In the kingdom of Kaloma, a woman cannot own land, money, or even her own future. It’s the law. For Tarley Fareview, it’s a cage she refuses to accept. Idealistic, stubborn, and determined to carve out a life on her own terms, she’s spent years pushing against a system designed to keep her small.

But when defending herself from a man who won’t take no for an answer puts her at risk of imprisonment, Tarley must flee into the Whitling Woods disguised as a boy. There, she stumbles upon a dying stranger, a man. She faces an impossible choice: walk away to save herself or risk everything to save his life.

She chooses him.

The stranger, however, is no ordinary man. Lachlan Nikolas—the spoiled crown prince of Jast, traveling in disguise for treaty negotiations—has survived an assassination attempt. Stripped of his identity and his comforts, he wakes to the care of a disguised woman. Trapped in the woods with her, Lachlan is forced to reinvent himself.

But their fates tangle in ways neither expects and when the fragile peace between their kingdoms hangs by a thread, and they are backed into an alliance that will change both of their lives: a marriage of convenience contrived as a love match. Except as the tangle of lies widens, everything that appears to be a hoax traps them in the web of true love.

In the Shadow of a Hoax continues the sweeping romantasy and reimagined fairy tales of the Fareview sisters—four women bound by law, shaped by magic, and destined to challenge the fate laid out for them.