Temples of Delight

The moment Jem joins her class in the middle of Silent Reading, Alice knows her life is irrevocably changed. Glamorous, different, a subversive treading the exciting line between fantasy and reality, Jem seduces Alice with The Magic Flute, esoteric literature and the vivid fabric of the past - and then vanishes as abruptly as she came, leaving Alice bereft.

Until, five years on, Jem blazes across her sphere again, trailing mystery, chaos and large-scale casualty. And then the infuriating demoniac Giovanni appears. Giovanni who, sharing Jem's gift for suffusing life with magic, fantasy with life, becomes Alice's very own dangerous Sarastro, holding the talisman...

Shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award.