When The Eighth Key came out last spring, it made an impact. Not only was it a gripping fantasy yarn, but it was a steamy, slow burn male/male romance. One reviewer praised it for “making consent sexy”. Another found it refreshing that gay angst wasn’t featured, just a great gay couple. Our favorite review gushed about how it was the first time she’d read a book where sex was fundamental to the plot of a fantasy novel!

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Last week, we got the absolute cherry on top of this sundae of feedback: on December 8, The Eighth Key won The Rainbow Award for Best Gay Fantasy Romance! It was a crowded field with lots of worthy candidates, so we are beyond proud to have gotten the nod (along with Geoffrey the Very Strange by Angel Martinez).

If you want to know what convinced the Rainbow Award jury, check out Elisa’s review!

And then pick yourself up a copy…

This is a very exciting week for us. The Eighth Key, our new high fantasy gay romance, will be available for pre-order by bookstores pending general release at the end of the month!

The magic is gone…or is it?

Lucian is a jaded flirt and professional bard who knows all the old songs about sorcery. When he meets Corwin, a shy mage who can still use magic despite the Drought, Lucian finds his desire growing with each passing day—not just for answers, but for Corwin himself.

Sparks fly as they find themselves passionately entangled in adventure and each other. But learning the true origin of the Drought and the Key to ending it comes at a price that their bond may not survive…

When I was first pitched The Eighth Key, I was blown away by its novelty and its depth. I’m picky when it comes to my fantasy: I didn’t want yet another LOTR clone or a generic urban fantasy setting. And as a science fiction fan, I like my fantastic worlds deep, the magic systems consistent.

Hugo Finalist Laura Weyr has delivered a compact epic, featuring one of the more innovative worlds I’ve seen in a long time. The magic-dry world, suffering from a Drought that has lasted a generation, feels lived in. The way the sorcery works and interacts with other magic and with the world at large is logically extrapolated. The plot is gripping and tight. And the story’s payoff is a stunner.

But The Eighth Key is more than a fantasy novel, of course. It’s one of the most satisfying, tender, and steamy romances I’ve ever read. The burn is slow but consistent, and each passionate interlude thrills with its emotion and sensuous physicality. I always say that for a romance to work, one has to fall in love with the characters, so that they see why they fall in love with each other. Carefree Lucian the bard, repressed but powerful Corwin the shadow Mage — they’re an excellent couple, one you’re rooting for the whole story through.

As a gay fantasy romance, The Eighth Key joins a small but burgeoning field in fiction. I believe that The Eighth Key will be a trendsetter, establishing a bar not just for steamy male/male love stories, but for fantasy as well.

And I know you’ll love it, just like I did.