Where Magic Burns on Winter Seas (Ilyusha Series Book 2)
“Psychologically intense, dark, and full of adventure."
— Megan Weiss
"For lovers of emotionally resonant fantasy, this novel is a must-read."
— Booksreview
Dark magic scattered across the globe. A wounded enemy with a lethal grudge. A second chance to right old wrongs.
A Russian monk with a secret magic is on the run from his past. He finds an uneasy refuge among the fundamentalist Mormons in Utah. Haunted by a family tragedy he’d failed to avert, he struggles to suppress his powers—and his desires—hoping to build a new life far from home.
But the past does not stay buried.
His former seminary friend, now a Red Party boss, tracks him down to claim the monk’s magic for himself. It’s the only force that can lift a curse that is slowly killing him. Defying him means death. Giving in could unleash something far worse.
Swept into a cross-continental zeppelin voyage, a counter-revolutionary coup, a Gulag uprising, and a desperate Arctic ship rescue, the monk is torn between Russia and America, between the two loves he’d left in these countries, and between his faith and his desires. His strange magic may keep him alive—but using it could cost him his soul.
For readers drawn to Dostoyevsky’s psychological intensity, Castaneda’s mysticism, and Cormac McCarthy’s ruthless darkness, Where Magic Burns on Winter Seas blends sweeping historical drama, a complex magical system, and a high-stakes adventure. The novel continues the Ilyusha series, which started with From the Land of Cross and Star.
From the Land of Cross and Star: A Historical Fantasy Adventure (Ilyusha Series Book 1)
“Worth a read. A provocative and intelligent historical fantasy, which targets high and hits the nail on the head where it counts.”
— Read with Her
“Worth reading. A crazy thrill ride of a book with religion, politics, adventure, magic, and love all mashed up together!”
— The Plain-Spoken Pen
"A contemplative, spiritually charged novel that explores what it means to belong; to faith, to history, to oneself. For readers who appreciate literary depth, philosophical tension, and emotional restraint."
— Cascading Words
Guilty magic. Love stilled by faith. A world in fever.
A disgraced monk races against time to unlock the powers that can save the woman he cannot forget. But his former seminary friend—now a Bolshevik spy—will stop at nothing to seize his magic, his soul, his love.
From the steppes of revolution-bound Russia to the opium-scented ports of the East and the Rockies' rugged peaks, the fates of two friends-turned-enemies collide in the world of violent sects, train heists, Ute brujas, and deadly secrets. Faith and fraud, tragedy and farce, death and rebirth—every choice exacts a price on the soul.
For readers of Romanov by Nadine Brandes and Deathless by Catherynne Valente, as well as those who enjoy the mind games of Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov and Castaneda's The Tales of Don Juan, From the Land of Cross and Star blends historical epic, dark magic, and moral intrigue in a tale you won’t forget.