A Feast for Starving Stone (Chefs of the Five Gods)

Two countries at war. A delicious taste of magic. And a fierce princess comes of age in a rousing adventure by the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge.

Princess Solenn’s marriage into royalty should have unified the continental neighbors of Verdania and Solenn’s homeland of Braiz against a common enemy: the country of Albion. Thanks to Albion’s cunning sabotage, Verdania is now Braiz’s lethal rival. And the dead Braizian sailors washed ashore near Solenn’s château are just the beginning.

Arriving in the midst of danger, Ada Garland, rogue Chef to the Gods, is desperate to reunite with her daughter, Solenn. Not only has open war begun; it’s become heart-wrenchingly personal. Ada’s long-lost, beloved Braizian musketeer, Captain Erwan Corre, is being held in a Verdanian prison, with execution imminent. And her daughter has been tasked with the near-doomed responsibility of uniting violently adversarial countries in peace.

Can Solenn and Ada, coming together, stop their land from descending into all-out war? And what will Solenn become to achieve victory? As ambassador between the human and magical worlds, Solenn must now draw from both to prevent catastrophe, and this time, even the Gods are working against her.

Beth Cato is the Nebula Award–nominated author of the Clockwork Dagger series, the Blood of Earth trilogy, and the Chefs of the Five Gods series. Her short stories and poetry can be found in hundreds of publications, including Fantasy Magazine, Escape Pod, Uncanny Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Beth hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a state of confusion that she shares with her husband, son, and two feline overlords. For more information, visit www.bethcato.com.