In the Civilized World, everyone is rich, yet money doesn’t buy safety. It only buys a gold coffin. The real currency is having the right allies. Low-citizens survive by joining high-citizens’ exclusive inner circles, trading loyalty for protection from laws that govern speech, dress, and posture—and punish mistakes with public beheading. Low-citizen Loredana Waldsten already knows the cost of breaking the rules. Once a rising fencing prodigy, she lost the right to carry weapons after killing a high-citizen in a brutal locker-room attack. The courts erased his death to preserve his family’s honor. Now she’s unarmed, legally defenseless, and enrolled at the elite Grandmaster University, where champagne spills into the gutters and reputations are built on death duels. When Loredana’s father, a low-citizen politician, publicly challenges the high-citizens, she becomes a target. Some classmates demand her execution. Others hunt her for sport. And by law, she’s forbidden to fight back. Her only chance of survival lies with Edmund Prew, a powerful and ruthless high-citizen student she’s been warned against. His family has been locked in a bitter feud with Loredana’s for years, and he wants nothing to do with her until a lost bet forces him to protect her within his inner circle. What begins as a scandalous, strategic alliance turns perilous as they fall for each other. Because the man Loredana killed was more than an average high-citizen. And if Edmund ever learns the truth, the only person keeping Loredana alive may become the one most determined to kill her.

A young reaper hunter must conspire with her enemy to stop an ancient evil threatening her world in this heart-pounding romantic fantasy from the million-copy bestselling author of The Prison Healer.

Brought to you by Penguin.WELCOME TO UNIVERSITÉ MEURDRAC.HOME TO BRILLIANT ALCHEMISTS.THE HEART OF AN IMPOSSIBLE CRIME. When Larkspur Lee arrived in Paris, it was with nothing more than the ambition in her veins and the magic under her skin.As a student of Meurdrac, one of the few remaining alchemical universities, she burns to prove herself, but lacking the wealth, privilege and connections of the other students, she has to fight twice as hard - and be twice as cunning - if she wants to be considered worthy of immortality.So when Petronelle Flamel, the Grand Magistra of Meurdrac and Third amongst the Deathless, begins searching for an apprentice, Lark decides she'll do whatever it takes to be selected. Failure is not, and never has been, an option.But after a shocking death, she instead finds herself at the heart of an impossible crime - one where the only evidence whispers of Lark's past. And matters are further complicated when the mentor she crossed an ocean and a continent to escape re-enters her life, enticing her to his side once again while secretly wielding an agenda of his own.As the investigation begins and the mysterious Knight assigned to the case, Violaine, becomes convinced that more sinister works are responsible for the murder, Lark must wrestle with both the university's dark secrets and her own as the life she's meticulously built for herself begins to unravel.And as everything around her delves into chaos, Lark has no choice but to decide if the power she desires is truly worth the price.'A triumph of a debut.' CHLOE GONG, NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF IMMORTAL LONGINGS'An absolutely captivating and lusciously vicious tale, Jung's debut is a must-read for lovers of complex protagonists and dark academia fantasy.' KIERSTEN WHITE, NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LUCY UNDYING'With prose so beautiful I wanted to underline every single line, Lynn D. Jung crafts a world that feels vividly, tangibly real and characters that feel even flawed, full of longing, and wonderfully complex. MOTHSBLOOD is a gorgeous, haunting debut' BAR FRIDMAN-TELL, AUTHOR OF HONEYSUCKLE'This is dark academia examined through its most illuminating and necessary lens. Jung is carving out a league of her own.'K. M. FAJARDO, AUTHOR OF LOCAL HEAVENS Lynn D. Jung 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

When old secrets catch fire, everything will burn. In a mortal world colonized by the gods and ruled over by the Descended, their cruel offspring, Diem Bellator yearns to escape the insular life of her poor village. Her mother’s sudden disappearance—and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past—offer Diem an unexpected opportunity to enter the dark world of Descended royalty and unlock the web of mysteries her mother left behind. With the dying King’s handsome, mysterious heir watching her every move, and a ruthless mortal alliance recruiting her to join the growing civil war, Diem will have to navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics in order to save her family—and all of mortalkind. Spark of the Everflame is the first book in The Kindred's Curse Saga, a four-book fantasy romance series. This slow burn, enemies-to-lovers epic is perfect for lovers of magic, dragons, angst, and banter and will appeal to fans of books like A Court of Thorns and Roses, From Blood and Ash, Gild, and The Serpent & the Wings of Night.