TO RUIN A RED LEAF is a 120,000-word adult folkloric romantic fantasy that pairs the wild, forest-bound clan world of Lauren Palfreyman’s THE WOLF KING with the mystery and madness of Rachel Gillig’s ONE DARK WINDOW.

Everraine Thiora is a clan lowling descended from a long line of women who went mad—and were eventually found face-down in the Moonwell.

Now, at twenty-nine winters, Ever is hearing the same voices they did.

She has failed the sacred Kinning five times. No wolf has ever chosen to bond with her. Her clan despises her for the bloodline she carries, refusing her company, kinship, even kindness. They have relegated her to Trail Marker—the lowest station in Orhena—and give her barely enough rations to survive it.

And this full moon, they intend to sacrifice her to the Moonwell—her life offered as nourishment for the forest they believe depends upon it.

But before they can, Ever is captured by warriors from Ithalen—the enemy clan she has been raised to fear. Among them is Cove Althir, the formidable First of the Hunt, whose loyalty to his people is matched only by his determination to protect them. And where Orhena has spent a lifetime treating her as worthless, Ithalen sees precisely what they overlooked: Ever knows every trail, waterway, and hidden path through the forest.

She isn't just a Trail Marker.

She's a map.

And Ithalen needs her to take back the Moonwell. But the longer Ever remains among her supposed enemies, the harder it becomes to reconcile everything she has been taught with the people standing before her—particularly Cove, whose growing desire for Ever is matched only by his refusal to claim what she has not freely chosen to give.

Held captive in Ithalen, the voices that have haunted her for years only grow louder. Until Ever follows them into the water and hears something impossible: her mother. And her mother. And her mother. Generations of women trapped within its waters, unable to cross over.

For the first time, Ever begins to question everything she was raised to worship. The sacred rules of Orhena are not sacred at all, but doctrines enforced for generations. The Moonwell is failing. The land is dying. And the women Ever was taught had gone mad may have been trying to tell the truth all along.

Now Ithalen needs Ever to do the one thing that might save the land and free the women who came before her:

Betray her people and take back the Moonwell.

At its heart, TO RUIN A RED LEAF is a story about inherited belief, the stories we tell about the women who came before us, and what happens when a woman discovers that the thing she was taught to fear within herself may be the very thing that frees her.

Tonally, think BRAVE grown up and feral, the wild folklore and challenge of WOLFWALKERS, the feminine mythology of WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES, and the pulse of AURORA’s “Running with the Wolves.”

Anticipated publication: May 2027

Representation: Currently seeking literary representation for To Ruin a Red Leaf and future works.

Rights availability: All rights currently available for acquisition. For publishing, translation, audio, and film/television rights inquiries, please get in touch via hello@bjwildewrites.com