a new book! ✨
can i interest you in some magic?
Hello!
I have an ongoing debate (with myself) about how late into January it is acceptable to greet people by saying “happy new year”, but rather than treat you to a thrilling adventure into the inner workings of my mind, I’ll just say that since this is the first time I am writing to any of you in 2026, it is appropriate for me to open this newsletter by saying “happy new year”, except now I haven’t actually done so, and have instead opened with this paragraph. All that is to say: happy new year!!!
When I asked for questions to answer in future newsletter editions a while back, the most popular question (unsurprisingly) was some variation on, “Can you tell us anything about your next book/what you’re working on?” Which, at the time, I could not; I do not like to talk about what I’m writing while I’m writing it, because honestly it makes me feel weird and it creates pressure where none should exist (because the initial stages of writing a book, the first draft, knowing that no one will read this specific iteration—not even my editor; I edit multiple times before I send it to her—feels really magical and liberating to me, and if I talk about what I’m writing during this stage, it ruins it). I spent last winter/spring/summer writing this book, and the fall editing it, and now it’s a new year, and it comes out this year, and the time has come for me to finally talk about it.
book news
So: I wrote another book, and, yet again, I am switching things up a bit. It’s called Spellstruck, and it’s a historical magical rom-com set in an alt-1920s London where magic is illegal, and the heroine’s family sells potions out of a back bar at their private members’ club. The hero, OF COURSE, hates magic and wants to shut down the magical clubs. When a series of accidents from contaminated potions hit the magical clubs, Vesper & Max team up to investigate. Magical hijinks (and, more importantly, LOVE) ensue!
I first had the idea for this book six years ago, before my debut novel was even published. At the time, I was in the middle of writing To Love and to Loathe, the second book in what I hoped would be a four-or-five book Regency romance series (thank you guys for actually reading that book and making my dreams of writing a series that long possible!) and so this clearly wasn’t something I was going to get to anytime soon, but I emailed the idea to my agent regardless, was like (hilariously now, in retrospect, but please remember this was January 2020!!) “are fantasy rom-coms even a thing?” (lol forever) and then redirected my attention to my 19th century children.
In November 2021, I was between deadlines and had a lot of free time because I’d moved to Maine and started working part-time, so I wrote an incredibly sloppy zero draft of this book for NaNoWriMo (a zero draft that bears almost no resemblance to the final iteration of the book, aside from the characters’ names; that one, for a start, was set in a fantasy world, while the final books is set in [a somewhat AU but still very recognizable!] London). I then set it aside, because I sold the final two books in my Regency series and needed to write To Swoon and to Spar.
When I finished writing To Woo and to Wed in 2023, I had my agent send two pitches to my editor to consider—this one, and the pitch for And Then There Was The One. Opinion was pretty divided at my publisher, so I went with ATTWTO, because I’d been thinking about it more at the time and so my ideas felt fresher. And then, while selling ATTWTO, I also ended up writing Christmas Is All Around, so now there were two more books wedged in before this one. But last winter, as I finished up revisions on ATTWTO, I was determined to finally tackle it. And so, here we are.
I know that if you are a longtime reader of mine (thank you!) you may have whiplash by this point. My four most recent books have been a Regency romance, a contemporary Christmas rom-com, a 1930s murder-mystery/rom-com mashup, and now a 1920s fantasy rom-com—it’s a lot, I know. But the thing is: I really, truly think all of these books feel like me. They involve different time periods and different characters, but the voice and the humor are the same, so I really, really hope that if you’ve stuck with me this long, you’ll give this one a shot, too. Ultimately, these are all romance novels (all historical romance novels, even, with the exception of Christmas Is All Around) and all the things that you loved in my Regency series are, I think, present here—just with a slightly different flair.
And, if that is not enough to convince you, I’ll close with a brief list of a few of the things you can expect in this book:
A starchy, rule-following hero
A slightly flighty heroine with a very checkered love life
A cat named Sheep
Magical speakeasies (though the word speakeasy never once appears in the book, lol)
Meddling siblings
Cozy autumn vibes
A mews flat that I want to move into
And, lastly, as a treat, here’s a tiny snippet from the book:
There aren’t preorder links for this book yet, but those will exist soon, and I’ll share them next time I write to you. I’ve also seen a cover sketch, and I am very, very excited to see the final draft, and eventually share that with you, too.
five recent faves
A Philip Pullman winter
Back in November, around the time the new Philip Pullman book came out (The Rose Field), I decided that I needed to do a full Lyraverse re-read in order to read this new book. And then, I realized that I never finished watching the BBC His Dark Materials series that aired several years ago—my friends and I watched the first season together before the pandemic, and then I never watched the final two seasons because it was Covid times, and then I moved to Maine, and then I moved to England, and listen it’s been a busy few years okay? Anyway: I have now re-read the entirety of the His Dark Materials series, and am now re-reading La Belle Sauvage (the first Book of Dust) while also re-watching season one of His Dark Materials on iPlayer, and…this is the best winter project ever? I think The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, as it’s known over here) is a great winter read in general because of the Arctic of it all, so this was a very well-timed re-read, but I had genuinely forgotten how complex and sophisticated and just…genius these books are. And the show! The kid actors are so good. Also, Mrs. Coulter’s relationship with her monkey daemon on the show is so disturbing. Anyway, I am enjoying myself immensely, if you cannot tell. More re-reading of favorites! I am tempted to re-read a beloved fantasy favorite every winter going forward.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
This one’s been on my to-read list since it came out last year, and then it was bumped higher on that list after it won the National Book Award; it might seem like a depressing note to begin the new year on (though…I feel like 2026 has already begun on a very depressing series of notes, given world news, so…), but I actually found it energizing—El Akkad is such a talented writer, and the moral clarity of this book was incredibly refreshing to me. It’s one of those books I wish I could force everyone I know to read.
Island Bakery shortbread biscuits
I am so sorry to discuss something that I think is only for sale in the UK, when I know most of you are in the US, but: I genuinely think these might be my favorite shortbread biscuits I’ve ever tried? They’re thinner than a lot of shortbread traditionally is, which you will see some reviewers online complaining about, but I personally think this is a plus, I find them texturally extremely satisfying because they have a nice crunch to them and are less dense/heavy than shortbread often is. They still taste like butter and sugar, like all good shortbread! I do not want to disclose how many of these I’ve eaten recently, it’s a bit alarming; if you are in the UK, or planning to be here anytime soon, get thyself to a shop (Waitrose definitely stocks these, I’m not sure about the other chain shops) and enjoy.
Hamnet (the film, but ohmygod if you haven’t read it then ALSO THE BOOK)
My love of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel has been documented in this newsletter before—it is one that I love so much that I have a hard time discussing it coherently; it’s a true testament to how brilliantly written every single word of this book is that I have read it multiple times, despite the fact that it is about the death of a child. When I heard they were adapting it for film, I was nervous; then, when reviews from film festivals started trickling in back in the fall and the consensus was “this movie will destroy you”, I was even more nervous, but knew I had to see it. So while I was in the US at Christmas, on the day after my birthday, I went to a cinema and sat in the dark and wept with a bunch of strangers. (My mom declined my invite to come with me, and probably felt great about that choice when I returned home having cried all my makeup off.) It is emotional to me in a slightly different way than the book is—the book makes me cry, but not like the movie did—but ultimately, the similarity that both share is that they make me feel profoundly glad to be alive, and profoundly glad that art exists in the world, and that I get to both create it and experience it. Which actually segues well into the final item on this list!
“I Am An AI Hater” by Anthony Moser
A tip of the hat to kate clayborn for linking to this in her newsletter last month, the single thing I have read on AI that is the truest, most honest representation of how I feel about it. Because I, too, try to be polite about how I talk about it, try to say, “I know it has some advantages,” try to acknowledge the things it can do, the fact that, obviously, it isn’t all bad (few things are, after all!)—but ultimately, I truly, fundamentally hate AI with the deepest parts of my heart, because I love being alive and I love being human and I love my work and I love my people and I love the world around me and AI feels like it wants to take everything I love about life away and make it a sadder, smaller, blander, duller version of itself. All of this aside from the fact that it’s built on theft, and is using ruinous amounts of electricity, and all the worst people on the planet are all-in on it, all of which also seem like things that should maybe give us pause?! But don’t listen to me try to articulate this—read this article instead. A sample (but truly, read it all):
What is life but what we choose, who we know, what we experience? Incoherent empty men want to sell me the chance to stop reading and writing and thinking, to stop caring for my kids or talking to my parents, to stop choosing what I do or knowing why I do it. Blissful ignorance and total isolation, warm in the womb of the algorithm, nourished by hungry machines.
I hope you are all staying warm (if you are in the northern hemisphere); if you need me, I can probably be found in my bathtub, because my hands and toes are cold all the time and so drinking wine in the bath is clearly just sound medical advice.
Yours amidst the bubbles,
Martha
So exciting!
Yes! Already so excited 😍