Magical Stories
for Weird Souls.
for dreamers & night thinkers
Sydney J. Shields is a No. 1 Sunday Times, USA Today, and indie bestselling fantasy author. Her newest, An Arcane Study of Stars, is a dark academia romantasy about a girl who makes a deal with the demon in her nightmares. It's out now.
An Arcane Study of Stars
Dark academia romantasy · 2026
A historical dark academia fantasy with ancient secret societies, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and deals nobody should make after dark. Rejected from her dream occult university, Claudia Jolicoeur strikes a bargain with the demon in her nightmares, and it costs her a bite of her soul.
Then a student turns up dead, the rumors point at her, and the only way out is to free him first. Gothic and clever, epistolary and ergodic, it will lick your brain before it bites your soul.
The Honey Witch
Cozy sapphic romantasy · 2024 · Her debut
Marigold Claude keeps bees with her grandmother on a tiny island and brews magic into the honey. The catch is an old one: no one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
Then a grumpy skeptic washes up on the doorstep insisting magic isn’t real, and Marigold can’t resist proving her wrong. Sweet enough to pour on toast, and it will still break your heart before it hands it back, mended and a little stickier than before.
"What is so wrong about being a bitch? It is the closest a girl can be to a wolf."
— The Honey Witch
Meet Sydney
Dark academia romantasy · 2026
Sydney J. Shields is a swamp creature who evolved to hold a pen. She grew up near the Okefenokee Swamp and lives in Savannah now, with her partner and their dog.
When she isn’t writing she’s playing with bees, losing at chess in the park, and doing whatever else an 87-year-old trapped in a gen-z body would enjoy.
Come Live in the Swamp.
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