The Warrior Heir follows Jack Swift, who is set apart only by his scar and the medicine he always, always must take. And then one day, he doesn't, leading to a sudden surge of unexpected power that nearly kills someone during soccer tryouts. Soon, he is caught up between the Roses, rival houses whose struggle for superiority entails a fight to the death. Specifically, Jack's.
Seph McCauley takes the stage in The Wizard Heir. A Walking Disaster Area unable to control his powers, being enrolled in the Haves seems like a dream come true. He is, of course, wrong. While he is offered training to learn how to use his magic and entrance into a mysterious guild of wizards, the offer does not come without strings.
In The Dragon Heir, Trinity finds itself under siege. Everyone but Jason Haley has a part to play, or so he feels. Then he finds a huge opal called the Dragonheart, which leaves him awash in power. Power that not only he feels, as the talisman calls out to lure Madison Moss into delivering it to Trinity's enemies.
Set a couple years later, The Enchanter Heir and The Sorcerer Heir form a new story arc.
See also The Seven Realms Series for the author's ongoing High Fantasy book series.
Provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Ellen and Carrie.
- Alliterative Name: Madison Moss.
- Anti-Magic: There are three varieties.
- Elicitors like Madison can draw in magic like a sponge, which tends to leave the caster stunned.
- Savants are immune to the conjured magic used by wizards, but not the powers of the other guilds.
- Weirsbane is a magical potion that, when ingested, renders the weir temporarily powerless.
- Beauty Is Bad: Members of the Lobeck family are "known for their good looks, bad habits, and a talent for violence."
- Better to Die than Be Killed: More specifically, better to be slowly poisoned by a Wizard graffe than be taken by the White Rose, forced to enter a deadly tournament and maybe die, and be forced into a breeding program if you end up surviving.
- Boarding School of Horrors: Seph attends one.
- Brought Down to Normal: Done to all of the surviving villains at the end of book three before being suddenly killed off at the beginning of book four.
- Charm Person: Enchanters, complete with Compelling Voice. Wizards also count, but not to the same extent.
- Child Hater: Jessamine.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: All different types of magic users are associated with a certain color. They are as follows:
- Wizards: Gold
- Enchanters: Purple
- Sorcerers: Green
- Warriors: Blue
- Soothsayers: Red
- Combat by Champion: How the Roses vie for supremacy.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Devereaux D'Orsay is a male example.
- Evil Brit: Jessamine Longbranch.
- Fantastic Racism: A lot of Wizard-supremacy goes around.
- Goth: Fitch's girlfriend Alison, who is also something of a Granola Girl.
- Functional Magic: It's happening all over the place and it's getting to the point where it is almost the main premise of the series.
- Great Big Book of Everything: The Weirbooks are this.
- I Call It "Vera": Swords are named more than once.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Madison has this type of appeal for Seph.
- Involuntary Battle to the Death: The Game becomes this.
- Kiss of Death: Jonah secretes a magical toxin from his lips and hands that's instantly fatal on contact with skin, much to his frustration.
- Lap Pillow: Leesha to Jack, although she's being more mocking than tender.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: With magic, of course.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Dragon, no, not that dragon, De Powers almost every member of both Roses and those who've been allowing things such as the Trade and the death-battles to settle their rivalries at the end of The Dragon Heir.
- Last-Name Basis: Almost everybody calls Harmon Fitch just plain Fitch.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The Roses' plan for Jack and Ellen.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The Fitch family.
- Masquerade: Most Anaweir are entirely oblivious to magic.
- Muggles: Called "anaweir".
- New Old Flame: Hastings and Linda have romantic history that the events of the book dredge back up.
- New Transfer Student: Ellen.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Jack.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Or rather, our dragons are almighty magical beings that can turn any weir into normal mortals, should they deem it right. One of the most satisfying cases of Laser-Guided Karma in literary history.
- Parental Abandonment: Seph is an orphan.
- Pent-Up Power Peril: Seph starts out as this due to his unnaturally powerful wizardry as well as a complete and utter lack of magical training.
- Posthumous Character: Susannah, who is also The Lost Lenore to Hastings.
- Really 700 Years Old: A lot of Wizards are.
- Rotating Protagonist: The main character is never the same twice. A controversial move.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: Kenzie's seizures cause him to light on fire, non-fatally (for him, anyway).
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Longbranch and Wylie die ignominiously at the beginning of The Enchanter Heir.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Leesha gives one to Jack while he's immobilized.
- Tomboy: Carrie.
- Trilogy Creep: The books, in order, are The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, The Dragon Heir and The Enchanter Heir.
- Truth in Television: The Trade is a human trafficking system used to buy and sell lower Weir between the wizard houses. Sadly, human trafficking is a very real issue.
- Tyke-Bomb: A favorite strategy of the Roses is to kidnap very young warriors and train them intensively.
- Unequal Rites: Very important to the series. Wizards are widely recognized (mostly by themseleves, as they don't care about anyone else's opinion) as the most powerful weir because they can use magic on people and things through their words. Enchanters can take over the minds of others just by speaking to them (though the strong-willed can resist, especially if they're aware of it). Sorcerers forge magical objects. Warriors augment their physical powers with their magical ones and shoot fire from their swords. Soothsayers have the amazing power of getting brief and incredibly confusing glimpeses of the past, present, and future.
- Ironically, despite being the most powerful (and well-rounded), all other weir have advantages over Wizards: Warriors can keep them from saying their incantations, Soothsayers can forsee their attacks, Sorcerers can make objects that limit their powers, and Enchanters can enchant them.
- Walking Disaster Area: Seph is one.
- Wicked Cultured: The Roses are a highly elegant and sophisticated aristocracy.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Roses are perfectly fine with kidnapping children and forcing them to fight to the death if it means advancing their goals.
