Small Beer Press released Kathe Koja’s Under The Poppy this week and we almost missed it. You may remember Koja’s early ventures into the horror genre, Strange Angels, The Cipher and several others. Well, she’s back in the genre again, after doing some writing for the Young Adult audience.

Description: Under the Poppy is a brothel owned by Decca and Rupert. Decca is in love with Rupert but he in turn is in love with her brother, Istvan. When Istvan comes to town, louche puppet troupe in tow, the lines of their age-old desires intersect against a backdrop of approaching war.

Hearts are broken when old betrayals and new alliances — not just their own — take shape, as the townsmen seek refuge from the onslaught of history by watching the girls of the Poppy cavort onstage with Istvan’s naughty puppets.

With the war getting too close, Istvan and Rupert abandon the Poppy and find a place in high society where they try to avoid becoming more than puppets themselves in the hands of those they have helped before and who now want to use them again.

Under the Poppy is a vivid, sexy historical novel as delicious and intoxicating as the best guilty pleasure.

Learn more from the publisher website: Under The Poppy

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