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Deathsworn
Author: Meg SmithermanPage Count: UnknownPublication Date: Expected publication 2026 APL August heat is radiating through my studio window, baking the turpentine fumes into something genuinely nauseating, and yet, here I am, staring at the promotional copy for Meg Smitherman's Deathsworn. My canvas sits half-finished in the corner—a messy, oil-slicked rendering of two figures tearing each other apart—because apparently, I have zero self-preservation instinct when a good enemies-to-lovers pitch crosses my desk. My heart is currently held together with dried acrylic and sheer spite, which makes me uniquely qualified to dissect this particular brand of literary torture. The Art of the Dual-Sided Blade Let us look at the mechanics of what Smitherman is selling us for 2026. Jonquil Foye wields Life. Edmund Blackburn wields Death. How utterly, deliciously unsubtle. It is the kind of artistic binary that usually makes me want to throw a palette knife at the wall—too neat, too clean, too easily resolved by standard narrative physics. But then they clash, their magic entwine, and they accidentally birth a volatile abomination that drags them straight into the underworld. And honestly? As someone whose last relationship felt precisely like being dragged into a subterranean wasteland by our own mutual collateral damage, I respect the metaphor. Why We Fall for the Masked Monster The synopsis leans heavily into the Reylo and masked-MMC aesthetic. We are looking at a gothic Victorian fever dream. Give me all the tragic yearning. Yet, I refuse to pretend this is a revolutionary character dynamic. It is a time-tested formula for a reason. Authors like Holly Black or T. Kingfisher understand that readers do not want healed protagonists; they want broken people who cause maximum structural damage to each other before they even think about holding hands. Edmund and Jonquil are locked in a forced proximity nightmare, running out of time while Death actively tries to keep them underground. But truces are fragile. Just like every single promise whispered in a dim-lit studio at three in the morning when you are convinced the person standing across from you is both your muse and your executioner. A Cynic’s Bet on the Underworld Will this book actually deliver on the gothic horror promised in the marketing copy, or will it devolve into a sanitized romance with gothic wallpaper pasted over it? I have my doubts. Publishers love to slap the "dark fantasy" label on books where the darkest thing that happens is a stern look across a battlefield. Yet, the premise of a magical creature born from their clashing life-and-death forces suggests something deliciously grotesque could happen. I am betting the monster they create is far more interesting than either of them. I need to go book an emergency session to complain to my therapist about why this exact plot twist feels like a personal attack on my current emotional state. #deathsworn #necromantasy #gothicfantasy #booktok #enemiestolovers