A modern blend of gothic horror and epic romance for fans of the necromantic magic of Gideon the Ninth, the court intrigue of The Priory of the Orange Tree and the Shakespearean family drama of House of the Dragon with two powerful women at the center.

INNAMORATA
by Ava Reid
Del Rey Books, March 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.

A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.

But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.

Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.

Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.

For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.

Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, Lady Macbeth, and other novels. Her books have been published in more than fourteen territories. She lives in the New York area.