Penguin Random House Announces New D&D Romantasy Book

The Feywild Job comes out in June 2026.
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Penguin Random House has announced The Feywild Job, a new D&D novel written by World Fantasy Award and Nebula-winning writer CL Polk. The new book is a romantasy novel, a popular and wildly growing book genre. The book features a rogue tasked with stealing a gem called "The Kiss of Enduring Love" and is teamed up with their ex-lover, a bard. The twist to the novel is that the rogue has a magical pact granting them powers in exchange for never falling in love.

The new novel is written by CL Polk, a writer with serious bonafides in the fantasy community. Polk's debut novel Witchmark won the World Fantasy Award in 2019 and their 2022 novella Even Though I Knew The End won the Nebula Award for Best Novella that year. Based on their website, this appears to be Polk's first foray into licensed media.

Below is the full description for The Feywild Job. The book will be released on June 30, 2026.


Sparks fly when bitter exes are forced to team up for an elaborate Feywild heist, in this cozy fantasy romance by the bestselling author of the Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End.
Saeldian has sworn never to fall in love. That oath isn’t just a personal promise, but rather a magical pact, granting them powerful abilities. The only catch? They must never give their heart away—a deal that Saeldian is perfectly content with. They’ve seen firsthand how messy love can get.

Saeldian prefers their no-strings-attached life as a con artist, pulling off heists and leaving a trail of broken hearts behind them. But when a grift goes horribly wrong, they catch the eye of a mysterious patron with a job offer they can’t refuse.

The mission? Steal a gem called “The Kiss of Enduring Love” and return it to the Feywild. Simple enough, until Saeldian discovers their ex-partner, Kell—a charming bard—is part of the team.
The last time Saeldian saw Kell, things hardly ended on good terms. A kiss became a betrayal, leaving Kell hurt and confused for almost a decade. But Kell can’t just walk away—not when this job might finally be his ticket back to the Feywild.

Forced to work together again, their adventure takes them from high-society parties to Feywild couple’s therapy. But as Saeldian and Kell rekindle their chemistry, they realize the gem is much more than a fey bauble, and their simple heist has summoned powerful enemies. . . .
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

The novel "Legends & Lattes", which is sort of the prime example of "cozy fantasy" is practically set in a D&D fantasy world. The main character is a former adventurer who is a bit burnt out on delving dungeons and fighting evil sorcerers and so retires from adventuring and opens a coffee shop. I don't know if I need rules for this, but I'd love a game book detailing how to run cozy D&D games. And the book, Legends & Lattes, has combat, it has intrigue and conflict, but the primary focus is on the main character's journey recovering from her traumatic former profession and finding purpose and romance.
That sounds awesome!
 

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That sounds awesome!
One of Travis Baldree's other books, Bookshops and Bonedust, features the same main character in a similar cozy setup; it's actually a prequel. She fights a necromancer in the book. He has another book out, Brigands and Bread knives, which I received for Christmas but haven't read yet. The cover and title makes it seem like it might take place in the same world.
 

I'm rewatching all of Stranger Things right now to get refreshed so I can watch the final season. As I've been watching, I keep rolling my eyes at how over the top the various "bully" characters are in the show, how they constantly ridicule our main crew for playing the silly fantasy elves game of D&D.
To be fair, the exaggerated degrees of bullying are partly coming from the show’s influences - Steven Spielberg, Stephen King… possibly other artists with different spellings of the same first name… anyway, murderous bullies were a staple feature of the entertainment that Stranger Things is paying homage to.

Also, I’m in the midst of watching the final season, and since the subject came up I’m gonna take this opportunity to rant about something D&D related that’s been bugging the hell out of me about it: no spoilers, but there’s a small running gag where one of the characters gets compared to a wizard, and then one of the D&D players in the group points out that a sorcerer would be a better comparison because the powers are innate… and I’m like… look, it didn’t bother me too much when they said “rogue” instead of “thief” in Season 4, but sorcerers weren’t a thing until the year of our lord 2000!! That joke does not work!
 

To be fair, the exaggerated degrees of bullying are partly coming from the show’s influences - Steven Spielberg, Stephen King… possibly other artists with different spellings of the same first name… anyway, murderous bullies were a staple feature of the entertainment that Stranger Things is paying homage to.

Also, I’m in the midst of watching the final season, and since the subject came up I’m gonna take this opportunity to rant about something D&D related that’s been bugging the hell out of me about it: no spoilers, but there’s a small running gag where one of the characters gets compared to a wizard, and then one of the D&D players in the group points out that a sorcerer would be a better comparison because the powers are innate… and I’m like… look, it didn’t bother me too much when they said “rogue” instead of “thief” in Season 4, but sorcerers weren’t a thing until the year of our lord 2000!! That joke does not work!
I noticed the sorcerer thing also . . .

Apparently, when they are playing D&D in the last episode, they have Dwarven Forge terrain on the table. I missed that, but will be looking when I rewatch . . .

It both doesn't bother me at all, and at the same time drives me nuts!!! :LOL:
 

That sounds awesome!
It is! I highly recommend. It's gotten tons of accolades and two sequels for a reason! Well, one sequel and one prequel.

And the books scream D&D! From the titles, to the genre assumptions, to the character backstories . . . .

I want somebody to write a traditional action-adventure epic fantasy D&D novel . . . and then follow it up with a sequel like Legends & Lattes where one or more of the characters from the first book move into a more cozy scenario! Or maybe just have Travis Baldree write a prequel story of Viv's adventuring days (main character from Legends & Lattes).
 

Buddy. Mate. She literately did The video on the Star Wars hotel. The video quote about it. The reason "Pillar in the way" was a short meme about high end experiences being ruined by minor things that should be noticed. Her video is flat out quoted in actual articles about said hotel, that's how far reaching it was

Next you're going to call Defunctland "random Youtuber"

The Star Wars Hotel that was overpriced has nothing to do with The Rise of the Resistance or Flight of Passage. So I have no idea what the meme Pillar in the Way even is let alone what it has to do with what tourists in Disney World refer to rides. Your the one bringing these irrelevant things up. You didn't like how I addressed your ridiculous notion that people only say the star wars ride so you go off on a tangent about Youtubers and their influence. Literally who cares.

we're playing like this, huh

No I am telling you how it is.


So I'd start with "hey look at Races of Faerun (2003) that literately has no alignments listed for any orcs". Secondly, those are monsters. If I bring up some random human barbarian enemy who's chaotic evil, does that mean all humans are chaotic evil? By your accounts, it apparently does. I can easily find so, so many random chaotic evil humans. Or lawful evil. Guess that means gotta ban humans from play
So you don't realize the banning and restrictions on races is a choice and not a rule? I eliminate races by choice.
Not a good rebuttal. The only alignment entry for orcs were chaotic Evil. Races of Faerun had no alignment for any race. Humans were many and varied and were never inherently evil like orcs are. If you recall you will find Humans have many different alignments for many different entries. Orcs had one.
Secondly, no, I was talking about Many Arrows. Not evil.
Incorrect.

Thirdly, no, its a longrunning issue. Just because you only heard about it on Twitter doesn't mean its had issues. If you want me to go and shake the Orcs of Thar thread again I can do that, but if you're telling me the book with 'red orcs' and 'yellow orcs' (You'll never guess what stereotypes they're playing off!) isn't a little racially coded, I got some big questions. The fact there's a whole Wikipedia article about this thing just in relation to Tolkein says a lot. If you're going to say 'its all twitter', then I'd love to hear your explanation for the 2001 and 2004 documents therein that pre-date Twitter.

You make LOTS of assumptions. I didn't say I first heard about it on Twitter. That's where it gained steam. I don't use Twitter or platforms where you have to write small snippets. It takes too long to get information off of them when I can get to the topic quicker on information sites. Quite obviously WOTC didn't consider any of that until Twitter Mobs raged about it. I know about the literature about orcs and alignment. I've read it. Its about as convincing as D&D will make you a satanist, or Video Games cause violence. If the Satanic Panic was a twitter mob instead of opinions on news programs, WOTC Would have probably sanitized the game as badly as they sanitized Ancestries and Half Races. Just because Orcs of Thar was poorly thought out doesn't mean that Orcs were racially coded for anything. My first view of an orc was a Pink Pigfaced humanoid. Not exactly representative of any race I know. The Alignment determinism was the modern Satanic Panic, but Youtube influencers hold more sway than Christian Pearl Clutchers.

Yeah, sure you coach an esports team, buddy. Won't even tell me what it is, 'uses PC and console'. Do you think I was born yesterday?

You are quite confident in not taking people for their word. Do I have to tell you what it is? Second, DID you ask? Must I list everything. Because I am a coach of a team in a LEAGUE. With RULES about what consoles and PC cards can be used. I wouldn't normally rattle them off because most people don't care but since you are again so confidently sure I'm lying like you said with what 'Ride Names" of all things here you go. Smash Brothers: Switch, Mario Cart: switch (No DLC allowed), Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, Rocket League PC ONLY, Street Fighter Console Only. Brawlhalla on PC and Console two different teams. Believe it or don't. Why would I care. I honestly have no idea why you assume you know so much when you really don't.
People focus on one system, we don't switch setups willy nilly. I've come pretty high up in Smash Bros tourney, I follow WoW and FFXIV world firsts, and I'm an ex Warcraft 3 modder. I think I know a thing or two about the esports scene.

I don't think you do really. You've given me no indication you do. Your just what once again trying to discredit me because you can't think of other ways it could be done. That's two your down kid. I've been in charge of my team for Garden State ESPORTS for 5 years now. Maybe I just know more about it than you. OR! MAybe you can point me to another random youtuber authority you need to support your uninformed opinion. Get out of here with the "your incincere" nonsense. You don't know what your talking about. I had nothing to prove to you, its just laughable how you'll accuse someone of talking BS and then do the same exact thing. Yes yes I KNOW you love Warcraft. Your a warcraft MODDER!!! REALLY! WOW!!!!!!!!!
Any real gamer would be saying they go after Umas at the very least. Not even going for the horse girls and saying you're in an esports team. Very 'believable'.
You didn't use the correct abbreviation for University of Massachussets. Pay attention. UMASS. Mobile games horse games or otherwise are not legal in the Garden State Esports program. I'm a member opening up opportunities for kids and here you are saying I'm not a real gamer because I don't care about Mobile Games. I don't care if you don't believe me. Its not important. I have nothing to prove to you.
 
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You didn't you posted snark in the form of a question.
And you responded with a bunch of completely unrelated rambling, defending against an accusation I never made - namely, that you dislike when media changes - and immediately went on to… complain about the ways D&D changed. I think in tennis they call that an unforced error.
 

I noticed the sorcerer thing also . . .

Apparently, when they are playing D&D in the last episode, they have Dwarven Forge terrain on the table. I missed that, but will be looking when I rewatch . . .

It both doesn't bother me at all, and at the same time drives me nuts!!! :LOL:
like I said, I didn’t care when they called Erica’s character a “rogue” instead of a “thief” in season 4, because it’s a different name for the same class, so whatever. But, this bit in particular bothers me because if they’re bringing up classes that didn’t exist at all yet, then they picked the wrong one! It’s El whose powers are innate. Will’s powers were granted to him through his connection to Vecna, so he should be a warlock, not a sorcerer. Neither existed yet, but if sorcerers are fair game to bring up as innate vs. learned spellcasters, then warlocks should be on the table to bring up granted spellcasters too!

Anyway, none of this actually matters at all, but I figured since stranger things came up anyway I’d indulge in a little lighthearted pedantry.
 

The over-the-top bullies in Stranger Things are over-the-top, but genre appropriate. Stranger Things is a love-letter not just to the 80s, but to 80s TV and movies.

And . . . jock vs nerd bullying was a thing back in the 80s, moreso than today. I remember, I'm the same age as Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike are in the story. I remember the bullying. I remember the Satanic Panic. Watching Stranger Things was both wonderfully nostalgic, but also sometimes a little trauma-inducing . . . .
Ahem. Just to be clear…

I lived through the 70/80 feral generation times. The accuracy of stranger things was rather disturbing. So was how rpg gamers were seen.

Apologies, but please enjoy the current age where you can think the behaviors are unrealistic. Villainy in real life is often far more two dimensional than you would think. At least in my experience.
 

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