A train appears only to people who have lost their way, and Raya has lost hers. Samantha Sotto Yambao's standalone fantasy puts her aboard with a restless artist and a dangerous stowaway.

Readical Key Points

• A standalone fantasy novel with a romance at its center; a New York Times bestseller, according to the publisher
• Starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal
• Content note: the heroine is grieving the death of her brother
• Hardcover, 432 pages, Del Rey (2026); the publisher notes coloring-page endpapers and an illustrated case beneath the jacket

Raya stopped writing songs after her brother died and has been living the life he meant to have instead of her own. On the Elsewhere Express she falls in with Q, an artist as far off course as she is, and the two explore a train whose cars hold whole landscapes and impossible creatures. Someone aboard has brought a dark magic with them, and it threatens to tear the train apart.

The publisher calls it a wistful fantasy, and its pace belongs to the characters rather than to battles. It suits readers of cozy fantasy, magical realism and slow-building romance, and readers of Water Moon. The train will carry anyone who is lost. It does not promise to tell them where to get off.

About the Author

Samantha Sotto Yambao is a speculative fiction writer and the New York Times bestselling author of Water Moon. Her other novels include Before Ever After, Love and Gravity, A Dream of Trees and The Beginning of Always.

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