Fire, smoke, and ash consume the continent in the darkest chapter yet in The Call of the Rift series The Battle of Tjarnnaast left its mark: Katja is adrift, haunted by her memories of the battle and dark visions of a desolate wasteland. Her only guidance is her parents' cryptic messages from the spirit world. On their instructions, Katja goes south to track down her mercenary friend Tiernan. Maybe together, they can find the Rúonbattai's elusive cleric leader, defeat their ranks forever, and end the war. Then Katja could finally go home -- if she can decide where home is. Yet Tiernan is missing, and Katja's best hope of rescuing him is by striking unlikely alliances -- with untrustworthy acquaintances and new allies hiding dangerous secrets. Druids whisper of dry winters and warming oceans and the war-torn nation is a tinderbox ready to ignite. Katja must use everything in her power, from her water magic to her hand in marriage, to battle the growing flames. If they erupt into a wildfire, everyone and everything she loves will burn with them. About the Series Set in two parallel worlds, this series follows Kateiko Rin, a headstrong teenage girl with the power to shapeshift and control water, as she grows up in the war-torn coastal rainforest. As the worlds diverge, so do the versions of herself. Orphaned Kako takes up arms to protect her people, while refugee Katja finds purpose as a healer. Each girl's fiction is the other's truth -- in love, war, and everything in between. The prospect of a rift opening between worlds poses a question to characters and readers: if you could cross into another version of your life, would you? The Call of the Rift series has been praised for its intricate plotting, meticulous worldbuilding, and expert writing, from author Jae Waller, a talented newcomer to YA fantasy fiction. The series appeals to the mature reader of YA fantasy looking for romantic content, women-led fiction, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC representation, and complex worlds and characters. It began in 2018 with The Call of the Rift: Flight and will conclude with the fifth book in the series, The Call of the Rift: Fuse, in 2025.

Now in paperback! A rebellious heroine faces a colonial world coming unstitched in Jae Waller's stunning debut fantasy "Waller's world-building is impressive. While the magical and romantic elements of Waller's story are most likely to hook teen readers, it's the commentary on colonized cultures that really sets this novel apart from other YA fantasy tales." - Quill & Quire Seventeen-year-old Kateiko doesn't want to be Rin anymore - not if it means sacrificing lives to protect the dead. Her only way out is to join another tribe, a one-way trek through the coastal rainforest. Killing a colonial soldier in the woods isn't part of the plan. Neither is spending the winter with Tiernan, an immigrant who keeps a sword with his carpentry tools. His log cabin leaks and his stories about other worlds raise more questions than they answer. Then the air spirit Suriel, long thought dormant, resurrects a war. For Kateiko, protecting other tribes in her confederacy is atonement. For Tiernan, war is a return to the military life he's desperate to forget. Leaving Tiernan means losing the one man Kateiko trusts. Staying with him means abandoning colonists to a death sentence. In a region tainted by prejudice and on the brink of civil war, she has to decide what's worth dying - or killing - for.

Return to Jae Waller's wondrous and war-torn colonial world in this captivating second instalment in The Call of the Rift series "[A] stunning debut . . . An intricately lush and well-crafted new fantasy that deserves (and demands) a sequel." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review of The Call of the Rift: Flight  The Blackbird Battle has left all sides devastated. The wind spirit Suriel has disappeared. A hard winter is coming, and famine stalks the land. Kateiko Rin returns to her people, ready at last to rejoin her community, but the dangers of the unsettled times come raging to her doorstep. Kako is left with no choice but to battle the forces that seek to open a rift between the worlds. Leading an unlikely alliance that includes her new love Airedain and her old one Tiernan, Kako must risk all to try and stop the coming disaster. Author Jae Waller returns to her riveting alternate world of brooding rainforests in a colonial time and to her headstrong, troubled heroine in this compelling second volume of the Call of the Rift quintet.