a way to escape death - Rheia by Cassandra Page

"Rheia by Aussie author Cassandra Page is a stunning, breath taking and tissue-inducing fantasy/steampunk/young adult novel which was unputdownable! Absolutely brilliant in my opinion. Filled with tension, the characters were extremely well crafted."- Brenda, Goodreads

Description:

Release Date: October 13th 2018

“Beauty and the Beast” meets Ancient Greece, with a steampunk twist

Every year, Rheia’s father brought home four prisoners of war, sacrifices to keep the demon Typhein bound. Rheia never gave them much thought … until her father’s enemy made her one of them. Now she has two weeks to find a way to escape death at the hands of the Beast and either save her people or condemn them to destruction.

The last thing Rheia expected was to fall in love with the Beast oath-bound to kill her.

AUTHOR'S Q&As

I noticed that Rheia is listed as a fantasy rather than a historical fantasy – is it actually set in Ancient Greece? 

Not exactly, no. The kingdom of Oreareus in which Rheia is set is inspired by the world of Ancient Greece – from the culture and the aesthetic to the Minotaur, the Minoans and the island of Crete. But I’m no historian, and I took a fair amount of creative license: the steampunk elements of my world, as minor as they are, are the most obvious markers of that. 

That being said, there was a long time there where my favourite web searches all started with the words “Ancient Greek” and finished with everything from clothes to meals to plant life. Rheia is the first novel I’ve written that isn’t an urban fantasy set in modern day Australia, and I wanted to get the world-building as right as I possibly could. 

What made you decide to switch genres from urban fantasy? 

My favourite thing about urban fantasy is the combination of the familiar and the strange, and the ability to insert a little bit of magic into the real world. (I think we can all agree that the real world definitely needs more magic!) In a way, Rheia is just as true to that basic principle as any of my other books. 

Rheia’s story had also been burning a hole in my brain for years, and it was such a relief to finally get it out and onto the computer screen. I’m sure I’ll branch out into other (probably still speculative fiction) genres down the track. One of the advantages of self-publishing is that I can write whatever story has taken hold of my brain at the time rather than being tied to one genre. It’s very freeing. 

How long have you been writing? 

My first attempt to write a novel was when I was about fourteen; I worked on it with a friend. It was a story about mermaids that was terribly Mary Sue-ish and derivative of My Sister Sif (a middle grade novel by Australian author Ruth Park). I don’t think we made it past a few chapters. 

In my early twenties I tried to co-write a fantasy novel with my then-boyfriend, but that … didn’t end well either. After that, I realised I was better off going it alone, and tinkered with a few ideas. Still, it wasn’t until I was in my thirties, after the giant kick in the posterior that was my divorce, that I finally sat down and finished writing my first novel, Isla’s Inheritance. 

Rheia is the sixth full-length novel I’ve released. This writing thing is definitely habit-forming!

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About the author:

Cassandra Page is a mother, author, editor and geek. She lives in Canberra, Australia’s bush capital, with her son and two Cairn Terriers. She has a serious coffee addiction and a tattoo of a cat – despite being allergic to cats. She has loved to read since primary school, when the library was her refuge, and loves many genres, all of them speculative fiction. When she’s not reading or writing, she engages in geekery, from Doctor Who to AD&D. Because who said you need to grow up?

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