From the bestselling author of The Shapechanger’s Wife comes a captivating time-traveling story, where the line between past and present blurs.
Adopted from China and raised in St. Louis, Daiyu is used to feeling a little out of place, a little restless. But what kind of adventure is there in the Midwest? One day, while she’s at a city fair near the Gateway Arch, Daiyu spots a gorgeous black jade ring, and when the elderly vendor tells her that “black jade” translates to “Daiyu,” she impulsively buys the ring and wears it as a token of her heritage.
It is much more.
Daiyu walks through the Arch on her way home. She never gets there. Instead, she passes into another world, another version of St. Louis—where almost everyone is Chinese.
Now she has more adventure than she could ever have imagined. Taken to a safe house, she is trained as a spy in order to help topple the existing government. Daiyu spends hours learning refined manners and niceties and flirtations to pass among the elite—and steals moments to be with handsome Kalen, the only person in this alternate world whom she truly trusts or truly loves.
There is only one problem. Once her task is done, she must return to her own St. Louis and leave Kalen behind . . . forever.