"Elizabeth Hazel and the Day of Destiny"

Seventeen-year-old ELIZABETH HAZEL is stuck in a rut. Overlooked by her perfectionist family and suffocated by suburban expectations, she’s working in a Brooklyn coffee shop and dreading a future she doesn’t want. But when a strange, foreboding man named LEO—a mysterious and ancient guide who once ruled Ellon in dragon form—begins appearing, cryptically hinting at a prophecy and a place called “Ellon,” Elizabeth’s reality starts to unravel.
 

On her eighteenth birthday, a trap door in the café’s basement leads her into an ancient, otherworldly tunnel. At its end lies Ellon, a fantastical realm teetering on collapse. There, Elizabeth discovers she is the fabled “chosen one” prophesied to save this world from a monstrous evil named Aquella. She’s not convinced. After all, she’s never held a sword—let alone led a rebellion. But when she stumbles into a medieval kingdom and discovers QUEEN PHILLIPPA—her near-identical double—Elizabeth begins to suspect there’s more to her destiny than a mistaken identity.
 

With the help of HAWKIN (18), a dashing and rugged commoner whose past is tangled with the queen’s, Elizabeth must reach the forest of Greshmere and face three of her greatest fears. Along the way, she evades castle guards, uncovers secrets buried in prophecy, and confronts the burdens of self-worth, identity, and courage.
 

Inside the mystical blue sphere where her test begins, Leo reappears in his true form—an ancient guardian of Ellon. He reveals that if Elizabeth succeeds, not only can she save Ellon, but she’ll be granted her heart’s deepest desire. But if she fails, the entire realm will fall under Aquella’s dark rule.
 

Blending coming-of-age themes with magical realism, high fantasy, and sharp contemporary humor, Elizabeth Hazel and the Day of Destiny is a YA feature that explores self-belief, bravery, and the idea that the hero you’re waiting for… might just be you.