Wayward Magic, A. D. Reece

Description

A dazzling queer fairytale retelling where wishes have teeth, magic has consequences, and true love might just come with glitter.

Eli Cinderfella wants nothing more than a quiet life—tending his family’s tavern, caring for his father, and staying far away from anything resembling adventure. But a single wish on the winter solstice changes everything.

When a young fairy godmother named Gemma arrives to grant his wish, chaos follows. One shattered wand later, Eli finds himself infused with unstable magic—and everything he loves in ruins. His home is gone. His father has vanished. And his hands now hum with dangerous, glittering power he can’t control.

Desperate to undo his wish, Eli sets off through the enchanted kingdom of Briargild. Along the way, he crosses paths with a necromancer whose mismatched eyes hide impossible secrets, a sharp-tongued witch with a deadly bargain, and a prince as kind as he is cunning—though the world refuses to see past his disability.

Armed with borrowed magic, a dragon that shouldn’t exist, and his reluctant fairy godmother, Eli embarks on a quest to put his world right again. But mending one’s own story isn’t so simple—especially when the heart insists on writing its own ending.

Wayward Magic is a queer, glitter-dusted twist on the Cinderella myth—filled with lush worldbuilding, found family, bittersweet humor, and the kind of enchantment that cuts both ways.