🌺Hello, From Xanthe Walter

October 20th, 2026

👀 In this newsletter…

• In this newsletter we have something exciting – a title reveal for my new novel. Check out the Writing News section below to find out what it is.
• All I’ve been doing lately is writing. I’m up to my eyes in this new novel and completely in love with it. I’m at the tricky last third when I have to bring all the plot strands together and deliver all the emotional pay-offs, so I’m quite stressed but loving it too.
• No release date yet, but I’m hoping for some time between March and July 2027.
• I emailed my narrator, Matt Addis, to get him primed and find out his current lead time. I think he’ll LOVE doing this one. It’s right up his street with some character voices he’ll relish.
• There’s a slightly different poll this time – check it out below.
• Loving this newsletter? Tell your MM romance-loving friends they can sign up here.

In Other News:

• This newsletter’s featured author is CF White with Too Close to Home, a gritty MM romantic suspense featuring a grieving widowed detective, a hot-headed ex-con roofer, a missing girl, a thirteen-year-old cold case, cop × cop-hater tension, forbidden attraction, forced proximity, hurt/comfort, and a slow-burn romance filled with secrets, danger, and undeniable chemistry. The first book in the Whitton & Black trilogy, where getting too close could uncover the truth—or cost them everything!

• There are several new themed book promos for you to check out below.

✍️ Writing News

In every newsletter, I’ll tease you with a morsel or two about the new novel. In this one, I’m very excited to reveal the title.

And it is… (drumroll!)

WINGLIGHT

Two lonely men.
One sleepy Somerset estate.
One weeping willow hiding an ancient secret.

Some things that are buried are not quite dead. And some things that are lost are only waiting to be found.

Next time: the tropes. Get your bingo cards ready…

👱🏻‍♀️Xanthe’s Exploits

As some of you will know, Crocodile Tears, the first book in my Dark Water series, opens with a murder in a house in Crystal Palace, a suburb of South London. That one death sets the whole sprawling plot in motion.

For anyone not familiar with the area: yes, Crystal Palace is a real place. I know it’s an odd name, so here’s the story behind it.

In 1851, Prince Albert championed the Great Exhibition, housed in a vast glass palace in Hyde Park. When it closed, the building was given a permanent home, and it was moved, pane by pane, to an unremarkable hilltop in Penge. Inevitably, the hill and the area around it became known as Crystal Palace, and the name has stuck ever since.

In its heyday, the palace must have been breathtaking. A special railway line was even built to bring visitors almost to its door, with a subway beneath the busy main road so they could arrive safely.

The Crystal Palace burned down in 1936. My dad was two at the time, and his mum held him up to the window so he could see it; the blaze was visible for miles. During the war, the subway served as an air raid shelter. Afterwards it was sealed off and became a dumping ground for old statues from the palace.

Now for the point of my story (yes, there is one!). When I was a teenager, my mum took me to one of the subway’s rare open days, and it was so beautiful I never forgot it. The whole site has recently been undergoing restoration: the remains of the Italian terraces are being rescued, and the park’s famous dinosaur statues have had a facelift. The old subway has been restored too, and on Saturday I finally went back.

It might sound silly, but I felt quite emotional. The last time I stood there was with my beloved mum, all those years ago. The subway is still lovely, and there’s even a tiny relic of the war years: a channel in the floor left over from the men’s urinal, from its days as an air raid shelter.

Pictures below!

🌊 Dark Water Box Set

A four-book series featuring broken boys, epic MM romance, and a dark, compelling plot with twists nobody ever sees coming… will you?

KU | Audio | Ebook | Paperback

All About Romance Favourite Book 2025 | Joyfully Jay Best of 2025

All four books also available individually. Series must be read in order!
Crocodile Tears | Ghost Eye | The Lost Zone | The Quarterlands