An independent press

Independent fiction across worlds.

High-stakes, character-led stories. Young adult fantasy and science fiction, romantasy with teeth, crime thrillers, and upmarket historical novels.

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Emberwitch by Briar Voss The Phoenix Examination by Dr. Tobe Phelps
Four names, one house

The press behind the books.

The Phoenix Examination cover
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction

Dr. Tobe Phelps

Magic with rules. Trials with teeth.

High-stakes trials, hard moral choices, and magic systems with rules that bite. The Awakenings series and the standalone The Phoenix Examination, with Wyrmridge next.

Visit drtobephelps.hotboxbooks.com →
Emberwitch cover
Romantasy & Dark Love Stories

Briar Voss

Slow-burn heat. Magic with teeth.

Frost and fire, forbidden contact, and heroines who refuse to be classified. Yearning that builds for three hundred pages before it breaks.

Visit briarvoss.hotboxbooks.com →
The Quiet Hours cover
Crime & Suspense Thrillers

Holt Brennan

The clock is always running.

Propulsive crime thrillers about ordinary people inside the machinery of public safety. Short chapters. Hard choices. No safe calls.

Visit holtbrennan.hotboxbooks.com →
The Seamstress of Saint-Malo cover
Upmarket & Historical Fiction

Vivian Meade

Every family keeps one box it never opens.

Dual-timeline novels for the book-club shelf — the secrets an ordinary house keeps, and the women who finally decide to open them.

Visit vivianmeade.hotboxbooks.com →
In print now

The catalog.

The Phoenix Examination
The Phoenix Examination
Dr. Tobe Phelps
Crown of Salt and Cinders
Crown of Salt and Cinders
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy / Fantasy
Wyrmridge
Wyrmridge
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
Awakenings
Awakenings
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
Punishment and Redemption
Punishment and Redemption
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
The New Heroes
The New Heroes
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Resonance of the Four
The Resonance of the Four
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Winged Serpent
The Winged Serpent
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
Stormcaller's Oath
Stormcaller's Oath
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy / Fantasy (rider-academy)
Emberveil
Emberveil
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy / Fantasy
Vellum House
Vellum House
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Dark Academia / Mystery
The Memory of Water
The Memory of Water
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Science Fiction
Inkbound
Inkbound
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Fantasy / Gothic Library Fantasy (light romantasy braid)
Songs for the Drowned Court
Songs for the Drowned Court
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy / Fantasy
The Hollow Crown of Briarfell
The Hollow Crown of Briarfell
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy / Fantasy
Ashmore's Nine
Ashmore's Nine
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Dark Academia (clean, closed-door)
The Beast She Feeds
The Beast She Feeds
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy — monster romance / dark romantasy
Null Class
Null Class
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Science Fiction — dystopian
The Gravemaker's Daughter
The Gravemaker's Daughter
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy — dark-necromancy / forbidden-magic
Veilblade
Veilblade
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy — assassin / morally-grey lane (Throne of Glass · An Ember in the Ashes); shadow-magic secondary world, enemies-to-lovers under forced proximity
A Vow of Nightshade
A Vow of Nightshade
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy — court-intrigue / morally-grey lane (the ACOTAR-court cluster). Comps: These Violent Delights — Chloe Gong; Serpent & Dove — Shelby Mahurin. Body-stakes poison-craft magic; a poison-taster sworn to die in the prince's place; a coronation-timed coup; a duty-vs-truth triangle.
Sleight of Fate
Sleight of Fate
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Romantasy — fantasy-heist / caper lane (Six of Crows · The Gilded Wolves); a canal-and-glass merchant city where luck is a tradable physical substance, a ragtag crew, an impossible vault, enemies-to-lovers slow burn, nested betrayals
The Alcott List
The Alcott List
Dr. Tobe Phelps
YA Dark Academia — mystery / conspiracy thriller. An elite boarding school (Alcott Academy), a secret merit 'List' of six names that has quietly decided students' futures for 138 years, a scholarship outsider who finds her own name on it — crossed out. Grounded (non-supernatural) institutional-secret engine; class-and-conspiracy stakes. Comps: Truly Devious (Maureen Johnson) · Ace of Spades (Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé).
The Bake Sale Coven
The Bake Sale Coven
Dr. Tobe Phelps
Interactive YA Cozy Fantasy (choose-your-path gamebook; 10 canonical routes)

An independent press building a catalog of high-stakes, character-led fiction.

Hotbox Publishing publishes across four imprints: young adult fantasy and science fiction by Dr. Tobe Phelps, romantasy under Briar Voss, crime and suspense under Holt Brennan, and upmarket historical fiction under Vivian Meade. Four distinct voices, one standard: stories with rules that bite and stakes that cost something.

New books, first.

Releases from every imprint, the occasional cover reveal, and nothing else.