HarperCollins Children’s Books snaps up ‘highly original’ fantasy YA debut by Greenlaw

HarperCollins Children’s Books has acquired the “highly original and beguiling” YA debut of Rachel Greenlaw in her Compass and Blade fantasy trilogy.

Megan Reid, fiction editor, bought world all-language rights from Maddalena Cavaciuti at David Higham Associates. North American rights were acquired by Olivia Valcarce, editor at Inkyard Press. HarperCollins Children’s Books will publish the first title, Compass and Blade, in paperback in March 2024, with simultaneous hardcover release in the US through Inkyard Press.

Compass and Blade is described as “a rip-roaring, high seas adventure, filled with shipwrecks, romance, magic and betrayal set on the island of Rosevear".

Its synopsis goes on: “It is said that the island people of Rosevear are lawless – that they steal from the ships that wash up on their shores. The islanders see it differently. They call it survival. Eighteen-year-old Mira is a wrecker: one of seven chosen to swim out to the wrecked ships and plunder. When Mira’s father is taken away, she realises that, with the help of handsome stranger Seth, she will have to travel across the Fortunate Isles in search of a way to buy her father’s freedom. But to survive the journey she will need to learn who to trust – as securing her own future, and that of her island, will come at a high price.”

Greenlaw, whose first adult novel One Christmas Morning will be published by HQ in 2023, said: “Publishing stories in the YA space has been a long-held dream. Megan and the rest of the team have already been incredible, and I can’t wait to bring a whole trilogy of romantic fantasy stories inspired by my island home to readers.”

Reid added: “This is a beautifully written, coming-of-age maritime romantic fantasy – with brilliant worldbuilding, a wonderful heroine and huge YA appeal. Filled with magic, witchcraft, shipwrecks and sirens, I devoured Compass and Blade in one sitting and it is just the kind of reader-centred gripping YA fiction that we love to publish at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Rachel is an incomparable talent.”