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Tor UK acquires Talia Hibbert's romantasy in 'spirited' 15-way auction
Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has scooped romantasy The Last Thorn by Talia Hibbert in a ’spirited’ 15-way global auction. The UK and Commonwealth rights were acquired by publisher Bella Pagan from Courtney Miller-Callihan at the Handspun Literary Agency.
These were acquired as part of a joint World English acquisition with executive editor Vicki Lame (Saturday Books / St Martin’s Press Publishing Group, US), who acquired North American rights.
The Last Thorn is Hibbert’s début fantasy novel. Hibbert, a New York Times bestselling author, is best known for her romance writing, including Get a Life, Chloe Brown, while her latest novel is pitched as a spicy magical Beauty and the Beast retelling.
Hibbert said: "Creative burnout almost destroyed my love of writing. Then The Last Thorn came to me in a storm of thrilling, high-stakes fantasy and intense enemies-to-lovers romance. This book means the world to me and I am so grateful to have found its perfect home with Bella, Vicki and their respective teams."
Pagan said: "I adored this compelling, character-driven fantasy, and the stunning on-page chemistry between Serenia and Casimir! It’s also really exciting to see a neurodivergent main character in Serenia. Talia is a genius when it comes to crafting relatable, nuanced neurodivergent voices and her stories and readers’ worlds are all the richer for it."
Hibbert self-published her first novella in 2017 at 21-years-old, and since then has written more than fifteen books, several of which have been optioned for TV and film.
Tor UK plans to publish The Last Thorn in Summer 2026 to match publication by Saturday Books—a new St Martin’s Press imprint.
