Launch of A Kiss of Crimson Ash by Anuja Varghese (with Shalini Abeysekara)

Join Penguin Canada and Epic Books for the launch of A Kiss of Crimson Ash! Author Anuja Varghese will be in conversation with Shalini Abeysekara, with a book signing to follow!

Doors open at 6:30pm, event begins at 7pm.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The first book in a new medieval India-inspired fantasy trilogy, A Kiss of Crimson Ash teems with rich storytelling, lush worldbuilding, and spice of every variety.
Taara, the pious newly crowned Queen of Abhaya, a resource-rich city-state, must marry whether she wishes to or not. Her betrothed is Garjan, Prince of Nandapore, a neighbouring city-state full of secrets and spellcasters. His forbidden love is Bhediya, a courtesan with magic in her blood. And then there is Roland, a thief by trade, attached to nothing and no one, who stumbles into a power-hungry king’s plot to unearth a weapon that has only lived in myth...until now.
Linked by desire, destiny, and a dangerous foe, these four must summon the power of an ancient goddess and chart a course through the empire’s brothels, temples, taverns, and palaces, forcing them to confront the darkest kinds of magic and the truest parts of themselves—before it’s too late.
Locked in a battle that will reshape the empire, they each must decide: What will they risk for a weapon worth dying for, and a love worth life itself?

ANUJA VARGHESE (she/her) is an award-winning writer and editor. Her debut short story collection, Chrysalis, won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her work has appeared in Hobart, Corvid Queen, Southern Humanities Review, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and Plenitude Magazine, as well as the Queer Little Nightmares anthology, among others. Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her partner, two kids, and two cats.

SHALINI ABEYSEKARA (she/her) is a Canadian lawyer-turned-author. Her dark romantasies explore monstrosity, feature cynical MMC's who respect women, and center neurodivergent women reckoning with themselves and their place in the world. Her dazzling debut novel, THIS MONSTER OF MINE, was an instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller and the highly anticipated sequel, THIS BLADE OF OURS is forthcoming in summer 2026.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Penguin Random House Canada