HONEYCOMB HEART

Honeycomb Heart is a sapphic romance featuring two young women from Hex, a fictional country populated by the descendants of persecuted witches and their animal familiars. It can be read as a standalone novel, but will receive a sequel in the future.

Vivian is dreading her eighteenth birthday. Where most Hexian girls look forward to the day they receive their familiar, a past family tragedy has Vivian scared of having her life connected to another creature. 

Familiars come in all shapes and sizes, but nothing could've prepared Vivian for receiving a swarm of several hundred bees as her companion. When her swarm refuses to settle down and build a hive in the meadowlands she calls home, Vivian is forced to hit the road and search the patchwork landscape of Hex for a place where she and her familiar can live. With Vivian feeling forced to travel and wanting to keep her new familiar — her lifelong companion with whom she should have a deep and meaningful emotional bond — at arm's length, their relationship is off to a rocky start.

In contrast, Frieda would like nothing more than to hit the road. After eighteen years of living with her overprotective mothers, Frieda sees the agency of adulthood as a chance to experience the parts of life that felt out of her reach as a child. 

Frieda immediately loves her new familiar, and her familiar, Koi, loves her back. It’s just that Koi is an octopus and Frieda lives at the landlocked center of Hex. Frieda knows Koi deserves better than being stuck in an aquarium tank for the rest of her life, but she fears she can't provide that on her own.

When a chance encounter unites Vivian and Frieda, they embark together on an unplanned journey across Hex, searching forest, desert, and coast for a place where their familiars can not only survive, but thrive. None of this adventuring was on sullen and anxious Vivian’s bucket list. Nor was catching feelings for her travel companion as they endure homesickness, heat stroke, existential dread, and one (1) mountain goat. Yet as the options for potential new homes narrow, Vivian fears that even if she does find the perfect place for her familiar, it won’t be the same place that Frieda and Koi choose…

Honeycomb Heart is coming your way in November 2025 as part of The Book Bazaar on Backerkit. Grab your copy in ebook or paperback to take your own journey to Hex! Until then, you can read the opening chapter right here.