Another Way to Hope

Advance Reader Copy

Genres

Epic Fantasy, Female Protagonist, Fantasy Adventure, Novels, and Debut

Trigger Warnings

Violence and Death

Type of Ending

AI Usage^Beta

Series

Not part of a series

Author Prefers A Review On

Goodreads or Amazon

Reader Spots Remaining

198

Number of days to read

Publication Date

Oct 22, 2026

Page Length

394 pages

Available Formats

ePub and PDF

Another Way to Hope

Advance Reader Copy

Blurb

Hard magic, harder history, looming extinction, and cheese bread.

Leana doesn't have a death wish. Sure, she uses forbidden magic for illusion pranks. But death is coming anyway—the monsters are winning. In the meantime, why not make a few terrified refugee kids smile?

Twice a refugee herself, she has found a new home in a city that's really trying—free libraries, an elected council, and perfect cheese bread—and friends she'd do anything for, except the one thing they want her to do: live in fear.

All her life, she's heard the old stories about people like her. Every atrocity is another reason her kind were hunted down, and perhaps deserved to be. But she pieces together another story that was lost, or erased. A discipline of curiosity that once held the monsters back. Maybe it could again, if people would trust it. And if humanity could be trusted with it.

Spell by spell, siege by siege, she and her friends grow strong enough to matter. And to be noticed.

Details

Genres

Epic Fantasy, Female Protagonist, Fantasy Adventure, Novels, and Debut

Trigger Warnings

Violence and Death

Type of Ending

AI Usage^Beta

Series

Not part of a series

Author Prefers A Review On

Goodreads or Amazon

Reader Spots Remaining

198

Number of days to read

Publication Date

Oct 22, 2026

Page Length

394 pages

Available Formats

ePub and PDF

Author

R.J. Pingree is a political communication professor at Louisiana State University. Like this debut novel, his research seeks hope about dark subjects: media effects on democracy, the role of facts and policy reasoning in politics, how societies prioritize problems, and trust in truth-seeking institutions. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, he has sailed competitively, designed games, stubbornly played disc golf for years without improvement, written embarrassingly gushing fan emails to authors, and found his greatest happiness in fatherhood.