Ysabel

In this exhilarating, moving novel set in modern and ancient Provence, Guy Gavriel Kay casts brilliant light on the ways in which history – whether of a culture or a family – refuses to be buried.

City of Roses is a serialized epic very firmly set in Portland, Oregon—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where duels are fought in Pioneer Square and union meetings are beseiged by ghost bicycles. —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..."