Get Swept Away to an Enchanting Time and Place

Claudia Herring’s debut novel reminds us that reading should carry us away to adventure in interesting times and places. His Master’s Bride is a fresh look at a magical world readers will long to revisit again and again.

Yasir is a djinni cursed to abandon the love of his life, live in an urn and become enslaved to any who open it. Lord Peter Bramley, on an expedition to Egypt in 1811, acquires the urn from a peddler and discovers the djinni but soon learns that wishes can backfire. While outside his urn, Yasir sees a portrait of Bramley’s new bride, Lavinia, and believes it is Thalia, his own lost love returned to him. He casts a spell, causing Bramley to forget being master and give the urn to his bride at home in England.

Yasir’s love is so deep that he soon enchants and seduces Lavinia. Meanwhile, her husband has returned a different man, cold and violent. She is falling in love with Yasir, but unless he can free himself from the curse that chains him to the urn, they have no future. When he calls on a djinni friend to help, Yasir’s magic leaves a trail, which leads his old enemy, Rakhshan, to Bramley House.

Deftly, and with a confidence borne of deep knowledge of her story world, Herring weaves an enchanting tale of forbidden love and ancient magic. The story moves seamlessly from Yasir’s present struggle to reveal his captivity in Rakhshan’s dungeon, with vividly drawn characters, excellent pacing and surprises at every turn. Readers will close this book wanting more.