Meredith Hart's Blog

By popular demand, here’s a guide to how to pronounce all those names in Bride of Ash & Dust, my steamy arranged marriage romantasy between a princess and an assassin.

My beloved community is being targeted by ICE.

I try to keep political posts to a minimum, but I’ve worked with the immigrant community in Portland, Maine for almost a decade. This hits close to home.

Also, my books are all about outcasts and refugees. If you can read Heart’s Rescue and think I wouldn’t stand up for immigrants who were forced to leave their homeland in the real world, well, feel free to never buy from me again.

The news is overwhelming, and it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of evil.

You’re not powerless!

Here’s a list of organizations working hard to support our friends and neighbors:

Project Home is covering rent for Mainers who can’t go to work because of ICE threats and are at risk of eviction.

ILAP Maine (Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project) is doing a LOT to help our community in this moment.

Presente Maine is deep in the grassroots of all aspects of Maine’s Latinx community and is being targeted.

Prosperity Maine is doing similar work. They also offer scholarships.

Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition focuses on high-level policy work, which is also important in this moment.

Remember, none of us are alone in this moment. Care for yourself, care for your family, and care for your community.

The prince and the serving girl

Elrick and Anura have been in love since they were children. Everyone knows it. Everyone pretends not to see it. Because he’s the prince, and she scrubs dishes in the palace kitchen, and some barriers can never be crossed.

Until the Council of Mayors demands Elrick marry a foreign princess to secure an alliance.

Until Anura realizes she’s about to lose him forever.

Here’s an exclusive sneak peek at Bride of Secrets & Whispers, coming this February!

CHAPTER ONE – Elrick

I decide to ignore the tiny, dancing flashes of light around the edges of my vision, just like I’m ignoring the dull throb at my temple. Those could just be my eyes adjusting to the shift in the light when I stepped into the stables. And this could just be a regular headache.

And maybe I’ll find a unicorn in here while I’m at it. I snort, then shake my head.

“Looking for a place to hide?” my sister asks.

I glance down the row of stalls and see the Princess of Marion, with a shovel in her hand, standing over a pile of fresh horse crap. She’s wearing a stained apron, and there’s a smear of dirt on her cheek.

If only the Prince of Etheria could see her now, my mind whispers. But the thought leaves me feeling cold. My sister has been bethrothed to that prince for her entire life. You’d think by now I’d be used to the idea of losing her.

“I’m doing the same thing as you, I suppose,” I tell her, with a grin.

Lilias bends down to scoop the pile of crap into the wheelbarrow at her side, but not before I see her smile.

“It’s not my job to meet with them,” she says, as manure hits the wheelbarrow with a wet thud.

I glance through the open stable doors and into the palace courtyard. A dozen horses stand at their hitching posts outside, most with elegant carriages behind them. Their riders are all inside the palace. Waiting for me.

“They’re like vultures,” I tell her, “trying to pick me over before the meeting.”

Her shovel scrapes the last of the pile off the floor, and she shakes her head.

“I swear Sunshine does this on purpose,” she says. “Every time she gets her hooves trimmed, she takes a dump in the middle of the stables.”

“Sunshine,” I say. I rub my shoulder, remembering the time that damn horse threw me into a thornbush. “She’s a real peach.”

My sister grabs the wheelbarrow and grins at me. “Well, would you rather face the Council of Mayors?” she asks.

I shake my head at the impossible choice.

“I was so proud when Father handed the Council off to me,” I say. “I thought he was preparing me to take the throne. Little did I know he was just giving me a different pile of shit to shovel.”

Lilias laughs, then starts to push the wheelbarrow toward the open door at the far end of the stables. I follow her, ignoring the low pulse of pain in my temple.

“You’ve done a good job with them,” she says.

I shrug, then take the shovel from the wheelbarrow.

“No, really,” she continues, pushing the wheelbarrow through the open doors. “Half of those cities didn’t even tithe before you took over the Council.”

“They’re only paying now because we’re fixing the bridges,” I grumble.

“Exactly,” Lilias replies.

She tips the wheelbarrow over, dumping the load onto the manure pile. I help scrape the last bits out with the shovel, then leave it leaning against the side of the stables next to the wheelbarrow. Lilias takes off her apron and hangs it inside the door.

“What’s the meeting about this time?” she asks.

“The usual, I assume,” I reply. “Winter is too cold. Summer is too hot. And they’d probably like me to do something about the way the sun rises in the east.”

Lilias laughs at that. Her beautiful, full laugh rings through the stables like bells in a temple. A few of the horses stick their heads out of their stalls as if they want to know the joke. 

It won’t just be me who misses her once she’s gone, I realize with a pang.

We reach the doors to the courtyard, and she turns to me with a frown.

“It’s about the mine, isn’t it?” she asks.

I wince at the flood of sunlight filling the courtyard. Pain throbs through my skull.

“I’m sure it is,” I reply. “What else could it be?”

Lilias gives me a half-hearted smile. “Good luck,” she says. “I’d hug you, but I don’t think you want to face the Council smelling like the back end of a horse.”

I laugh. “They’ll be gone by this afternoon,” I tell her. “In case you needed another reason to stay in here for the morning.”

“I do need to bandage Thunder’s leg,” she says, glancing at the stall holding the massive black stallion who somehow managed to hurt himself again last week. “I’ll make sure to do it very thoroughly.”

I smile as I turn toward the door, trying to ignore the growing agony radiating from my left temple. And trying to ignore all the other reasons the Council of Mayors might call a meeting. Like the whispers about Lilias and the man who’s been serving as her tutor.

Or the whispers about me.

I just sent my next book to my amazing editor, Ashley. It’s the first book in a brand new series, and I can’t wait to share it with you in 2026.

I don’t want to say too much about it, because it’s still very much in the rough draft stages, but I am absolutely loving this book. It’s an arranged marriage with political intrigue, snarky banter, and ALL THE TENSION.

Here are some of my favorites:

A princess forced to marry an assassin
Emotional support daggers
“Are we going to a party or a battle?” “Yes.”
She hits him with a chamberpot

And a tiny sneak peek…

Stay tuned for more!

The kids and I had an epic road trip over Thanksgiving. We drove from Maine to North Carolina (1,700 miles, but who’s counting?) to visit some far-flung family members who just happen to be my equine experts.

When I was writing Flame & Blade back in 2019, I’d never so much as touched an actual donkey. I needed help, and I turned to my NC family.

More specifically, I turned to their donkeys.

My family members – and yes, they own multiple donkeys – answered all my donkey-related questions, even the ones about how hard a donkey could kick a guy. (Pretty hard, as it turns out.)

Their help made Flame & Blade a much better book, and Theo the donkey is such a fantastic character that I still get emails saying, “You have to tell me if the donkey survives, because if he dies, I’m not reading any more of this series!”

(He makes it, I promise.)

This Thanksgiving, I got to meet, groom, feed, and snuggle the real-life inspiration for Theo the donkey, and he was every bit as charming as I’d dreamed.

And he pushed my young nephew into the barn right after I took this picture, which is very much in keeping with Theo’s character.

As a bonus, I got a chance to drive a donkey cart. It’s incredibly complicated. The cart itself has about a million pieces, and then you and the donkey have to come to a civilized agreement about where the cart is going to go. I can’t believe that was the primary method of transportation for so long.

I guess I’m ready for the Demon Forest now!

Pytr Gardnir made a promise: return home in one year with enough coin to buy a farm and build a life with his wife.

That was two years ago.

Now he’s trapped in the Towers of Silver City, where humans learn to wield magic—and where no one leaves alive. But when a desperate man begs Pytr to rescue his wife from the Towers’ grip, Pytr sees a chance. If he can get one person out, maybe he can find his own way home.

Liv Gardnir has waited long enough. Her husband swore he’d return, and she’s never known him to break a promise. So she sells everything she owns, travels to Silver City, and buys a ticket for the one night the Towers opens its gates: the full moon tour.

What she finds inside changes everything.

A steamy second-chance romance about the promises we keep, the magic that binds us, and a love worth risking everything for.

WHAT READERS LOVE:

Emotional reunion romanceSnarky banter & compelling charactersEpic fantasy world with dark magicOne open-door steamy sceneSatisfying HEA with series intrigueStandalone story (no cliffhanger!)

Perfect for fans of romantic fantasy, second-chance romance, forced separation, and epic romantasy with heart.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY NOW and discover why readers can’t get enough of the Killers of the Towers world!

Click here for Monster of the Towers

I finally took the plunge and opened a store for signed paperbacks! 

As of this morning, you can buy signed paperbacks from the Flame and Blade, Fallen Hearts, and Killers of the Towers series – and they’re slightly cheaper than the paperbacks on Amazon.

Still in the works – the Deceptions and Dragons series, prints of character art, full series bundles, and swag!

You’ve been asking for a way to buy signed paperbacks since, well, forever… and I’ve been avoiding it because I’m severely allergic to website design. But I took a few deep breaths, faced my fears, and—

It wasn’t that bad, honestly.

Now, I’d love to know what you think!

Come on in, have a look at the store, buy a book if you’re so inclined… and please let me know if anything looks wonky or doesn’t work!

Click here for my storeOr buy them in person!

I’m joining the No Shelf Control authors for a book signing on Saturday, October 25 from 11 to 2.

We’ll be at Grump and Sunshine Bookstore in their new Portland location: 40 Free St STE B.

Come on down, and I’ll happily sign books for you in person!

I’ve only been on Discord for a few months, and I love it. It’s so… text-based

So, I started my own Discord server: Meredith Hart’s Book Wyrms.

It’ll have updates on my publishing schedule, sneak peeks at my WIPs, discussion boards for each of my books – even the Samantha MacLeod ones – and pictures of cats!

What could be better, right?

Click here to join the book wyrms

This wasn’t my idea.

As I’m reading the reviews for Monster of the Deep Forest, the same thing kept coming up…

“I am not sure if author Meredith Hart will be making any more books from this universe, but the ending left me feeling like there might be? I really hope so.”

“I hope there is a spin off in the future as it did leave off with several possibilities.”

“I may or may not have been excited when Syrus and Reznyk came back into the story. I would love to read more with the three of them maybe a prequel of them together at the Towers in Silver City.”

“As another reviewer proposed, it would be great if Meredith wrote a prequel depicting life in the white towers when the gang was young and in training together.”

Okay, I’ll do it!

I’m working on a prequel short story about Aveus, Syrus, Reznyk and the mysterious fourth Elite, Pytr. It’s going to be a quick adventure about their time together in the Towers… and I have big plans for it, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here’s a no-context screenshot for you:

Well, isn’t it?

Today marks one full week since Monster of the Deep Forest came out, and the Killers of the Towers series wrapped up. Crazy, right?

The Deep Forest is the idea that launched this entire series, even though I decided to make it the final book.

And now?

Aveus and Inira have been out in the world for a full week, along with Bairgus the sassy raven and the other Elites who escaped from the Towers.

I honestly didn’t know how this one was going to go over. I never do, really – I just cross my fingers and push the release button, and then the characters and the world that have been living inside my head are suddenly Out There, meeting readers. It’s always a little scary, letting my books out into the wild.

So, thank you! 

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your comments, messages, social media posts, and reviews. 

I couldn’t do what I do without you, and I’m so grateful to be part of this awesome reader community.