The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones

"A WONDROUS BOOK...ABOUT LOVE AND HURT AND HOW WE SURVIVE IT ALL TOGETHER." -JOHN GREEN
"A HANDS-DOWN FAVORITE OF THE YEAR, AND PROBABLY EVER." -OLIVIE BLAKE
"FANS OF THE MAGICIANS AND NINTH HOUSE HAVE FOUND THEIR NEW OBSESSION." -LAURA STEVEN

From New York Times bestselling author Lex Croucher comes an extraordinary dark academia fantasy about dangerous privilege, corrupted power, and two former best friends caught on opposite sides of the secrets rotting at the heart of Britain's most prestigious boarding school.

For as long as they can remember, Briar Jones dreamed of attending the Temple School of Thaumaturgy. Behind its looming ornate gates, the elite boarding school--the place that has produced the most CEOs and Prime Ministers in British history--is whispered to be magical.

Briar's best friend, Sebastian Wolfe, never cared about Temple. He just wanted them to stay together forever.

When, at age eleven, Seb gets an acceptance letter and Briar doesn't, their childhood friendship is shattered. Seb vanishes onto Temple's grounds and Briar resigns themself to a mundane life. But they can't completely forget their yearning for Temple, for the extraordinary, to be one of the chosen in the ivory tower.

Seven years later, Briar secures a temp job sorting through the junk in Temple's attics. And when Briar takes it, they discover that quiet, sensitive Seb, the boy they once loved more than anything else in the world, has become Bastian: a beautiful, arrogant villain feared by the entire school. And worse, the secrets Temple is hiding might not be so enchanting after all.

Lex Croucher grew up in Surrey and now lives in London. With a background in social media for NGOs, Lex has written historical-ish rom-coms for adults (Reputation, Infamous, Trouble) and historical fantasy rom-coms for teenagers, including Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, the New York Times bestseller which won the 2024 YA Book Prize. The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones is their adult fantasy debut.