The Alchemist’s Daughter will pull you from whatever you are supposed to be doing into Sidonie’s fortunes, and hold you there cover to cover.Marked by high adventure, and delicious language, Kernaghan’s use of real historical figures like Dr. John Dee, Lady Mary Herbert, Sir Philip Sidney and William Shakespeare, blended with original fictional characters are a powerful mix, while her impeccable research allows you to learn something of an age that has long held a spell over contemporary readers.

Eileen Kernaghan lives in New Westminster, British Columbia. Sophie, in Shadow is Kernaghan’s ninth book in the fantasy genre. Eileen’s first young adult fantasy, Dance of the Snow Dragon, was set in 18th century Bhutan. It was followed by The Snow Queen, which won an Aurora Award for Canadian science fiction and fantasy, and was shortlisted by the Canadian Library Association for Best Children’s Book of the Year. The Alchemist’s Daughter, set in Elizabethan England, was shortlisted for the Sheila Egoff Prize for Children’s Literature and the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award. Winter on the Plain of Ghosts, which also appeared in 2004, is an adult historical fantasy set in the ancient Indus Valley civilization. Wild Talent: a Novel of the Supernatural, a novel of spiritualism in Victorian England and fin de siècle Paris, appeared in 2008, and was shortlisted for a Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.

Eileen Kernaghan's profile page

• Short-listed, Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award, the Aurora, for best long-form work in English