Shean Pao’s debut novel The Feather and the Moon Well is a deeply romantic fairy tale told about and from the points of view of the fairy creatures, that asks the question: can a creature change its nature?

The owner of the Moon Well is Anarra, also called the Willow Woman or the Witch of the White Tower. Anarra is a goddess of the older order that preceded the Tuatha de Danaan, the Aes Sidhe, and humans still call upon her as a capricious dispenser, sometimes of blessings and sometimes of curses. Anarra is trapped outside time in her tower, but within her moon well glimpses a feather that may be a hint of salvation.

Barbarus is an imp in the service of a great demon, sent by his master Rash’na’Kul (a Lord of the Sixth Hell) to bargain with the Willow Woman. To win her freedom, Anarra agrees to cast a spell that will enable Rash’na’Kul to overcome a demon of the Seventh Hell. One key ingredient of the spell, though, is the essence of love, so for the Willow Woman to escape her tower and the imp to flee his servitude, either Anarra, or Barbarus… or both… must fall in love.

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