Sarah Pinborough

Hi there! I'm Sarah Pinborough, and I have a confession: I love taking everything you think you know about stories – especially fairy tales – and turning them completely upside down. (Fair warning: my versions usually involve a lot more blood, sex, and morally questionable decisions than the Disney versions...)

I've always been drawn to the darker side of storytelling. Growing up in Milton Keynes, England, I was that kid who preferred Grimms' original fairy tales to the sanitized versions. You know, the ones where Cinderella's stepsisters cut off their toes to fit the glass slipper? Yeah, those were my jam. I started my career as a secondary school teacher (teaching hormonal teenagers definitely helped prepare me for writing complex characters), but the stories in my head wouldn't leave me alone.

My writing journey has been... let's call it unconventional. I've bounced between genres like a pinball – thriller, horror, YA, fantasy, and now dark romance. But there's always been one constant: I love messing with readers' expectations. If you think you know where one of my stories is going, you're probably wrong. (And I take an unholy amount of joy in that fact.)

When it comes to my writing style, I'm all about blurring lines. Good and evil? More like fifty shades of morally gray. Happy endings? Sure, but you'll have to wade through some deliciously dark stuff to get there. I write the kind of books that make you stay up way too late, possibly question your life choices, and definitely need a stiff drink afterward.

My latest series, starting with "Blood" and "Magic," takes classic fairy tales and drags them kicking and screaming into a much darker realm. We're talking Nine Kingdoms where princes aren't always charming (but they're always interesting), where magic comes with a hefty price tag, and where happily ever after isn't guaranteed – but the journey will be one hell of a ride.

I'm not interested in writing "safe" books. My characters are messy, complicated, and sometimes make terrible decisions (don't we all?). The villains might make you feel things you're not comfortable with. The heroes might do things that make you question whether they're heroes at all. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

When I'm not corrupting fairy tales or plotting new ways to torture my characters, you'll find me in my home office in London, probably drinking too much coffee and arguing with my cat about plot points. (She's a harsh critic.) I'm also slightly obsessed with true crime documentaries, which definitely influences the darker elements in my books.

To my readers: thank you for being willing to walk on the wild side with me. Your messages about staying up all night to finish my books, or throwing them across the room in shock (please don't damage your e-readers!), or needing time to process that ending – those make my day. Every time.

If you're new to my work, here's what you can expect: stories that will challenge you, characters that will haunt you, plot twists that will blindside you, and endings that will make you rethink everything that came before. Oh, and probably some scenes that will make you blush on public transport. You've been warned.

My writing philosophy is simple: give readers something they haven't seen before, even in stories they think they know by heart. Push boundaries. Ask uncomfortable questions. And never, ever make it easy to guess what's coming next.

So if you're ready for fairy tales with teeth, romance with razor edges, and stories that don't play by the rules – welcome to my world. Just remember: nothing is quite what it seems, everyone has secrets, and sometimes the monster under the bed is exactly where you want to be.

(P.S. Yes, I do occasionally feel bad about all the emotional trauma I put my readers through. But not bad enough to stop...)