Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Sabitha: Full disclosure here—Nicole Northwood is a friend, and The Night Garden, her adult fantasy fairytale romance, is a book I deeply love. I suspect you’ll love it too! Nicole, can you tell our readers a bit about your book?

Nicole: The Night Garden is the first in the Fairytales of the Lochs duology and is best described as an adult, reverse Swan Princess retelling… but with cats. If you ever wondered what it would be like to read Jane Austen but with spicy scenes, magic, and hallucinogenic potions, this might be a novel you’d enjoy.

Ellie Blue Callaghan doesn’t want to give up her wild ways. Now that she’s nineteen, she’ll be sent to Blossom Preparatory Academy to train to be a proper sorceress, adult, and wife for Colonel Gallagher. Unfortunately, Ellie loves the wind-swept countryside of Loch Gàrraidh, her untamed and turbulent magic, and the hallucinogenic experience of a fantastical drug called Allure, and she can’t imagine giving them up for a life that would most definitely be dull in comparison.

Max O’Carroll failed out of Blossom Preparatory Academy and was cursed for eternity because of his refusal to follow society’s conservative rules. He can break his affliction if he finds true love, but nobody in recent history has ever fallen for a Bèist—a being that presents as a feral cat by day and takes their original human form by night. But when Ellie and Max meet during a twilight garden party and connect over wine and a moonlit swim, they soon realize their perception of love, freedom, and control are very different from what they’ve been taught to believe.

Getting tangled in Max’s terrible enchantment could mean disaster for Ellie’s future, but only if they are caught together…

Sabitha: Often in stories about a woman choosing between two men, there’s a love triangle and one of the men is a jerk and the other is perfect. You wrote something delightfully different—both men are perfect, though only one is perfect for Ellie, and no one’s jealous of anyone. Did you plan to show a different version of that trope?

Nicole: When I started writing the book, I honestly wasn’t 100% sure how it was going to turn out. I had a vague idea for the romance between Ellie and Max, but the other romances in the story actually came to light quite late in the writing process—mostly as I was drafting. I guess that means it wasn’t necessarily planned, but I think as the story went along, it became very clear that everyone in the story who functioned as a primary character needed to have a happily ever after, and I had to work out how to make that happen!

Sabitha: A major theme of this book is how harmful society’s rules and expectations can be—and how love can free us. Why is that theme so important to you?

Nicole: That’s a hard one! As someone who is high-anxiety, I’ve always been curious about what it would be like to feel freed from the expectations of society and from other people. Even as an adult, I find it difficult sometimes to understand and appreciate that some rules are meant to be broken, or that they exist as guidelines or best practices instead of unbreakable laws. I really wanted to explore those feelings with Ellie—where she feels like she has the capacity and ability to be herself if only this one thing would go away, and she decides to find a way to take her chances to be happy.

Sabitha: Cats! I will forever and ever love a book with cats. I happen to know that you have your own garden full of cats. First of all, cat tax. Show us pictures! And do any of your pets have anything in common with your cat-shifter Béists?

Nicole: I would have to say that Max the Cat is much smarter and much more clever than the cats I have living like fluffy potatoes in my house! I do have one cat who knows a few little party tricks, but nothing as impressive as how to turn into a human!

Sabitha: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Nicole: You can grab a copy of The Night Garden here. And you can follow me Instagram / TikTok / Threads: @nicolebooks_