Legend of the Wildlings
by Brittney Brewer
(The Ellesmere Saga, #1)
Publication date: November 14th 2023
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Everyone who is meant to end up here always does, eventually.
At fifteen, Ember Lothbrok has spent half her life passing through the Galway foster system, though strange occurrences seem to follow her around like a cloud of bad luck. Even if her guardians aren’t completely put off by the rain clouds that form inside, footstools that transform into pigs, or their walls suddenly turning a horrifying shade of puce, her lavender eyes flecked with ash always seal her fate.
Everything changes the day a mysterious new social worker appears for her next family transfer and whisks her across Loch Lurgan to Ellesmere—an island inhabited by Vala—of the magic blooded Northmen, like her. An island of mythical creatures and a magical school. After settling in with the Kitts, her newest foster family, and starting school at Heksheim Academy of Myth and Magic, she allows herself to have hope for the first time in years. A hope that maybe this one will stick.
But if Ember is sure of anything, it’s that a happy ending is not in the cards for her. Just as she’s beginning to settle in, she unearths a prophecy promising death and destruction to the magical creatures and beings on the island. With her newfound friends and a boy with a secret, Ember must try to stop the dark forces threatening her found family and new home before it’s too late.
This is the story of a girl with nothing left to lose,
An island filled with magic and mystery,
And the legend that could destroy it all.…but what if the legend was wrong?
K.M. Messina is an earth and space science teacher, a dog mom, and a lover of all things mystical. Her black German shepherd Luna is the star of her award-winning picture book, If You Could Ask Your Dog One Question, which won the Best Independent Book Award (BIBA) and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for best picture book for all ages. She lives on the rocky coast of Long Island, New York, where she enjoys feeding wild turkeys, moon gazing, and adding to her ever-growing collection of stones and crystals.