LOVE WALKED IN COVER REVEAL!

Also some great books and delicious drinks!

Without further ado…

*drum roll, velvet curtain slides back, trumpets blare*

TA-DAAAAAAH!

Look at Mari and Leo! Aren’t they gorgeous? Her smile and her pink scarf, his glasses and messy hair! I love them so much and I can’t wait for you to walk through the doors of Ross & Co. and meet them on September 2. If these two aren’t enough to convince you, there’s also delightfully meddlesome family, bi representation, transatlantic culture clashes, an imperious black cat named Mog, loads of nerding out about books, and a stern, starchy hero saying “Mine.” (IYKYK.) For more vibes, check out this little reel I made a few months ago.

Another small but important thing I love about this cover - the light. Night falls demoralizingly early in January in London, and as I walk home from the station in the cold and dark, every lit-up window glowing gold is a tiny consolation.

American friends, you can pre-order from the usual places, but it would make me really happy if you supported East Bay Booksellers, who have now re-opened in a new location in Oakland after losing their original home last year. UK friends, watch this space…

Oh, in another fun tidbit, the Italian edition of The Slowest Burn is being released by Giunti this coming Wednesday, January 15th! Check it out if you read Italian or know someone who does - and if you’re on vacation in Italy anytime soon, please take a picture if you see it in the wild. (I love that they put one of the hottest moments in the book on the back cover. To the surprise of no one, kissing scenes read even better in Italian than they do in English…)

Recently I read and loved…

This Motherless Land by Nikki May

When I finished this book, I immediately thought that this is going to be one of my favorites of 2025, despite the year only being a few days old. This Motherless Land is a re-telling of Mansfield Park, but even if you haven’t read all of Austen (I’ve only read Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion), this is still a wonderfully engrossing family saga, with immersive, evocative descriptions of life in Nigeria and Somerset from the 1970s to the 1990s. It captures layered, complicated female friendship with a light touch, as well as the damage done by greed, ignorance, rank entitlement, and overwhelming grief. Highly, highly, recommended.

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

I picked this one up because Everything We Never Had was one of my favorite books of 2024, and it confirmed for me that Randy Ribay is one of the best American writers working right now at any age level. Ribay’s teenage hero Jay is a character of so many facets - self-absorbed and self-righteous, but also curious and kind and caring, and as we travel with him to the Philippines and dive into his investigation of his cousin’s death in President Duterte’s drug war, it is fascinating to watch his inner vision evolve from black-and-white to subtler shades of gray. I loved the conclusion so much that I’ve put it here. I’m certainly going to be thinking about it as we go into 2025:

“All of us are flawed. But flawed doesn’t mean hopeless. It doesn’t mean forsaken. It doesn’t mean lost. We are not doomed to suffer things as they are, silent and alone. We do not have to leave questions and letters and lives unanswered.”

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

It’s The Hunger Games with sex and dragons!

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You need more information? Really? All right - this is pure trashy fun I devoured like fistfuls of movie popcorn. If you’re looking for sheer sugar-rush escapism, I can’t recommend this more highly. (And if you’re not sure you want to commit, know that I borrowed my copy from the library - it’s so popular that I bet your local branch has it or will be able to get it for you easily.)

I also enjoyed…What’s Cooking at the Kremlin by Witold Szabłowski, Comfort Eating by Grace Dent, The Appeal by Janice Hallett, Slow Noodles by Chantha Nguon, Rough Justice by Wendy Joseph, The Book of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover by Jan Gradvall, The Psy-Changeling Series #8, 9, and 10 by Nalini Singh

And I mixed…Sloe Royales.

“If I only drank champagne when I was celebrating, I’d hardly ever get to drink it.”

- Sam (Ben Whishaw) in Black Doves

Would it surprise you much if I told you this house does not believe in Dry January? Seriously, if you’re going to go dry at any time, why not a hot month, when getting drunk and dehydrated in the sun is extra uncomfortable, and you can sip iced tea or lemonade or sparkling elderflower instead? Winter in the Northern Hemisphere is punishing enough as it is.

And Dry July has a certain ring to it, right?

Anyway, in opposition to the slings and arrows of everyday life in winter, I highly recommend keeping a half-bottle or a split (quarter bottle) of sparkling wine in your fridge. A whole 750ml of fizz is a major commitment and a diabolical hangover waiting to happen (ask me how I know), but a little bottle is perfect for Friday night cocktail making, whether you want a negroni sbagliato, a Classic Champagne Cocktail, or if it’s been that kind of week, a French 75.

But when I had my own half-bottle of prosecco, I decided to keep it simple - a shot of sloe gin in a frozen coupe, topped with fizz. It tasted like plums and blackberries and rose petals, and felt like a low-key, easy luxury. (American friends, Spirit Works make a very nice sloe gin - you also can use it to amp up negronis or just drink it over ice neat or with a little soda.)

I also enjoyed…a Right Hand, a Classic Champagne Cocktail, Bedrock Weill a Way Syrah 2018, a Michaelmas Term, an Asti Sour (from Richard Godwin’s Sauternes Sour), and a 50-50 Manhattan.