Once a Queen A Novel

An American teenager discovers that her estranged English grandmother was once a queen in another world in the debut novel from bestselling author and speaker Sarah Arthur.

When fourteen-year-old Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she’s never met, troubling questions arise. Why the estrangement? What’s with the house's employees and their guarded secrets? Why must Eva never mention trains, her father, or her favorite childhood fairy tales? 

After strange things start happening in the gardens at night, Eva turns to the elderly housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener’s grandson, Frankie, for answers. Astonishingly, they all seem to believe the fairy tales are true—that portals to other worlds still exist, though hidden and steadily disappearing. They suspect that Eva’s grandmother was once a queen in one of those worlds. 

But Eva's grandmother denies it all. After a horrific family tragedy when she was young, her heart is closed to the beauty and pain of her past. It’s up to Eva, with Frankie's help, to discover what really happened, whether family relationships can be restored, and if the portals are closed forever. As she unravels generational secrets, Eva wrestles with the grief of a vanishing childhood—and the fear that growing up means giving up fairy tales forever.

Sarah Arthur is a fun-loving speaker and author of a dozen nonfiction books ranging from popular devotionals to serious engagement with literature. Her first book for teens, Walking with Frodo: A Devotional Journey through The Lord of the Rings, was a bestseller. Her other writings have won numerous awards. As a sought-after voice on the intersection of faith and literature, Sarah has presented at numerous events. She’s a founding board member of the annual C. S. Lewis Festival. A regular guest on podcasts about literature and faith, she’s also hosted her own podcasts, interviewing such well-known figures as Christian activist Shane Claiborne, farmer Joel Salatin, authors Philip Yancey, Sarah Bessey, Luci Shaw, and more.