BOOK ONE OUT 15 OCTOBER 2026
Stolen as children. Caged for two centuries. Now they hunt monsters.
The imPerfect Strays: a portal high fantasy trilogy by C.N. Rowan & K.S. Walsh, set in the world of the imPerfect Cathar. One book a month, October to December. No eight-hundred-year wait for the ending. Only the characters had to do that.
BOOK ONE · 15 OCTOBER 2026 · ★ 4.78 ON GOODREADS
Stray Monsters
Born a slave. Stolen by the Fae. Kept as Queen Maeve’s pet in the frozen Winter Court for two hundred years.
When the cages finally open, Billy and the other children don’t land on the Earth they remember. They land in Geneva, 1290: a walled city where magic belongs to the rich, and monsters roam the forests beyond the gates.
Liam, the charming captain of the city’s Defenders, offers them food, beds, and a purpose: hunt the beasts that threaten the city. For the first time in centuries, Billy has something to lose. But free doesn’t mean safe, and the strays are about to learn that the worst monsters don’t always have claws.
Beba, ARC reader
★★★★★
“The prologue is so powerful and intense, it grabbed me immediately.”
“The prologue is so powerful and intense, it grabbed me immediately.”
Simon, ARC reader
★★★★★
“Two top tier fantasy writers at the top of their game.”
“Two top tier fantasy writers at the top of their game.”
Roberta, ARC reader
★★★★★
“Amazing, bewitching, and captivating! An unputdownable novel.”
“Amazing, bewitching, and captivating! An unputdownable novel.”
Book Two · Stray Fractures
Coming November 2026
The strays have survived Geneva. Now a smiling demagogue is turning whole towns against anyone with Talent, and the cracks are starting to show.
The strays have survived Geneva. Now a smiling demagogue is turning whole towns against anyone with Talent, and the cracks are starting to show.
Book Three
Coming December 2026
The finale of the trilogy. Title reveal coming soon to the newsletter first, naturally.
The finale of the trilogy. Title reveal coming soon to the newsletter first, naturally.
THE QUIZ
Which stray are you?
Night falls in the forest outside Geneva. Something big is moving beyond the firelight, and it’s coming closer. What do you do?
Pick an answer to get your stray card, then share it. On the newsletter? Every public share is a bonus entry in this week’s Stray Monsters giveaway. Not on it yet? Join here.
Or meet them all
Nineteen children went into Queen Maeve’s cages. They came out looking barely older than when they went in, and centuries older inside.Billy · The Reluctant Leader
Never asked to lead. Leads anyway. Would step in front of a blade for any of them.
See the card →
See the card →
Janey · The Quiet Heart
No voice, and no need of one. Notices everything. Everyone’s favourite.
See the card →
See the card →
Vic · The Blade
First through the door, last to back down. Has never once called Billy by his name.
See the card →
See the card →
Idina · The Watcher
Easy to overlook. A terrible mistake to. Small circle, absolute loyalty.
See the card →
See the card →
Malcolm · The Loyal One
Would follow his people anywhere, and has. Friendship is not something he gives up on.
See the card →
See the card →
QUESTIONS READERS ASK
Stray Monsters: questions and answers
What is Stray Monsters about?
Stray Monsters is book one of the imPerfect Strays, a portal high fantasy trilogy by C.N. Rowan and K.S. Walsh, released on 15 October 2026. Billy, born into slavery, and eighteen other children were stolen by the Fae and kept for two hundred years in Queen Maeve’s Winter Court. When they finally escape, they land in an alternate-history Geneva in 1290, where magic belongs to the rich and monsters from European folklore roam the forests. Taken in by Liam and the city’s Defenders, they train as monster hunters, until they begin to wonder who the real monsters are.
Is Stray Monsters a YA book?
No. It’s written for adult readers of epic and high fantasy. The strays look like young teenagers because they stopped ageing in Faerie, but they have lived for centuries, and they think and act like it. The book deals directly with slavery, captivity, trauma and violence. Older teens who already read adult fantasy will feel at home.
Do I need to read the imPerfect Cathar series first?
No. Stray Monsters is a standalone starting point, set in the same world as C.N. Rowan’s award-winning imPerfect Cathar urban fantasy series. Cathar readers will recognise the strays from imPerfect Bones, where Paul and Aicha break open the Winter Court, but you don’t need to have read it to follow the story.
What is the imPerfect Strays reading order?
1. Stray Monsters (October 2026)
2. Stray Fractures (November 2026)
3. Book three, title to be announced (December 2026)
The whole trilogy releases one book a month, so readers can binge it straight through.
2. Stray Fractures (November 2026)
3. Book three, title to be announced (December 2026)
The whole trilogy releases one book a month, so readers can binge it straight through.
Where is Stray Monsters set, and which monsters appear?
The story opens in Faerie’s frozen Winter Court and moves to an alternate-history Geneva in 1290: a fortified medieval city on the edge of the Alps, where the Talented rich rule and the magic-less poor do not. The monsters come from French and Swiss folklore, including loups-garous and the Beast of Gévaudan.
Are there fantasy books about children stolen by the Fae?
Yes. Stray Monsters is about what happens after: children taken by the Fae who come back two hundred years later, still young on the outside, and have to learn how to be free. It is a story of changelings and lost children told from the point of view of the stolen ones, not the people left behind.
Looking for found family fantasy with monster hunters?
That is the heart of the imPerfect Strays: a band of survivors who only have each other, recruited to hunt monsters for a city that doesn’t want them. Expect fierce loyalty, morally grey choices, emerging magic, and the question of who the real monsters are.
Who writes the imPerfect Strays?
The trilogy is co-written by C.N. Rowan, the British author of the award-winning imPerfect Cathar series and the Broken Hotel for Magical Misfits, who lives in France, and K.S. Walsh (Krista Walsh). Readers say the two voices blend seamlessly: Rowan’s dark humour and folklore, Walsh’s emotional depth.
Does Stray Monsters have content warnings?
Yes. It includes slavery (in a character’s backstory), the long captivity and cruel treatment of children by the Fae, violence, monster attacks with some gore, and death.
New to the imPerfect world?
Stray Monsters stands entirely on its own, so you can start right here. If you want to see how the cages first opened, Paul and Aicha’s side of the story is in the imPerfect Cathar, which starts with a free prequel novella.
IF YOU LOVED…
Books like Stray Monsters
Stray Monsters is for readers who love the stolen-children cruelty of Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air, the damaged and distinctly powered crew of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, and the flipped-sympathy moral turn of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
Expect portal escape and found family, survivors of a cruel fae court, late-blooming magic, a charismatic mentor who should never have been trusted, a silenced heroine hiding devastating power, slow-burn friends-to-lovers, and a monster hunt where the hunters need watching.