When Viviana accidentally kills her sister’s groom in a failed revenge plot, her parents ship her off to Empress Charlotte’s French court in Mexico City to snag a rich husband. But Viviana is determined to do anything but. Starting with the Empress’ daughter.

FEATURING
🩸Indigenous vampire lore
🩸A true 3 way love triangle
🩸Blackmail to lovers
🩸Rivals to lovers
🩸Fake dating
🩸Some v light poisoning
🩸Secret passageways

🩸“I don’t bite…hard”

On Tochtli’s 8th birthday, her twin vanished. On Tochtli’s 18th birthday, she wakes up naked with warm blood in her mouth and the broken bracelet of a neighbor girl clutched in her hand—a girl who’s now missing.

Tochtli dreams of working in bionics and robotics, but as a third-tier citizen in a strict four-tier caste system in Acuña Del Rio, careers in the sciences are barred to her. She will have to become a featherworker like her Abuela or a career warrior. But when Tochtli begins to have enhanced senses, and strange gaps in her memory, she worries that none of that will matter if she transforms into a Monstruo. 

 

Ever since the Dome encapsulated most of Mexico and Texas in 1890, people have been turning into Monstruos—fearsome creatures with special magical abilities. If a Monstruo is caught by the Inquisition Priest, their heart is sacrificed to a Mexica-Azteca god and replaced with an experimental bionic one that will revert them to a normal human. First-tier citizens get an unlimited supply of bionic hearts, but third-tier citizens like Tochtli only get one, and it stops working after three years.

Jade lives on a secluded island under the shadow of an active volcano and the worst moment of her life—when Jade burned Mamá's face because she was daydreaming. Jade longs to one day leave the island, though any who try are killed by the Squid Monster. And any who shipwreck on their shores lose their memories of the outside world including Jade’s best friend Rosita, and the island’s newest addition, Chantico.  

  

Jade’s dreams of adventure are dashed when their deity, the Serpent Mermaid, selects Jade as the next annual drowning sacrifice, ensuring her daily gifts continue to bless the villagers in the coming year. But while Jade is being drowned, the Serpent Mermaid saves her and reveals that an imposter Goddess requested the drowning—Chantico, the Fire Goddess, has been killing Jade over and over again for centuries, and her last reincarnation was her own abuela who died the same day Jade was born. Eight hundred years ago, Chantico took the Serpent Mermaid’s voice and trapped her and all the villagers on the island, and now, the Serpent Mermaid needs Jade’s help to stop Chantico once and for all.