David Grimsby Releases 'Allure of Alira,' First Novella in a Planned Thirteen-Book Grimsby Academy Series

Adult dark fantasy set at a supernatural academy where a witch's heir learns the people closest to him may be the most dangerous.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, May 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Author and game designer David Grimsby has launched Allure of Alira: A Grimsby Academy Novella, the opening installment of a planned thirteen-book series spanning four years at a school built for the Lineaged, the world's supernatural and magically inclined. Written for mature readers, the novella carries a content advisory and does not soften its darker turns.

The story follows Gregor Grimsby, the reluctant heir whose family name hangs over the academy. Between a principal who rules by fear, tensions with a bully that escalate fast, and a pull he can't explain toward Lilly Brineblude, a selkie cultist the whole school shuns, Gregor spends his first months convinced the danger is everywhere except where it actually is.

Grimsby Academy began as a tabletop roleplaying game Grimsby publishes, but this story reaches for something the table does not. "The characters and stories created during an RPG session tend to be lighter, campier, and shorter-lived," Grimsby explains. "With Allure of Alira, I wanted to tell a more personal, focused story. The character of Gregor and the events he goes through at the academy are a more macabre version of me and my life. Much like viewing my reflection through a broken, haunted mirror."

The book is invented, but its emotional material is not. Several characters carry pieces of the author's own experience, including the anxious, easily overlooked Dalilah, whose unlikely act of courage anchors one of the book's pivotal scenes. "She is very unsure of herself, anxious, and shy, feelings I have strongly experienced throughout much of my life," Grimsby says. "It was a bit of an 'I wish I could have that courage' moment."

Told primarily in Gregor's voice and occasionally shifting to Lilly's, the novella builds toward a betrayal that reframes everything before it, and leaves Gregor facing a truth about Grimsby Academy he never saw coming. The second novella, already written and in editing, picks up from there.

Allure of Alira is now available on Amazon, at Schuler Books and directly from the author.

About the Author

David Grimsby is a writer, game designer, and meadmaker based in Michigan. He has written and published several tabletop games incorporating fantasy and mythology, including the official Grimsby Academy roleplaying game, and brings those characters to life in the Grimsby Academy novella series.

Guy Rinzema
Aster & Ink
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