August 8, 2025

YA Cover Reveal!

Ahhhhhh LOOKIT at The Verdant Cage! Isn't it gorgeous? This is my young adult dystopian thriller that's been three years in the works and is finally...FINALLY ready for the world! It releases April 7, 2026, and People.com did the official cover reveal here! 😍

This book's been a labor of love. It's a dystopian thriller about a seventeen-year-old girl born into a walled community that she believes is paradise right until her mother is murdered and her twin brother is framed for the crime. What comes after is part thriller, part adventure, and all rebellion, with three massive twists that are gonna steal your breath. 💚💀💚

I'll post an excerpt below, plus a preorder link if you want to reserve yourself a limited edition deluxe copy with the sprayed edges. Stay tuned for more exciting news on this front!

The rosaries, the rule-following. It wasn’t enough. My twin is being Harvested.

“No!” I croak. The awfulness of it scrapes my veins, turning everything orange and raw. “Jonas is my brother,” I plead to Jarek upon the stage. My voice cracks, but it carries. “We’re Apothecaries.”

Jarek knows this, of course he knows this, but I can’t stop speaking, even though my brain is slippery with terror. “We cannot be chosen for Harvest. My—” I start to say “my mother” and choke it down. “I’m sorry, but all Apothecaries are exempt. The needs of treating another outbreak require our exclusion. You can find a different way to punish him, can't you?”

Jarek tips his head and beaks out his lips, the picture of sympathy. “Murder surely overrides your House’s Harvest exemption,” he says sadly. “And in any case, the Council has recently updated that directive. Our food shortage demands it.”

An icy wave of powerlessness threatens to drown me. Those were the rules. They can’t be changed. But then something unexpected happens. I feel a snap inside, and a burst of hot rage blooms in my chest.

I want to hurt Jarek.

Obedient, quiet Rose wants to rip out his throat. No. That’s not me. I do what I’m told. I try to push down the fury, but it won’t budge.

Jarek continues unaware. “Gryphon, guide Jonas to his ultimate sacrifice, won’t you?”

Gryphon’s exquisite face is a tight mask. His arms flex, and I have the wild hope that he’ll refuse, that he’ll reveal this is a cruel prank, a leftover from our childhood days, back when he and I used to be inseparable. But instead, he glides forward with the grace of a mountain lion. He takes Jonas from his handlers and begins to guide him toward the Wall.

They almost reach it when Jonas breaks free from Gryphon. Jarek cries out in rage as my brother races toward me, slipping between the other Guardians. “Rose,” he whispers when he reaches my side. The whites of his eyes are visible all around his pupils. He smells of iron and fear as he embraces me, speaking close to my ear. “I didn’t kill her. You’ll find the truth in the Record Keeper’s cottage. Go to the vault. But protect yourself, Rose. Let no one see you there.”

I sob and cling to him. Protect myself? All I’ve ever wanted was to keep him safe. Too soon, Gryphon wrenches him from me, and the hatred I had for Jarek finds a new home. I will never forgive Gryphon for leading my brother to his death.

“We’re not what we seem!” Jonas cries.

Those are the last words he speaks.

Preorder your deluxe edition here!

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July 4, 2025

YA? Yes, Please!

Hello, all! So, you remember that young adult book that I've been writing, the one called A Whisper of Poison that was supposed to come out two years ago? Well, it has a new title, a new cover, and glorious new content. It's tied with The Quarry Girls for my favorite thing I've ever written.

The updated version, called The Verdant Cage, releases April 7, 2026, (for real this time), and I'll paste the description below. Stay tuned for a cover reveal, including the most glorious sprayed edges (I gasped out loud when I first saw them). I'm in love with this book, and I hope you will be, too.

For as long as teenaged apothecary Rose Allgood can remember, the towering stone Wall surrounding Noah’s Valley has protected her people. No one leaves. No one fights. And no one questions why.

But their paradise has been hiding its thorns. When Rose’s mother becomes the Valley’s first murder victim and her twin brother is swiftly condemned, she alone is searching for the real killer. Determined to find the truth, she follows a trail of hidden messages, forbidden knowledge, and whispers of a past no one dares to remember.

The deeper she digs, the more certain Rose becomes that her mother’s death was no accident. That the Wall isn’t just keeping something out.

It’s keeping something in.

Fans of The Hunger Games, Wilder Girls, and The Grace Year will devour The Verdant Cage—a chilling dystopian thriller about what it takes to rebel when you discover your entire world is a lie.

PREORDER YOUR STUNNING DELUXE EDITION NOW:

🌱 Amazon
🌱 Target
🌱 Barnes & Noble
🌱 Independent Bookstore

p.s. If you preordered this when it was A Whisper of Poison, first of all, thank you. Second of all, you should be getting a note from them telling you it is no longer available (because it's become something bigger and better). I am very sorry for the hassle. ❤️

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January 30, 2025

THE LAUGHING DEAD Cover Reveal

Hello to you! I'm writing to you from sunny Costa Rica, where I'm searching for ways to help myself and the communities I care about to feel connected and supported in these challenging times.

I've got some ideas, including time blocking my social media, time blocking my news and seeking out non-profit sources for the in-depth info (1440 Daily Digest and the AP are working for me), and speaking out for the vulnerable as well as expanding my volunteer work beyond the Humane Society.

Also, I intend to keep writing books about girls and women who have the whole system stacked against them yet find their way to freedom and power. They do this by refusing to carry other people's secrets or shame, by connecting with their intuition and strength (the strength the world tries to convince them they don't have), and by seeking out the good people around them, because none of us do the hard stuff alone.

The Laughing Dead, the third in the Edgar-nominated Steinbeck and Reed series, is one of those books. I hope you'll preorder it now.

p.s. Head on over to Lourey's Literati, my reader group on Facebook, to see the cover that wasn't chosen. :)

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