It’s almost time for the next Romance Writers of Australia conference and I’m excited for a number of reasons.

1. Conference is fun!

2. It’s in Darwin (right up the top of Australia) and I’ve never been. Can’t wait to be way too hot all the time.

3. I get to hear Alyssa Cole talk about romance and Jane Friedman talk about the business of being an author.

4. I’m presenting a workshop with my conference bestie, Darcy Green!

It should be a really fun chat with lots of great examples, questions and practical approaches to craft. Darcy and I were both keen to bring the gay to this conference in particular, given the iconic theme.

Back in the land of lesbian lords, I am still hard at work wrestling Royce into a romance that is fun, satisfying, moving and - makes sense. She is thumbing her nose at me. She’s gorgeous. She’s infuriating.

The truth is, it takes me quite a long time to write a book. (For a brief period there I thought being New-York Published was like a magic reset button that would change this fact. Nope.)

But we’re getting there. Me, Royce and Marian - the uptight spinster who has the (mis)fortune of finding herself married to the great scoundrel of the age.

Kate and Celine are in the mix too, because Royce and Kate still have a lot of difficult feelings to work through. It’s so fun to observe the Duke and Duchess of Howard from the outside a couple of months after their HEA.

Because of the way I draft books it’s entirely possible this scene won’t even make it to the final version, but for your patience, have some Royce fucking:

Share

For a while she smoothed her hand up and down the inner thigh, until the skittering muscle softened and warmed, becoming pliant. She loved this part of a woman’s body. Finally, she smoothed her hand over her wife’s bare mound, pressing gently with her palm. She combed her fingertips lightly through the hair, a light scritch like one might give a dog behind the ear on a lazy afternoon.

She thought maybe Lady Royston had stopped breathing.

Had anyone ever touched her there? Had she ever even touched herself there?

She kept up the light touch until she heard her start breathing again. Until the breaths slowed. Became deeper. Until that slight vocalisation caught each breath again. She felt out where hard bone gave way to fatty flesh, then let her fingertips slip inside the slit.

She didn’t go deep. It was a shallow slide. But she was, inarguably, inside Marian’s body. Trespassing. Violating.

Her vision heated until the world shimmered before her. She watched the blood move over Marian’s face – dark blotches in her cheeks, rimming her wet eyes, darker at the tip of her nose like she was drunk. It made her even less beautiful.

“Stop looking at me,” Marian said.

It was the first time either of them had spoken in a while. Marian’s voice was threshed.

“No,” Royce said.

Marian put her arm over her face, even as Royce’s fingers continued their gentle, inexorable movement, even as Marian’s legs lay pliant and trembling, open.

Royce kissed Marian’s elbow, kissed her forearm. Lifted herself over Marian and kissed her inner wrist, which was turned out. Behind her arm, Marian whimpered. Then Royce took Marian’s wrist in a firm hold and uncovered her, holding the wrist beside her face on the pillow.

“No,” she whispered again.

Marian looked up at her. It was as though, in removing the arm, she’d removed the last means Marian had for shielding herself. Marian’s brows were lowered – half perplexed, half serious – and below them her eyes were shining, fixed like a child’s upon Royce.

It was hard to describe what that look did to Royce.

She had never bedded someone so innocent.

Marian had clearly surpassed what she understood; she had given herself over to something huge, something beyond herself, and the only guiding light she had in this vast new place was Royce.

Those concerned brows, that shining look… Every defence had been stripped away, and the vulnerable centre was offered up.

And Royce had still barely penetrated her. Still, they had barely touched. They hadn’t even kissed.

Fuck.

Royce had been right to be wary of innocence. It was disturbing, to say the least.

Just get it over with, she told herself. You don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.

“Do you want me to kiss you?” she heard herself say.

Marian nodded. Her dark hair disarrayed on the pillow.

The eyes that so disquieted Royce didn’t close when Royce brought her lips to Marian’s. They watched her as she brushed their lips together.

Warm. Slow. The same way she was touching her below.

When Marian’s eyes started to close, Royce licked her softly. Not trying to part her lips or anything, just giving her the very first taste of what that wet heat felt like. What it felt like to be adored like an animal, because that was all they were.

Subscribe now

I’ll share more when there’s more to share.

xx Anna

I am the opposite of a prolific writer – sadly. The Duke took me five years to write, and then it took seven months to find an agent who would rep me. I received 83 rejections before I signed with Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary. She had only just opened to queries after being closed for 3 years, so even though I don’t believe in fate, I’m quite grateful to all the agents who kept me on the lookout until she was ready to find me!

Subscribe now

During that time I built up an elite skill set which I hope never to use again. I’m looking forward to sharing it with anyone who might benefit from it now. I’ll give you my number one piece of advice about query letters (get out of your own way and do less!), go through strategies and resources for building agent lists, and get into the logistics of the whole process from start to finish.

Querying agents is a brutal process, but the thing is: it really does only take one yes.

If you’re at the stage where you’re thinking about querying - or you have been querying and struggling to make sense of the whole thing - this workshop might be helpful to you! I’ll be answering questions as well.

register for workshop

The workshop is on June 17 at 7pm AEST. The cost is $49 for RWA members and $65 for non-members and includes a playback video, so you can watch the workshop at a time that suits you. (Or go over the material again. There’s going to be a lot of material.)

I hope you’ll join me :-)

xx Anna

Share

come to Realm event

I’ve heard such good things about Realm, but haven’t been yet! I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Look, I know the Cottage thing is pretty much done, but my office is in an actual cottage?! So - fuck it. We’re going to the cottage.

Subscribe now

Thee Couch, where all the magic1 happens.

I stare at my collection of mass market romances when I’m stuck. It’s pretty good inspiration!

The full mantelpiece. The weaving and the painting of the “elegant lady” are both from my Czech grandmother. (I’m so sorry to all of you who like things properly aligned. This photo is going to break your brain.)

Some of my tchotchkes.

I’m learning to keep plants alive!!! Doing…okay.

My reference library (plus Heyer).

And here’s a glimpse inside my brain as I try and wrestle the duke’s cousin Royce - scandalous, hilarious, infuriating - into an actual book. This is me returning from version 10.8 to an earlier version that I realised was actually working. Royce is impossible.

xx Anna

Share

buy The Duke

Last night I launched The Duke in Melbourne, and it was so, so lovely.

My conversation partner Jodi McAlister is a professor of romance studies (as well as a romance novelist) so we got to completely geek out about the conceptual work behind The Duke.

I’m a bit of an introvert (shocker!) but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed meeting everyone in the signing line. It just - feels like such a profound gift to have people spend their personal time on coming to hear about The Duke. So a huge thank you to everyone who came.

When you’re lying on your couch writing books every day, time can turn into a bit of a blur. It was lovely to put a stake in this particular moment and say - something happened!

xx Anna

Subscribe now

A reminder to ask your library to get the audiobook. It rocks!

Share

You can get a signed copy here. (I used a gold pen…)

I am launching The Duke into the world on April 30 at Readings Emporium. For those of you who will be in Melbourne, please come and celebrate with me! The wonderful Jodi McAlister will be my conversation partner. You can book (free) here.

I will be signing books, and look forward to meeting any of you who can make it.

come to the book launch

Speaking of signed books: You can preorder The Duke through Scribbles Book Shop for a copy with a signed bookplate. I bought a special gold pen for this, and I think they turned out really pretty!

The audiobook of The Duke was sent to me last week. I listened to a lot of it, all out of order. There was a certain scene that made me cry despite myself.

Truly, Hannah Bristow knocked it out of the park.

listen to a sample here

Before I go, I wanted to shout out a couple of books I’ve loved this year so far. (Look, I’m really late coming to most of these! KU had my brain in a chokehold for the last two years and then it suddenly just…let go. It was the weirdest thing. But I’m not complaining, because I have read some really great books while remembering how to turn paper pages.)

MINOR BLACK FIGURES by Brandon Taylor

Basically just a young black artist walking around NY in the summer while falling in love with a white ex-priest. Ooft. I loooooved this. I loved how nerdy and emo it was about art, and I loved how it wrestled with making art in an age that critiques art from a predominantly sociopolitical viewpoint.

The romance was beautiful. It reminded me of a Sally Rooney in the way it was sincere rather than ironic about emotion.

GRETA AND VALDIN by Rebecca K Reilly

Two siblings from a complicated Maori/Russian family go about their lives in Auckland (with one significant jaunt overseas). The writing reminded me a lot of The Idiot by Elif Batuman, another book I loved.

The family dynamics are truly bonkers - the secrets that come out! But also the siblings are just wandering around being disasters. Like, at one point Greta gets lost in a park in Wellington after realising no more buses are coming that night, checks her “Find My Friends” and sees that an ex-boyfriend is just down the road. She texts him to come rescue her and they go and eat McDonalds together. He’s not really over her.

(Greta’s dad roasts her much later in the book for waiting at a bus stop in Wellington for more than an hour for some reason. They’re all always spying on each other.)

FEAST WHILE YOU CAN by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

A bizarre and wonderful book. The setting is quasi-Italian, but has Apalachian vibes and an Aussie twang. Angelina is loyal to her small mountain town, and besotted with her brother’s dyke ex, who has just returned home. Things get complicated when a monster possesses her.

I will never forget this exchange between Angelina and her male cousin:

Cousin (in reference to the dyke ex): I’m glad you don’t feel the need to dress like a man.

Angelina: I’d love to see the man who managed to look like she does.

Subscribe now

I’m currently reading AWAKE IN THE FLOATING CITY by Susanna Kwan. What are some books you’ve loved recently that I should try?

Audiobooks fall into the category of “highly subjective”. Just ask anyone who listens to a lot of romance whether they like the narrator Joel Leslie and you will be told that a) his voice is unbearable and b) no one is as good as him.

Audiobooks are as good as the narrator sounds to you.

BUT.

The following five books are such a meeting of great book and great voice, that I can’t actually imagine anyone having a bad time with them.

1: GAME MISCONDUCT by Ari Baran, read by Cooper North

Mike and Danny are enforcers (the guys who beat up other guys) on rival hockey teams. Mike is young and angry. Danny is nearing retirement and lost. It’s a fascinating age gap romance, because Mike’s in a coming-of-age story where he’s learning to have emotions, and Danny’s in a middle-age reckoning of the soul, where he’s facing what comes next. They really feel like they’re in different phases of life - and also like they’re exactly who the other needs.

The way Cooper North voices their different characters is perfect. Like - bratty Mike trying to get a rise out of Danny? Perfect. World-weary Danny telling Mike what to do in bed? Whatever comes after perfect.

Ari Baran really loves hockey, and it shows. This book feels like hockey.

2: WAITING FOR THE FLOOD by Alexis Hall, read by Will Watt

Alexis Hall has many different modes. This novella is lyrical and romantic, a slow, bittersweet meditation on how people change and why. Will Watt’s voice was made to read it.

Edwin is an introverted book restorer who is trying to protect the house he bought with the man who broke his heart from rising flood water. Adam is the capable, open-hearted man whose job it is to manage the flood.

The audiobook includes the companion-novella CHASING THE LIGHT, in which Marius - the man who broke Edwin’s heart - is stuck on a houseboat with a reformed white-collar criminal who self-flagellates by reading Marcus Aurelius.

Share

3: SUMMER SONS by Lee Mandelo, read by Will Damron

Andrew returns to the South to try and find out why his best friend Eddie died - and why he wouldn’t let Andrew join him at college as planned. He is haunted by Eddie (literally) and falls in with some bad boys who drive fast cars (my kryptonite).

As he unravels the mystery of Eddie’s death he starts to realise - too late - that he and Eddie were something more than friends. He mostly realises this because of how hot bad-boy-king Sam is, who I imagined as Somersault-era Sam Worthington. (I’m just now realising it’s probably because they’re both called Sam. I told you guys I have a super literal brain, right? But he just looks right.)

This is kind of a dense book. It has horror, dark academia and sweltering magic. It’s not a genre romance - and yet this romance killed me.

As much as I loved the book, I couldn’t read it to myself with the proper Kentucky accent - which is why I immediately listened to the audiobook upon finishing. The book hangover was just as bad second time round.

4: LAST NIGHT by Mhairi McFarlane, read by Maya Saroya

I often read McFarlane in audio - probably, again, because I like hearing the Northern accent. But for me this title is the standout. Maya Saroya reads with deep emotion without being emotive. She sounds like a real actual grown-up woman.

And is there anyone better than McFarlane at writing two people who mean literally nothing to each other the first time they meet? Her characters are absorbed by their own lives, which are also absorbing to the reader, and don’t have time for each other. I can’t get enough of it. McFarlane is like the homeopathic remedy theory of the slow burn: the less she puts in, the more powerful the gut punch at the end.

I can’t say much about the plot without giving things away that are best discovered in the listening, but safe to say Saroya makes a meal of it.

5: SAINT by Sierra Simone, read by Jacob Morgan and Sean Crisden

I avoided this book for a long time, because mixing romance and religion just doesn’t do it for me. But.

Then I listened to it.

And it’s perfect.

The writing is beautiful. The argument for mixing spiritual and romantic love is considered, complex and well-made. The yearning (for his best friend’s little brother who broke his heart by ghosting him and becoming a celibate monk) is impeccable.

Just literally can’t fault it.

The narration is almost dry and for me that worked so well against what is an emotionally hefty story. It also takes you all over Europe! It’s lovely.

Subscribe now

+1: THE DUKE by Anna Cowan, read by Hannah Bristow

You may have gathered that I’m an audiobook lover. And as exciting as it is to know a book I wrote will soon be in bookshops and libraries, I actually can’t believe The Duke is going to be an audiobook.

Hannah Bristow was the clear choice to narrate. In her audition she was somehow narrating from the heart of the story. She made it make sense.

She has a quality that reminds me a lot of Will Watt, for those who are familiar with him. A sort of melodic, wry voice that invites you in on the joke with the character and lingers over turns of phrase and meaningful silences.

It’s going to be a gorgeous listen, and you can pre-order it now.

Share

Libraries are the actual best!

If you’re interested in reading or listening to The Duke, you can also check if your library has ordered a copy - or ask them to! This is my favourite way of getting my hands on new books I’m looking forward to (most recent additions to my holds list: Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell and Hold Me Like a Grudge by Celine Ong) and has the added benefit of making it available for other readers as well.

I’d love to hear which books you think are a must-listen!

xx Anna

I am giving away 10 signed print ARC copies of The Duke. These are now collector’s editions, because there has been a minor cover change made. Spot the difference!

To enter the giveaway complete this google form. Giveaway closes January 7.

Enter giveaway here

I ended up giving my husband 4 Christmas presents this year because I kept buying a thing from overseas, then panicking that it wouldn’t arrive in time and buying another thing from overseas to give him instead, etc etc and the upshot was that everything arrived on Christmas Eve and he had an amazing Christmas.

Tldr: my faith in the international postal system is restored. Tell your international reader friends to enter now!

Share

B&N is running a 3-day preorder sale and you can get 25% off The Duke. You need to be a B&N Rewards member, which you can sign up to for free. This book is going to be such a beautiful physical object - and it’s a pretty good read, too.

Subscribe now

That’s all for now, but there’s some fun stuff coming soon like audiobook announcements. Until then, I hope you have a great 2026 full of amazing reads.

In the video I talk about the parts of The Duke that own my brain and heart, and I hope you’ll enjoy a window into why and how I wrote the book. Julian, Cat and Alexandra made me laugh, think and feel, so there’s lots to enjoy across the board.

A piece of behind-the-scenes trivia: the recording started at 1am my time, and I had driven to my office where I could sit in front of my pretty wall of romance novels and not disturb my sleeping family. I figured: 1am is the perfect time to be at the office, because no one else will be around! No traffic, no pedestrians, no intrusive background noise.

Of course, 1am is also the time people make inconvenient repairs in public places. Just as I arrived at the office, a man started jackhammering concrete in the supermarket carpark across the road.

!!!!!

So I jumped in the car, hooned home again and set up in the lounge room, with so-so lighting and no pretty books in the background. (Not important, Anna. The conversation is important.) You may also notice towards the end that I get distracted by something off-screen: I woke my kid by laughing too loud.

Lots of learning how to do this job across timezones lol.

This video isn’t available elsewhere online, so if you know anyone who might enjoy it, please share!

x Anna

ps- I haven’t forgotten my promise to do a non-US ARC giveaway, so stay tuned…

My father was the child of Czech immigrants. He learned to walk en route to Australia but his mother pushed him back down to crawling, terrified he would toddle over the edge of the ship and into the sea. What small wealth they had was not in money but in gold and jewels.

My parents met at university. Mum had noticed Dad riding his motorbike around campus. One day she walked up to him bold as you please (“She entered my bubble of cool,” Dad says, “like it didn’t exist.”) and asked for a ride. She was wearing a very short skirt.

My Czech grandmother was disappointed Dad wasn’t dating a socialite or a doctor. My Anglo grandfather stopped talking to Mum for six months when she went travelling with Dad without marrying him first.

Later, after both families had celebrated their wedding, Mum spent a day at her parents’ farm throwing thistles over the fence. She realised that evening that she’d lost her wedding ring - it must have flung off her finger. No amount of digging through the discarded thistles turned it up.

My Czech grandfather was a difficult man, mostly when he drank, and he was also generous-hearted. He had a piece of gold. He sent it up to Sydney to have it made into a ring set with a square-cut sapphire. Mum eventually had another wedding ring made, but from then on she wore the sapphire too.

It’s an object I associate deeply with her. With the smell of her perfume and the almost taboo pleasure of looking through her jewellery box and scarves as a child. (It’s funny to think back on this, because she wasn’t a woman who owned a lot of jewellery, or wore a lot of perfume. She still loves a good silk scarf, though.)

When Mum stopped wearing the sapphire ring in her fifties, she passed it on to me. What was the point of holding onto it until after her death? No, she would rather see me enjoy and wear it. And so I do. It’s a beautiful object in its own right. It holds pieces of my childhood and my family history within it.

And it made its way into The Duke.

I have a stupidly literal brain, sometimes. If I’m trying to name a character and I’m looking at my office window, chances are that character will end up being called Miss Lacy Curtains. If my hand catches my eye while I’m typing, chances are the sapphire ring on my finger will end up in the book.

It’s that superficial and it’s deeper too, I’m sure. The place stories come from is unknowable - the sunless part of the ocean where the ugly fish live. Sometimes I switch to the front of my brain and read what the back of my brain wrote and I want to fling my computer away like it’s a blob fish. Here I am thinking I’m just making shit up and there on the page are pieces of me instead, fetched from the deep.

But where else are stories going to come from? The best part of the story is the blob fish, and making yourself hold it is the job.

Subscribe now

Kate Howard is a cold and terrifying woman - a powerful duke - and on the eve of revolution she meets a woman in Paris. A brilliant French courtesan named Celine. She ravishes Celine, then leaves her behind, but not before she slips her sapphire ring onto Celine’s finger. A promise she can’t even admit to herself she is making.

Celine never wants to see the duke who abandoned her again. But three years later life has become so desperate her choices are the duke, or death. And she wants to live. So she uses the one object she never sold - a sapphire ring - to get herself to the duke. She will make Kate fulfil her promise if it kills them both.

preorder The Duke

I’ll be on the Queer Love panel for the Library Journal Day of Dialog - a free virtual event. Because of timezone shenanigans our panel had to pre-record, so I already know how it went! It was great. Cat Sebastian absolutely cracked me up describing the process of writing Star Shipped (for real - I had to record at one in the morning and my kids complained the next day that my laughter woke them up). Julian Winters spoke passionately and wisely about exploring queerness later in life. Alexandra Vasti had to duck out early to teach a class, but she got to give some funny and smart insight into her real life inspiration for writing a comedic gothic. I loved hearing what each of them had to say and having the opportunity to talk about The Duke.

You can register for free to attend the Day of Dialog and watch our panel, among many other fantastic conversations. It runs 9-6 on October 23.

register to attend Day of Dialog

How unbelievably pretty do these nine books look together? Even prettier when you consider a man chasing his sister’s runaway groom, or a bi-gender poet falling in love with a cunning gossip, or two rival gothic novelists bickering their way into love, or two mean-girl debutantes going up against each other in a war of manners, or an archeologist and her beautiful nemesis joining forces to hunt treasure, or Mary Bennet glowing up and falling for Charlotte Lucas, or a lady thespian falling for her ladylike rival in the wedding stakes, or a feminist duchess falling for her husband, or a lady duke dismayed to realise being blackmailed by a brilliant French prostitute is…hot.

You know what would look even prettier, though? These nine books stacked together on your nightstand, just waiting to bring you horny queer joy.

You can win all nine books here! Giveaway closes September 21.

Big Queer Historical Romance Giveaway

The big giveaway is only available to US residents, but I promise I’ll have something for everyone else soon!

US residents can also enter the Goodreads giveaway for The Duke to win a print ARC, running until September 22.

enter Goodreads giveaway

For more information on all the titles included in the Big Queer Historical Romance Giveaway click on the images below.

[Insert imaginary photo of me and Darcy looking happy and smart with a sparkling river in the background. I am terrible at this part of my job, and will try to remember I have a phone next time I’m at a fun event!]

Darcy’s brilliant AFL romcom After the Siren will be launched at Readings Carlton on September 23. If you’re in Melbourne you should come along to a) get your hands on this absolute gem of a book! and b) say hi to me! ( And c) remind me to take photos?!) Melbourne book events are always a lot of fun. You can get a (free) ticket here.

come to the After the Siren book launch!

I have also been invited to appear on the Queer Romance panel at the Library Journal’s Day of Dialog virtual event on October 23. More info to come, but it looks like a really fun day if you enjoy listening to people talk about books, and you can register (for free) here.

register for the LJ Day of Dialog!

There’s a flash sale for B&N preorders of The Duke, so if you’ve been thinking of preordering now’s a great time to do it. The Duke is 25% off until September 5. You have to be a member to access the sale, but it’s free to sign up. Future You will thank you for the gift of angsty smut with bonus butch thighs in breeches.

get The Duke 25% off!

There are more events and things coming up, including a HUGE queer historical romance giveaway, to be announced here in my newsletter. Sneak peek below.

Subscribe now

My brother’s colleague was planning to self-publish a gay footy rom com, but had received publisher interest and didn’t know whether to try and get an agent. My brother said, “As it happens, I personally know an expert in the field of getting an agent with a queer romance!” (He is extremely expert in his field, and was flummoxed by my kind of expertise being suddenly called upon.)

I took a call with his colleague and ran them through some of the pros/cons of traditional versus self-publishing, etc. etc. etc. Being a good sister, I offered to look at the manuscript. I didn’t expect much, if I’m honest.

And then I met Jake.

Okay, so first I met Theo. Beautiful goody-two-shoes Theo Bestavros who can’t stop looking at the ad campaign his new teammate Jake Cunningham did for a sneaker brand where he’s only wearing the sneakers. Look, it just really annoys Theo, okay? It annoys him a lot.

So does Jake being late. And loud. And messy. And unbearably hot. Very distracting for a bi-boy just trying to play good football and not mess up his last chance at the AFL.

But when Jake gets vulnerable? And sweet?

When Jake is playing around and does a slut drop between the tatted thighs of a butch AFLW player?

Game over.

(For Theo, but also for me. I was dead.)

I couldn’t stop reading this book. The writing was propulsive, clean, emotional and funny. I started texting the author Darcy Green things like, “Are you sure this is your first book?!” And by the time I finished I was in that perfect book-hangover daze where I just wanted to linger in the world of the book as long as possible and hang out with my book boyfriend Jake.

I also felt like I could see the future.

This was definitely a traditionally published book. A big sports rom com. Perfect for readers of Rachel Reid (seriously, for any of you who have been looking for something to fill the hole since Game Changers, this is it. This is the book.), and Alison Cochrun and Casey McQuiston.

I called Darcy and was like, “Obviously still self-publish if you want to, but you are not allowed to self-publish this book!”

After the Siren is coming out from Penguin Australia on September 23rd. You can preorder it now, and you absolutely should. I’ve already ordered 3 copies, because I know this is a book I’ll be putting in the hands of every reader in my life.

(Disclaimer: while I championed the hell out of this book and put Darcy in contact with agents, I have absolutely nothing to do with its publication or marketing. I just think it’s amazing.)

preorder After the Siren

teammates get off on the wrong foot . . . but might just stumble into love.

Theo Bestavros did everything right.
He worked hard, got his game-winning moment and - failed. He's determined to make the most of a second chance at the Brunswick Falcons.

Jake Cunningham has it all.
He's a Falcons fan-favourite, a constant headline, and has no intention of being the first AFL player to come out.

Jake thinks Theo is hot. Theo thinks Jake is a colossal pain.
When they're forced into extra training together, they don't expect to find friendship, let alone something that looks a lot like dating. But Jake doesn't want to come out, and Theo can't jeopardise his shot at redemption.

After the Siren is a romantic comedy about inconvenient attraction, second chances and the joys of AFL.

'Playful, joyful and HOT. After The Siren is everything I love about footy (dynamic, emotional, full of very attractive people), plus some things that could only improve the game (inclusive, queer and proud, sweet and sexy).' Clare Fletcher

'Pure queer joy. Jake and Theo's chemistry is off-the-charts hot.' Abra Pressler

'A rom-com so sweet and humorous, and with such a perfectly plotted enemies-to-lovers romance, that it almost made me care about football.' Patrick Lenton

'This is it, the queer Aussie sports romance I've been waiting for- sunny, sexy and exuberant, with a big heart, a fantastic ensemble of characters, and a compulsively readable voice.' Freya Marske

'A fun, queer rom-com that is impossible to put down.' Lauren Jackson

preorder After the Siren

The colours! The stained page edges! The decadence! I’m pretty sure she would catch my eye from across the bookshop (the perfect romance meet-cute).

"Gorgeously written and desperately hot... Hands down, my favorite romance of the decade." - Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

A sapphic regency romance about the duke who fears nothing... until the woman she never forgot walks through the door and brings her to her knees.

Kate, Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat not to be crossed. Consumed by a bitter rivalry, she avoids society and has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself.

The beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. She was desperate to escape the guillotine. But after a night of searing passion, the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke of Howard committed treason as a child - and possibly even murder.

Celine wants a titled husband in return for keeping the duke’s secret, leaving Kate no choice but to parade her around the most fashionable ballrooms. But as Celine takes society by storm, Kate finds herself falling for the woman set on destroying her. And as their attraction mounts, Kate faces an impossible choice: keep her childhood secret, or win the woman she loves.

Anna Cowan's The Duke is an utterly unforgettable, page-turning romance featuring two women who, separately, are a danger to each other, but together, could be the most powerful duo London has ever seen.

"The Duke is Georgette Heyer quadrupled and queered, flipping the erotic appeal of a cold-hearted alpha into an alternate England in which women can be dukes and marry whom they please. I loved and envied the way it combined the originality of My Lady Jane, the luxury of Bridgerton, and the smutty, fabulous sex of Fingersmith." - Eloisa James, New York Times bestselling author of Viscount in Love

Preorder THE DUKE here.

preorder THE DUKE!

See what early readers are saying about THE DUKE on Goodreads, and add it to your “want to read” list.

add THE DUKE on Goodreads

Know someone who might like a hot, butch duke with piercing eyes and a tragic past? Send them to me.

Share

I still haven’t quite recovered from that blurb from Alix E. Harrow. I am incredibly honoured that she is revealing my cover today on Instagram. Head over and see what other readers are saying!

cover reveal on Instagram

Due to the vagaries of publishing, my sapphic regency romance THE DUKE will be published in April next year, rather than later this year as we originally thought.

The good news is, you can win a copy right now on Goodreads! There are 100 bound manuscripts up for grabs, and the giveaway is open until March 10th. This is a great chance to get your hands on the book super early.

go to Goodreads giveaway

Unfortunately, entries are only open to US residents. If you’re on Goodreads you can add THE DUKE to your “want to read” list, and I’ll continue to share events/giveaways etc. here in the lead-up to publication.

Warmly,

Anna

The duke who fears nothing…

Kate Howard, the Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat who none dares to cross. Consumed by an old, bitter rivalry, she avoids the ballrooms where debutantes gather. She has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself.

Until the woman she never forgot walks through her door…

Desperate to escape the guillotine, the beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. But after a night of searing passion the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke of Howard committed treason as a child – and possibly even murder.

And brings her to her knees…

In return for keeping the duke’s secret, Celine wants a titled husband, leaving Kate no choice but to return to the ballrooms of her youth. But as Celine transforms from the desperate vagrant who dared blackmail a duke into a fashionable young beauty taking society by storm, Kate faces an impossible choice: keep her childhood secret, or win the woman she loves.

Share

(For added context: Vicki is the editor we all have to thank for Red, White and Royal Blue, and for everyone’s favourite MILF romance, Mistakes Were Made.)

I’m also thrilled to share the blurb for the first time, and introduce you to Kate and Celine:

The duke who fears nothing…

Kate Howard, the Duke of Howard, is known throughout Europe as a merciless autocrat who none dares to cross. Consumed by an old, bitter rivalry, she avoids the ballrooms where debutantes gather. She has vowed never to trap a woman into marriage with a monster like herself.

Until the woman she never forgot walks through her door…

Desperate to escape the guillotine, the beautiful, ambitious courtesan Celine Genet once threw herself on the mercy of the visiting Duke of Howard. But after a night of searing passion the duke left her to the ravages of Revolutionary Paris and didn’t look back. Now Celine is in London and in possession of a dangerous letter that proves the Duke of Howard committed treason as a child - and possibly even murder.

And brings her to her knees…

In return for keeping the duke’s secret, Celine wants a titled husband, leaving Kate no choice but to return to the ballrooms of her youth. But as Celine transforms from the desperate vagrant who dared blackmail a duke into a fashionable young beauty taking society by storm, Kate faces an impossible choice: keep her childhood secret, or win the woman she loves.

Publishing being the strange beast that it is, it’s still a little over a year until The Duke comes out (fall 2025). But there’s a lot of exciting work going into making it the best book it can be in the meantime, and I’m looking forward to sharing all the publication news as it happens.

Thanks for reading!

Anna

I grew up on Ngunnawal country in Canberra, the purpose-built capital of Australia that lies between lake and sky. My birthright is a love of brutalist architecture. At eight I was already writing stories about displaced children, magical drawings and monsters. I was already addicted to imagining myself into other worlds. My characters were already overwrought weirdos.

After finishing school I undertook the obligatory Grand Tour of the Continent. The wider world bewildered me. I moved to Sydney where I fell in love with the outdoors and Chinese noodles. I moved to Melbourne where I fell in love.

I went back to Europe, and this time I had love on my side. From the roof of a Hackney council flat I saw the edge of London. I studied for a year at Humboldt University in Berlin, and ran demonstrations of bathbombs at the Lush store on Friedrichstrasse. When I couldn’t sleep late at night I took refuge in Dussmann bookstore, where I discovered Twilight. I took the train to Prague and Babi showed me the house where she grew up, her high school. I had the worst job in Glasgow, and then the best. We walked everywhere.

We got married on the shores of Loch Lomond, which was just as romantic as it sounds.

Back in Melbourne I finished my writing degrees, then finished a couple of manuscripts. I wrote a second draft of Untamed, which was when I really learned to write. Then I wrote the whole book again from scratch. Untamed was published in 2013 – the beginning, I thought, of the career I had always dreamed of!

Two tiny souls, however, had other ideas. I made and mothered two children in quick succession. I wrote. I got ahead of myself. I had, constantly, to stop and be patient. Of my two endeavours, only one could be put aside.

But now I have a charming office, two school-aged children, three cranky guinea pigs and a husband whose joy is to take care of us all.

Here it comes. Here I go.