Year
2026
Language
English

About

A wonderfully cosy standalone fantasy set after the Stariel series.
'Witty, heartfelt, romantic and utterly charming'

– Stephanie Burgis, author of Wooing the Witch Queen, on How to Find a Nameless Fae
Marius Valstar doesn't know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk.
The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the misfortune to have a history with.
But when Prince Rakken turns up naked and bleeding in Marius's college the same day a body appears in his greenhouse, scruples must take second place to solving a murder that could unravel the delicate balance between humans and fae.
Marius's own developing magical powers are more hindrance than help – as is Rakken's bloodied past. Forced to work together, they must forge an uneasy alliance if they are to track down the killer. But how can Marius trust the man who represents everything he's trying to avoid?
* * *
READER REVIEWS
'One of those rare finds, where you know after the first couple of chapters that you're gonna be reading this book again . . . and again'
'I have really, really enjoyed A Rake of His Own. It's intelligently written, funny, charming and complex on many levels'
'I didn't want this fairy tale to end'
'Hats off to AJ Lancaster: superb conclusion to the Stariel series!' Marius Valstar's quiet life is upended by a dead body in his greenhouse and an arrogant fae prince too close for comfort. Forced together to solve a murder, Marius must navigate his own developing magic and a second-chance romance with the one man he can't trust. AJ Lancaster grew up on a farm in rural Aotearoa New Zealand, and her first job was finding lost people in a corn maze. Since leaving the farm, AJ's activities have included a geography degree, environmental planning and editing maths exams. Now AJ lives in the Manawatu and writes romantic, whimsical fantasy books while investigating how many plants you can fit in one house. Results so far suggest that the limit does not exist. In 2021, AJ Lancaster received the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent, New Zealand's preeminent awards for science fiction, fantasy and horror. AJ is best known for the Stariel novels, a series about a country estate that chooses its own ruler, beginning with The Lord of Stariel.

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