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What I Wanted This Story To Become
Veil of Embers follows ranger Sorcha and her allies as corruption spreads through Lumora and the wilds, forcing them to confront the cost of power and step into a dragon-lit realm where the real war begins. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I always knew the story would revolve around Samhain. From the beginning, I wanted Sorcha and Riona’s journeys to mirror each other while showing how differently people process grief. Circumstance shapes us, and the paths we choose often come from what we have lost and what we think will fix that loss. The world itself grew out of conversations with my mom, who is Irish, about traditions, folklore, and the deeper meaning behind Samhain. Once I started exploring druids, boundaries between worlds, and the mythology of the battle Mag Tuired I knew exactly what I wanted this story to become.
Kyron’s relationship to dark magic is steeped in grief and consequence. What was the first image or moment that unlocked his arc for you?
Kyron was originally written to move the plot forward, but he quickly became much more than that. As I drafted, I realized his actions needed emotional weight behind them, so I went back and rewrote many of his chapters to give him the depth and history he deserved. Alenia’s storyline actually came later, during revisions, when I understood what kind of loss and guilt would shape him into the person he is. Once that piece was there, his choices made sense, and his grief became central to his connection to dark magic.
Riona’s pull toward the forbidden grimoire reads like addiction without glamorizing it. How did you calibrate that line, especially for older teen readers?
Riona’s connection to the grimoire was never meant to feel like temptation for power alone. It comes from grief and from the desperate need to protect the people she loves. She is watching the world fall apart and feeling completely powerless, and the book offers her something she thinks will keep others safe. At that point, where the power comes from matters less to her than what it might allow her to do. I wanted readers to understand her perspective even if they disagree with her choices. When you are hurting and afraid of losing more, you start looking for anything that might stop that pain. Riona convinces herself she can control it, that she is using it for the right reasons, and that makes her decisions feel justified to her. Her story is really about how grief can push someone into morally gray territory when they believe the alternative is losing everything.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
The next book is Crownless Heirs, the second installment in the Threadfire series. It is already written and is currently planned for release in spring 2027. The story expands beyond the events of Veil of Embers and explores the consequences of the choices made in book one and even before then as the larger conflict begins to unfold.
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Sorcha is a druid ranger sworn to guard the Veil, the shifting boundary that protects her realm from the creatures that lurk beyond it. When a cloaked figure whispers her name, the Veil begins to tear. Monsters slip through the cracks, spirits stalk the woods, ancient gods stir awake, and Sorcha’s runes flare with a power she never wanted.
The Druid Council offers no answers. The forests offer only warnings. And the Dark Druid’s shadow grows stronger with every passing night.
With Samhain approaching and the realm unraveling, Sorcha begins to search for truth hidden in forbidden magic and forgotten myths. Loyal Kyron stands at her side, and a chaotic Cait Sídhe guides her through riddles, lore, and half-truths. Every path leads her closer to the one place no one dares to go.
At the edge of the Veil, one choice remains: enter the unknown or lose everything she swore to protect.
Veil of Embers
Veil of Embers is a Celtic-flavored portal fantasy that follows Sorcha, a ranger in the Circle of Light, as creeping corruption seeps into her forest, her city of Lumora, and even the people she loves. Strange reanimated beasts, a spreading sick bloom in the woods, and a willfully blind council set the stage while a second thread follows Kyron of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who faces the cost of dark magic up close, and a third thread tracks Riona as she gets entangled with a forbidden grimoire and the very charming, very suspect Vaelric. As the circle investigates, the rot in their world deepens, the old gods feel nearer, and the story builds toward Sorcha, Kyron, and the shapeshifter Cat stepping through the Veil itself into a new realm, leaving this first installment as a clear launch point for a larger series.
I really liked the way Karla Molina writes moment to moment. The opening trial with Sorcha and the animated wolf grabbed me right away, and the tone never really lets go after that. The prose is descriptive and sensory, with a lot of attention to sounds, smells, and texture, so the forest scenes and Lumora’s streets feel lived in. The library of Verdant Light, with its living tree and the mirror portal tucked into an alcove, is a good example, it feels cozy and ominous at the same time. The banter inside the Circle is warm and funny and gave me that “found family” vibe without feeling like a sitcom room, and the fight and horror scenes with the corrupted wolves, the dead livestock, and the black flower in the woods have real teeth. The pacing stays pretty steady, more slow-burning investigation and creeping dread than constant action, and then ramps up in the last act when the Veil finally opens. I will say it ends on a pretty hard “now we step into the new world” beat, so as a reader, I finished the last page already mentally reaching for book two.
The book worked for me because it is not just monsters in the trees. It keeps exploring the cost of power and the way hurt people go looking for shortcuts. Kyron’s mercy killing of Alenia, whose body has been twisted by dark magic, hits that theme in a brutal way, and it frames his later choices with a lot of quiet grief. Riona’s storyline with the Dark Book feels like watching someone slip into an addiction one page at a time, she is lonely and angry, the book tells her exactly what she wants to hear, and she keeps going back even while she knows better. The text does not glamorize that, it lets you feel the pull and the danger. On top of that, you have Sorcha’s trauma, the loss of her parents, the nightmares, panic, and the way she keeps forcing herself to function while her magic behaves more and more strangely. The preface is clear about the heavy topics, and I appreciated that the story leans into anxiety, despair, and even thoughts of not wanting to go on, but does so with empathy rather than shock value.
The character dynamics were a high point for me. The Circle feels like a real unit, full of teasing, half-serious flirting, and little crushes that may or may not go anywhere. Eirin, Drystan, Mason, Rhosyn, and Emry each get small moments that make them feel like people, not just names standing behind Sorcha in a formation. The romance threads stay fairly low heat and “closed door”, which fits the tone, but there is plenty of tension, especially between Sorcha and Kyron. I liked that their connection grows out of shared responsibility and shared guilt, not just “you are hot and mysterious”. Riona and Vaelric bring a darker, more questionable chemistry that adds another flavor. Worldbuilding-wise, I enjoyed the Irish myth roots, the Tuatha Dé Danann, Samhain, the Pooka, and the Undines in the waterfall, and the glossary up front is a nice touch, so the names and terms do not feel like homework.
By the time Sorcha, Kyron, and Cat step through the cracked earth into a sky full of dragons and a perpetual sunset, I felt both satisfied with the arc of this book and very aware that the larger story is only getting started. I closed it feeling a little wrung out, fond of this messy, brave group, and curious about how far into the dark the story is willing to go in future volumes. I would recommend Veil of Embers to readers who like character-driven epic fantasy with a slightly spooky edge, strong found family energy, Celtic myth influences, and slow-burning romance. It feels especially right for older teens and adults who do not mind heavier themes like grief, anxiety, and dark magic, and who enjoy that feeling of walking from a haunted, familiar forest into a bright and dangerous new world and knowing the real journey is just beginning.
Pages: 371 | ASIN: B0GHQM7JGD
