The Calyx Charm

The Sacred Dark #3

by May Peterson

Don't miss this epic fantasy romance between best friends who must overcome unrequited love, power-hungry parents, and even death to be together.

Second chances take many forms…

Violetta Benedetti knows how to hide things. She spent years concealing herself behind the persona her father expected of her. Now she hides in the dark corners of Vermagna’s underworld, lying low to keep her father from using her magic in his unending quest for power. 

But her biggest secret is her love for her best friend, who only knew her as Mercurio Benedetti, not the woman she is today. Now he's dead, and she’ll never be able to tell him the truth.

Tibario Gianbellicci was dead. And then…he wasn’t. Reborn as an immortal, he has powers he never imagined. Powers his crime boss mother wants to tap into to destroy their longtime House Benedetti.

But Tibario is hiding something, his best friend is a Benedetti—and the love of his life. With a second chance at life, he’ll have to risk revealing his heart.   


The Sacred Dark
Book 1: Lord of the Last Heartbeat
Book 2: The Immortal City
Book 3: The Calyx Charm

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Queer, Transgender, LGBT, Transgender Romance, M F Romance

286 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2021

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

A spectacular continuation of the Sacred Dark trilogy, more closely linked to book 1 than 2. This series is an amazing feat of worldbuilding--hugely, densely imagined, rich with hinterland and history and politics and war. There's also a pretty full-on end-of-the-world plot as our protagonists grapple with an apparently unavoidable prophecy and impending doom.

All of which makes it pretty amazing that the focus manages to keep so strongly on Tibario and Violetta and their frankly adorable romance. We never feel that the large scale or the high stakes or the crunching social issues depicted lessen the importance of these two people in love finding one another and overcoming minor obstacles such as one of them being dead. (He got better.)

Violetta is a stunning character. A trans woman who's been badly and repeatedly hurt, to the point where it's hard to keep going, who struggles in the face of a world which is pretty harsh in general and anything from uncaring to brutally cruel to trans women, but who knows deep down she deserves better, and is able to reach out for love when it's within her grasp. There is a lot of pain here, but there's also incredible joy--at being seen, being loved, building a real family and community, taking control of her life and her identity. Choosing to hope. That's what this is about, really: how much strength it takes for an abused person to hope again when hope has been knocked out of them. Violetta can barely bring herself to start the romance with Tibario at first, and the glory here is seeing her gradually flowering as she chooses to live and love in the teeth of a world that doesn't much want her to, and to stake her claim to a better world.

Strongly plotted with a lot of drive. Written in the author's characteristically lush and metaphor-heavy prose, which contrasts nicely with the snappy dialogue. And mostly a lovely, loving romance laced with kindness, set against a wonderfully rich and strange world.

(NB: I had an ARC from the publisher and am proud to count the author a friend)

[Penny Aimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, I am completely incapable of an impartial review for a book by a trans woman, about a trans woman falling in love, especially written by a good friend who shares an editor and a publisher with me. Let's take this for what it is -- me raving about something rare and beautiful -- and set aside what it is not.

WHY IS THIS BOOK SO GOOD

This is the third book in the Sacred Dark series, and I feel like with every book May gets more assured and effective in introducing and explaining the mythology of the world, even as it continues to grow. We add now dragons to the pantheon of moon spirits and mages, and learn more (much more!) about the war that underpins the first book. This is much more of a direct sequel to LORD OF THE LAST HEARTBEAT than THE IMMORTAL CITY, and combines the Mediterranean-flavored intrigue and unresolved characters of the first book with the soaring scope and breathless action of the second.

The action! This book is action-packed and moves fast, with one of my all-time favorite story devices, the inevitable prophecy, driving everyone's choices past about the one-third mark. Despite that, this remains a romance through and through, intimately bound up in the love these characters have for each other (and their families, and their world) in a way that isn't a cheap cop out to the doom hanging overhead.

What else? How about extending the luxurious world-building not just to the mythological, but the mundane and queer, with a whole vocabulary and culture of genderfuckery? How about a character (The Ghost Thief) who in four paragraphs and a nickname leaps off the page and demands her own book? How about the love for trans people and trans-ness that glows in every line of May's unfairly gorgeous prose?

How about all that?

There's also a sexy cat boy, are you satisfied now?

[Dan Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

EDITED: A few notes from my reread are at the bottom! Still my favorite fantasy romance, period.

My review of The Calyx Charm by May Peterson is an extremely biased, personal one, which you should know up front since I’m about to gush uncontrollably for the next couple of thousand words.

I read the book after a long search for fantasy romances featuring transfeminine protagonists, which are exceedingly rare—so rare, in fact, that I read a whole-ass trilogy just to get to it, even though I’m notoriously bad at reading series. I’m grateful that I read the Sacred Dark trilogy, and you should too if what I wrote in my reviews of Lord of the Last Heartbeat and The Immortal City appeals to you. But I’m also going to give you permission to dive right into The Calyx Charm if you’re as desperate for transfem representation in fantasy romance as I was. Peterson gives you enough background in this book to understand and appreciate the story without having read the other books, though it will hit a little harder if you’ve read the excellent Lord of the Last Heartbeat (there’s not as much overlap with The Immortal City, which is a delightful book on its own).

On to The Calyx Charm, which opens thus:

"I dreamed, as I sometimes did, of killing my father.

My hair was long and prehensile, fiery tendrils that snared him like chains. He always struggled in the dream, just as I had struggled in waking life.

But in the dream I always won. I overpowered him, instead of the other way around. My hair was long and gleaming and flawless, and it drowned him in vengeance. I stood over him and wove a spider’s web of angry tresses, of scented mollygirl’s hair, the luminous female power he had always tried to kill in me."

Pardon me while I wipe away tears rereading and typing this opening. It’s so heartbreaking, so achingly gorgeous, so empowering, so prescient of the struggle that plays out in the book and all the reasons I love it. This romance is like a phoenix, rising fiery from the ashes of trauma, immolating the self-doubt that has rained down on Violetta for her entire life and transforming it into something so beautiful and powerful that no hate can ever touch it. It’s a romance whose glorious consummation is made all the more powerful by the way we see the character struggle with the transfeminine experience of suppression, erasure, gaslighting, and abuse. It’s a victory so sweet it brought tears to my eyes on multiple occasions throughout the book, more times than in any book I have ever read.

I mentioned that I was biased when we started, yeah?

As you can see from the opening, it’s not all flowers and sunshine here. This is a book that grapples with heavy themes, as mentioned in the content warnings: Sexual abuse trauma. Violence. Death. Depictions of suicidal ideation and discussion of suicide. Depictions of transphobia and transmisogyny. Not only does Peterson not shy away from these themes; she leans into them. They are at the core of the story. Without them, the ultimate victory would not taste so sweet. For there is victory. This is a romance, after all. But we go through a lot of heartbreak with Violetta along the way. As she says in the book:

"I'm grateful for my despair. Despair may be the only thing that has finally helped me see who I am."

What’s in a name? Violetta. Violated. Physically. Sexually. Emotionally. Societally. But it’s much more than that. Violet, a delicate purple flower, its beauty easily unnoticed or trampled underfoot, but persistent. In the book, we learn that Violetta once saved the world by wielding what’s known as the calyx charm, a power that comes from her hair and which renders those under her protection invincible. In botanical terms, the calyx is the leafy part of the plant that protects the unopened flower bud. The symbolism is beautiful and complex; Violetta uses the charm to protect everyone but herself, and her struggle to see herself as worth protecting, worth saving, worth loving, is part of what moved me the most about the book.

Violetta’s interior monologue is revealing and deeply touching as she describes her experience as a transwoman, or mollygirl, as they’re called in the book.

“I want people to look at me and see a girl. But I want that girl to be me, as I am. Not their standing mental image of a girl. And the girl I am has a flat chest.” I wished for my body to stop being a thing that was wrong. That had to be changed or hidden or justified or excused."

Her transness is not just part of who she is as a person—it’s part of the symbolism of her magic. The calyx charm and her prophetic abilities are described in terms of butterflies and flowers—a blooming, a becoming, something inevitable and beautiful.

"In some sleeping plane of my heart, where the future and my body met, the calyx charm had always been germinating in me. When it finally began to bloom, everything changed."

Before the action of the book, when she was only a child, before she was known as Violetta, she saved the kingdom with this magic, and her father repaid her in the vilest way possible. As the book opens, she’s finally summoned the courage to run away from home and live her authentic life.

Enter Tibario, her lifelong friend, who knew and loved her as a child, though he did not know her true name or identity. Like many characters in the Sacred Dark trilogy, he undergoes a queer awakening/transformation through a major shift in the nature of his existence (no spoilers here). Once he is reborn, so to speak, he not only accepts the long-suppressed love for the boy he once thought he knew, he embraces his love for the woman he was never open to seeing, or who was not yet ready to share who she was with him. It’s a complicated, messy romance, full of frank conversations heavy with sensitivity and nuance, and I wanted to stand up and cheer through my tears as I watched the characters using their words with each other. I did want to throw my e-reader across the room at one point when they had a perfect chance to kiss and did not, but that’s all in the romance game, and I got my smooches not long after.

Speaking of smooches. And smut. If you know me as a reader, you know how important these things are to me, and Peterson absolutely has my number. There’s an unmatched tenderness to the intimate scenes, especially early on as the two feel out what each other wants, that is as heart-fluttering as it is loins-stirring. It goes beyond simple consent. It’s a series of tentative gestures, light touches, little words, tiny kisses, everything flowing together in a physical and emotional ballet that’s not afraid to get a little dirty and funny as we work toward crescendo. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I both laughed and cried a little at the intimate scenes. They’re that good. But not only because of the scenes themselves; it’s the culmination of everything that came before, what these two characters have gone through to be ready to be this vulnerable with each other. It’s simply breathtaking.

Of course, there’s more to the book than the romance and the smut, though these are my favorite parts. Another thing that really moved me was the specific ways Peterson draws queerness in the book. Creative in-world terms for trans, nonbinary, cis, etc include words like mollygirl, tomking, androgyne, and dualistic, and it feels real and playful and frankly joyous. And she uses the word ‘queer’ quite liberally, which is a delight to read.

Different parts of the world are more or less open to queerness; some characters are free and open, while others are full-on homophobic and transphobic, and there’s a lot of in-between. Not unlike the real world. Of special interest were the queer subcultures of Vermanga, the city in which the story takes place. Many scenes take place in the Fragrant Rose, a teahouse where I would gladly spend all of my leisure hours:

"Tomking men, impossibly handsome in tailored suits or dockworker garb or the bright livery of tea hosts. They fluttered gracefully amidst their mollygirl peers, and people who were neither or were sexes entirely their own. Their mutually enmeshed presence infused the teahouse with a luminous queer energy, as though even the walls were singing."

Once again, I am moved to near tears just typing out these words from the book. Violetta grew up being used, abused, and gaslit, so finding such a haven of acceptance means everything to her. And it’s not only acceptance of who she is and what she’s been through; it’s acceptance of the very real struggle of staying alive. Peterson does not shy away from the threat of suicide that is all too common in the trans community. I’m going to share several quotes that showcase how frankly and sensitively the topic is dealt with in the book. First, from Violetta’s perspective:

"Suicide was always a threat, a killer more subtle and persistent than the most vengeful of ghosts. It haunted our kind with a special doggedness."

But Rosaline, the proprietor of the Fragrant Rose, takes care of all the queer souls in the city with compassion and understanding like a mother hen. She is there to comfort Violetta, to listen, to offer words of support. When Violetta recounts having been rescued from near drowning, Rosaline gently asks if she’d meant to take her life. Violetta assures her that was not the case, and Rosaline’s answer is quite telling.

"Rosaline sighed. “I don’t mean any judgment. The victim is not to blame, not in this house, not wherever I have power. Suicide is murder by a hand that happens to be away at the time. But I want you to live, Vi.”"

There is so much more to say on how expertly Peterson deals with issues of queer identities and the challenges queer people face in society, but hopefully I’ve given you enough of a taste to know if this aspect of the book appeals to you. But there’s a fantasy plot too! And it’s a good one!

The main plot of the book, besides Violetta and Tibario’s beautiful romance, is Violetta’s fight to reclaim the calyx charm, which has inexplicably passed on to her father, the tyrant who abused her as a child and who now wields it over the entire kingdom. It makes him invincible to numerous assassination attempts, and unlikely alliances form as Violetta makes peace with old rivals in a final bid to fulfil the dream of the prologue: to reclaim her power and use it to put her father in his place.

I won’t spoil how it plays out, but it’s quite complicated and not at all what I expected. Violetta’s gift of prophesy causes her more despair than hope as the future and the past swirl together in a vortex of epic fantasy goodness. There’s sorcery, witches, a cat-shifter, teleportation, alchemy, and something called a dragon-soul that threatens to engulf the entire kingdom in fire and ash. To be honest, the denouement was a little more epic and drawn-out than I might have preferred—I’m not much of an epic fantasy reader, but it’s sure to appeal to those who like their magic big and mind-blowing, and the tie-ins with Violetta’s personal story arc are deeply satisfying.

I haven’t cared this much about a book in a very long time. I read it slowly because I wanted to savor it, to study what Peterson was saying about Violetta’s identity and her struggles, to appreciate the depth and breadth of representation in the world she has created. Representation feels like a cheap word here, since it’s not a checklist of identities. The world is deeply, inherently, naturally queer, and I urge you to pick up this book and immerse yourself. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, while reading the other books in the series is an excellent idea, if you’re dying for a fantasy romance with a transfem lead, I personally authorize you to jump right into this book. It might just change your life as it did mine.

NOTES FROM MY MAY 2024 REREAD

Several things struck me during my reread.

First, the prose is just so good, weaving in language and imagery that boosts the themes without ever feeling extraneous. Read it for the prose, honestly. But also all the other stuff I said above.

Second, I appreciated Tibario more during this read. When I read it the first time, I was here for the transfem lead, period end, so I probably didn't give the Tibario chapters as thorough of a reading as the Violetta ones. He's an interesting, complex character whose arcs merit the time the book spends on them. I especially enjoyed the depiction of his imposter syndrome in the Fragrant Rose; what queer person hasn't felt like they didn't belong, weren't queer enough or the right kind of queer for certain spaces? He's very clearly a queer man, but he has a hard time feeling like he belongs. But that changes too, due to

Lastly, I want to emphasize how perfectly the trans themes are woven throughout. This is a trans narrative, through and through, but it's also a romance narrative, and a fantasy narrative, and a historical/societal narrative. All those parts are important, and they're all just part of the whole story. It really feels complete in a way that few books do.

Listen, I don't know how else to say it: Read this fucking book, okay?

[Aldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by this author and I suspect I’ll be back for more (especially since I did the stupid thing and read the third in a series first – luckily they seem to focus on different pairings, so this worked fine as a standalone).

It’s an intricately woven queer fantasy with world-building that is original, intriguing, and – kind of weird? In a good way, mostly – it reminded me of some of Tanith Lee’s worlds occasionally, or even Ginn Hale in contemporaries – but it doesn’t coddle or overexplain, and you’ll need to be open to lots of magical shenanigans and oddities, as well as complex backstories and otherworldly visuals that are sometimes more impactful than logical. I did have a few “what is even going on” moments early on (again though, I started with the third book) but once I decided to just go with the flow, I settled in quickly enough. (If your dream boyfriend can get resurrected as a conveniently immortal cat hybrid via mysterious means, why the heck not #relationshipgoals). Certainly it’s a lush and memorable world that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.

My favourite thing about the book, though, and its strongest point by far, are its wonderful characters, especially its leading lady. Violetta was an amazing protagonist – a trans girl who has been robbed of her magic, agency and indeed, hope, by more powerful players but refuses to just conveniently disappear from her own narrative as said players would clearly prefer; a woman for whom being broken is not the end, who finds new strength in her true identity, her community, and a relationship that’s all about offering rather than demanding things. It was such a carefully, insightfully developed personal journey full of bittersweetness, pain and hope, and I savoured every moment of it. The romance, too, is absolutely lovely, just this vivid little thread of two people being careful of each other’s hearts and offering each other tenderness, understanding and joy in pretty dire circumstances. It was exquisitely paced and full of gorgeous nuance, and I adored it.

The supporting cast was great, too – I loved Serafina especially, she made a great morally ambiguous counterpart to both the heroes and the (impressively despicable) antagonist. And I am always here for fucked-up, painful family dynamics, which this had in spades – beautifully offset by the found family haven of the Fragrant Rose.

The writing is quite lavish and metaphor-heavy; initially, this took some getting used to as it’s a bit more flowery than my usual preference, but it complements the colourful, foreboding backdrop of this world quite well, and also feels like quite a natural frame for Violetta’s lush, colour-wreathed mindscape and visuals.

A delightful read and definitely an author I’ll be keeping my eye on.

Thanks to NetGalley, Carina Press and the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[S.B. (Beauty in Ruins) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Calyx Charm is a book I’ve wanted to read (and wanted to love) for what seems like ages now, but every time I’ve attempted it, I’ve struggled to make it past the opening chapters. They’re very slowly paced, full of more tell and show, and told almost entirely in memory and flashback. This time, I managed to persevere, to stick with it, to trust that the narrative would improve as the current story unfolded… and I’m glad I did.

The central relationship between Violetta and Tibario is the book’s greatest strength. Their bond—best friends from rival families who have secretly been pining for one another—is built on care, consent, humor, and emotional honesty. Watching Violetta, who has been forced to be brave far too young, slowly allow herself to be seen and cherished is genuinely moving. Tibario’s loyalty, self-doubt, and gradual reorientation of what (and who) he owes allegiance to make him a worthy partner, not just a love interest. Their intimacy feels earned, vulnerable, and warm, with moments of levity that cut beautifully through the darkness.

Violetta herself is unforgettable. Her transness is not an add-on or an “issue” to be explained, but the core through which the story understands magic, power, trauma, and becoming. The novel’s exploration of gender feels lived-in and authentic, suffused with both pain and joy. The idea that reclaiming one’s body and identity is inseparable from reclaiming one’s power is handled with real care, and the book’s compassion for trans survival and hope resonates long after the final page.

Equally powerful is the found family element. The Fragrant Rose and the queer community around it offer a counterpoint to the cruelty of the wider world: a space of solidarity, humor, protection, and chosen kinship.

As I mentioned at the start, the opening takes its time settling into the story. While the ideas are fascinating, they can feel overwhelming, and those early sections demand patience. The pacing improves dramatically after that… until the end, where the conclusion stretches long past the point where the emotional arc feels resolved, with extended explanations, monologues, and increasingly abstract magic that dilutes some of the impact. The stakes remain high, but the momentum softens, and the ending could have been sharper without losing its meaning.

All that said, The Calyx Charm is imperfect, occasionally exhausting, but ultimately rewarding: a romance that blooms against all odds, a trans narrative full of truth, and a reminder that love and revolution are, at their core, communal acts.



https://sallybend.wordpress.com/2026/...

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me TEN DAYS to read. It's not overly lengthy, but like the other books in this series, I found it quite intense and overwhelming at times (the ideas, the concepts and the magic system all involved a lot of examination imo) and so I was doing better by keeping this to a chapter at a time. Loved it immensely, loved Peterson's lush use of language, loved that we got a Tibario book, loved the closer look at Serafina's character, adored Violetta, loved the sense of found family and queer community, but mostly I'm in awe of May Peterson's imagination. The magic system and the issues surrounding the flow of time in this (not the story timeline. TIME as a concept) was wildly beyond anything I'd ever imagined. This series is a game changer and it deserves to be widely read.

[gabymck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novel with a rich, beautiful language. It’s a world with magic, talismans, people who can transform into other creatures; there is also a whole lot of love and hate and hurt that reaches out for us to make connection. Re: content, there is discussion of rape happening off the pages. I’m glad to have read how these childhood friends learn to know each other again and find love.

[Felicia Grossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

May Peterson writes top-notch fantasy romance. I don't think I can say enough about the sheer immersive world building in this book (and all the others in the series). The world is just so well built and done with gorgeous, lush language and distinct, unique voice. Like all of that cannot be overstated. Also these books, especially this and Lord of the Last Heartbeat who center around very connected characters (Tibario here is Mio from the Lord of the Last Heartbeat's brother, so there is MORE about their mother, Seraphina, who we WILL discuss), the atmosphere is sort of delicate but gloomy but lovely, it's hard to describe but it again, is unique and just really works.

Anyway, as I said before, this is Tibario, who is now a cat-soul, having been brought back at the end of the Lord of the Last Heartbeat and Violetta who is a trans woman who is a witch with a dragon spirit, who possesses, among other things, the daunting, often heartbreaking and terrifying power of prophecy. And, in this case, the prophecy in question is not good. Thus, our couple, who while they have known and loved and liked each other for a long time, have just come into their own body and identity-wise and get to fall in love as their whole-selves, is doing so with a doom clock ticking. Obviously, there is a happy ending but the way it is done is just very elegant for both of them and their families, biological and found.

There are a lot of themes and undercurrents of transformation and fulfillment as well as parent/child relationship that grow and change or are let go/come to terms with (especially when super toxic, see: Violetta's father or complicated toxic, see: Seraphina) making again, the book just so much deeper and again, just well done. It's not light and fluffy by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still quite beautiful and a wonderful read, and again, everything I could ask for and more in a gorgeous fantasy romance.

Thank you Netgalley and Carina for a wonderful read!

[Emmalita · Rating 5 out of 5]

May Peterson contains universes – gorgeous, expansive universes that love words. The best way to enjoy them is to sink in and let them wash over you.

The third and final book in May Peterson’s The Sacred Dark series returns us to Vermagna and to Mio’s family. In a minor spoiler for Lord of the Last Heartbeat, Mio’s brother, Tibario, dies, but gets better, coming back as a cat soul – an immortal undead cat shifter. You should definitely read the first two books, Lord of the Last Heartbeat and The Immortal City because they are excellent.

The Calyx Charm weds high fantasy with romance seamlessly. Violetta and Tibario are the children of powerful enemies in a magical world with swords, witches, ghosts, undead shifters and dragons. Most in Vermagna know Violetta as Mercurio, the Honored Child, savior of the city, son of Lord Casilio Beneditti. Tibario is the eldest child of Seraphina Gianbellicci, who wants Lord Casilio dead and is willing to throw away her children to make it happen. Friends since childhood, Tibario realized he was in love with Violetta as he died. Having recovered, he wants to make a life with Violetta, but she has seen a future that shows terrible destruction and Tibario’s second and final death.

Violetta and Tibario are breaking free of their families and the roles imposed upon them. Their bodies have been useful for their parents, and because Violetta’s father is the head of state, her body has been useful to the state. From infancy, Violetta’s father has used her gift of prophecy and protection to uphold his own power. He is reluctant to let her be herself, separate from him, with her own agenda. He does not see a difference between his own interests and the interests of the state, and imposes his will on Violetta with violence. Parental bonds are hard to break and Violetta and Tibario struggle in different ways to establish their separate selves.

May Peterson writes beautiful and emotional prose. She keeps it grounded though with humor and curses. Her world building is sumptuous and detailed. The Calyx Charm is a relatively short book, but it feels bigger on the inside. Peterson weaves ideas of prophecy, dreams, reality, hope, despair, the savior child all grown up, into a beautiful and terrible world. Her world isn’t an easy or kind world, but her characters build families and magical pocket where they can be soft and tender.

CW: Threats of state violence against vulnerable populations, discussions of past sexual assault, discussions of past mental violation, discussion of suicide, murder, mutilation, and transmisogyny.

I received this as an arc from from the author, and from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[AGMaynard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, luminous, and hopeful. Immersion is intense; I let go of trying to follow all of the mythology /worldbuilding and just flowed through like water buoying and surrounding me. Transformation and mutual support and love among family and friend group deeply satisfying. Okay to start here and return to Lord of the Last Heartbeat and take as long as it takes to experience.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working with May Peterson was an amazing experience as an editor. As a trans femme person myself, THE CALYX CHARM was a special moment of seeing an identity I hold dear on the page. This also *may* be the best book in the series with exploring the chosen one trope, warring mafioso families, a hot-man-turned-shapeshifter, a trans woman being a badass, drama, and smoking hot sex scenes.

This is the third book in May's series and I would be a terrible editor if I didn't tell people to read all of them!

[Nicole Moon]

a fantasy romance with (as described by the author)

- Trans heroine with light-up witch tresses
- Elegant bisexual catboy hero
- Doom prophecy
- Queer happiness
- Dragon-souls
- Fantasy trans culture

I'm SO EXCITED

[Smut Report]

Heat Factor: It has a few steamy moments in an otherwise churning sea of what’s going on
Character Chemistry: I mean, they’re meant to be in a deep, deep way
Plot: There’s a whole lot of aftermath, but essentially we meet Violetta and Tibario, who loved each other secretly when Violetta was known as Mercurio, and who find their way to each other after Tibario comes back from the dead.
Overall: This book is kind of like a dream, and everything is floaty and confusing except for what Violetta and Tibario have together.

So this book was, and I mean this, kind of dreamlike the entire plot. You know when you have a really complicated dream and you know what’s going on but if you try to explain it, it sounds like, “So then I was me, but I was also NOT me, and it was our house but like, also a toadstool…” That’s how this book was the whole time. I understood it on kind of a visceral, gut instinct-connection type level, and then sat here and looked at my keyboard for a really long time just not knowing at all how to summarize this. At all.

Here’s the haps for this one: Tibario knew Violetta as Mercurio from their time together as childhood friends. And then over time, the two of them both quietly began to yearn for the other silently. When Tibario dies in the midst of a family issue, Both Violetta and Tibario realize they loved each other—and so when Tibario comes back to life, he’s determined to love who he believes is the beautiful boy Mercurio, and Violetta is grappling with the knowledge that the dream she cherished, loving Tibario as the woman she is, is over. But of course, this is Romancelandia, so you know that’s not it.

So that’s the stirrings of the romance plot. Here’s the dream.

Violetta is a witch/seer who has the ability to envelope people with protection. When she was known as Mercurio, her parents were leaders in their land who protected their soldiers with clippings of her hair. But then something happened, her father turned out to be a violent monster, her mother had to disappear, and Violetta’s power was ripped from her and given to her father. But like, we don’t really know why or how, and neither does Violetta. It goes from a good dream to a bad dream really fast. Luckily, Violetta has a found family who protects her and hides her, and gives her space to regain her footing and a life on her own terms.

Tibario’s mother is also a witch but she has the ability to control people through their minds. This is kind of a messy relationship because she’s bigtime controlling. But she’s also not all bad—she cares deeply for Tibario and they were kind of tenderly telepathically connected when Tibario was a child. So he’s a very sweet, thoughtful man who has some mommy issues. His mother is also determined to bring about the downfall of Violetta’s father, which is something pretty much everyone has in common.

So the plot. Basically the world is going to end, and no one can stop it—Violetta has seen it coming, and that’s kind of that. But maybe they can stop it, if they resist everything. But also, maybe if they just accept their fates, that’s what they’re supposed to do, and that’s what’s meant to be. Or if they do the opposite of what they THINK they’re supposed to do, that is the KEY to survival. Or just run out the clock.

No one really knows if anything can save them from their doom, or if they should try, and it’s kind of a long thread of the characters being very certain of some things and then uncertain. They have some of the facts, but there are a lot of hazy bits. It’s really beautifully written and if you just float through it, it’s actually kind of nice. If you’re more of a strict, linear plot-preferring reader, you’re going to struggle with the dreamlike rhythm of this book. The usual hints about where we’re headed with the plot just don’t really apply because the characters themselves don’t really seem to know what’s going on. So as a reader, we kind of think, okay, here’s where we’re headed, and we sit down and buckle up and prepare to go to destination A. But then in the immediate following paragraph, something happens to directly contradict that, and we think, ah, perhaps we’re actually headed to destination Z, we must be, because of all these other reasons. So then mentally we get out of that plot vehicle and get into a different one, sit down, buckle up, and prepare to go to destination Z. But then it changes again. So it’s understandable that the characters are struggling to figure out what’s going on, but it can feel kind of confusing when you can’t ever really settle into any potential outcomes.

It absolutely does come together, and the devotion and love between Tibario and Violetta is beautifully unpacked. In fact, it’s what grounds the whole story—the characters don’t even know whether they’re supposed to hope or give up, but the love was there before Tibario even knew Violetta was Violetta. And I will say this—it’s worth floating along through the dream to see the characters each achieve their own clarity.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

Review also available at The Smut Report.

[Lotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book of the Sacred Dark series follows closer to the first book than the second. The world building is complex without being infodumped into the story. I imagine the author has more stories planned for her universe!

[katie m · Rating 5 out of 5]

when i finished The Calyx Charm by May Peterson, i spent the morning crying. it is an incredibly tender and softly hopeful story about community and the many ways love changes us.

“The pieces of herself she shared weren’t bits of magic shorn off, but the pieces others also shared with her. Affection and care and laughter and tears, the substances that made up the moments of her life.”

Violetta is a trans woman seer/witch who used her power as the Honored Child to stave off destruction during a war — she no longer has access to this power. Tibario is a cis man who has denied his queerness all his life — until he dies and is reborn as an immortal cat-soul. They have been friends for a long time — and unknowingly in love with each other — and, here, at the end of the world, they finally confront who they really are.

May Peterson leaves no emotion untouched — grief, hatred, fear, love, desire, safety, comfort, regret, strength, hope, joy. we feel Violetta’s loneliness and despair, Tibario’s pain and shame. we watch them work through those to find the beauty and happiness that also exist — in the world, between them, and inside themselves.

we see the way society treats people it deems less than, especially trans women (aka mollyqueens). we see the casual dismissal of humans and bodies — and how love can be twisted up into hurt.

“The problem was the same, which was that it wasn’t his malice that made him dangerous, it was the simple normalcy of his power, the shape of the society that elevated him.”

ultimately, this is a reclamation of trans futures — trans happiness and trans dreams. this book itself feels like a trans dream, and it’s certainly an ode to trans women.

“Their strength reverberated in me, the strength of a body, a self, shared with others, as I had once shared the Honored Child with the country. I was not separate from them. And piece by piece, they had given me the future I needed.”

special note: their love-making is some of the most tender, warm, sweet, and fucking HOT things i have ever read. good sex scenes in romance are part of the world-, relationship-, and character-building — these were a masterclass in how sex (for allosexuals), can be vital, nourishing, healing, changing.

i highly recommend this book for pretty much anyone, though please read up on the content notes. this is book #3 in The Sacred Dark series, but can be read as a standalone. if you want to learn more about Tibario’s sibling, read the first book, Lord of the Last Heartbeat.

thank you, May, for sharing this (yourself?) with us.

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

3 stars

The Calyx Charm is the third and final installment in May Peterson’s The Sacred Dark series. The blurb for The Calyx Charm really appealed to me: trans main character who’s not really there to explain the transition process, but just be herself now that she can; forbidden friendships (Violetta and Tibario’s families hate each other…or at the very least, get pitted against each other); secret love affairs; magic; mind control; and second chances. After reading the blurbs for the other two books, I figured I was safe to pick this one up without having read the others. The blurbs read as standalone and the stories didn’t seem to build on one another. After I started reading, however, I learned that Tibario’s younger brother is Mio, an MC in the first book of the series (Lord of the Last Heartbeat). Throughout the book, I never could shake the feeling that I was missing something that might have been explained in the earlier two books. My critique on the writing closely mirrors that of Kris’ on Lord of Last Heartbeat: it feels like there is a lot going on that the author just fails to convey on page.

Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this book were fantastic - the main two characters, the plot concepts, the Italian-esque setting - but some parts of the plot/character development felt rushed? Beautiful writing though.

[Harlequin Books]

Categories
Shifters, Fantasy Romance, Transgender, Romance
Miniseries
The Sacred Dark (Book #3)

[Virginia Rounds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is one of those books that shakes up what you think a genre can do.

Briefly, the romance part: best friends from rival families, secretly in love with each other. This part is real and satisfying and sexy. (femmedom!!)

But there’s so much more, I filed The Calyx Charm under ‘speculative fiction>romantic’ instead of ‘romance>fantasy’. Because in this world, finding love doesn’t solve all your problems.

There’s a prophecy of a rising dragon that will destroy the city. So far all prophecies have been inevitable, and so it’s about the question: Do you try to fight it anyway? Or do you enjoy the time with your found family?
.
It’s about parents: parents using their children, parents protecting their children, parents protecting themselves, and embracing or escaping the close ties between parent and child.

It’s about risk and hope, and when you’ve been hurt so badly, so many times, is the exponential hope worth the exponential risk?

It’s about trans bodies, and reclaiming your body just as it is, for the person you are now.

It’s about magic and sacrifice and revenge.

It’s not a simple story to read. The climax has multi dimensions, transmutations, realizations, and more. But it is worth your time and attention.
--
Brief word about being the 3rd in the series: I read book 1 forever ago and did not read book 2. Book 1’s explanations of the magic system will help you understand this, but you could also read one of its detailed GR reviews to get the basics. Or just roll with it and start here.
--
CWs include discussion of child rape in past by family member. DM me for details if needed. Peterson’s website lists all CWs: Sexual abuse trauma, mentions of sexual assault, transmisogyny, fantasy violence, murder, references to suicide, mind control

[S.C. Perri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best in the series so far! First of all, three cheers for books that are truly a balance of Fantasy and Romance, and here both the fantasy plot and the romance were fully on the page. Watching Violetta and Tibario become sources of such joy and recognition for each other was the absolute best part for me.

The Calyx Charm has one of the best treatments of seer powers in any book I've read. It fully dove into so many questions about agency and fate and hope in the face of what seems like certain doom-- and honestly, I think everyone could use a bit more hope at the moment, so parts of the book felt like a lifejacket to me. That's not to say it's a fluffy, entirely uplifting read, readers should definitely check the content warnings for it, but along with that darkness comes some seriously powerful catharsis. I also loved the complexity of the supporting characters, particularly Serafina, who was both terrifying and fascinating.

I really enjoyed the first two books, but this third installment hit the balance of conflict clarity that propels the plot and the dreamlike qualities of this world and its magic. I do think that my sense of the world building, magic, and characters was deepened by having seen many of these elements introduced in the first book, Lord of the Last Heartbeat. I'd definitely recommend checking out the first book in the series to read in order, although I think all three can be read as satisfying standalones.

If you've enjoyed Aliette de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series, you should definitely check this one out. It also reminded me of Erin Morgenstern's Starless Sea, atmospheric fantasy with romance and beautiful writing and could be a good pick for fans of that book.

Always looking forward to see what this author writes next!

[Nicole Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the world building of this novel! It felt as real stepping into this world as it did imagining the magic lore that exists within this world. Both world and characters were well fleshed out, even the side characters. Having fantasy words to fill in the space where our terminology and labels exist was a pure work of genius.

But this is a romance, so there are two main characters and these are Violetta, a mollygirl (transwoman) and the Honored Child, which is basically a position of prophesy and protection both that her father is eager to use.

I like that the information of Violetta and her father's relationship was given slowly and over time. The first indication we have is merely that Violetta now refuses to live with him, and that is uncovered during a conversation with her best friend Tibario.

Oh, and Tibario. He has a friendship with Violetta's past self that's similar to the one seen between Viola and Justin in A Lady for a Duke, but that's really where the similarities end. When Violetta sees a prophesy of his death, it finally pushes the two of them past the long term recalcitrance they've both had - for different reasons - to engage in the romantic feelings they have for one another.

Meanwhile, basically all of their parents end up showing how they are somehow involved to some extent or another in a war that threatens the end of the world as they all know it.

[Lotta Andersson]

I kindly received an ARC of this from May when she posted an offer on her Twitter.

The Calyx Charm is the third and last instalment of the Sacred Dark series. It started with The Lord of the Last Heartbeat which I read and loved in 2019. I wasn’t as sold on the second in the series, The Immortal City.

In The Calyx Charm, we meet Mio’s brother Tibario and his childhood friend Violetta/Mercurio. We also get a secondary storyline with Tibario’s mother and Violetta’s parents.

The world-building in this series is so different from anything I’ve ever read before and that means you can’t really know what to expect next. The magic doesn’t work the way you’re used to from fantasy books that all seem to build on tired old tropes.

I think that when you build such an innovative fantasy world you tread a narrow line between too much exposition/info dumps because people aren’t familiar with what it is you’re trying to do, and too little, meaning solutions can feel a bit sudden and “deus ex machina”. I feel like May found a nice balance but maybe in places veered towards that latter.

I enjoyed reading a trans woman character written by a trans woman. It felt genuine and surprisingly real even in a fantasy setting. And I loved Tibario – he was such an ass in the first book (IIRC), but he really got to redeem himself and find his own HEA in this one.

[Ru · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute gem of a read! I adored so much about it - the depth of the worldbuilding, the care and thoughtfulness in the descriptions of the various relationships and in the individuals themselves, and in the absolutely gorgeous writing I highlighted so many lines!

I took my time to read as I wanted to absorb it in slowly. The plot was detailed and at the beginning, I did feel that I benefited from having reread bk1 recently as the way that the stories interwined added depth for me. That said, I also felt that it could be read fine as a standalone too.

Violetta was an amazing character, she simply burst off the page with life and hope. Actually hope was one of the standout takeaways from the book - I finished it infused with the power of hope and love.

I especially appreciated the depth of the side characters too, how well developed everyone was, and how invested I became in the whole city- the characters and the magic, the dragon souls, the queer community, the found family and the confusing emotions tied to blood family.

A truly gorgeous read, a definite must for all who love their romantic fantasy to send them to new worlds and fill their minds with nothing else for days afterward!

*I received a free ARC from the author and I have chosen to leave a review*

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violetta and the calyx charm itself did a lot to draw me into this story. I really liked the way the magic played off the dynamics of Violetta's family and trauma, not straightforwardly but with a realistic amount of twistedness. It seemed true to the messiness of real recovery, which made Vi feel like a whole and solid person, which made me connect strongly with her losses and triumphs. It's also so bitterly resonant that your trans woman MC can be born literally invincible and still have a life saturated with exploitation and cruelty.

The main reason this isn't a 5 for me is I didn't connect with Tibario or the romance. Which isn't a huge mark against it, because I'm picky about romance and even moreso straight romance. I'm not really in a position to judge how it would've worked for someone with different tastes, but I can report it didn't interfere much with my enjoyment of the story.

I enjoyed the secondary characters, and particularly the complexity afforded to Liliana and Serafina, and the little bits of queer community we got in the Fragrant Rose. And the writing in general was smooth and lyrical, easy to stay immersed in.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ooof, I really wanted to like this and while i loved one of the central ideas - that she needed to embrace and accept her trans/mollygirl body and identity to take back her power - it was really lost in the much bigger plot that couldn’t quite pull me in. I think bc this was the 2nd of a series and it was pretty tightly linked to the 1st book and i kept feeling i was missing something bc i hadn’t read it.
Gererally, I liked the overall story but the execution made it really drag on - especially the closer it go to the end, the more monologues everyone had and it went from acting to talking. I found myself skimming a lot of the dialogue/monologues. I think my main issue is that bc i didn’t read the first book, i didn’t feel connected as much to world and characters - you do not need to read book 1 to read book 2 as i do think book 2 does do enough world building to understand what is going on, but doesn’t do really connect me to the story.
Spice was pretty good, but i wanted more!

[Alexandra Almond]

Read during #TransRightsReadathon

Yay, Tiberio's back! I really hoped we'd get his story after the first in this series. The other romantic lead, Violetta, is a delight and the two of them together? Gorgeous, tender, sweet, swoon. As always, May writes terrifically complex characters that still feel very real. I particularly like the arc of Serafina, who we first met as the enemy (or one of the enemies) in Lord of the Last Heartbeat.

[Sera Taíno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful worldbuilding marks this incredible continuation of this series. There is just so much to sink your teeth into. The concepts are so big, it takes time to truly digest them. The queerness of the book, despite being set in a fantastic world, feels so familiar - found family, rejection, and acceptance, but playing against larger themes of power, rivalry, and ultimately love. The prose is gorgeous - an absolute stunner of a novel!

[Barbara Westman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those content warnings are seious business. If they look like they'll hit your trauma, stay away. For the first half of the book or so I was strongly wishing I had.

Then the second half paid off all the suffering and made it worth it. I was just too busy being a sobbing mess of childhood trauma to enjoy the horny scenes (-1 star for that).

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tore my heart out with feels and then used its ending to glue it back to together with my tears.

I love these kinds of book even as they rip me apart and result in much crying. I simultaneously wish to find more of them even as I know I couldn't survive reading too many of them too close together.

[Corie Maguigad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not usually one to grab fantasy at all, but I read this for my romance book club. This book is incredibly well written and I loved reading a trans main character from a trans author. I didn’t fully get the end and my personal experiences kept me from loving Tibario’s narration. Nonetheless I enjoyed the reading experience and learned a lot of new words