Free book! Pre-order drive! and FREE novelette!

Love, Laodice is coming out in TWO WEEKS, on the 24th of December!

If you celebrate Christmas, this would be a delightful gift-to-self/escape from the relentless prep of creating ~ holiday ~ magic ~

And if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's a completely non-seasonal read (it's set in June!) during the time of Cheer Bombardment.

Cover design and illustration by Alison Cooley/@impinasweater

I am so excited about this book. As usual, I loved it when I started, hated it at about the 30 000 words mark, was cautiously optimistic by 60k, and when I finished the first draft, at 82 000 words, I was convinced it was a horrible mess that would require superhuman and tearful edits to become even vaguely acceptable.

I'm going through the final (untearful!) edits now, and I'm right back to loving it.

Telfer and Laodice are an unusual couple for me, because they start the book not liking each other at all. Telfer will privately admit to finding Laodice inconveniently attractive, and if forced she might concede that he is objectively handsome. But aesthetics aside, their personalities, ambitions, and working practices clash constantly. Their coworkers at Olympus Inc. want to know when one of them will just quit already, or if–perhaps!–they need to get a room.

Well, they do get a room! At a new luxury retreat for engaged couples! Where they have to pretend to be engaged, so they can write an amazing undercover story for the Bridal department!

But something is very weird at the Halcyon retreat. A number of the other guests don't seem to be entirely who they say they are, the services aren't earning the expected rave review, and then... they stumble over the first body.

Murder! Secrets! Oops, we appear to have slept together. Well, thank you for the orgasms, obviously this was a one-time thing, OH NO WHAT IS HAPPENING IS THIS... ROMANCE?

Y'all, I love this book. I want people to read it. So far, I have 68 pre-orders, and while that is very respectable, I would like more.

I would like 100 pre-orders.

SO I am announcing a cool thing:

  • Right now, the first book in this arc, Ask Cassandra, is FREE. Free! That's no money! If you haven't read it, you can pick it up for ZERO dollars, and then when you pre-order Love, Laodice it's like you're getting two books for the price of one! (Because you are.)
  • If I do get 100 pre-orders, I will give to you, the readers of this newsletter, a free secret novelette.

What's this about a novelette, you say?

WELL. Three clues:

  1. It's set in the Olympus Inc. universe
  2. It involves escape rooms
  3. This is the cover:
A peachy background with a pink maze in the shape of a heart, threaded through with a spool of purple thread. The blue title reads: The Love Labyrinth.
Cover design by the splendid Alison Cooley/@impinasweater

So that's the deal. 100 Love, Laodice pre-orders by December 24th, and you get The Love Labyrinth a) before it's available anywhere else and b) for free!

But what if you've already pre-ordered? AMAZING, I LOVE YOU. Please spread the word and forward this newsletter onto whomsoever you think might be interested. Let them know that Ask Cassandra is free!

And if you can't afford to buy/aren't interested in murder romances, I get you. You will also get The Love Labyrinth if I hit the 100 pre-order mark, because you also deserve it.

After this year? We all do.

That Healey Girl is the newsletter of Karen (or Kate) Healey, a romance and speculative fiction author who lives in Ōtautahi New Zealand and shakes plots loose by wandering along the river. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might like it!