Into the Burning Deep

Hadestown meets Titanic in this lush sapphic retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set on a boat quarantined at sea until an infection of magic can run its course.

This is the story of a girl who lived in another world on the other side of an infinite sea…

Adrian Nix has lived her entire life at sea. A refugee of a war that claimed her homeland and infected her people with dark magic, Adrian now works as an oil-splattered mechanic aboard The Lyre. She dreams of the day she can finally set foot on dry land—a day that inches closer as the ship’s years-long anti-magic quarantine finally comes to an end.

But everything changes when Adrian meets Ophelia Jones. The captain’s sister and a notorious party girl betrothed to a wealthy governor, Ophelia is everything Adrian isn’t.  As the unlikely duo grows closer, Adrian and Ophelia discover a deep, forbidden connection that feels bigger than the confines of The Lyre. Adrian feels like she can tell Ophelia anything, including the terrifying dreams she’s been having, and the sinister voices that seem to haunt every corner of the ship.

When Ophelia falls victim to a dark curse, lured across the waves by a ghostly ship in the night, Adrian will do anything to get her back—even if it means crossing a dark, enchanted sea. But Adrian may not be enough to save Ophelia from the secrets awaiting them across the burning deep…

• Hadestown meets Titanic? Say less. J. M. Voris's lush prose, intricate world building, and layered characters make for a breathtaking adult debut. The swoon-worthy romance kept me turning the page well into the middle of the night, and Adrian's search for Ophelia across a dark sea will haunt readers well after the last page. A dreamy, dark, deeply romantic stunner!
  Sasha Peyton Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Bargain