Preorder - Releases December 30, 2025
From Indie Next Pick and Indie bestselling author Kamilah Cole comes her adult debut, an atmospheric, speculative fantasy set on an elite Ivy League campus in New England. A simmering rivals-to-lovers romance begins to stir beneath the weight of institutional power, built on the bones and forbidden magic of its most brilliant BIPOC students, and used to keep that power in the hands of those willing to bury the truth. Fans of Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House and the unflinching social commentary of R.F. Kuang's Babel will be captivated by this dark academia novel where the gilded promises of higher education mask a legacy of exploitation.
- A Genre-Blending Darling: Blending elements of swoony romance, intriguing mystery, moody dark academia, and horrific hair-raising chills, An Arcane Inheritance draws from a wide audience of readers and has multiple points of entry.
- A Standalone Fantasy!: There is certainly an excited audience looking for standalone fantasy stories rather than getting swept into an intimidatingly long, multi-book fantasy epic (and even worse when it takes years to come out). This is perfect for those readers!
- Queer Representation: Our female main character and our male main character are both bisexual in this story.
- Nuanced, Layered, and Enticing: This novel explores being Black in traditionally white spaces, generational wealth, first generation immigrants, the colonization of magic, and memory magic, while also balancing the intrigue of secret societies and a rivals-to-lovers story, this fantasy draws readers in and contains so much within its pages.
"A tautly paced, keenly observed thriller, set against an atmospherically rendered backdrop where questions of privilege and wealth haunt the narrative just as much as the literal ghosts. This is everything I adore in a dark academia book." - Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
"An intriguing, atmospheric puzzle box of a novel that is both an alluring romantic thriller and an incisive takedown of all that haunts our most hallowed halls." - Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
Heat Level: Rated R for heat
Tropes: Rivals to lovers
