Willfully, Dorothy by R. R. Ferretti-Hoyle

R. R. Ferretti-Hoyle takes Dorothy beyond the familiar road in a darker queer retelling shaped by identity, freedom, power, and self-discovery.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, August 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Author R. R. Ferretti-Hoyle returns to the world of Oz from a dramatically different perspective in Willfully, Dorothy (A Life in Oz Book 1), the opening novel in the A Life in Oz trilogy. The story begins as Dorothy confronts a devastating realization: the Wizard has left without her, and Glinda reveals that the powerful shoes Dorothy has possessed could have taken her home all along. Feeling deceived, manipulated, and used for political ends, Dorothy responds with an anger so powerful that it triggers an extraordinary magical awakening and changes her relationship with Oz forever.

Dorothy's awakening manifests through something unprecedented: command of all four elements, fire, water, earth, and air. The consequences are immediate. The Emerald City, and eventually the wider land of Oz, falls beneath a magical darkness that obscures the sun, moon, and stars. Suddenly, Dorothy must confront not only what others have done to her, but what her own newly discovered power can do. Willfully, Dorothy (A Life in Oz Book 1) turns that crisis into a larger journey through responsibility, consequence, transformation, and the difficult choices that follow when someone who has been controlled begins claiming agency for herself.

The novel explores Dorothy's emergence as the maiden within a classic witch identity while placing her transformation against the Wizard's rise three decades earlier. Through new characters, hexes, romantic relationships, and political change, Ferretti-Hoyle expands the hidden history of Oz and examines forces operating beneath the familiar story.

This structure allows Willfully, Dorothy (A Life in Oz Book 1) to reconsider assumptions surrounding well-known characters and events while creating a darker world in which magic and politics are intertwined and personal discoveries can reshape the balance of power.

Identity and freedom stand at the center of this queer reimagining. Rather than simply sending Dorothy back to the life she knew before Oz, Ferretti-Hoyle asks what might happen if she refuses to accept that ending and instead considers who she is becoming. The question of home consequently becomes more complicated than finding a route back to Kansas. Through betrayal, awakening, love, choice, and self-discovery, Willfully, Dorothy (A Life in Oz Book 1) presents a heroine learning that finding her way may require questioning the people, expectations, and narratives that previously defined her.

R. R. Ferretti-Hoyle launches the A Life in Oz trilogy by transforming Dorothy's familiar journey into an exploration of power and personal autonomy. Written for Oz enthusiasts as well as readers interested in imaginative retellings, the novel combines magical atmosphere, wit, emotional depth, political tension, and queer identity within a world both recognizable and newly unsettled. Willfully, Dorothy (A Life in Oz Book 1) asks readers to look beyond the story they thought they knew and follow Dorothy into a new question: when the road home is available, what happens when she chooses to discover herself instead?

The book is available at:
https://a.co/d/08B5x8US

For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:

R. R. Ferretti-Hoyle
BrightKey PR
rrferrettihoyle@yahoo.com