A Curse for the Homesick

I have a new book! You can read it in February. I will post the cover below, but first, please enjoy some frequently and not-so-frequently asked questions.

What’s it called?

A Curse for the Homesick.

What is it about?

Stressed-out swim team kids; overwhelmed Stanford students; disillusioned San Francisco adults; loving the place you came from but being desperate to get out anyway; the fear of letting yourself love someone and letting yourself be loved in return. It’s also a book about friendship and the people you feel beside you even when you move an ocean away. It’s about curses and stones and sheep and sweaters and oceans. It’s about the stuff of life being what other people make us feel.

Can you be, like, marginally more specific?

Here is the official blurb:

On Stenland, there comes a time known as skeld season: one day, any woman on the island can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of a skeld. Skeld season comes around without warning, and while each window of time lasts only three months, anyone a skeld turns to stone is very much dead.

That's how Tess’s mother killed Soren’s parents. Maybe for this reason alone, Tess and Soren should not have fallen in love. Since the time her mother was a skeld, Tess has wanted to leave Stenland, to run from the windswept island, from her family and friends. She is unwilling to bear the responsibility of one day killing anyone, let alone someone she loves. Soren has been determined to stay, to live out his life in the place he knows as home, even if that life could be cut short during the latest skeld season. They cannot see eye to eye—and yet, they cannot stay apart. She tries to come back for him. He tries to leave for her. But can your love for one person outweigh everything else combined? And how do you decide how much you’re willing to risk, if it might mean destroying someone else in the process?

Laura Brooke Robson has crafted a fascinating story about the choices we make, the responsibilities we carry, and the ambiguities of regret.

When can I read it?

February 18, 2025.

Where can I read it?

It’s being published in the US by MIRA (which is part of Harlequin, which is part of HarperCollins) and in the UK by Hodderscape (which is part of Hodder & Stoughton, which is part of Hachette). You will be able to find it in your favorite indie bookstore, Barnes & Noble/large bookstore, and/or online retailer.

Can I see the Publishers Marketplace official deal announcement?

(You were probably not asking this, but yes.)

What genre is it?

It will be shelved as general fiction—which is to say, it’s not YA (though it does have elements of growing up, if that’s your thing), and it’s not fantasy (though it does have elements of magic, if that’s your thing).

I would like to support you, a neat person and/or author whose writing I like! What should I do?

You can pre-order it here from Bookshop.org. If you’d rather, you can pre-order it from Amazon here, but Bookshop does a lot of cool work with indie bookstores, so I think it would be even neater if you did that. Pre-orders are the single best way to help more people find a new book.

You can also add it on Goodreads! As an aside, it’s currently showing up under the author name “Laura Robson” in one place and “Laura Brooke Robson” in another. If you or a loved one are a Goodreads Librarian, it would be so rad if you fixed that for me.

Also, you can ask your library to order a copy! There is a misconception that authors don’t like it when people read their books from the library because then they don’t get paid. My dudes. Libraries do pay us. I love libraries from the bottom of my little heart. If it’s all the same to you, though, please do not illegally download my book should the opportunity present itself. Also, if you do, dear god, please stop telling me.

Can I see the cover?

Sure!

That’s stunning.

I know, right?

Will the UK edition have a different cover?

Likely yes! Watch this space!

Are you making a movie?

Lucy Stille is managing film and TV rights. Which is wonderful! She is the best. Ultimately, authors have very little control over how this shakes out, but hey, if you run a production house, do feel free to slide into my DMs.

What do the blurbs say?

Ridiculously nice things. I’m not crying; you’re crying. Go buy their books.

“Stunning, heartbreaking, a gorgeous lyrical page-turner, A Curse for the Homesick is a must-read for anyone who understands that love is the deepest, darkest form of magic.”

—Meg Shaffer, USA Today bestselling author of The Lost Story

“Star-crossed lovers, a remote island, a deadly curse… A Curse for the Homesick is an emotionally-charged rollercoaster that is as sexy as it is haunting. You won’t want to put it down, but you might have to once in a while just to catch your breath.”

—Ruth Emmie Lang, author of Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance

“A lyrical, melancholy, and deeply moving story about the people we love and the places we long for, even when we know we shouldn’t. Aching and poignant.”

—Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning

“A thoroughly modern love story set against a backdrop of ancient mythology, it evokes perfectly that feeling of, at long last, finding the only place in this world that is home. Deeply atmospheric, profound, and beautiful.”

—James Goodhand, author of The Day Tripper

“With her signature atmospheric prose and incisive eye for detail, Robson will make you yearn for a place you’ve never been. A bittersweet, hopeful tale about what it means to belong to a place—and how love is a risk worth taking.”

—Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic

Can you give us a preview?

I don’t remember when I first met Soren Fell. I don’t remember when I first met anyone, actually, because I grew up on a small rock between Scotland and the Arctic where everyone is someone’s cousin and the woman who owns the café also controls the nation’s politics. You don’t meet people. You just know them.

When I was twelve, my mum was arrested for accidentally killing Soren’s parents. You can see why it is unfortunate, then, that he was the first person I fell in love with.

Currently reading: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, which is beautiful and devastating.

Non-urgent thought of the week: What am I doing on Instagram such that I exclusively get content about ghosts and pumpkins sipping tea? And do I want this to change?

If you liked this, consider sharing it with your favorite person. If you hated it, consider sharing it with your least favorite person.