The priestess.
The temple she serves.
The people and the gods she loves.
Having given up her only child and her very identity to become a priestess in ancient Crete, an idealistic young woman struggles to find meaning in the day-to-day life of the temple; but when she is chosen to be the next High Priestess, she must call on both mystical and practical skills to protect her people from the encroaching Mycenaeans, who want to destroy the Minoans’ way of life.
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Their island steeped in ritual and tradition, unchanged for centuries, the Minoans keep to their ways as the world around them shifts and shakes. Their acceptance of all forms of love, their insistence on the equality of all genders, and their preference for peaceful trade rather than violent conquest put them at odds with others.
Within the temple of Malia, Aria upholds the practices of her ancestors and the values that have kept her people—the children of the Great Mother Goddesses—safe and happy for generations, even when doing so chafes against her ambition.
She knows that the rites of journeying, divination, and sacrifice are the foundation of the people’s relationship with the gods. And the public ceremonies and feasts are the basis of the temple’s relationship with the lay people: the balance between the divine and the material, the people’s assurance that the High Priestess and her clergy will take care of them and provide for them, the way they have always done, with sacred generosity.
Aria knows that as long as Ida’s children take care of each other, the Great Mother will take care of them.
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But their tradition of sharing their goods and themselves with each other and the gods becomes a liability when the people from the mountains in the north of the mainland decide that wealth is something to be hoarded rather than given away.
The newcomers’ demands increase along with their greed, and the Minoans are hard pressed to maintain their traditional ways.
What will become of a peaceful trading culture when their rivals decide to arm themselves and take what they want?
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CW: human sacrifice, rape, suicide. This book does not have a happy ending. You've been warned.
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Last Priestess is queer fiction. The main character is bi, and there is a variety of queer rep throughout the story.
Get a taste of the story here:
The Last Priestess of Malia is available in paperback and ebook format from:
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and other Amazon platforms worldwide
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This is a completely fascinating tale, beautifully written and completely gripping. The descriptions of the rites, from the trances to the dances and the opiates used to achieve journeys into other worlds are just incredible. I relished every page and can’t wait to read more from Laura Perry.
~~ Mabh Savage, author of A Modern Celt and Pagan Portals - Celtic Witchcraft
This is a story about the end of a civilization, and as such, I felt it speaks to the present in a powerful way...It’s a tough read, but also a pertinent one...What do you do when everything you hold sacred is in peril? What do you do when your power is taken from you by people who decide you have no right to self-determination? What do you do in face of abuse, contempt, violation, sacrilege and cruelty?...This is a beautifully written tale that will break your heart...Even though it is a book that will break your heart, it has potent and inspiring messages about how to keep going in face of overwhelming adversity.
~~Nimue Brown, Druid Life
The Last Priestess of Malia takes place in Minoan-era Crete. I've included several maps in the book to help readers get their bearings in the various locations in the story.
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The maps in the e-book editions of the novel can be resized so you can see the details as you like. But the maps in the paperback are limited to the size of the printed page.
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So I'm sharing the maps here: the ground plan of the Malia temple complex, a map of the city of Malia, and a map of the whole island of Crete.
Click on the maps below to go to the full-size versions of them, where you can zoom in on the details as you like.
