The release date for the English version of 'Vespertine' by
Margaret Rogerson is Oct 2021. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The Loraille dead do not sleep.
As a nun, Artemisia is preparing to become a Gray Sister, a religious who purges the bodies of the dead to allow their souls to continue on; otherwise, the dead would resurrect as ghosts with an insatiable desire for the living. Though they gossip to each other about her scarred hands and turbulent background, she would much rather deal with the dead than the living.
Artemisia defends her monastery from soldiers who are possessed by reawakening an ancient ghost that is confined within a saint's relic. It's a revenant, a demonic entity that waits to take control of her if she lets her guard down. Its incredible power nearly consumes her, but death has come to Loraille, and the only person who can stop it is a vespertine, a priestess skilled in the use of a high relic. Artemisia looks to the lone expert on vespertines, the revenant itself, for assistance because all previous knowledge of them has been lost to time.
Her link with the revenant deepens as she delves into a sinister mystery involving secrets, dark magic, and saints. And when a secret evil starts to show itself, she finds that, if the revenant doesn't betray her first, defeating this enemy might mean sacrificing everything she has been raised to believe.