Episode 58: A holiday return!
Book recs and book news!
Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! We’re so glad you’re here.
This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion — from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers.
In episode fifty-eight we dropped back into your feeds to see how you’re all doing, shared some holiday book recs, and chatted a little about Amie’s next book!
In this newsletter:
Our happy places
Book recs for your holiday gifting needs
Red Star Rebels is coming
An Exploress reminder
Our holiday wishes for you
Happy places
In this latest episode, we talked about places we’d love to teleport to. Here they are, so you can visualise them!

Is there somewhere you’d love to teleport to for an hour or two? Tell us about it, so we can take an imaginary trip too!
Book recommendations
During the episode, we chatted about a bunch of fantastic books we loved this year. Here they are, in case you need reminding:
The Invocations, by Krystal Sutherland
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, by Alison Goodman
You can listen to Kate’s interview with Alison right here.
Slayers of Old, by Jim C. Hines
We discussed Jim’s amazing cover poses, and you can find them here.
Enemy of my Dreams, by Jenny Williamson
You can find Kate’s interview with Jenny right here.
Red Star Rebels is nearly here


We talked all about Red Star Rebels, coming in February (ahhhhh!) and would love to remind you that every time you preorder a book, we spare the life of a character you love. Truly. Also it just really helps demonstrate reader enthusiasm to publishers, and is the best way out there to support the authors you love to read.
🇺🇸 If you’re in the US, you can find all your preorder links right here. And you can try for an advance copy on Netgalley here.
🇬🇧 If you’re in the UK, you can preorder from Waterstones, Amazon, Blackwell’s, Bookshop, Foyle’s, Hive, or WH Smith (who seem to have changed their name to TG Jones, what’s going on over there?) You can request on Netgalley here.
🇦🇺 If you’re in Australia, you can buy from Dymocks, Booktopia, Readings, Amazon or QBD.
An Exploress reminder
If you’d like a familiar voice in your ear between now and our next episode, we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that you can always find Kate over on The Exploress, where she’s busy exploring women’s history, one era at a time.
Our holiday wishes for you
We want to thank you for listening — hearing from you, meeting you in signing lines, or reading your comments feels like such a wonderful connection. In a world that’s full of conflict, this podcast and its little corner of the internet have been such a peaceful place to hang out with you all, and we value that so deeply.
However you celebrate the holidays, we hope they’re wonderful for you. We hope you read some excellent books, get to spend time with people you love, and get the chance to tell them that you do.
We’ll be back in 2026 to talk about Red Star Rebels, and we can’t wait to see you then.
Happy reading!








Ahhh it was so good to hear your voices again!! I've missed you guys so much! Personally, I'm half Greek half Canadian living in Greece, so I think I'd teleport to Toronto to see my family that lives there! ❤️