SHADOW REAPER

New book announcement!

Hi hi hi!

I am SO THRILLED to (finalllllly) share that I have a new book coming next year!

Shadow Reaper is the first of a brand new fantasy series (eeeeee!!!) and I’ve been sitting on this secret for nearly two years(!!) so you have NO IDEA how good it is to be able to talk about it now! I can say the title! I can squeal about the characters! I can start revealing artwork! I don’t have to worry about letting things slip when I’m at events anymore! I AM FREEEEEEEEE!!!!

Dramatics aside, I’m honestly just so excited that I can now bring you along on the journey of all that’s been happening and all that’s coming — and let me tell you, there are some amazing things coming in regards to this book. (Alas, many of those things I can’t tell you yet, BUT that’s okay, because trust me when I say they’ll be worth the wait!)

For now, what can I tell you? Well, let’s start with the official announcement deals and press releases, etc., since they all have tidbits of important information about the book/series.

So!

This is the US/CAN deal memo — with some sneaky art of the two main characters (by Silvia Gómez):

This is the UK announcement (with some extra info you might not have seen elsewhere):

And this is the AUS/NZ press release (also with some extra info):

From all of the above, you’ll have a vague idea of the vibes of the book/series — a bit of a cross between Shadow and Bone (and Six of Crows), Fourth Wing, and ACOTAR. It’s also very vibe-y for The Vampire Diaries (the TV show, not the books) but there are no vampires — instead, there are people called “reapers” and they steal (aka “siphon”) magic from innocents, usually killing them in the process (needless to say, reapers are Very Bad People).

Despite some of the comp titles mentioned above, I do want to emphasise that this is a YA series, so like all of my books, while I definitely hope adults will read it and enjoy it, it’s technically written for teenagers, so there’s no explicit adult content. If you’ve read my Prison Healer series, it’s along those lines from a maturity perspective, though perhaps a shade more romantic — let’s just say I had funnnn with the enemies-to-lovers trope!!! It’s my first fantasy book/series where it’s been a main part of the story and, ooof, the banter! My favourite!! I can’t WAIT for you to meet Viri and Reeve!!!!

Speaking of…

Viri and Reeve! Let me tell you a smidge about them!

So first up is our protagonist, Viri — aka Viridia Solace. She’s a reaper hunter, which means, well, exactly that. She hunts reapers to stop them siphoning magic from innocents.

Then we have Reeve Ashton, who is — you guessed it — a reaper. (*Insert author cackle here*)

If you read the announcement notices above, you’ll know what happens next: these two are forced to work together (and partner with Reeve’s reaper friends) to stop someone Very Evil from doing something Very (VERY) Evil.

Did I mention how much fun I had with this?

Obviously I’m keeping things vague for now, but that’s the gist of it.

But wait! There’s more!

For those lucky enough to have attended the Penguin Fantasy Fest events in Australia, you would have been gifted a SuperProof that had a letter from me in it AND an excerpt from Shadow Reaper, so you can skip this next part since you’ll have already read it. But for everyone else, here’s a small section of the letter I wrote, telling you a little more about this book:

I hope to share the rest of the letter (and the excerpt!) someday in the near future, but until then, I DO get to share one more exciting thing here, and that’s some character artwork!!!!!!

I’ve been working with the phenomenal Dominique Wesson on creating a full set of character portraits and some stunnnnning(!!) scenes, and I seriously can’t wait to show you what magic she’s been creating — starting right now with a character who I haven’t yet mentioned here (though I wrote about him in the letter included in the SuperProof, so again, for those who attended the Fantasy Fest nights, you’ll have already seen this, sorry!).

This character is called Kadmus Castro and he’s an ancient mage who —

Wait, I just realised I need to explain that a bit. But, um, how? Probably the simplest way is to share that the main Shadow Reaper narrative is told from Viri’s POV, but there are journal entries sprinkled throughout the entire book that are written by Kadmus — an ancient mage who lived where Viri now lives but long ago (back in the time of the mages, who no longer exist where Viri lives).

Kadmus was one of my favourite characters ever to write (journal entries are SO MUCH FUN to create!!), and I’m not even kidding when I say that I gasped very loudly when Dominique’s artwork of him first came through. In Kadmus’s ancient time, mages were considered the elites of society and they all got to choose a specialty for their magic — eg. healer mage, enchanter mage, nature mage, and more. Kadmus is a celestial mage, which means he uses celestial events (comets, solstices, eclipses, etc.) to… uh, do stuff? I’m not being shady on purpose here, it’s just difficult to explain succinctly, and you’ll find out how his magic works when you read the book! The reason I wanted to mention it is because Dominique brought many of those celestial details into the artwork, and I am obsessed with what she did. But before I show you, a quick disclaimer:

Dominique does not use AI in her artwork — she creates from scratch, and I have the early drafts to prove it, so given the dangerous discourse floating around social media where genuine human artists are getting fingers pointed at them (and losing their livelihoods as a result!), please have a care and don’t make any unfounded accusations. Like most creatives, I’m anti-AI and always will be, so any artwork I commission as official art will always be created by a human.

Now that that’s said, feast your eyes on Kadmus Castro!!!

Did I mention I’m obsessed? BECAUSE I AM!!! And you may be asking…

Is that a dragon in the background?

It just miiiiiight be.

On that fun little note, I’ll finish this here before my publishers get really ticked at me for revealing too much. BUT I hope some of these little snippets and teasers have you just as excited for this book as I am!

Preorders are available now for AUS/NZ (here), and they’ll be available soon for the US and UK (and other countries besides) — it’ll likely be sometime next month for the US and UK, but I’ll update you once I know for sure!

It’s also up on Goodreads for anyone interested in adding it to your TBR! You can find it here.

There’s SO MUCH MORE for me to share over the coming days, weeks, and months — not just about Shadow Reaper (though definitely that!) but also some big news about my Medoran Chronicles series and my Prison Healer series, and even about Wandering Wild (ooof, it has been a VERY big year for me with SO MUCH STUFF happening across all my books!), so as always, keep an eye on my socials, and make sure you’ve subscribed here to keep from missing out on any news!

Until next time!

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