The Younger Gods has a cover!

You can also read the prologue if you're into that kind of thing

Hello friends! Just before I lost all my hard-won tolerance for Being Perceived Online, I can finally show you the cover of The Younger Gods, which will be out January 13, 2026.

There they are, Iona and Taran, stabby and beautiful, with their smoke and stars and knives. My only revision when I saw the first sketch was that Iona’s hand needed to be gripping Taran’s cloak so as to convey the important plot theme of “Dragging Your Evil(?) Immortal Amnesiac Fiancé Home From the Underworld,” which I hope all of my readers will find relatable and relevant to their lives.

When I told my agent that I wanted to write a romantasy after three contemporary romances, I had this vague idea that drafting it would be quicker, because I wouldn't have to do any research and could just make stuff up. 50384 Wikipedia pages about ancient methods of longship manufacture, 16 well-used academic textbooks on the material culture of Roman Gaul, and 87 sweet and well-meaning notes by copy editors on how “playboy” may have an 18th c. etymology but it’s taking them out of the narrative (all numbers exaggerated because I’m bad at math), it turns out that romantasy still requires research. Also, it’s longer than my contemporary romance books. 120,000 words doesn’t sound like so much more than 80,000 words but if you ask someone who is good at math (not me) they will tell you that it is in fact 50% more words with a condescending little frown on their face.

So! This book took a lot of time to write and I learned a lot and I had the time of my life.

If you’d like to read the prologue and the content warnings, I put them up on my website. I actually think the prologue is a banger and Thea Guanzon said it was “like a Hozier song,” so if you’ve got some time and you can handle the next nine months of edging give it a spin!

If you’d like to preorder (which helps convince the big box physical stores to buy lots of stock), most of the links are live here. I am informed and believe there will be an audiobook available to preorder at some point so stay tuned.

If there’s any particular preorder swag folks are interested in, let me know. (I have some beautiful art and I’m not sure if bookplates or art prints or bookmarks are most desirable?)

I’ll be back soon with news on ARCs and giveaways and the release, and you can hit me up on Instagram or Bluesky if you have any burning questions about the book!

<3 Shep