Blair Saltonstall is a man outside of time and place. At least, that’s how it feels to Iris. After appearing in her small town one day as if by magic, he’s suddenly everywhere. At Bookish Emporium where her best friend/platonic life partner Gabriel works. At the coffee shop for open mic night. And in the snowy woods where Iris is hiking alone one frigid afternoon.

Suddenly, Gabriel’s warning against befriending such a very strange stranger seems utterly irrelevant. Because despite everything, Iris can’t help but trust Blair, the man who lives beneath a bridge suspended above the frozen brook, but whose mind is as finely tuned as his violin, as vibrant as the colors he uses in his still-life drawings.

Yet, Blair remains an enigma. He admits he grew up by the ocean, but he won’t say where. He’s an expert in plant-based medicines, but claims he never left the woods behind his childhood home. Then there are the scars that trail down his cheeks, possibly carved by a blade…. But most alarming of all is Gabriel’s mistrust of him. Almost as though Blair really does have a past; a past that Gabriel not only knows about, but maybe— impossibly— one that he played a sinister part in. And now that Iris has invited both of them into her home, one thing is certain: it is only a matter of time before the darkness that follows them will come for her, too.

She Called the Darkness Home is an emotional slow-burn romantic fantasy set in a snowy New England small town, featuring witches, a shifter or two, and enough hot tea to accompany even the darkest of nights.

Iris deserved so much more than a phantom of a man who had lived too long and seen too little, a man too inhuman for a soul so good.

Blair’s eyes fluttered closed as he forced out the words. “You deserve someone better.”

“But I want you.”

Available in paperback, eBook, & on Kindle Unlimited

November 1, 2026!

(Published by Iridaceae Press)