Where the Dark Stands Still

Published 09/01/2025 | Paperback / softback,
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‘Where the Dark Stands Still is a triumph; a deeply romantic debut with spiralling, atmospheric prose that swept me up and away to the enchanted forests of Polish folklore. You’ll never want to leave this beautiful, magical world’. Sarah Underwood, NYT Bestselling Author of Lies We Sing to the SeaA sweeping gothic fairytale romance for fans of Belladonna by Adalyn Grace and Gallant by V.E. Schwab.

Raised in a small village near the spirit-wood, Liska Radost knows that Magic is monstrous, and its practitioners, monsters.

After Liska unleashes her own powers with devastating consequences, she is caught by the demon warden of the wood – the Leszy – who offers her a bargain: one year of servitude in exchange for a wish.

Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain and all of her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts of his past.

Those who enter the wood do not always return . . .

‘Treading a tender line between unnerving and enchanting, Poranek’s writing is lyrical and atmospheric. With a beautiful grumpy/sunshine romance, Where The Dark Stands Still is a poignant and magical tale’ Bea Fitzgerald, bestselling author of Girl, Goddess, Queen’An enchanting spell of a read, woven through with petal-soft romance and roots-deep self-acceptance. The dark, gothic fairy tale of my dreams’ Kika Hatzopoulou, author of the Sunday Times Bestseller Threads that Bind’Folkloric and beautiful, Where The Dark Stands Still invites you to stray from the safe paths into a darkly whimsical fairytale forest, where secrets and bargains lead to tentative hope’ Lyndall Clipstone, author of Unholy Terrors and the World at the Lake’s Edge duology.