This romantasy novel became a viral phenomenon. Then researchers said it may have been written with AI

Daggermouth

H.M. Wolfe

Scarlett Press, 544 pages, $48

Move over sexy dragons: The hot new thing in romantasy is a dystopian setting and a heroine who’s rising up against an authoritarian regime. In this buzzy tale, our protagonist is Shadera Kael, an assassin (aka Daggermouth from the Boundary) who makes her living killing high-ranking officials in the Heart, the corrupt centre of their unequal society.

One day, she gets a job to take out the biggest scum of them all: the heir to the dictatorship, whose daily routine involves executing innocent citizens, whose deaths are livestreamed. It all goes disastrously wrong — so wrong that the only way Shadera can save herself and the people she loves is to enter into a marriage of convenience with the (inconveniently attractive, more morally complex than he seems) monster she set out to kill.

It’s all very gripping stuff, with enough action (of all kinds) to make its 544 pages fly — and have you marking your calendars for the second half of the duology, due next spring.

Note: In a recent article in The Atlantic, researchers into AI usage in genre fiction accused “Daggermouth” of having “telltale signs” of AI-assisted writing. The author denies using generative AI to write the book.

The Lion & the Deathless Dark

Carissa Broadbent

Tor, 560 pages, $41.99

Another romantasy trend to note: assassins, particularly of the female heroine persuasion, are having a moment. (Sarah A. Parker’s bestselling “Moonfall” series may be to thank.) This first instalment in Carissa Boroadbent’s “Crowns of Nyaxia” duology introduces a divine twist on the profession: the Vindica Ultis, a human endowed with a powerful sword and a thirst for vengeance by the goddess of justice herself. In this fallen world, however, where vampires have taken over and the gods are up to their usual cruel tricks and petty infighting, her job is mostly taking on hits that pay the bills while smiting enough straying acolytes to keep her capricious goddess happy.

It’s all bleak business as usual until a chance encounter with a princely vampire — and a tragedy that shakes our heroine to the core — set her on a path to challenge the very gods themselves. If she’s unaccountably drawn to her co-conspirator, said royal vamp, that’s just spicy grease for the narrative wheel. Come for genre star Broadbent’s characteristic evocative world-building, stay for the unexpectedly profound meditations on what it truly means to deliver justice.

Something About September

Julia McKay

Viking, 320 pages, $26.95

A Canadian-grown contemporary romance that’s as cosy as fall flannel, this one is an apple-forward offering from bestselling author Marissa Stapley in her romance novelist guise. It’s pure Hallmarkian bliss from start to finish: having fled her suffocatingly wholesome hometown for Toronto after high school, Rebecca MacIntosh (cross one off your apple-reference bingo card) returns to Bramley Hollow (there’s another) to get the family’s restaurant ready to sell after her grandmother’s death. One plot twist you definitely saw coming: the only contractor available is Cortland Adams (two more!), the town golden boy who she’d pined for as a teenager, and who humiliated her when he turned down her adult attempt to spark something last year.

As love blossoms over rotten floorboards and a frost-averse giant pumpkin, we tiptoe into a rather profound meditation on learning to trust someone after their rejection touches one of your core wounds. In the best possible way, this one is a Bath & Body Works autumn candle distilled onto the page, and a heartwarming way to usher in the fall.

A Study in Sparkling

Jodi McAlister

Atria, 384 pages, $26

On first sip, you’d be forgiven for thinking this one’s as fizzy as a grande cuvée champagne: a newly divorced woman embarks on a no-strings affair with the gorgeous (and much younger) owner of her favourite wine bar. Turns out, it’s much more like a deep, nuanced red wine or malt whisky.

Jodi McAlister, an Australian academic by day, spins an emotionally intelligent yarn about Fiona, an ordinary nearly middle-aged woman who unexpectedly stumbles upon storybook love — although very much lust at first — right when her life is consumed by hard realities: parenting very young children in the painful aftermath of discovering her husband’s secret family. (And there she thought he was just spending a lot of time in Melbourne for work!)

As for Satoshi, the younger man she falls for? He’s been in love with her from afar for ages, afraid to share how he feels because he thinks the depth of his passion will frighten her. For the oenophile, there’s also plenty of wine-related trivia served throughout this sexy-but-serious read.