1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE NOTORIOUS VIRTUES
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
It’s 1920s Heiresses meets Grim Fairytales, with a deadly competition to control a city’s magic.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
As soon as I knew the book was going to be 1920s vibes, I knew I wanted it to be set in a city. Walstad, the city in The Notorious Virtues, is a mix of roaring 20s New-York, Belle Epoque Paris, and pre-War Berlin. A big part of the book was also having the tension between the city, and the magical woods at their border, and to really contrast the fairytale stories we hear of villages in the woods with a big bold glittering city.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
100% I would, but there’s almost no chance she would want to hang out with me (although I do currently have champagne in the fridge so…maybe)
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Nora: Wealthy. Intelligent. Confident.
Lotte: Naive. Angry. Cunning.
Theo: Brave. Loyal. Conflicted.
August: Witty. Ambitious. Realist.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
My first trilogy was single POV. This one is 4 different overlapping POVs. Writing that definitely taught me a lot!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I try to wait until I am done, but I do have to do some jumping back and forth. I’m definitely a “figure it out as I write” person, so that requires some skipping around the first draft of the book to make all the pieces fit. The important part is knowing the difference between editing and fiddling, because the latter will stop you progressing in the book every time.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I don’t know if you know the Off Menu podcast. But I know exactly what my dream meal is if I were ever a guest:
Starter: Meat Fruit (From “Dinner” in London)
Drink: Tommy’s Margarita (From “D Grande” in London)
Main: Spaghetti alle Vongele (From “Quadri” in Venice)
Side: Champagne (from “Fresne Ducret” in Champagne)
Dessert: 3 Scoops of Ice Cream in a cone on the last day of elementary school (From “Chez Boucher” in Beaune)
9--Describe your writing space/office!
At the end of my kitchen is a weird little glass extension that the previous owner built, like a mini conservator. It is just wide enough to hold a bookshelf, a desk and a chair. That’s where I work, looking out at my little garden. Except at certain hours on sunny days when the sun comes in pretty intensely and I have to get out or risk being baked or blinded. I do also work in a lot of cafés on the high road in my neighborhood. I’m in one so much that one of the baristas gives me her employee discount.
10--Who is an author you admire?
So many! But Leigh Bardugo is definitely one.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Alanna by Tamora Pierce. It was the first time I ever read a book where a girl disguised herself as a boy to subvert the patriarchy and at the time I thought Tamora Pierce had invented the concept. It is firmly one of the books that made me a YA fantasy lover, and makes me always seek out the feminist.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
Publishing Notorious was actually pretty straightforward because my publishers of my first trilogy took on this duology on as well. So was a bit more like renewing our vows than a proposal story. But what I will never forget is the first meeting I had with my now agent. Because it was the first time I ever heard someone say my main character’s name out loud and as someone who had been really secretive with my book until that point, my brain just went “How do you know about that!” (It’s because YOU sent her the book, genius.)
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Fantasy is my first love. And no matter where else I go I always come back to it.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Mulan or Little Women (Greta Gerwig’s version).
15--What is your favorite season?
Summer.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
In an ideal world I’d spend every birthday at the Venice Biennale of art eating Spaghetti alle vongele. But I’ve had a lot of different birthdays. My 30th was a blow out at the Ritz in London. My most recent birthday I took a day trip to an English country house with a friend.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The Swifts by Beth Lincoln. It’s a funny, clever, moving Middle Grade about a family with a quirky naming system. Shenanigan Swift, determined to prove that she is more than her name, sets out to solve who pushed aunt Schadenfreude down the stairs at the family reunion.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian. I could happily live on pasta.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Scroll TikTok but I wish I didn’t. I would say spend time with my niece, my parents and my friends, and go for meals out, but I have a bad habit of doing that even if I don’t really have free time.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
The Sequel to The Notorious Virtues will be out next year!
Bestselling Rebel of the Sands author Alwyn Hamilton is back with a glittering fantasy thriller about a glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.
At sixteen, Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money—and all the magic—in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.
But there's a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora's aunt. When Lotte's absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she'd abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.
And soon, Nora discovers that her mother's death wasn't random—it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.
While the dangers of the Veritaz competition threaten each of the Holtzfall girls, and the stark class differences turns political outrage to terrifing violence—the new cousins must fight to stay alive, no matter what.
Incredible tests, impossible choices, and deadly odds await both girls. But there can only be one winner.
Young Adult | Romance | Mystery [Viking Books for Young Readers, On Sale: April 1, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780451479662 / eISBN: 9780451479679]
Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness. She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often.
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