A heroine's first adventure. A kingdom's last hope.

Gemma spends her days studying a war her father fought in before her birth, but she realizes that not everything is what it seems. When she sets off to interview an aging hero, she learns about an emerging threat to the kingdom prophesied by the forbidden factions of magic and religion.

Since she can't go to the officials without incriminating her new friend Richard, they must set off together on a journey through an uncanny forest to confirm and neutralize the threat. Can they forge new alliances and defeat the forces of evil without the use of magic or the might of a military?

If they fail, everyone they love will perish.

The Forest of Despair is the first book of The Pierced Shadow Archive, a complete series of epic fantasy adventures following an emerging heroine and her team of sidekicks, including a witch with an army of children, a young homeless seer, a giant ogre, a boisterous stage performer, and an all-female crew of pirates.

This book was previously published with the title Gemma Calvertson and the Forest of Despair and series name The Aepistelle Chronicles. The interior content is identical.