A visionary and atmospheric gothic fantasy about necromancy, vengeance, and soul-consuming love, the first in a duology from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth
“Gorgeously gruesome . . . reads like the gory bones of a forgotten folktale.”—Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series
Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.
A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.
But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.
Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.
Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.
For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.
Book One of The House of Teeth Duology
The series
In The House of Teeth Duology, Ava Reid carves a world where beauty and decay intertwine, and love becomes as dangerous as death itself. Set in a conquered land stripped of its necromantic heritage, this haunting saga follows the remnants of a once-mighty noble house as they navigate vengeance, forbidden magic, and the terrible cost of desire.
Read full series description
The story begins with Innamorata, where Lady Agnes, bound by silence and burdened by legacy, must rekindle the death magic her family lost and forge a perilous alliance with the heir of her enemies. Her cousin Marozia shines as the delicate face of their survival, yet it is Agnes, secretive, loyal, and aching for something beyond duty, who becomes the heart of the tragedy that unfolds. Within castle halls drenched in gilded rot and ambition, Agnes faces a choice between her family’s resurrection and her own damnation.
Blending gothic romanticism with political intrigue, the duology explores the fragility of faith, the hunger for power, and the haunting pull of love that defies reason. Reid’s prose lingers like a spell, steeped in lyrical melancholy and quiet horror. The House of Teeth Duology is not simply a tale of vengeance but a meditation on how history devours those who try to rewrite it, and how even the softest heart can bear the sharpest teeth.
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