empty kingdom

Venom & Vow is a young adult queer fantasy novel by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore that blends romantic fantasy, royal intrigue, political stakes, magic, and identity exploration. Venom & Vow tells the story of two souls caught between duty and desire, survival and truth. What I loved about this novel is that it is not just a fantasy of crowns and conspiracies, it's a tender, aching journey through expression, love and the magic of claiming oneself fully as they are.

For book lovers of queer joy, romantasy, soft rebellion and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance wrapped in velvet and thorns.

Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore, Elliott McLemore

Young Adult Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ+

January 28, 2025 from Square Fish

Two enemy kingdoms are forced to work together to break a curse in this lush YA fantasy, featuring a transgender prince and a bigender dama/assassin in the lead roles.

Keep your enemy closer.

Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother.
Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana.
Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect.
Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.

Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade. And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.

Cowritten by married writing team Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow is a lush and powerful YA novel about owning your power and becoming who you really are - no matter the cost.

The two protagonists are part of two royal families from two enemy kingdoms.

Eliana v. Adare

These two kingdoms have historical animosity toward one another and are in active warfare, but both kingdoms have become affected by the same curse that requires them to put aside their differences to work together to defeat the curse.

Eliana kingdom

Magical creatures, including Quetzals, materialize from tapestries to guard and protect the people of the kingdom. Protagonist, Valencia, works as a dama for the Elianan princess, proving her allegiance to the Eliana kingdom. She operates under a secret identity as Gael, the infamous bigender assassin. Eliana kingdom may be inspired Latine culture, with Latine cultural elements and Spanish layered throughout the kingdom.

Adare kingdom

The other protagonist, Cade, is a transgender reluctant prince/son of the Adare queen, who goes under disguise as his brother in battle to protect him. Adare is guarded by sea monsters. The Adare kingdom may be inspired by Celtic culture.

♡ Authentic and nuanced portrayals of intersectional representation (disabled, bigender, transgender and Latine-coded) that the authors handled with grace and honesty

♡ The character development feels genuine and builds as readers are taken through their journeys

♡ There's a powerful personal growth arc that explores empowerment, identity and self-acceptance

♡ Complex morality is explored throughout the story as the morally gray protagonists may have readers ask ethical questions about their decisions

♡ The cultural representations of the two kingdoms

♡ I'm a fan of some of the tropes in this book: enemies-to-lovers slow-burn romance and court intrigue for example, so readers who are fans of those very same tropes will also enjoy this novel!

Themes / Tropes

☾ Enemy royal families forced to work together to break a curse

☾ Enemies-to-lovers

☾ Found family

☾ Slow-burn romance

☾ Court intrigue

☾ A curse

☾ Morally gray characters

☾ Royal decoy

☾ Hidden identity

☾ Arranged marriage/betrothed

☾ Soft rebellion

Representation

☀ Trans bigender + nonbinary disabled MCs

☀ Queer Latine bigender + Trans co-authors

☀ Latine-coded characters/cultures

☀ Celtic-coded culture

☀ Chronic pain

Content Warnings

➤ Dysphoria

➤ Violence

➤ Battle

➤ Emotional abuse

➤ Transphobia/misgendering

➤ Mentions of death/loss

[Image by me, made on canva]

"To live as yourself in a world that would rather you didn't - that's not cowardice. That's courage."

--Anna-Marie McLemore, Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow

"I would wear your name like armor. I would speak it like a vow."

--Anna-Marie McLemore, Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is the author of William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist The Weight of Feathers; Wild Beauty; Blanca & Roja, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Novels of All Time; Indie Next List title Dark and Deepest Red; Lakelore, an NECBA Windows & Mirrors title; Venom & Vow, co-authored with Elliott McLemore; Flawless Girls; and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, which was also a Stonewall Honor Book; The Mirror Season; and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. Their latest release is their adult debut, The Influencers, and their next young adult novel is We Could Be Anyone, forthcoming in spring 2026.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Elliott McLemore is a nonbinary trans guy who comes from mountains and loves trees. As a child, he romped in dresses, fought with plastic swords, and dreamed up his first stories. Between then and now, he has focused on academic and professional writing, research, and advocacy, including work toward adding nonbinary gender markers to California identity documents. Venom & Vow is his debut novel.

(Disclaimer: I earn a small commission from purchases made through my Bookshop.org affiliate link [above] at no additional cost to customers. Thank you for supporting local bookshops!)

🌱 How do Cade and Valencia's journeys of "owning your power and becoming who you really are" differ, and what obstacles does each face?

🌱 How does the intersectional representation (transgender, bigender, disabled, Latine-coded) contribute to the richness of their worlds?

🌱 What does the story suggest about finding community and belonging when you don't fit traditional expectations?

{Story Diary} Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore, Elliott McLemore | YA Romantasy Filled with Royal Intrigue, Magic and Radical Hope

Aug 11, 2025