Black Salt Queen
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Product Details
Publisher: Bindery Books
Release Date: June 17, 2025
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook
ISBN: HC: 978-1-964721-00-2; PB: 978-1-959411-98-7; EB: 978-1-959411-99-4
Trim: 5.5 x 8.25
Page Count: 400
Letters from Maynara, Book One
Samantha Bansil
There can be no victory without betrayal.
Hara Duja Gatdula, queen of the island nation of Maynara, holds the divine power to move the earth. But her strength is failing and the line of succession gives her little comfort. Her heir, Laya, is a danger—a petty and passionate princess who wields the enormous power of the skies with fickle indifference. Circling the throne is Imeria Kulaw—the matriarch of a traitorous rival family who wields recklessly enhanced powers of her own—with designs to secure a high-ranking position for her son and claim the crown for her family. Each woman has a secret weakness—a lover, a heartbreak, a lie. But each is willing to pay the steepest price to bring down her rivals once and for all.
Filled with passion, romance, betrayal, and divine magic, Black Salt Queen journeys to a gorgeous precolonial island nation where women—and secrets—reign.
About the Author
Samantha Bansil is a Filipino-American fantasy author. She studied sociology and French at Boston University before earning a master’s degree at Institut d’études politiques de Paris. After trying on many a professional hat, she found her way back to her one true love: writing. Her stories often feature big feelings, lush settings, and unlikeable protagonists. A jet-setter at heart, she lives to travel worlds both real and imagined. When she’s not writing, she can be found wandering bookstores and ricocheting between continents. She works in Paris, France, as a content marketer.
Visit the author’s website at samanthabansil.com and find the author on Instagram @sam_bansil
About the Tastemaker
Kevin T. Norman is a Latinx creator from Los Angeles, California, who combines humor and his love of reading to create content focused on education, social justice, and all things bookish. He has a combined TikTok and Instagram following of over 370,000. In 2022, Kevin was chosen as an LGBTQ+ Trailblazer, a title awarded by TikTok to only twelve creators from the US for their work with the LGBTQ+ community. He has been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Spectrum News, and NBC News, and in Forbes, Teen Vogue, the New York Post, Rolling Stone, and more.
Join the Violetear Books community at violetear.binderybooks.com and follow the tastemaker on Instagram and TikTok @kevintnorman