DELUXE EDITION―featuring gorgeous gilded edges, detailed endpapers, and beautiful case art under the book jacket!

Debut author Shen Tao introduces readers to the lush, deadly world of The Poet Empress, a sweeping, epic and intimate fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent and the Wings of Night, The Song of Achilles, and She Who Became the Sun.

In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land consumed by famine, and poetry magic has been lost to all except the most powerful.

Wei Yin is desperate. After the death of her sister, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves.

Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel, dissolute heir of the blood-glutted Azalea House.

But in a twist of fate, the inner court stands on the knife-edge of civil war with Wei now at the center…as the prince’s chosen.

To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself, even if it means learning the art of poetry magic in secret, in a world where women are forbidden to read―and wielding the most powerful spell of all. A spell of death…and love.