On a recent escape to Northern Arizona, I devoured Vivid by Ashley Bustamante, a YA fantasy book about dark secrets at a boarding school for teens with a talent for color magic. The school teaches red and blue magic, but yellow magic, which involves mind control, is banned.

But are the yellow magic people really all as evil as everyone thinks? When precocious Ava Locke runs into an escaped Yellow Magic user, she begins to question everything she’s ever known.

I was also lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy of Book 2, Radiant, which releases May 9! After enjoying these two books, I asked Ashley if she’d share a bit about the world of color magic and what comes next in the Color Theory series.

Your books feature magic that is divided in color categories. What gave you the idea for color magic?

It was actually something I used to daydream about as a kid! I’d see colorful objects and would imagine what it would be like if I could take all that color and turn it into magic.

If you could pick just one color, which type of magic would you like to have and why?

That’s such a tough choice! I think Blue magic would be so useful, so if I’m being practical I’d probably go with that.

Woven into your stories are themes of trust and acceptance. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

I hope readers will feel inspired to become more unified and maybe seek to understand the who are different. I think so much of the contention among people that arises in today’s world is because of lack of understanding.

Can you share anything about your upcoming projects?

Right now I’m hard at work on book 3 of the Color Theory series, which is due in a few weeks! I’m really focused on that right now because I want to make sure this series finishes strong. It’s bittersweet.

All images courtesy of Ashley Bustamante