Hello! I have an awesome present for you, courtesy of another fantasy romance author. You'll see it below, but first: the rest of the story I promised in my last email about that coded book message.
Line up the paperback versions of the Clandestine Magic trilogy, and you'll find a secret phrase across the spines. So what is it? Did you figure it out?
(If you missed that email, you can see a photo of the spines here.)
In the books, wizard Peter Blackwell used Anglo-Saxon runes for a particularly nasty bit of spellwork he wishes he'd never invented and is trying to counteract. That kicks off all the events of the series, so it seems fitting that a message written in runes dances across the spines.
Specifically (here's hoping your inbox won't eat these symbols):
ᛋᚹᛖᛖᛏ ᛞᚱᛖᚪᛗᛋ
Transliterate them to the Latin alphabet we know, and you get: SWEET DREAMS.
If you've read the books, you know why. 😉
Big shout out to Jen I. for decoding the phrase super quickly, followed by Suzanne Fleischauer, Miranda Ercanbrack, S. from Germany and Rebecca R. Nice job, book detectives!
This charming introduction to runes says they're the reason that "spell" as in using letters to make words is the same term in English as "spell" as in magic. Merriam-Webster insists the etymology of the two meanings is different, but boo, I like that story.
Assembling letters to create words that then create characters and worlds you can see in your mind's eye is absolutely magic, don't you think?
📚🌟📚🌟📚
More cool & bookish things
Now for that awesome gift I mentioned ...
I've been meaning to squee about this book to you: Stephanie Burgis' Snowspelled is lovely from start to finish, both because of the characters and the intriguing world.
Here, the proper role of a lady is politics, and magic is the domain of men. Cassandra Harwood is the one scandalous exception—but something’s gone wrong. At the start of the story, all we know is that even the simplest spell is now out of her reach.
The mystery unfolds as Cassandra attempts to outsmart an elf lord and avoid her (absolutely delightful) ex-fiancé, the latter task no less difficult than the former.
And Stephanie is offering it to you—just you, dear readers of this email—for free. Download it this month while the offer stands.
On the hunt for more fantasy romance reads? Find a bunch of those books here, from a (good) Sheriff of Nottingham falling for a witch Robin Hood to a magic-using private investigator getting help from a ghost.
And if you're looking for free-for-everyone fantasy romance, find stories here with enemies-to-lovers flair—from the last human and fae you'd ever think would fall for each other to a woman trapped underground with a rival kingdom's captain of the guard ... whom she stabbed.
You made it to the end! You're awesome. (Of course.) And oh hey, here are my latest books.
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