Hilal SamaCozy fantasy
Hilal Sama
Warm stories set in old walled cities, where the bathhouse fires burn all night and not every guest who comes in from the lane is human.
Book one of The Midnight Bathhouse
The Midnight Bathhouse
Steam by day. Jinn by night.
Samar has come upriver to sell the old bathhouse her aunt left her and go home. Then she finds a note pinned to the bequest: Do not cross the salt after midnight unless you mean it.
After midnight, the Rose Bath has other guests.
What you'll find here
Two sets of hours
The neighbours bathe by day. After midnight the inner door opens to the jinn, and the keeper serves whoever comes in out of the dark.
A lane full of neighbours
Coppersmiths and perfumers, a guild inspector who misses nothing, a stoker who knows the furnace better than anyone, and a cat who belongs to the bath.
Comfort over carnage
The trouble is real but small enough to hold in two hands: a fire that must not go out, and a debt that has to be paid.
A world borrowed with affection
Bathhouses, souks and folklore from the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, mixed as a storyteller would mix them rather than a historian.