Scholastic heads to the ball for Nathan's Regency-inspired dystopian romance

Scholastic has scooped The Virtue Season, a debut Regency-inspired dystopian YA romance, from L M Nathan.

Fiction editor Tierney Holm acquired world rights from Ciara Finan at Curtis Brown. The novel will be published in July 2024.

The Virtue Season explores human rights under a totalitarian government and how love and friendship can endure in the darkest of places.

The synopsis reads: "Survivors of the Sephtis Floods call this new place Calde Valley. The county known as Penn Vale envies Foxfields its salt pans, Waddow its artisans, Castle Hill its isolation, Stone Hamlet its books and all eye the thriving fields of Penn with gnawing hunger.

"Manon Pawlak has just turned 18 – a debutante at the start of The Virtue Season: a process which will result in a match with a suitable genetic mate, sanctioned by the Calde Valley Council. Her best friend, Agatha, has been decommissioned. Her seizures mean that she has been branded with a scar on the crest of her cheek which will forever sit at the corner of her vision, colouring the world in shades of mauve. This is the story of their ritual year."

Nathan commented: “The Virtue Season has been my home since I first stood on Pendle Hill and wondered what the world be like if civilisation as we know it had been swallowed by the sea. From the moment Manon and Agatha stepped into that landscape, I had to tell their story. It is one of diversity and acceptance, friendship and romance and I am very happy to have joined forces with Scholastic, who have brought such vision and energy to this project."

Holm said: "Lisa is a distinctly talented writer and this is a book you cannot help but fall for. It has all of the hauntingly dystopian vibes of The Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale but uniquely paired with the deliciously moreish regency swoon of ’Bridgerton’.

"I have been obsessed with this book and this world since the moment I picked up the first draft on submission and I can’t wait for YA readers to discover this epic, epic debut."

Finan added: “Lisa’s creativity and writing hooked me from the first page, and I’m overjoyed that it has found a wonderful home with Tierney and Scholastic."