On Sale: May 26, 2026
Page Count: 400 pages
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN-13: 9780316591843

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Inspired by medieval India’s most epic love stories, this debut Romantasy blends rich storytelling, lush worldbuilding, and spice of every variety. Perfect for fans of Nisha J. Tuli and Tasha Suri.

Nandapore is a city of secrets and spellcasters where seduction reigns and a power-hungry king is never satisfied, plotting to unleash a weapon that has only lived in myth… until now.

To stop him, an ancient goddess seeks out a newly crowned queen, a heartsick prince, a common thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood. Together, they chart a course through brothels, temples, taverns, and palaces, setting a trap for the empire’s most powerful men.

Linked by desire, destiny, and a dangerous foe, they each must decide…

What will they risk for a weapon worth dying for, and a love worth staying alive?

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Games of the Goddess

Anuja Varghese writes literary fiction, SFF, and erotica/romance— and combinations of all three—where women of color get leading roles! Her work has been featured in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica Volume 6 (Cleis Press, 2020), When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead, (Haunt Press, 2022), Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food (Dundurn Press, 2024). Her short story collection titled Chrysalis (House of Anansi, 2023), explores South Asian diaspora experience through a queer, feminist, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2024, it was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction. Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her partner, two kids, and two cats.

"I loved getting tangled in this lush and twisty braid of magic, intrigue and desire. Varghese breathes new, and spicy, life into epic fantasy."
Davinia Evans, author of Notorious Sorcerer
"A story of love, betrayal and divine fury that grips cities and kingdoms across a great empire, A Kiss of Crimson Ash is a finely balanced book, by parts epic in scale and alluringly intimate, filled with heat and magic."
Molly O'Neill, author of Greenteeth

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Anuja Varghese

About the Author

Anuja Varghese writes literary fiction, SFF, and erotica/romance— and combinations of all three—where women of color get leading roles! Her work has been featured in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica Volume 6 (Cleis Press, 2020), When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead, (Haunt Press, 2022), Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food (Dundurn Press, 2024). Her short story collection titled Chrysalis (House of Anansi, 2023), explores South Asian diaspora experience through a queer, feminist, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2024, it was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction. Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her partner, two kids, and two cats.

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Anuja Varghese

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