I’m overwhelmed.

May has been a wildly busy month, and my brain capacity has officially gone caput. Completely packed its tiny suitcase, left a dramatic note, and disappeared into the mist.

 

So this month’s newsletter will be short and sweet.

Not because you aren’t important.

But because you are.

And I want you to get the best of me, not the exhausted, blinking-at-the-wall version who has forgotten how words work.

So here’s what’s inside this month’s letter:

 

🌙 A quick update on The Locke Mystique Kickstarter  

💖  Imperfect Harmony is now in hardback!
🎁 A little birthday surprise coming next month
🧪 Keir McGregor’s character profile
🖼️ A sneak peek at the artwork coming for The Locke Mystique
📚 Free fantasy and romance reads through BookFunnel

 

I’ve made the decision to move the Kickstarter for The Locke Mystique to November.

Why?

Because you deserve the best I can give you.

And so do my characters.

I want The Locke Mystique to become what it is meant to be: full of heart, mystery, danger, atmosphere, and the kind of love that feels like standing at the edge of something beautiful and terrifying.

 

 

It’s taking longer than expected to get there.

 

This story is bigger, darker, stranger, and more emotionally tangled than anything I’ve written before. It has secret societies, gaslamp streets, alchemy, fae blood, vampires, murder, forbidden magic, and a heroine who insists she does not believe in magic while being surrounded by it on all sides.

 

Which is very rude of her, frankly.

 

But more than that, it has Arisa.

And Drystan.

And Keir.

And all the complicated, aching, dangerous things unfolding between them.

I don’t want to rush it. I don’t want to shortchange the story, the characters, the artwork, the special edition, or any of you.

 

I want this book to be magnificent.

I want it to be treasured.

And that means giving it more time.

 

I’ll keep sharing behind-the-scenes peeks as I go, and next month I still have a special gift coming for you on my birthday.

Because if I’m going to get older, we might as well all get presents out of it.

 

Thank you so much for being part of this journey with me. Your support, your excitement, your messages, your comments, your patience—it all means more than I can say.

I mean it.

 

Thank you for your patience 💖💖💖

 

As promised, here is a closer look at one of the key players in The Locke Mystique.

 

Meet Keir McGregor.

 

Aristocrat. Alchemist. Strategist. Problem.

 

Keir is the sort of man who walks into a room and immediately makes everyone feel as if they’ve somehow failed an exam they didn’t know they were taking.

He is brilliant, controlled, intimidatingly competent, and deeply convinced that he is usually the smartest person present.

Unfortunately for everyone around him, he often is.

Keir comes from an old family with old secrets, old money, and the sort of ancestral baggage that should probably require its own locked wing of the house.

 

He doesn’t chase power for the thrill of it.

He chases answers.

He believes knowledge can fix things. Control things. Prevent disaster before it has the chance to bare its teeth.

And then Arisa Locke happens.

Arisa is everything Keir cannot quite categorize.

A stage magician who insists magic is trickery.

A woman with impossible blood.

A problem he cannot solve.

A person he cannot entirely control.

 

And Keir does not like being unable to control the pieces on the board.

He is not the villain.

But he is dangerous in the way a man can be dangerous when he believes he knows what is best.

Especially when he might be wrong.

Especially when his mistakes come dressed as protection.

Especially when the cost falls on someone else.

 

In The Locke Mystique, Keir is tangled in alchemy, family secrets, ambition, fear, and a growing fascination with Arisa that is far more complicated than he wants it to be.

He sees her potential.

He sees her power.

But seeing someone’s power is not the same as seeing their heart.

And that may be where Keir’s greatest failure begins.

 

One of the things I’m most excited about for The Locke Mystique is the artwork.

This world is so visual in my mind: gaslit streets, shadowed theaters, secret society symbols, alchemical diagrams, old universities, velvet darkness, dangerous men in tailored coats, and Arisa standing at the center of it all with a deck of illusions in one hand and a destiny she absolutely did not ask for in the other.

 

The special edition artwork is going to lean into that atmosphere.

Think:

I’ll be sharing more soon, but for now, here’s a tiny peek at the direction we’re heading: Artwork by @chicklen.doodle

 

I am still working on the archives, which will be a special place where all past newsletters live along with other Nightbloom only things. 

 

I also mentioned creating an inner circle, where we can have live discussions, gush about books, and dissect characters to our hearts' content. 

 

 

 

Our inner circle, will be The Midnight Garden. And it will be on Instagram. I cant wait to cross the iron gate with you. 

I promise to keep you all updated.

 

 

And now, as promised, here are this month’s BookFunnel links for free fantasy and romance reads.

Because our TBR piles are already out of control, and apparently we have chosen to make that everyone’s problem.

 

 

 

Thank you again for being here, for reading my stories, and for walking with me through all the beautiful chaos of bringing these books into the world.

Angie 💖

PS. If you’re new here: I love hearing from you! Give me a shoutout anywhere on social media and right here in the Society.