by Wen-yi Lee
Part of The Butterfly Duet
First published 2025
Adeline Siow can summon flames with her bare hands, but she has always kept to herself in 1972 Singapore. When her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly burned into her skin, Adeline tracks down a girl with a matching butterfly tattoo from a back alley fight. The girl, Ang Tian, belongs to the Red Butterflies, a gang of women who serve a fire goddess and target men who harm them. Adeline learns her mother secretly funded this group as the mysterious Madam Butterfly. With her mother gone, Adeline's bloodline becomes the only thing keeping their goddess alive. She finds herself drawn into the gang's world and attracted to the magnetic Tian. But rival gangs circle their territory while bodies appear in the red light district, killed by unfamiliar magic. Adeline must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect the first place she has ever belonged.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, fantasy, adult-fiction, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotionally-intense, gritty, sensual
Tropes: chosen-one, enemies-to-lovers, found-family, sapphic-romance, slow-burn
Setting: Singapore, Red Light District
Period: 1972
496 pages · Paperback · Tor Books
Content warnings: death, murder, violence