Angry Robot Books signs darkly gothic, fantasy Our Gifted Hearts, from author Jennifer Kennedy
Angry Robot Books is delighted to announce the acquisition of Jennifer Kennedy’s Our Gifted Hearts,a dark gothic feminist tale inspired by the legend of Bluebeard. When she’s accused of witchcraft, Fortune must flee her village to spare her neck, marrying a man she barely knows. But is the man who promises to be her saviour all he seems?
Our Gifted Hearts is a gripping reinvention of a classic tale, blending dark intrigue with the gothic feel of Mexican Gothic and The Silent Companions, and will be published on 14th October 2025
RIGHTS: Editor Gemma Creffield bought WEL in physical and ebook from Hannah Sheppard of Literary Agency
QUOTES:
Jennifer Kennedy: “I’m so excited to be working with the Angry Robot team! Writing Our Gifted Hearts was a magical and cathartic experience for me, and I can’t wait for readers to meet Fortune and walk this dark path with her.”
Gemma Creffield: “The minute I started Our Gifted Hearts, I felt immediate Angela Carter-vibes and, being one of my favourite authors, I was instantly hooked. I felt so sad and angry for Fortune at the injustices she suffered at the hands of the terrible men around her, which really got my internal female rage burning. My desire to see someone pay for it all grew and grew with every turn of the page, and that ending… *chef’s kiss*.”
Hannah Sheppard: “I love how this deliciously dark tale, with its historical setting and focus on gifted women being exploited by the men around them, says so much about our current society – I’m all for more feminist revenge in fiction. Jennifer’s novel is a page-turning, gothic delight that gave me absolute chills!.”
ABOUT JENNIFER KENNEDY:
Jennifer Kennedy is a gothic horror author from the North West of England. Her short stories and flash fiction have been published in various magazines and anthologies. When she isn’t writing she dreams of living in a haunted castle on the moors. Until then, she is content in her tiny house with her son and their extremely black cat.
ABOUT OUR GIFTED HEARTS:
Fortune Blyth suffered the loss of a secret child when she was sixteen and vowed never to let another man touch her. Ten years later she is content with Ma and her beloved birds.
But when witch hunters come to town it isn’t long before fingers are pointed at the spinster and she is forced to choose; stay and hang, or marry a man who can offer her safety far from home. She chooses marriage.
Her husband’s island home is not the safe haven she expected, with a surly housekeeper and an eccentric mother-in-law to contend with. And there is something else; secrets hiding in the walls, demons creeping in her nightmares. Something sinister in the concealed tunnels below the house. It turns out she is not his first bride… Perhaps she would have been better off hanging after all.
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