The Crucible - Out Now!!!

The Crucible is live on inkcolors.shop as of this morning. Amazon, Kobo and print follow on October 5.

That's the news. Everything under it is what the book is and why it's built the way it is, so if you only came for the link, it's up there and you're free to go.

What it is

Sapphic romantasy. A military academy that is entirely honest about what it's for. Two enemies, a slow burn, and a body count that isn't decorative.

Mora arrives to be made into something. The Empire is specific about what: endure, obey, kill. Three words, in that order, and the order is the whole curriculum. Liora Skaggs stands between her and graduation, and neither of them is any good at the middle word.

There's a reveal about Mora's mother that I'm not going to spoil here. And there's a scene with a whetstone that I handed to Love Bytes as the exclusive excerpt, which should tell you what I think of it.

The thing underneath it

Most academy stories answer the same question the same way: the institution turns out to be corrupt, and the hero tears it down.

This one doesn't do that. The academy does exactly what it says on the sign. It forges. The question in The Crucible was never whether the forging is wrong—it's what you're supposed to do with what comes out the other side. Mora is certain she's been ruined. The book's whole argument is Skaggs looking at the same person and saying you're not broken, you're magnificent.

I don't think those are opposites. I think that's the hardest part of being made by something that didn't love you.

Where to get it

Today — inkcolors.shop October 5 — Amazon, Kobo, and print everywhere

Twenty-one book blogs are hosting The Crucible this week, which I still don't entirely believe.

The small ask

If you read it and it lands, say so somewhere. A rating, a line on Goodreads, a nudge to a friend who likes knives. For a first in series, that does more than anything I could buy.