Out of the Shadows: Catching up with Melissa Blair About A Shadow Crown

In last summer’s BookTok phenomenon, A Broken Blade, readers were introduced to the world of Elverath as they followed Keera, the King’s Blade, as she began her journey to overthrow the crown that claims to own her and all other Halflings—children of mixed Elven and Mortal heritage. Now, Keera has returned and launched readers back into her quest the moment that we left it. And that opening page, dear readers, is a delicious treat. There are far too few instances of just desserts that happen on page one of a sequel, but this is an excellent one of them.
While this interview will contain no spoilers for the sequel A Shadow Crown, which hit shelves earlier this May, it’s clear very early on in this sequel just how much Keera has grown from a firmly independent assassin who refused to need anyone else to a woman who is more prone to forgive those she knows care about her.
Although that framing doesn’t give Keera in A Broken Blade quite enough credit: In the first book she claims her heart has been turned to stone, it’s clear that the reason she’s broken is because she feels too deeply, rather than not enough. That someone else saw the truth of her emotions is part of what allows her to start off A Shadow Crown on firmer, more confident footing. While she’s still not quick to trust, and she won’t ignore feelings of betrayal, she’s also learned that some people are worth relying on, even against all the odds.
With A Shadow Crown, Blair also spends more time expanding the world of her story, with new gorgeous locations and new magic that makes it feel even richer and more delightful. As in A Broken Blade, Blair makes gorgeous use of trees, including as features of specific locations, as homes and palaces, and even as emotional hints (the smell of birch, for example). The connection of the Fae to the forests—and the criticism of Mortals who have turned forest creatures and landscapes into their enemies—is always present without being fully overt. It’s simply part of the larger narrative rather than something Blair ever needs to tell the audience explicitly. For Keera, who has been raised without that connection to her heritage and people, realizing what she and other Halflings have lost only increases the righteous anger she has already embraced.
When readers left off in A Broken Blade, Keera had just discovered that the rebellion she had gotten tangled up in was actually a greater plot governed over by one of the princes—the better of the two, to be sure, but still someone who stood to lose a lot if the crown itself should be overthrown. She has every reason to doubt the prince’s intentions, and after the events in the first book, she herself now has so much more on the line.
We caught up with Melissa Blair to find out how writing A Shadow Crown was different from her debut, and what readers should be looking for as they read.
Paste Magazine: Last year when we talked, we discussed the TikTok secret author campaign. Now that you’re a known writer, what changed? What was the TikTok experience like this time around?