City of Roses

Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, has been knighted in the mysterious Court of Roses. Her roommate, Ysabel, is a Princess of the Court, and the intended Bride of the King Come Back (whomever that turns out to be). Together they must face the threats of bad dreams, changelings, surly exes, jealous lovers, intemperate peers, shabby magicians in ill-fitting suits, abstruse oracles, unemployment, eviction, and the nothing-time of three in the morning, when dawn seems so far off. Collecting chapters 12 - 22 of the critically acclaimed fantasy serial, Vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day, concludes most of the story begun in Vol. 1, "Wake up..."

Ysabel rules the City of Roses with her brother, Lymond, the King, and Jo Maguire, formerly a telemarketer, is now the Duchess of Southeast-but happily ever after doesn't go as far as it used to. New peers have been, raised up, and new factions vie to bring them down, from disgruntled knights to shadowy government operatives, from Lake Barons over the hills to Gloria Monday's art commune, and from enemies out of the past to apocalyptic nightmares of the future, drowned and forgotten. Can they possibly live up to the responsibility that power demands?

Jo Maguire, Duchess of Southeast, Hawk's Widow and Huntsman to the Court of Roses, has denied her Queen a second time, setting aside her office, her title, and her sword. Ysabel Perry, Sun-clad, Mountain-shod, the Rose arisen from the bitterest of tears, has crossed the river and thrown open her treasury; any and all might take what they need-so long as they do not serve the Viscount Agravante. The court is on the brink of civil war, and whether in a junk-shop or a rooftop garden, a riverside carnival or a hillside mansion, a dilapidated houseboat or a caravan, out by the airport-sides must be chosen, once and for all. -or Betty Martin collects chapters 34 - 44 of the critically acclaimed urban fantasy epic, continuing the story begun in Vol. 1, "Wake up...", and continued in Vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day, and Vol. 3, In the Reign of Good Queen Dick.