Published by Bloomsbury Books this month, we spoke to Norry about working with Storymix on Fablehouse, how her upbringing in the care system has prepared for life as an author and why the only footsteps she’s following in are her own …

The author says while the tumultuous nature of her upbringing forms a big part of the underpinning narrative that runs through Fablehouse, it’s not the only reason she was inspired to put pen to paper. Fable has spent the last four years of her life trying to get off of the horrible trap on an island she was stranded on. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. So when she came to me about this project she knew that I’d grown up in the care system because that’s what she’d read before in a book I’d been trying t get published for ages about being in the care system.

Featured Reviews

The world building was terrific, not just the world of Fables mansion years ago, but what the mansion and the valley is like now and how Kas and Gemma are living and what they need to do to survive the winter where there is little electricity, little food and a lot of cold. The descriptions of treks outside the mansion, their meals, and more were terrific. Since the beginning of book 1, I have been wondering what is at the other end of the cave that the former guests came through and Kas’s family left through. I was glad that was brought up again. The Father-Daughter Bond: One might say there is no such bond here, and their dynamic is one of complex push and pull, denying and hiding their love for their fear and not knowing how to show it even if they wanted to, only causing each other pain from a distance. And while I wouldn’t wholly disagree, I’d say that beneath the hurt, beneath the struggle, he is still the dad who believes in her and does everything he does bc he thinks it’ll protect her, and she is still the daughter who proudly follows in his steps and just wants to be by his side. They might keep each other away and feel as if they’ve lost and have to guard against one another, but they still both evidently care and hate that they do. I fell right in love with each member of the Marigold crew! This journey was not the best or safest journey and there were a few rough things that happen. Like Kassen Sands who has been living a solitary confined life hidden deep in the impenetrable mountainous wilderness. He's devoid of polity & decorum that enslave civilized folks so he behaves independently and responds instinctively to people and situations. His past has taught him to be extremely distrustful and wary of humans and their vile hidden agendas, so face value doesn't hold water for him. BUT - I'm excited for book 3 - can't wait to see how this all ends. And after that, I'm excited to read the next book! We have so many Fable kids to find a HEA for!

Heather has already been through several children’s homes and is wary of Fablehouse and its unusual head teacher, Miss Isolde. But when children start acting strangely, Heather discovers a plot from a fae realm to infiltrate and overthrow the human world.

This book focuses more on the internal battles of Kas and Gemma and how they navigate each other’s personalities. Kas is unstable, he has a lot of issues and Gemma witnessed all of it. At some point I wanted Gemma to just run be logical but then I also want her to help Kas. I was mad at Kas but then as the pieces of his shattered past came bit by bit, I can’t help but agree with the logic of Gemma to help and be there for him. To unravel the mystery behind the broken man.