A magical cloak. A desperate theft. A bargain with an immortal.

War has left Jack’s family struggling to survive. His father is dead, their tavern is failing, and the medicine that could save his ailing mother lies far beyond what they can afford.

Then Jack discovers an enchanted cloak inside the abandoned Keep of the Sky Gods. It can make him invisible—and reveal a hidden path into the glittering realm of the muses. Surrounded by treasures while the mortals below continue to suffer, Jack makes a dangerous choice: he will take what the immortals will never miss.

But even an invisible thief cannot remain unseen forever. When Jack’s thefts bring him face-to-face with the muses, saving his mother will require more than stolen treasure. It will require entering a realm from which mortals rarely return unchanged.

I have never been especially fond of Jack as a fairy-tale character, which made this story difficult to approach. If my Jack was going to steal from the muses, I needed to understand why—and give readers a reason to remain on his side.

Setting Jack’s story in a kingdom recovering from civil war gave me the answer. He could view the immortals’ abundance from the perspective of someone who had lost nearly everything.

More than anything, Jack gave me the opportunity to show another side of the muses and Sky Gods. Previous tales had presented them as generous protectors. To a struggling common-born boy looking up at their palaces, they might appear very different.

A unique take on a Jack and the Beanstalk style story, with splashes of other fairy-tale inspiration such as the Pied Piper… You don’t need to have read any of the other Tales of Tessagonia to enjoy this one.

— Elizabeth Wilcox

The story flows, the attention to detail is excellent and the character of Jack is a good person with good intentions.

— Erin Robinson