New Book Announcement!
Hi there! It’s been a while!
Sorry I’ve been a little MIA with my email newsletters. It’s not because I haven’t been writing lots of words, I just had a lot going on here in my corner of the world. And I’m sure you’ll notice things look a little different around here! Mailchimp increased their prices to where it wasn’t feasible for me to continue using them to send my newsletters, so I’ve made the switch to Substack! I’m still getting used to it, but hopefully we’ll get the hang of it soon!
Anyway, I figured there was no better time to break the hiatus than with the announcement of my newest book deal having gone live in Publisher’s Weekly this past Thursday!
In case you missed my Instagram announcement post on Thursday, I wanted to make sure to share the gorgeous digital art painted by Julie Lochridge (the same artist who also did my Sing Me Forgotten and A Forgery of Roses preorder campaign art)! This scene is from one of my favorite parts of the book, and I can’t wait for you all to read it!
Here is the official deal announcement from Publisher’s Weekly:
I’m so unbelievably in love with this book! I’ve been dying to write a villain romance for ages, and I finally decided to tackle it with this one! We pitched it as Caraval in a casino with the dangerous villain romance of Kingdom of the Wicked. Here are some things you’ll get to look forward to in DEN OF LIARS:
Visual disability representation—the main character, Lola, has strabismic amblyopia (just like me!), which most people call a “lazy eye.” She also is nearsighted, so she wears glasses (also like me!) I think disability representation is so important (which many of you noticed in A Forgery of Roses!), and I think eye problems don’t get a lot of representation in fantasy, so I’m really excited to bring this out in Lola!
Salvatore brother vibes. If you know anything about me, you know I’m OBSESSED with The Vampire Diaries TV show (Team Damon ftw!) This book features a pair of magical, devious brothers, the Liar (owner of the Liar’s Den Casino, who can extract people’s secrets and spin illusions from lies) and the Thief (who can walk through any wall, enter any vault, and can steal much more from people than their possessions). They hate and love each other in equal measure, and I adore their dynamic. I can’t wait for you to meet them!
Villain romance trope. I am a sucker for the dangerous, charming bad boy. Your Damon Salvatores, your Kaz Brekkers, your Prince Wraths… I’m here for them all, and the Liar in DEN OF LIARS should fit in quite comfortably with these nefarious love interests. This is my most romance-heavy book so far, and I’m having so much fun with it!
Gowns and glitz and glamor. This book takes place in a magical casino, which means we’ve got fun evening gowns and diamonds and allure in spades (see what I did there? ;) Cabarets and magical dice and sexy dances on dimly lit floors galore.
A magical game. This book’s plot centers around a magical tournament where each player must wager their most closely held truths at a shot to win an Unbreakable Lie. But Lola’s not entering the game for that—her goal is to find the Liar’s vault and steal his most valuable secret.
Anyway, I’m endlessly excited about it, and can’t wait to share more in the coming months! Book one is set to publish early 2025 (we don’t have an exact pub date yet, but it’ll be somewhere around January-April ish), and then book two will release a year later. I know that seems pretty far away, and it kind of is, but such is the way of publishing timelines. I’m also working with a new publishing team this time!
If you’re excited about DEN OF LIARS, make sure to add it on Goodreads!
And thanks to everyone for your support of both Sing Me Forgotten and A Forgery of Roses! I have been blown away by the response of readers, librarians, and booksellers alike. I wouldn’t be able to continue writing and publishing books without you all!
Congratulations Jessica!!
Wonderful and congrats! (I write from Andover NH :)