Is anyone else deep in their romantasy (romantic fantasy) era? We know we are. Katy Rose Pool’s Garden of the Cursed is a can’t-miss edge-of-your-seat mystery that will make you swoon and leave you wanting more. Perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, These Violent Delights, and Chain of Iron, we know you’ll love this book as much as we do. What makes Marlow fierce? Marlow is fierce for many reasons–she’s relentless, she sticks to her convictions, she takes action, and she’s not afraid to piss people off–but I think the quality I admire most about her is that she refuses to let the world make her feel powerless. If you'd met Marlow as a teen, would you have been friends with her? Marlow would have intimidated the crap out of me as a teen! Marlow would be the girl standing up to teachers, kicking up a fuss, and generally making herself everyone’s problem. I was very much the good student who always followed the rules and would absolutely have a meltdown if a teacher ever yelled at me. What's your favorite part of being an author? Getting to share the worlds and characters and magic in my head with other people. Writing is a way to connect with people, and I feel so thankful every day I get to have this strange, vulnerable, miraculous connection with readers. What's the most challenging part of being an author? I think the most challenging part has been staying steadfast in my belief that my words and my voice have value. Especially now, there is so much noise in the world–so much content. It can feel very easy to get lost in it all, and my unique storytelling perspective won’t be exactly what readers want. But at the end of the day, readers are unique and varied in their tastes, and so many of them have showed me that my words mean something to them, and that makes it all worth it. What 3 words would you use to describe Garden of the Cursed? Glamorous, gritty & mysterious! ABOUT THE BOOK In this romantic, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy/mystery duology from award-winning author Katy Rose Pool, cursebreaker Marlow Briggs reluctantly pretends to be in love with a powerful noble to gain entry into an illustrious—and deadly—society that holds clues to her mother's disappearance. Garden of the Cursed is perfect for fans of Veronica Mars, These Violent Delights, and Chain of Iron. Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best godsdamn cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother’s disappearance. When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow's old friend and scion of one of Caraza's most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother’s case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society—even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families. As the investigation draws Marlow into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies, a shocking truth emerges: Adrius’s curse and her mother’s disappearance may just be clues to an even larger mystery, one that could unravel the very foundations of Caraza and magic itself.