Books

WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO BE KING is book one in an adult fantasy series spanning the entirety of the Vedic epic, the RAMAYANA. As a reimagining, the foundational heart and soul of the original bleeds a little beyond the story’s edges and into my own dreams. If you loved LONG LIVE EVIL and DARKER BY FOUR and binged MR. QUEEN and A DREAM WTHIN A DREAM, you’re probably my reader. Very especially, if you’re a danmei fan (HEAVEN OFFICIAL’S BLESSING, MO DAO ZU SHI, WORD OF HONOR, LITTLE MUSHROOM, ERHA) seeking a fun hybrid of classic tropes and bisexual representation, you definitely do!

Also! I’m working on adding an explanation of my connection to and a nerdy, heartfelt summary of the RAMAYANA to my website very soon!

BACK COVER COPY

Things Sunny Kent loves: Cannoli with fine-chopped chocolate in the filling instead of whole chips stuck to the ends; England even though she’s never been there; the specific breeze that wafts through open windows on the first balmy nights of spring; k-dramas about longing-filled demons; her asshole cat Baz; and Rainbow Rowell novels.

Things Sunny could do without: Dying the day Netflix options her debut romantasy; taking over someone else’s body in the middle of her hero’s inciting incident; being expected to do actual murder and only be minorly traumatized by it; the mind-fuckery of falling in love with people who shouldn’t exist; her beloved villains trying to kill her; and the realization that trying to force changes to her own plot could lead to the end of a world even more precious for the control over it she’s lost.

As Sunny deals with “write what you love” turning irl, her main characters—Leni, the crown prince hero whose steadfast honor begs to be tested; River, the self-annihilating captive assassin hopelessly pining for the hero; Miro, the anarchist demigod who’s definitely not meant to be Sunny’s love interest; and Elian, the fallen angel in love with the hero but not in the good way—weave their lives around hers in an ever tightening knot that starts to feel more personal than it should, since none of them are wise to her imposter syndrome.

Or are they?

In a captivating debut equal parts earnest and ridiculous, Zephyr Marks, a writer for whom longing and pining are food groups, offers an epic adult fantasy love letter to writers everywhere and an homage to the most formative tale of her strange childhood, a myth so far beyond myth, it’s considered real. With a sweetly sardonic voice, she layers one reality onto another to examine how the writer and the story might be the same thing.

Fallen Angel, Alexandre Cabanel, 1847

P.S. I longed to tell a story whose characters are largely unknown in the West, and I wanted to make it queer and strange and lovable in a blatant Western homage to my love for the isekai genre. So my reimagining of the RAMAYANA had a baby with the ever-fascinating painting above, picked up everything I want in a portal fantasy along the way, and here we are.