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Holy Wrath

Victoria Mier

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A gothic, sapphic fantasy about two women who decide they no longer want equality once they've tasted revenge.

In a city clinging to light during an age of darkness, all healer Ophelia wants is for a Saint to finally claim her and bless her with the power to work the Mysteries. When she's tasked with caring for an injured prisoner, Ophelia sees the perfect opportunity to prove she's ready for her Sainting. The prisoner is none other than the Lupa Nox—the most dangerous warrior of the Sepulchyre, her homeland's sworn enemy. If Ophelia can convert the disarmingly beautiful knight's wicked heart to the Church of the Host, then the Saints will surely fight amongst themselves to claim her.

But the Lupa Nox insists that Ophelia's beloved god is a murderous liar and her city is built on blackened bones. It's easy enough to dismiss as blasphemy—at least at first. As Lumendei's gilded secrets begin to tumble from their hiding places and Ophelia herself uncovers a conspiracy, she's forced to consider that Nyatrix might be telling the truth.

And that saving the alluring knight's soul is the least of her problems.

For fans of The Fall That Saved Us and The Foxglove King comes a searing, unforgettable standalone novel about the power of queer resilience and femme rage.

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Posts about this title from Wanderland Reads

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Mar 16

[Sapphic Speculative Fiction Expands the Imagination\ \ Many people approach queer romance through familiar frameworks. Modern settings. Recognizable social rules. Families that resemble the structures most of us grew up around. I wrote about this a week or two ago, about looking beyond contemporary romance for great sapphic stories.\ \ Those stories matter. They reflect lived experience and present-day struggles.\ \ Yet some of the most thought-provoking sapphic stories appear in places where the rules look completely different.\ \ Speculative fiction offers writers a simple but radical tool. The ability to ask what happens when the world operates under different assumptions?\ \ What happens when gender does not function the way our societies expect?\ \ What happens when colonial hierarchies collapse or never existed in the first place?\ \ What happens when family and community follow different structures?\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction thrives in these questions.\ \ What counts as speculative fiction?\ \ Speculative fiction serves as an umbrella term for stories that imagine worlds different from our own.\ \ Fantasy explores magic, mythology, and alternate societies.\ \ Science fiction looks at future technology, space exploration, and evolving social systems.\ \ Alternate history reimagines historical timelines.\ \ Dystopian and utopian fiction examine political systems taken to extreme outcomes.\ \ Magical realism blends ordinary life with elements that challenge reality.\ \ All of these genres share a common feature. They build worlds where the assumptions we treat as natural begin to shift.\ \ When those foundations move, storytelling changes.\ \ Reimagining gender systems\ \ Many speculative worlds question the rigid gender frameworks common in contemporary culture.\ \ Some settings include fluid understandings of gender. Others remove the strict gender hierarchy. Some societies organize identity through entirely different categories.\ \ When gender works differently, relationships evolve as well.\ \ Characters express attraction without the scripts that dominate many romance narratives. Partnerships develop around compatibility, trust, or shared goals rather than predetermined roles.\ \ For readers, this shift opens new ways of thinking about identity and connection.\ \ Challenging colonial power structures\ \ Speculative fiction often explores empire, conquest, and resistance.\ \ Many worlds center characters fighting against oppressive systems or rebuilding communities after political collapse. Some stories draw inspiration from Indigenous traditions or non-Western perspectives to imagine societies structured around different values.\ \ Within these settings, sapphic characters frequently appear as leaders, rebels, scholars, or explorers. Their relationships unfold inside larger struggles over power, survival, and cultural memory.\ \ Love does not exist in isolation. It grows alongside questions about justice, resistance, and the future of entire communities.\ \ Rethinking family and community\ \ Another striking feature of speculative fiction involves how stories approach family.\ \ The nuclear family model rarely stands as the only option. Characters often live within chosen families, cooperative communities, traveling crews, or political alliances.\ \ Romantic relationships exist inside these broader networks of care.\ \ Two people falling in love may also share responsibilities to their crew, their village, or their resistance movement. Partnership becomes part of a wider web of loyalty and support.\ \ For many readers, this structure feels both imaginative and deeply familiar.\ \ Common tropes in sapphic speculative fiction\ \ Speculative fiction combines romance with adventure and conflict. Certain narrative patterns recur.\ \ A princess guarded by a loyal warrior or knight who begins to question her duty.\ \ Rival soldiers from opposing factions are forced to work together.\ \ A scholar and a fighter navigating a dangerous quest.\ \ Political enemies are forming uneasy alliances during a rebellion.\ \ Explorers encounter unfamiliar worlds and build trust through survival.\ \ These tropes create tension, intimacy, and emotional growth while the larger story unfolds.\ \ Why these stories expand the imagination\ \ Speculative fiction does more than entertain. It shifts perspective.\ \ When readers step into worlds built on different assumptions, the systems shaping their own lives become visible. Gender roles, political hierarchies, and family structures reveal themselves as historical constructs rather than permanent truths.\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction takes this imaginative shift even further.\ \ Queer women appear not as side characters but as central figures in the story of the world itself. They lead revolutions. Build communities. Explore unknown territories. Fall in love while reshaping the societies around them.\ \ These stories ask readers to imagine something larger than representation.\ \ They ask us to imagine entirely different ways people live together.\ \ An invitation to explore\ \ If you have not spent time with sapphic speculative fiction, consider this an invitation.\ \ Explore fantasy worlds where magic reshapes power.\ \ Read science fiction that questions identity in future societies.\ \ Look for stories where love grows alongside resistance, exploration, and discovery.\ \ These books stretch the imagination in ways that linger long after the final page.\ \ I am especially interested in reading more sapphic speculative fiction this year.\ \ Which books expanded your worldview?\ \ Which stories stayed with you long after you finished them?\ \ Here is a list of books I've read and books on my TBR!\ \

Worlds Where Sapphic Stories Rewrite the Rules

26 books

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Jan 1

Poll:\ \ What books do you most want to read for book club in Q!?\ \ Welcome to 2026.\ \ You are most likely here because you care about books, community, and reading with intention. You are also here because sapphic stories deserve space, time, and serious attention. This year focuses on building that space together.\ \ Here is what you can expect on my bindery this year (when the depress and the overwhelm of full caretaking for my dad with dementia and being a FT trauma therapist don't burn me out) - we have to have realistic expectations lol.\ \ I'm going to attempt regular posts about the sapphic books on my reading list, the sapphic reading challenge and "if you liked this, read that" posts. Reviews will center craft, themes, and emotional impact. You will also see a stronger focus on queer speculative fiction (thank you E.A. Noble - if you're here for the reminder that my voice matters), heavy emphasis on sapphic speculative fiction. Last year brought several books that challenged my thinking in lasting ways. This year aims for more stories that stretch perspective, question norms, and ask readers to sit with discomfort and curiosity.\ \ The paid tier will offer deeper access. You will get sneak peeks into The Tenth Muse anthology, including author spotlights, excerpts, and behind the scenes notes. You will also see posts tied to therapy work, including reflections, frameworks, and reading through a trauma informed lens. Paid content stays intentional and grounded.\ \ This bindery exists to grow community. My goal stays simple, read diversely, read inclusively, and talk about books with care. I really want the Discord space to exist for discussion, shared excitement, and thoughtful conversation, I'm sooooo thirsty borderline desperate for community, tbh I'm really lonely and this online space provides for 90% of my non-work based human interaction and connection. You belong here if you want to read widely and listen closely.\ \ The sapphic reading challenge and The Tenth Muse started last year out of frustration. Sapphic stories remain pushed aside while MM or Achillean books dominate conversation and visibility. Nothing is wrong with those stories, I mean look at what Heated Rivalry did for our community. The problem lives in a culture that treats sapphic books as scarce, niche, or hard to find. Requests for sapphic recommendations continue to frame quality through heteronormative sex scripts and racial hierarchy. Those patterns deserve naming. I want this space to push back through action and consistency.\ \ This year I really want to get a sapphic book club. At the beginning of each quarter I'm going to post a poll here and in discord with 6-7 sapphic books as options for the book clubs and the books with the highest amount of votes will be our choice each month. This will give you all an opportunity to get the books ahead of time. Each month will include a Sapphic Sunday book club discussion. Readers choose the books. Readers shape the conversation. We'll do a live in the discord, or possibly zoom if I can get my life together.\ \ If you want thoughtful reviews, intentional community, and stories that expand how you think about love, power, bodies, and futures, hi, that's what I intend to do in this space. Join the Discord. Vote in the polls. Read alongside others who care.\ \ Thank you for being part of this space. I'm soooooo glad you're here and I can't wait to get to know you!\ \ Also tell a friend, and tell a friend to tell a friend because this year I REALLY want to grow this community with the intention of working toward an imprint with Bindery. I want to get intersectional sapphic and speculative sapphic books into the hands of readers! We deserve to be seen and celebrated!

What to expect (I hope) in 2026

6 books

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Aug 29 2025

Tackling Internalized Shame: How to Reclaim Your Body and Desire

2 books

Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Apr 7 2025

Sapphic New Releases: April 2025

I've read a bunch of these as ARCs and they are all bangers! I can't wait for you to read them!