Archives de catégorie : Fiction

HOW TO GRIEVE LIKE A VICTORIAN d’Amy Carol Reeves

A fun, escapist, romantic, travel wish-fulfillment book about a woman who happens to be a widow.

HOW TO GRIEVE LIKE A VICTORIAN
by Amy Carol Reeves
Canary Street Press/HarperCollins, December 2025
(via Context Literary)

Dr. Lizzie Wells, a Victorian Literature professor and bestselling author, is grieving her husband the Victorian way. She is keeping locks of his hair around her neck and dressing in black and jet and tulle–and amusing herself by refusing all but paper letters from her colleagues.

But then she’s offered a trip to London for escape and healing, where she befriends fellow bestselling novelist AD Hemmings. Rakish and handsome, Hemmings pushes her out of her comfort zone. She attends a Victorian-style séance, gets pulled onstage at a burlesque bar, sight sees with her son, and befriends the London row house housekeeper.

All the while, back in South Carolina, her late husband’s best friend and lawyer, Henry, peels back layers behind her mother-in-law’s trust. There’s a dark family secret her mother-in-law has been hiding for decades, the kind of thing that will change not just their family, but their town.

And with all of Henry’s caring and kindness, Lizzie fears she’s falling in love with him, too.

Amy Carol Reeves is a novelist, Victorian Literature professor, and widow. She grieved like a Victorian, but she did not meet a bestselling, handsome author in London–yet.

WICKEDLY EVER AFTER de R. Lee Fryar

In this (delightfully screwball) fairy tale romp, even the most wicked deserve their happily-ever-after.

WICKEDLY EVER AFTER
by R. Lee Fryar
Sourcebooks Casablanca, April 2025

For almost a thousand years, Wicked Witch Hector West and Good Witch Ida North have maintained the balance of good and evil, preserving a magical Happily-Ever-After that keeps the realm from falling apart. But even Cardinal Witches need a hobby, and every spare moment they have is spent antagonizing each other. But when Ida’s latest « harmless » hex goes too far, Hector retaliates with a curse that immediately backfires, making her choose the wrong princess for the year’s big pantomime.

Which, if not corrected immediately, could have world-shaking consequences.

One reluctant prince and badly botched dragon kidnapping later, both Hector and Ida are determined to set things right. With love magic gone wild, the two best enemies set off on a quest to save the realm, their lovesick gnome chamberlains at their sides. Yet as they unravel what went wrong with their mixed-up magic, Hector and Ida will have to face a more daunting challenge than trying to avoid their own Wickedly-Ever-After: Deciding whether a millennium worth of enmity might have been the biggest mistake of their very long lives.

R. Lee Fryar is an author from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. When she isn’t writing about magical mayhem, she’s usually lost in the woods, wandering through the mountains, or up a creek without a paddle. In her spare time, she cooks, paints, and gardens very badly.

A LADY’S GUIDE TO LONDON de Faye Delacour

Charming, sexy historical romantic comedy with strong-willed heroines and supportive heroes, perfect for fans of Evie Dunmore, India Holton and Bridgerton.

A LADY’S GUIDE TO LONDON
by Faye Delacour
Sourcebooks Casablanca, April 2025

If he won’t add her business into his guidebook, she’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Della Danby is determined to prove she’s more than just a flighty heiress riding on her parents’ money to get through life. When her closest friend and business partner finds her hands full with a new baby, Della takes the opportunity to shoulder more responsibility at their ladies’ gambling club and secure their financial stability, and she has the perfect idea: to drum up new business by adding their club to a popular guidebook of local attractions.

Gambling ruined Viscount Lyman Ashton’s life and his marriage. He has no intention of putting a new club in his guide, nor of getting involved with its intriguing and energetic proprietress. But when Della refuses to take no for an answer and approaches his publisher with a plan to write her own book of attractions for ladies, Lyman reluctantly agrees to collaborate with her in exchange for the money he so desperately needs to pay his debts. As they grow closer, Lyman finds himself falling for Della even though his past could jeopardize her reputation. But if they can ever have a future together, Della may have to choose between the club she’s worked so hard to build and her chance at love.

Faye Delacour was raised in the Canadian prairies before deciding that she needed a challenge and should move to a place where everybody spoke French. She now lives and works in Montreal with her partner and children, a reformed street cat, and an Australian Shepherd who hasn’t yet accepted that he can’t herd the cat. Faye writes historical romance featuring strong, feminist heroines and enthusiastic consent.

TERROR AT THE GATES de Scarlett St. Clair

The first in an all-new fantasy series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair. In this biting, feminist retelling of Lilith’s story, Lilith will rise from the ashes of her former life to destroy the ancient power that stole everything she loves.

TERROR AT THE GATES
(Blood of Lilith, Book 1)
by Scarlett St. Clair
Bloom Books/Sourcebooks, July 2025

She is the beginning and the end.
She is peace and chaos.
She is terror knocking at the gates.

Estranged from her powerful family, Lilith Leviathan finds refuge in Nineveh, a district in the city of Eden devoted to sin. There, she uses her magic to steal for a living, attracting the attention of the five governing families as well as the church, which expects women to remain pious and silent. When Lilith comes into possession of a beautiful blade, she thinks all her worries are over…until her usual buyer dies while inspecting it.

Frantic, Lilith turns to the only man who can help her: Zahariev, head of the Zareth family and ruler of Nineveh. His currency is information, and his power is extortion, though he’s always had a soft spot for Lilith. But when the dagger appears, he isn’t sure he can protect her from what’s to come.

Together, they embark on a mission to discover the true power running their world. As their lives intertwine, Lilith realizes Zahariev is more than just a friend, but their devotion to each other is a threat―to the truth, to the church, and to those who want to tear it all down.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and the author of the Hades X Persephone Saga, the Adrian X Isolde series, fairy tale retellings, and When Stars Come Out. She has a master’s degree in library science and information studies and a bachelor’s in English writing. She is obsessed with Greek mythology, murder mysteries, and the afterlife. For information on books, tour dates, and content, please visit scarlettstclair.com.

OBSERVER de Nicholas Russell

A mystical and mercury-ladened mystery involving trees that walk, desert illusions, and a 100-year-old diary.

OBSERVER
by Nicholas Russell
Ecco, Fall 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

For fans of Brian Evenson, K-Ming Chang, and Jeff VanderMeer, OBSERVER is the story of the American desert, government cover-ups, family devotion, and how curiosity for the truth or a version of it sends even the most sane into the deepest depths.

Renata’s mother left her in the care of her aunt and took a job at an observatory when she was young, never to return. Now in her early twenties, Renata receives a truck load of her mother’s papers and possessions one day; the family assumes her dead. Renata, curious and undeterred, packs up her camera and her mothers’ notebooks and drives to the Observatory, asking questions the locals would prefer not to answer and reminding them of what they’ve been denying for years. Renata might be able to complete the research her mother was undergoing, but she might also reach for a truth much stranger than any of the tall tales the desert weaves through her dreams.

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas. His work has appeared in The Believer, McSweeney’s, The Atlantic, Conjunctions, The Baffler, The Drift, and Defector. He is a bookseller at The Writer’s Block, Managing Editor of Still Alive magazine, and a contributor to Defector.