mella's now competing against, and an introverted castor who prefers working at the library to training with his cohort), Whisper of Weapons is a story of found family, corrupt leadership dethroned, and the kinds of friends worth fighting for—even to the death.
You just can’t beat good found family fantasy books. The desire to finally find your people and be welcome and accepted in spite of your flaws is deeply ingrained. As for the talking animal aspect—I grew up on Disney movies and The Chronicles of Narnia, so all my YA fantasy books have important animal characters who usually can talk, and there's always at least one with attitude.
YA Fantasy Books with Neurodiverse Characters
The Castors of Wrynford Saga features one neurodiverse POV character (Acres Perrianther), and I didn’t even realize it when I first wrote his perspective! I gave him my own introversion and social befuddlement, and I’ve been surprised and delighted to hear his name mentioned most often as readers’ favorite and most relatable character.
While writing the middle of the series in my late twenties, I discovered I have several neurodiverse characteristics myself, and that these qualities are actually fairly common despite the terms that imply they’re so unusual.
Neurodiversity looks different for everyone, but for me, delayed social development was a big part, and that caused me a lot of confusion and pain as a teen. So I've pivoted a bit to YA fantasy books with neurodiverse characters in the hope of helping teens experiencing similar social struggles to feel seen, understood, and encouraged.
It's possible that the multi-POV aspect could also help some develop a more thorough social awareness as they see how different personality types misunderstand things and later resolve them.
Acres is a fossil nerd with a knack for potions and one of the four POV characters in Whisper of Weapons, and by book 3 (Fury of Fossils), he becomes so pivotal to the story that another character considers condemning three kingdoms to save him.
If your wondering who the fourth POV character is, let me introduce you to Selverine Merrandil, the mean-girl princess Mella must compete against for a second chance at saving her reputation and her family's fortune.
She's not very nice.
But she's also one of my favorite characters (you'll have to read to find out why!)
If you want a look at her POV, join my newsletter to read the first five chapters of this YA fantasy book for free!