Adventure Novels

The Spellchasers Trilogy

Spellchasers

The Beginner’s Guide to Curses

‘I don’t believe in curses or spells or magic or frogs turning into princes. I’m not cursed,’ Molly said, so firmly she almost convinced herself.
The first novel in the Spellchasers trilogy, about a girl called Molly, who annoys one of her aunt’s neighbours, and is cursed to turn into… well, I’m not going to tell you what she becomes (though I suspect you can now find spoilers all over the rest of my website!) but her new shape isn’t human, or convenient, or safe. So she finds herself enrolled on a curse-lifting workshop, where she meets a boy who changes shape for fun, a girl who talks to trees, a large black cat with wings, and a toad that no one knows anything about. The curse-lifting workshop is run by a witch, who expects the students to spend all day digging up the tatties on her farm, and all night doing dangerous homework.

Spellchasers

The Shapeshifter’s Guide to Running Away

…Molly leapt the wall again, still enjoying the power of her legs and the precision of her senses, but also starting to feel trapped inside this small fragile shape. She landed, on all four paws. She was still a hare.

Molly lifted her friends’ curses in The Beginner’s Guide to Curses, but she still has a few magical problems of her own, and both the witches who might be able to help have gone missing. Also, someone she trusted has just ambushed her…

In the Shapeshifter’s Guide to Running Away, Molly discovers the wider world of curses and promises, meets monsters from Scottish mountains and sea, and learns more about her own powers and skills.

 Spellchasers

The Witch’s Guide to Magical Combat

The final adventure (and best cover?) in the Spellchasers trilogy. Published in August 2017. More details soon!

Fabled Beast Chronicles

FIRST-BOOK

First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts

“And the best bit is…” Helen flicked a few pages back in the book, “the best bit is, this isn’t some fairy tale like Cinderella that could come from any country. This one is set in Scotland…”
Helen opens the door one night to find a very strange boy on the doorstep. A boy who needs first aid … from a vet. But Helen’s mum, the local vet, only believes in science books and would not believe in this boy, so Helen borrows the veterinary equipment, heals his wound, and finds out how he got injured. She then finds herself involved in a quest for a lost book, a battle by a Borders wood, an ambush in Orkney and a chase through dark tunnels under Edinburgh…
WOLF-BOOK

Wolf Notes

“She’s met some fabled beasts before, has she? She thinks we’re all friendly and gentle and VEGETARIAN, does she?”
In the sequel to First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts, Helen’s musical skills put her in deadly danger, and to escape she has to work with fabled beasts who aren’t friendly or trustworthy, and who certainly aren’t vegetarian!Wolf Notes is set on the edge of a forest in the Highlands, and includes a night-time dragon flight to Skye, breaking and entering a castle, some lifesaving jam sandwiches, and, of course, a pack of wolves…
STORM-BOOK

Storm Singing

“Helen flung her hands out behind her, and the edge of the cliff slid away under her fingers…”
Storm Singing is the third book in the First Aid for Fairies series. It’s set on the north coast of Sutherland, using the cliffs, caves, islands and waves of that most isolated and least populated part of Scotland, so for the first time the fabled beasts can get out and have adventures during the day. And I was able to write cliffhangers set on actual cliffs! Rona the selkie returns in this book, taking on coastal contests and tasks, with the help (mostly) of Helen and the other fabled beasts…
MAZE-BOOK

Maze Running

“Yann whispered to Helen and Rona, ‘Look up slowly. We’re caught in a trap.”
Maze Running is the fourth and final book in the First Aid for Fairies series. One of Helen’s friends is mortally wounded when they refuse to work for the Master, so the fabled beasts must search Scotland’s most magical locations for a healing token. But who will really benefit if they find it, and who is trying to stop them…?

Other Adventure Novels

rocking

Rocking Horse War

“The triplets and the rocking horses had disappeared together. But had the triplets taken the horses? Or had the horses taken the triplets?”
Pearl can’t believe that she is following the hoofprints of galloping wooden horses. But her day in the moors and mountains of Perthshire just keeps getting stranger and more dangerous, as she searches for her missing brother and sisters. She has to deal with rocks which don’t stay still, magic which everyone but her seems to be able to use, and a very irritating boy who might be able to help, or might be the cause of all her problems…