An independent press

Independent fiction across worlds.

High-stakes, character-led stories. Young adult fantasy and science fiction, and romantasy with teeth.

Emberwitch by Briar Voss The Phoenix Examination by Dr. Tobe Phelps
Two 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 →
An independent press building a catalog of high-stakes, character-led fiction.

Hotbox Publishing publishes young adult fantasy and science fiction by Dr. Tobe Phelps, and romantasy under the Briar Voss imprint. Two distinct voices, one standard: stories with rules that bite and stakes that cost something.

New books, first.

Releases from both imprints, the occasional cover reveal, and nothing else.