Meet your newest fantasy book obsession: ‘Wings of Life’

PHOENIX — Meghan Le Fay has always loved fantasy.

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Her obsession with the genre started at the age of four when she watched the Disney classic, Sleeping Beauty, and she was enamored by the faeries, magic, and Maleficent.

“My girl, I just love her and the dragon she turns into. Let’s just slide over the fact that she was painted as a villain,” Le Fay said in an interview with 12News.

From there, she started reading books like The Last Unicorn, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret Garden, and, of course, she read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager.

And now, Le Fay is embarking on a new chapter: Publishing her own epic fantasy romance novel.

Wings of Life is the first book in the Dragonbound Chronicles, Le Fay’s trilogy, and follows Serae, a young noblewoman being sent as a spy to Rihtlond by posing as their heir’s betrothed. But when she arrives in her new home, nothing is as it seems.

There’s magic in the roots of the Rihtlond, a dragon hiding in plain sight, and a weapons master she was never meant to fall for.

When war rises, and alliances dissolve, Serae finds herself caught between what she thought she knew and the new people and place that had wormed their way into her heart.

Le Fay, an Arizona-based author, said when she started writing the story, she wanted the book to be primarily about Serae and the changes she goes through.

“I wanted her to have a very transformative journey, and I wanted this book to largely be about her self-discovery,” Le Fay said. “While there is also major events happening in her world that she’s a part of, and there’s a love story in the mix, but the first and foremost thing that’s going on in this book is her transformative journey.”

It’s why Le Fay said the book is not a typical “romantasy” like many readers have come to know.

For her, the romance is important, but so are the friendships, the familial relationships, the magic system, and the epic scope of the world.

“I wanted to write it in a way where, yes, she’s learning about her heart, and she’s learning about how love works, but also that it’s not the full driving force for her,” Le Fay said. “It’s a part of her and not the whole of her.”

It was a natural choice as the “fantasy nerd” she is, Le Fay said.

“I couldn’t put the romance first because it’s not who I am as a person, so it’s not who I could be as an author either,” Le Fay said. “My first and foremost love is going to be the dragons, so that’s where it had to go.”

And putting the fantasy elements first is a win with readers, too: Le Fay said there are a lot of early readers like her who are looking for more of an epic scope on the page, with the romance and spice secondary to the overall plot.

“While maybe the hottest books out there are a little bit more romance first, I still feel like there are a lot of people who would connect to this story, connect to this journey,” Le Fay said.

To create such an immersive world, Le Fay said it was part giant research project, part creating and inventing elements, and part pulling ideas from historical sources, and then melding all of it together into one cohesive project.

And of course, because the series is three books, Le Fay was also thinking about books two and three as she was writing book one.

“One really fun thing for me is, since I knew things that would be happening later, I layered in all the little Easter eggs that nobody will know on the first read,” Le Fay said. “But if you continue reading the series, and hopefully if you go back and reread them, you’re going to catch things and go, ‘Oh my gosh, it was right here.’”

As Le Fay prepares for Wings of Life to hit shelves on May 26, she said she feels so excited about both readers getting the story into their hands and kicking off publication with an event at Valley bookstore, Changing Hands.

If you want the chance to meet Le Fay and get your copy of Wings of Life signed, the launch party will be held at the Phoenix Changing Hands location. Your ticket includes a copy of the book and exclusive goodies.

To get your ticket, visit Changing Hands’ website, and to keep up with all of Le Fay’s upcoming books, you can head to her website or social media pages.

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