HEARTS

A Contemporary Fairytale Romance

Hearts is on the Long List for the 2024 Realm Awards in the Young Adult category and Debut category!

REALM AWARDS LONG LIST

Author of A Dress for the Wicked Autumn Krause has this to say— “A creative, fascinating debut for fans of whimsy and wonder."

Hearts is a vintage and lyrical fusion of the classics Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty, where Alice, Wendy and Aurora are the same girl—a secretive pencil artist with a dynastic feud destined to end on her cursed birthday.

Part modern-day fable and part whimsical retelling, Hearts is perfect for fans of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, Dust by Kara Swanson, and Disney’s Unbirthday, a Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell.

Features of this story include: Custom lettering (both print and ebook) Lyrical prose Non-magical fairytale reimagining An exploration of mental health issues Swoony, dreamlike romance A Jane Austen-esque tribute to teaparties, art, and true love 100K standalone companion novel to the prequel novella, Wishes*: A Christmas Royal Romance…

The first full-length novel in the Heartbooks series, Hearts is available in all formats—including an audiobook narrated by Jane Maree. Each story in the Heartbooks series can be read in any order, and each book contains a unique hand-sketched chapter heading and a number of custom, hand-drawn lettering pages.

From the back cover— Eighteen-year-old pencil artist Elizabeth Rhodes is on the cusp of a breakthrough art commission that could cement her future career: the debut of her drawings at L’étoile dans les Ténèbres, the social calendar’s biggest art auction hosted by renowned art collector and gracious philanthropist Madame Penelope Garcon.

Concealing her true identity as the mysterious artist Briar Rose—whose name and fame she inherited at the deathbed request of her beloved Aunt—Elizabeth accepts the terms her dapper and elderly benefactor Sterling Figgleston negotiates for the debut of Briar Rose’s new series, Hearts.

When the mental illness she’s been hiding threatens to expose her charade to the boy she’s loved since childhood, and with her estranged parents slated to make an appearance at L’étoile dans les Ténèbres, will Elizabeth find the courage to break the curse and open her heart, or will she lose her one chance at true love by revealing her heart’s darkest secrets?

Are you a creative? Do you love swoony heroes and complicated heroines? Will you defend insta-love in stories to your friends? Do your favourite tropes include true love’s kiss, generational curses, fairy godmothers, childhood friends, and secret identities? Do you want clean but swoony romance with a touch of the fantastical? Then this book is for you!