⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.9/5 from readers
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy / Mystery / Dark Fiction
A Dark Fantasy set in the Scottish Highlands, where Celtic legends, forgotten manuscripts and ancient mysteries collide.
An epic fantasy that takes readers on a journey through ancient mysteries and the crystal city of Áetheria. Where fate intertwines with magic.
In the silence of the Scottish moors, between secrets buried for centuries and a crystal city that seems to defy time, Meira and Ewan find themselves bound by a journey neither of them chose, but neither can refuse. As ancient symbols awaken and the truth proves more complex than it appears, they'll discover that some destinies, once sealed, were never meant to be broken alone.
Why Readers Love Aetheria
✔ Scottish Highlands
✔ Celtic Legends
✔ Ancient Mysteries
✔ Secret Libraries
✔ Slow-Burn Romance
✔ Dark Academia
What readers are saying
Il Coraggio di scoprire l’ignoto e noi stessi.
“Una delle cose che più mi ha colpita è stata la riflessione che attraversa tutta la storia. Dietro la ricerca di simboli e misteri, il coraggio di affrontare l’ignoto. Perché ogni risposta ottenuta apre nuove domande, ogni verità conquistata richiede un sacrificio.”
— Deborah, GoodReads
Mistero avventure emozioni
“Ci sono libri che riescono a trasportarti altrove…ho avuto la sensazione di trovarmi davanti a qualcosa di speciale,dove ogni tassello contribuisce a creare un mosaico sempre più affascinante.”
— uncuoretrailibri, Amazon
Stupendo
“Ho volato… mi sono ritrovata in un mondo fantastico… una scrittura scorrevole, un libro che ti tiene incollata alle pagine. Non vedo l’ora di leggere il secondo.”
— Agnese, Amazon
Un bel fantasy scorrevole!
“Mi ha colpita per la cura dei dettagli e per quell’atmosfera Dark Academia che ti cattura subito. Un world building solido e un’anima vera: un esordio che consiglio assolutamente di scoprire!”
— Manuela, Amazon (acquisto verificato)
Una piacevole scoperta!!
“Un libro coinvolgente, che ti fa entrare in un’atmosfera e in luoghi unici… l’ho finito in due giorni. La scrittura è fluida, coinvolgente e molto descrittiva.”
— Roberta, Amazon (acquisto verificato)
Un viaggio epico tra mistero, emozione e magia
“È uno di quei libri che ti catturano fin dalle prime pagine e non ti lasciano più andare. Consigliatissimo a chi ama il fantasy con un’anima profonda. Non vedo l’ora di leggere il seguito!”
— Tony, Amazon (acquisto verificato)
Perfetto per chi ama storie profonde e simboliche
“Meira ed Ewan sono protagonisti complessi, legati da una dinamica lenta ma autentica. Aetheria, viva e suggestiva, diventa specchio della loro interiorità.”
— Tizzycla, Amazon
Un bel fantasy tra la nebbia della Scozia
“Una bella storia che ci porta tra i misteri di una Scozia antica e spesso dimenticata. Un’avventura sempre ricca di colpi di scena che lascia con il fiato sospeso fino all’ultima pagina.”
— Angelo Aiello, Amazon
Un viaggio tra le scogliere di Glencoe
“Mi è molto piaciuto il modo di scrivere dell’autore, mi ha permesso di vivere tra le scogliere di Glencoe e successivamente nella città di Cristallo. Non vedo l’ora di continuare questo viaggio insieme ad Ewan!”
— Martina, @martina.inthepages
Bellissimo libro!
“Un brivido dietro la schiena riaffiora ogni volta che qualcosa di mistico viene descritto. Per alcuni aspetti mi ricorda Outlander, quasi per le stesse atmosfere: la tradizione scozzese, la profondità di ogni parola e scenografia.”
— Francesca, Amazon
Romanzo d’esordio sorprendentemente solido
“Avendo visitato la Scozia ben cinque volte, posso garantire che le descrizioni di questi paesaggi sono così vivide, accurate e palpabili da far sentire il lettore catapultato direttamente tra le scogliere spazzate dal vento.”
— YvySottoCopertina, Goodreads
Recensione Autore Emergente
“Un esordio italiano che mi ha colpito per la sua atmosfera cupa e quel sapore di mitologia nordica che ti resta addosso. Mi è piaciuto molto lo slow burn tra i due: non è la solita romance frettolosa, ma una tensione che cresce pagina dopo pagina.” (Edizione cartacea)
— Lia, TikTok
Read an Excerpt
Prologue – The Broken Seal
The wind lashed against the cliffs of Iona, carrying with it sprays of brine and the sharp scent of sodden peat. The night was bleak, illuminated only by distant lightning that cast a violet glow across the Atlantic sky.
It was the night of Samhain, when the veil between worlds thins and the dead may walk among the living.
And that night, something was stirring.
Brother Aedan, a monk of Iona Abbey, had fled the island at dawn in a rowing boat. Not out of fear, nor to save himself, but to fulfil the final act of the vow he had sworn in the silence of the Guardians’ Crypt years before, when his master had entrusted him with the first of the Fragments. ‘Where the light falters, the Guardians watch,’ his master had said, resting a hand upon his head. An oath… and a brand seared into Aedan’s destiny.
That vow had carried him across lands, seas and storms, far from the island he had called home. He had defied wars, spirits and corrupt men. He had shattered ancient pacts and broken centuries-old protections.
One by one, he had wrested the Seven Fragments from the world, scattering them where none neither mortal nor shadow could find them. He had not kept them safe: he had denied them to fate.
For what had been broken must never awaken again. Because the Guardians had died to prevent what was now attempting to unfold.
Because the Shadow, deprived of the Seal, had already seeped into the world like a living fissure.
Reaching the shore, he leapt out without bothering to beach the boatthere was no time. The monk trudged along the muddy path leading to the ruined Ardmore lighthouse, clutching beneath his cloak the final Fragment. The most feared. The most perilous.
The Seal of Balance.
The manuscript, wrapped in crimson velvet, weighed less than it should have, yet each step bore down on his soul. From the monastery behind him came an unnatural silence, as though the island itself were holding its breath. The torches flickered weakly, unable to decide whether to burn bright or surrender to the dark.
Aedan quickened his pace. Something was following him. Something that did not breathe.
‘Hurry, Aedan… the light falters.’
The breeze returned those words to him like a familiar whisper.The oath of the Guardians, their signature and their warning. The monk’s skin prickled like pine needles in the rain. It was the call of those who did not want the manuscript to leave the island.
The ruined lighthouse loomed before him, a stone stump weathered by centuries of storms where the wind whistled through cracks carrying echoes of ancient chants and promises of power. Aedan knelt by the central well, where rainwater reflected a pale moon struggling to break through the clouds.
With trembling hands, he drew from his cloak a black wax seal engraved with Arawn’s Knot, the druidic symbol of protection and the connection between worlds. He pressed it onto the manuscript’s cover and whispered: ‘Custodi secretum, et celato.’ Keep the secret, and conceal it. The wax melted, dampened by the oil lamp’s flame, forming an unbreakable bond before Aedan plunged the manuscript into the well’s water. The water received it with a deep gurgle, almost like a whispering voice, as the book vanished into a dark, gleaming vortex.
A thunderclap shook the cliffs. For an instant, the lighthouse’s inner walls illuminated, revealing a circle of stones carved with seven alchemical symbols, previously invisible.
Symbols that seemed to move, to pulse.
— ‘May the stars hide you,’ the monk murmured.
At that moment, a shadow shifted in the doorway. A figure swathed in a black cloak, face concealed, but eyes too bright to be human reflected the lightning like molten metal. — ‘You dared to break the Seal,’ the figure said. ‘Now the blood of the Guardians will be on your hands.’
Aedan gripped his rosary. ‘Better the blood of one man than the soul of the entire world.’
Lightning split the sky. Stone fell between them. Aedan sprinted toward the spiral stairs leading to the cliffs.
As he ran across the rocks, stumbling through mud that weighed down his habit and feeling the sea’s icy breath creep up his spine like a funeral caress, he stopped. Behind him, the hooded figure’s voice dissolved into the wind: ‘The Seal is broken… and with it, the balance.’
Aedan closed his eyes, prayed silently, and threw himself into the shadows of the cliffside, vanishing into the dark. Beneath him, the sea howled. In the depths, the manuscript was already guarding its secret, like an ancient heartbeat.
It was not a threat, but an invitation, an oath. In the depths of the well, far from the lighthouse now, an inscription appeared on the cloth wrapping the manuscript, a line of ink written by an unseen hand:
‘When the seventh falls, the world shall remember.’
The well sealed itself with a sigh. The echo spread along the coast, through the stones, into the sea. An omen and a promise.
And so the story began.
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