Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz writes fantasy, historical fiction, and contemporary stories for readers across several age groups. The Thirteenth Fairy opens her Chronicles of Never After sequence, a middle-grade fantasy published by Roaring Brook Press and later Square Fish. It follows Filomena Jefferson-Cho from suburban California into Westphalia, where characters and dangers from the books she loves prove real. The story combines familiar fairy-tale material with a present-day protagonist, friendship, and a quest to protect a threatened kingdom. De la Cruz has written more than seventy books, including the Descendants novels, Blue Bloods, and the Alex and Eliza trilogy, giving this series a place within a wide-ranging career in popular storytelling.