New Trails Book 1 of the New Trails Series

From a finalist in the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for excellence, a story of a young man with a troubled past who steps into a magical realm where he is forced to do what he has never done before – trust.

Troy has never been comfortable in his own skin. Betrayed and abandoned as a child, raised by a man who wasn't his father, he learned to rely solely on himself. Trapped in a life without purpose or escape, he fiercely hoards his time in the wilderness, which provides his only refuge. As for his dark memories, he shuns them as completely as he shuns other people.

Suddenly forced into a totally different world, Troy realizes it doesn't work by any rules he knows; mystery and magic are the norm. Guided by his new companion, Kieran, Troy must learn as an adult the skills most learn as children. What does it mean to call a trail? And how, after everything he's been through, is he supposed to trust Kieran? If he wants to survive, he will have to learn both.

Kieran, orphaned at age seven, also stands apart from his people, rarely seen for who he is or his abilities, even by other Guardians, who view him with equal parts distrust and grudging admiration. The young B'Guardian ignores their opinions, choosing to make his own way, until Troy crashes into his life. A bond of mind and soul transcends the differences between Kieran and this outworlder, a bond that has the potential to make something greater of them both, if they have the courage to accept it.

Together they must face Aodhan, the dark R'Guardian who wants to bind Troy to him, using the outworlder's very soul to destroy Aodhan's own world in the name of saving it. And Kieran, junior to Aodhan and the older man's long-term foe, is the only one who can stand between them.

Will either of them take the journey they're called to, or survive it if they do?

by Jody Norman

In stores now!