Clockwork Souls

Divine Rivals meets Red, White & Royal Blue with a dash of Gideon the Ninth. Enter a reimagined Napoleonic Paris in this queer, steampunk-inspired rivals-to-lovers romantasy, the first in a debut duology.

Paris runs on the dead. Thanks to Victor Frankenstein’s technology, reanimated corpses do the city’s dirtiest work. Unfortunately, every soulless body is also an easy target for demonic possession. Holding the havoc in check falls to Adrien Beaumont, the youngest-ever head of the Paris Bureau of Guardians. He exorcises the violent demons, licenses the ones who just want to open a café, and keeps up with all the paperwork (barely).

And that’s just the official part of the job. Off the record, he’s hiding a secret that could ruin him. His twin sister is dead, and he’s been passing off her walking corpse as alive to the entire Bureau. Now he’s chasing the one thing everyone swears can’t be done: he wants to restore her soul.

When Zayid Nejem, Adrien’s former training partner, arrives in pursuit of Frankenstein’s lost research on soul resurrection, Adrien grudgingly agrees to help his smug, far-too-handsome nemesis while plotting to steal the notes for himself. But hating Zayid slowly shifts into falling for him, and the danger only deepens when Zayid turns out to be harboring a devastating secret of his own.

As Napoleon’s war ignites across Europe and the joint mission brings the two rivals closer together, Adrien will have to figure out who he can trust with the truth . . . and his heart.

A deeply yearning romance. A race across three empires. A battle to the death (amidst the undead). And a moment, of course, for a candied almond or two in the first book in a New Adult romantasy duology.