The Fairy Thief is a fast-paced urban fantasy that transports readers from the fairy-infested streets of Los Angeles to the High Court of Queen Titania, meeting sweary leprechauns, baby-snatching changelings, and homicidal pixies along the way.
Petra's grandmother used to blame the fairies when things went missing around the house, but Petra didn't really believe it until she caught one in the act. She also wasn't expecting the thief to be a chaotic bi, knock down gorgeous fairy called Raiker the Rogue, but then, Oma might have left a few things out of her bedtime stories. Like the fact that she had been hiding some sort of key, one that Raiker and a whole host of murderous, dark fairies are trying to find. With only her quick wit to protect her, Petra agrees to help Raiker find the key before the dark fairies do.
About the Author...
Katrina Mae Leuzinger had a very successful career as a hotel manager that she recklessly quit in order to be a writer. She got her start ghostwriting novels which ranged from Amish romance to werewolf smut. The stories she was asked to write always seemed to follow the same template: A virginal damsel in distress meets a borderline abusive, hyper-masculine man who swoops in to save her. Leuzinger was told that this was the kind of book that would sell, the kind that women wanted to read, and any deviation from that mold would only turn readers off.
That seemed, to her, to be a little insulting to women, and seeing someone else's name on the cover of a book she wrote was beginning to eat at her soul. Leuzinger decided to write a book of her very own, subverting as many of those tropes as she could in the process.
In The Fairy Thief, the male love interest is a chaotic bisexual fairy who likes butterflies and isn't afraid to show his feelings. And the protagonist is a grown woman who spends a lot more time rescuing him than the other way around. Much to Leuzinger's delight, beta readers found this refreshing and still just as scintillating as those books she used to ghostwrite.
Manuscript in hand, Leuzinger started looking for a publisher. The first publishing offer came with one small caveat- there could be no LGBTQ+ characters. She tossed that one into the trash where it belonged, and moved on to her second offer- a small press who believed The Fairy Thief was exactly the book readers were looking for. The novel was edited, cover art was completed, and then, sadly, that publisher closed up shop due to health reasons. Left with a very nearly complete book, Leuzinger pressed ahead and self published.
She has yet to regret quitting her job.
