What is The Duality Series about?

The Duality Series is a four-book arc that follows Jessica Kantor, Jex, when she discovers she has elemental powers (fire/water). This urban fantasy-style series focuses on her personal growth and achievement. Jex must come to terms with her power, embrace her potential, and learn about herself—both who she is, and who she wants to be. It’s a story about finding yourself when you’re lost, even if you’ve been lost all along and didn’t know it.

Jex’s relationships are an important part of her story. She finds several people who lift her up, both platonically and romantically. She has five love interests and doesn’t choose between them. Although the series is first and foremost about Jex and her development, these relationships are a critical part of her story. Jex is bisexual, but the books do not put a lens to her sexuality. She has a female love interest who actively participates; the focus for each of her love interests is on Jex (FF, no MM). The series is why-choose/reverse harem, and contains open door romance.

Note that there is far more romance than you’ll typically find in urban fantasy, which is why it’s been categorized as fantasy romance. There is escalating spice in each book.

What about the magic system/world?

The magic systems involves balancing forces, fed by a person’s inherent “essence” (similar to a soul). They are split into two primary categories—Amories (with balancing elemental powers) and Valens (with enhanced physical abilities). There are six main categories of Amories: serobestia (plants and animals), terraer (land and air), ignisunda (fire and water), orisalvus (sight and sound), menscorpis (body and mind), and moira (time and space). The Duality manifests differently in each person.

Every Amory and Valen are paired. Each being in the supernatural also has a corresponding inverse to other types of the extraordinary, which can act as balancing or contrasting forces.

Within the world of Dualities, there are two competing factions—the Clara, as the force for Good, and the Kier, as the force for Evil in the world.

A glossary with terms is at the end of each book.

Why is Jex Jewish?

I get this question a surprising amount. Jex is Jewish because representation matters. As a Jewish woman, it would have been wonderful to see my culture, principles, and upbringing represented in the books I enjoyed. Even finding a heroine with curly hair was and continues to be a struggle. Jex’s decision-making and ethics are largely based in her beliefs, even if she doesn’t make many express statements as such.

Judaism is also an important part of the magic system and the overall structure of the worldbuilding. More information is available in the special editions (forthcoming). For example, the series is based around the Jewish ideals of fate, where destiny is not an end point but a series of checkpoints for a person to exert free will and decide upon one path or another (a life path).

I’ll often identify the series with the trope of “fated mates,” but the intended purpose is representation of “beshert”—someone “destined.” I was also raised to think of this in broader terms, to include the family you adopt for your own, like in the “found family” trope.

The Jewish community (generally) has been very open and accepting of the LGBTQIA+ community for decades. Beshert also contemplates that a person has not one “soulmate,” but that there can be many “meant to be’s” placed in your life path (this is only to say there are many possibilities). Jex simply doesn’t choose between her beshert. Each paramour is a different version of a future that could have been, but I really liked making them all come together and work as a unit.

The series examines general concepts of good and evil, which are not strictly speaking Jewish, but the ultimate outcome of the thematic conversation in the books is based in Jewish principles and ideals.

To be clear, this is not to say that the Jewish community as a whole would have one particular opinion of Jex, her story, the magic system, etc. As the old adage goes, “ask five Rabbis a question and you’ll receive six answers.” The above is based in the ideals I learned growing up, but applied to genre conventions, tropes, story lines, and plain ol’ fashioned drama. My goal in creating a representational work does not mean everyone will agree with me, or even that my beliefs around Judaism comport with everyone else’s (that’s the beauty of our religion).

What is the series progression?

*SPOILER WARNING*

Book One, Duality, introduces you to Jex and the world of Dualities. You meet the Clara and learn the basics of the magic system, among other things.

Book Two, Duplicity, sees Jex’s power and relationships grow substantially. If Duality is an introduction, then Duplicity is a wind-up.

Book Three, Discord, requires Jex and company to grapple with the upheaval in their lives and move toward a solution together. Although Discord does end in a cliffhanger, the events in the book are a catharsis for much of the building tension in the first two books.

Book Four, Dissent, has Jex to fully mature into her potential and find her happily every after.

Detailed content information can be found on the “Books” page.