The Flowers I Deserve

Weeping luna is as common as wildflowers, and in the northern kingdoms, assassination by its floral poison is rampant. Those born with immunity are coveted by heretic clerical orders and the endangered aristocracy—and shunned by a superstitious society.
One so gifted, or cursed, Carlotta embraces her newfound power as the currency to deliver her from a land in the grip of drought. Luxury and beauty, glimpsed only through the portal of her late mother's letters, become an easy trade to consider in exchange for her life. And looming always in her imagination is the symbol of it all—King Emelia, a demon who rose to power under mysterious circumstances. Rumor claims her to be a monstrous woman like the poison girls who serve and adore her. Yet in the warnings of evil, Carlotta sees her own reflection.
Once initiated into the world of sensual indulgence and ancient magic within the castle walls, however, Carlotta finds that not even a king's devotion is enough to sate her. As the castle's ghosts coalesce, Carlotta must also confront what her own dead want for her and, even at the heights of her seduction, what she truly wants for herself.
The Flowers I Deserve is a spicy FFF gothic fantasy with lyrical prose and a quiet heart. Content notes are available inside the book and on the author's website.

Tamara Jerée (they/them) is a fan of women with sharp teeth. Their short stories have appeared in the Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthologies Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness and Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology. The Fall That Saved Us is their debut novel and a winner of the 2023 Indie Ink Award. They're a bookseller based in Chicago.