A year or so ago, I wrote a novel. It was a bit of a shock, to be honest, for while I’ve been a professional copywriter for years (far more than I’m comfortable admitting), fiction is a whole different ballgame. But write a novel I did, and it was published last November, and just won an IPPY Award for best romance. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, this year, I wrote another. 

And it’s about to be published this month. But here’s the thing: Nightshade is not a simple book.

It’s a slow-burn romantic suspense set in the English countryside, resplendent with dead bees, forbidden longing, poisonous plants, emotional trauma, deeply broody men, and one extremely complicated estate full of secrets, history, and foxes Hugh refuses to get rid of, even though they keep savaging his prize-winning pheasants.

It’s the second full-length instalment in The Cheshire Set, following Bane (though you can read either as standalones). But this time, Suzie steps out of the best-friend role and takes centre stage. 

And she’s not here to be tidy, likeable, or safe.

But before you dive in, there are a few things you probably ought to know.

Some of them are scandalous.

Some of them are dangerous.

All of them are spoiler-free.

Here are 7 juicy truths to prepare you for what’s coming…

1. Suzie’s About To Fall Hard, Fast, And For A Married Man

Suzie came back to Ashfordby for the bees. A straightforward consultation. A dying estate in need of a scientist’s eye. She did not come back for forbidden feelings, moral grey areas, or the sharp, slow ache of falling for a man she has no business wanting.

Suzie isn’t the type to fall in love. Not anymore.

She’s only done it once before and, as it happens, she runs into that wanker right before everything kicks off in Nightshade. The encounter dredges up every ounce of heartbreak she thought she’d buried. It throws her into chaos. She’s questioning herself, her life, and whether anything she’s doing is what she truly wants. Years ago, she gave her heart to a boy her own age who promised her the world and then ripped it out from under her. She gave him years. He took her future. Since then, she’s been shut down. Closed off. Hardened. She’s not looking for the one—she doesn’t even believe she’s capable of having a relationship like that.

So when things unravel, she agrees to go home.

To the town she’s been avoiding for years.

To stay with her best friend — who is currently enjoying full-blown domestic bliss with her One.

Which is a nasty dose of salt in a very open, very raw wound.

Enter: Hugh Delaware.

Suzie doesn’t realise he’s married at first.

If she had, she probably wouldn’t have caught feelings to begin with.

But once she does, she falls hard. And fast. And expects absolutely nothing to come of it — except maybe a broken heart when her feelings finally catch on to what her brain already knows: he’s unattainable. She’d never go for a married man. Even if she did, he wouldn’t reciprocate. And even if he did… she wouldn’t want him. 

Because who wants a man who cheats on his wife?

But feelings are complicated little blighters.

And while her brain may know all this, her heart has other ideas.

2. Hugh Delaware Is A Byronic Dream (Also, Married)

There are brooding men. And then there’s Hugh. The kind of man who carries the weight of his family legacy, and a marriage that should have ended years ago, and an entire estate full of secrets.

Hugh is a Byronic hero in the classical sense of the term, which means he’s brooding, devilishly handsome, and morally complex, with the kind of oh crap he’s hiding his mad wife in the attic energy that comes from a man in a 20+ year marriage that died a long time ago but he feels too guilty to end it. Instead, he’s just sort of… carrying it around like one of his father’s heirlooms.

Hugh’s charming, sharp, unexpectedly funny, and so deeply exhausted by the burden of duty. 

Suzie doesn’t mean to fall for him. But it’s hard not to when this beautiful man keeps looking at you like you might be the first breath of fresh air he’s had in decades.

But what makes Hugh truly magnetic isn’t the title, or the tragic backstory, or the fact he looks like a Ralph Lauren model lost in the moors. It’s the quiet moments:

The way he talks to his dogs like they’re people.

The careful way he explains soil pH like it’s poetry.

The way his voice breaks when he talks about the bees.

The apology in his eyes when he loses his temper.

The reverence with which he treats the land—and the shock he can’t quite hide when someone treats him with the same care.

Hugh Delaware isn’t irresistible because he’s perfect, but because he’s flawed and loyal and achingly sincere. The kind of man who thinks he’s past saving, right up until the moment someone walks into his life and reminds him what hope feels like.

And part of what makes him so disarming for Suzie is that he’s older. He’s not a boy, or a young man, or even someone in his thirties like Suzie. He’s the homecoming she never realised she needed. Everything about him radiates maturity, security, responsibility, intelligence (emotional and academic). He listens. He understands. He shares her passions. He’s fiercely devoted to his land and to ecology. He’s fascinated by plants and bees and how nature works, and how we can make it work better.

Yes, he’s a silver fox. But he also lives on an estate riddled with actual foxes—foxes he refuses to shoot or remove, even though they’ve savaged his prize-winning pheasants. One of the very few things that actually earns him money. And still, he doesn’t begrudge the foxes their food.

3. A Tragic Death Will Reveal Huge Secrets 

Not to name names or spoil anything, but this is a Romantic Suspense novel. There will be murder. And attempted murder. And all manner of other nefarious goings-on. If you’re expecting a cosy little mystery that’s sugar-coated and nice, please look elsewhere.

This isn’t that sort of book.

Cosy? Yes. Mysterious? Absolutely. But also quietly brutal in its own way. It will lull you into a false sense of security, because the initial mystery is all about the bees.

And what could be more wholesome than bees?

But it’s play-acting. The plot is planning to trick you. Because this isn’t just some cottagecore romance in which Suzie falls for the wrong guy and puzzles out a nice, peaceful mystery while trying to untangle her feelings. There’s a lot more wrong at Delaware Grange than some dying bees. Far more than even Hugh realises.

And not everyone’s going to make it out alive.

4. The Estate Is Its Own Character 

Delaware Grange has its own mood and menace. A sprawling Cheshire estate with a lot of quirks—and many mysteries. Once a thriving agricultural property, an industrial accident left most of the land poisoned and unusable, and the Delawares have been desperately trying to salvage it ever since.

From the unusual topography and the (slightly magic in its own right) microclimate that Hugh found and forged into a tea farm, to the roaming goats and the so-dilapidated-they-feel-haunted play areas, this is a place steeped in history and character. The Delawares have been here for centuries. So long, in fact, that when a woman and her family—fleeing the Chester witch trials—passed through in the 1600s and saved the life of Lord Delaware, they were rewarded with the gift of a cottage at the heart of the estate.

And wild magic has been brewing around them ever since.

Whether it’s real magic, or simply the magic of heritage and nature, remains to be seen. But there’s a lot more to this estate than meets the eye—and far more than even Hugh has ever realised.

5. There’s A Witch In The Woods

Speaking of wild magic, the novel skirts the edge of magical realism in the form of Lilibet, the Delaware witch. An eccentric old woman who lives in a cottage in the deepest parts of the woods, Lilibet Warren talks to crows, brews potions, and tends a back garden filled with the graves of many generations of her relatives. 

She’s a local legend in Ashfordby. Nobody quite understands how her concoctions work, but everyone agrees they quite definitely do. There’s something about her. The way she speaks. The way she watches. The way she quietly befriends the local wildlife in a way that makes it seems she actually can speak their language. 

She may or may not be an actual witch.

I left that to you to decide.

6. Nightshade Teases Future Couples (Yes, Multiple)

This book teases future couples. Yes, multiple. And I’m not giving away who just yet but it’s no secret that Suzie, the star of the show in Nightshade, was a side character in both Eve Was Framed and Bane. In those two stories Suzie had the role of best friend to the protagonist (Aimee). In Nightshade, that switches—so Suzie is centre stage while Aimee plays the role of best friend. But eagle-eyed readers may recall mention in Bane of a client of Aimee’s who created a tea farm from a microclimate on a hillside at his father’s estate. That client? Hugh Delaware. So while Suzie hasn’t yet met Hugh at the start of the novel, readers who have read Bane were already (albeit very briefly) introduced to him along with the lady who would steal his heart.

And so it goes with Nightshade, as multiple characters introduced in this novel have upcoming love stories of their own for you to explore. I’m not going to name names, but keep your eyes peeled during THE BALL, and when you hit the twist at the end and you’re screaming that you need more details—don’t worry… there’s a LOT more to come.

7. This Book Will Ruin You For All Other Romantic Suspense

Okay, that’s a bold claim. But Nightshade doesn’t play by the usual rules. It’s slow-burn in every sense of the word. The romance is the slowest burn I’ve ever written—and the flare at the end is so spicy it scorches. But the mystery is also a slow cooker on this one. You think you know what the stakes are… then suddenly they’re so much higher. You’ve just wrapped your head around that, when everything gets even more dramatic.

I CRIED writing the end of this novel. And I mean I BAWLED my eyes out. I have sobbed my way through every single round of edits on the climax (by which I mean the climax of the plot, not the other kind of climax… that didn’t make me cry for anything other than the fact Hugh is only my book boyfriend and I can’t have him in real life).

This isn’t a novel about perfect people, neat romance, and mysteries that get neatly tied up in a satisfying bow at the end. It’s about flawed characters, trying to do the right thing, even when they fail, even when it hurts so badly you don’t think you’ll survive it.

And some of them don’t.

If you’re looking for neat endings, this won’t be your cup of (wild-foraged, slightly magical) tea. But if you like your romance slow and painful, your mysteries messy, and your stakes personal—you might just find this one lingers.

And once you’ve read it, well…

Other books might feel just a little…meh.

I’m slightly concerned I’ve ruined myself for writing with this novel, because whichever novel gets written next I’m going to have to top it.

That’s a rather daunting prospect!

Nightshade is available now for pre-order and will be out on eBook and in paperback on June 21st.