In a world where magic is absolute power, her greatest weapon is a brilliant lie.
Vesper Hemlock has absolutely no magic in her blood. What she does have is a crushing, inescapable debt, a brilliant mind for clockwork engineering, and a dangerous plan. When a ruthless collector threatens her family’s lives, Vesper uses her mastery of chemistry, gears, and invisible wires to forge a miraculous display of “starlight,” conning her way into Aethelgard Academy—the most elite and deadly magical institution in the kingdom. Her goal? Survive long enough to win the coveted Celestial Grant and buy her family’s freedom.
But Aethelgard is a gilded cage where weakness is punished by death, and the grueling magical trials are designed to break the unworthy.
Worse yet, her flawless deception has caught the attention of Zane. A coldly brilliant, devastatingly handsome senior prodigy, Zane is tasked by the Headmaster to investigate the academy’s newest “mystic.” He is a hunter with piercing storm-grey eyes and relentless logic, determined to strip away Vesper’s secrets and expose her as a fraud. But as the deadly trials escalate from academic tests to brutal, lethal traps, Vesper and Zane are forced into a reluctant, dangerous alliance.
Beneath his icy exterior, Vesper discovers a man bound by his own suffocating duties, while Zane realizes the “fraud” he is hunting possesses a brilliant, non-magical mind that eclipses the greatest sorcerers of their age. When the academy’s darkest, most blood-soaked secret is revealed, their cat-and-mouse game erupts into a fight for survival. To defeat a corrupt system designed to execute the weak, the strategist and the sword must fight together. And as the sparks of their brilliant rivalry ignite into an undeniable, scorching passion, Vesper must decide if she can trust her most dangerous enemy with the truth—and with her heart.
A Forgery of Starlight is a spellbinding, high-stakes Dark Academia Fantasy Romance perfect for fans of deadly trials, intricate magic systems, and crackling enemies-to-lovers tension.
Tropes Readers Will Love:Enemies to Lovers / Rivals to Allies: From suspicious investigator and desperate fraud to a fiercely protective alliance.Dark Academia & Deadly Magic School: Lethal trials, hidden libraries, and corrupt headmasters.Magic vs. Science: A brilliant, non-magical FMC outsmarting powerful mages using clockwork and chemistry.Hidden Identity: The constant, heart-pounding threat of being unmasked.Slow-Burn Romance: Sizzling tension, forced proximity, and witty banter.”Touch Her and You Die” Vibes: A grumpy, powerful MMC who falls hard for the FMC’s sheer brilliance.Scroll up and 1-Click to step into the deadly, glittering halls of Aethelgard today!
