The Court of Venus

'Our kind has many names. Planetborn. Sorcerer. Witch or wizard. Magician.'

In Alvion, magicians have influenced and ruled beside kings for thousands of years. Blessed at birth by one of the seven planets, their abilities are miraculous and extremely rare. Magicians born under Saturn can speak to the dead. Venusborn charm the living. Moonborn manipulate emotions and memory, and alter their own appearance. Mercuryborn create new languages and decode ciphers.

It’s been years since Moonborn magician Bianca was forced to leave court. Even longer since she has seen her old childhood rival: pink-haired, Venus-ruled Roland who has risen to become the most dangerous living magician and courtier in her absence. When Bianca is invited back into the fold for the new queen’s coronation, she agrees; she’s eager to use this as an opportunity to investigate the mysterious death of Prince Hal and mourn the more recent loss of her and Roland’s former mentor Prospero. But court is not as she remembered it: it’s now on the brink of chaos.

Roland - sensual, beautiful, and infuriating - has taken over Prospero’s role as the King’s advisor. And he’s been tasked with the same impossible assignment that saw Prospero and multiple queens’ heads roll: helping the King secure an heir. For the sake of their mutually beloved Hal, and to save themselves from the surrounding scheming courtiers, Bianca and Roland reluctantly become allies. But their investigation will uncover more than they’d bargained for. It will upend everything they thought they knew about each other— and magic itself.

Set in a fantasy world inspired by Tudor England and the real astrologers who advised kings, THE COURT OF VENUS is Bel Banta's fantasy debut and a beautifully written historical novel about rival magicians.