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Book Launch Party: The Absinthe Underground
February 6 @ 6:00 pm
A Room of One’s Own is thrilled to kick off our first in-store event of the year with a book launch party for The Absinthe Underground! Join us for a discussion on and celebration of the book with the local author herself, Jamie Pacton, and Madison’s Queer Joy book club leader, Jamie Butler.
This is a celebration! Costumes are encouraged, and participants have the option to enter into a costume contest! The winner will receive at $25 gift card to A Room of One’s Own. There will also be free poster and postcard giveaways.
This is an in person event at A Room of One’s Own.
About the book
For Sybil Clarion, the Belle Époque city of Severon is a wild, romantic dream, filled with cafés, cabarets, and glittering nightclubs. Eager to embrace the city’s freedom after running away from home, she’s traded high-society soirées for empty pockets and barren cabinets. At least she has Esme, the girl who offered Sybil a home, and maybe—if either of them dared—something more.
Ever since Esme Rimbaud brought Sybil back to her flat, the girls have been everything to each other—best friends, found family, and secret crushes. While Esme would rather spend the night tinkering with her clocks and snuggling her cats, Sybil craves excitement and needs money. She plans to get both by stealing the rare posters that crop up around town and selling them to collectors. With rent due, Esme agrees to accompany—and more importantly protect —Sybil.
When they’re caught selling a poster by none other than its subject, Maeve, the glamorous girl doesn’t press charges. Rather, she invites Sybil and Esme to The Absinthe Underground, the exclusive club she co-owns, and reveals herself to be a Green Faerie, trapped in this world. She wants to hire thieves for a daring heist in Fae that would set her free, and is willing to pay enough that Sybil and Esme never have to worry about rent again. It’s too good of an offer to pass up, even if Maeve’s tragic story doesn’t quite add up, and even if Sybil’s personal ties to Fae could jeopardize everything she and Esme have so carefully built.
Jamie Pacton is an award-nominated young adult and middle grade author, who writes swoony, funny, magical books across genres. When she’s not writing, she’s teaching college English, obsessively reading obscure history, hiking, baking, or playing video games. Her books include The Vermilion Emporium, Lucky Girl, and The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly.
Jamie Butler is an award winning costumer, artist, and leader of the Queer Joy Book Club. They spend their free time curating and promoting new queer books by indie and traditionally published authors, creating bookish art, and helping build a safe, welcoming LGBTQIA2S+ community. They are currently writing their first novel in a trilogy, a polyam queer romance space fantasy inspired by DnD, Treasure Planet, Dragon Age, Cyberpunk 2077, and the Fifth Element. They can be found on all the socials as JamieBeeCreations.
