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Natalie Kikić

@natkikicwrites

3.7K

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2012

following

🖤 Author of haunting and romantic stories
🪻 THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE (Oct. 2026)
📚 Rep: Elizabeth Pratt @trellisliterary

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The best kind of book mail 💌

When you’re part of a diaspora there is often a feeling of not being “enough.” The Croatian community is so vast, but if there’s anything I’ve learned it is that it is a “small” community and it is strong. We are all bound together by a shared love of our heritage and families.

After chatting online for a while, I finally met Natalie in person last year at StokerCon, remembering how she told me about her manuscript she was getting ready to query and now look how far she has come! One day we will surely share a glass of vino on the Adriatic among other fantastic authors from and with roots in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

Meeting someone else in the diaspora with the same passion for culture, heritage, and writing has made me feel very much less alone on my own path of reconnection and has helped me feel more confident in my sense of belonging to the Croatian community!

Natalie was so thoughtful to send me a copy of Croatian Tales of Long Ago, and funny enough the copy I had been looking at myself! My daughters have already claimed it. Hopefully they’ll share with me. 😉

I hope you’l check out The Haunting of Lavender House and fall in love with lijepa naša domovino. 🇭🇷♥️

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New books just dropped 📚📚

You there!! Are you a monster lover? Pick up LETHAL KISS by @taylorlgrothe right now - this blood soaked horror with a toxic sapphic romance will have you saying, “Good for her!!”

THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE hits shelves today. It’s a haunting, gothic tale inspired by Croatian folklore, set on an island in the Adriatic Sea. @natkikicwrites stopped by the other day to sign copies!!

For all you freaks out there, MOBY DICK IN PICTURES is just what the whaler ordered. The illustrations and descriptions are in fact bonkers.

Keywords: New Books Indie Bookstore Beverly MA Horror Novels Gothic Horror Dark Academia Independent Bookstore

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Very excited to plan my reading trip to The Haunting Lavender House by @natkikicwrites!

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✨It’s New Release Tuesday✨and I’m back with my 4 recommendations for Gothic, Horror, and Speculative fiction out now! From cursed family legacies and haunting secrets, to Norse mythology and ethereal fantasy worlds, you’re sure to find your next favorite read among these great books! Scroll through the carousel for more info about each novel

Clockwise from top left:

🪴 THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE by @natkikicwrites

📷 MY DARLING GIRLS by @marina_v_scott

🫀I AM THE DEVOURING DARK by @kimberly_lynn_books

✨THE DAWN OF DUSK AND TWILIGHT by @jendiagammon writing as J. Dianne Dotson

Congratulations to all! 🎉

#newreleasetuesday #newbookalert #bookstagram #horror #gothic

🪴THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE by @natkikicwrites

I loved this gorgeous, atmospheric story about a young woman who journeys to Croatia to confront the troubling family legacy that haunts the island estate she’s set to inherit

A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood. The Lost Apothecary meets The Hacienda in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.

2026. All Petra has inherited are tales of loss. Which is why, after her mother’s passing, she is shocked to learn that her grandmother is not dead like she’s always believed, but alive and living on Tolba, a small island in Croatia. Desperate to find her last surviving family member, Petra ventures to her ancestral home, famed for its sprawling lavender fields. While she’s happy to be reunited with her grandmother, rarely does a night go by that Petra doesn’t lose herself to vivid nightmares and the dizzying sense that something—or someone—is always watching in Lavender House.

1895. Whore. Sinner. Witch. No matter how many people Magdalena heals, the rumors persist. So, when she’s asked to help the matriarch of Lavender House, she seizes the opportunity to rehabilitate her reputation. As Magdalena races against time to heal the ailing woman, she finds herself unexpectedly falling for the son of her greatest enemy, the man responsible for her ostracization. But are true love and acceptance possible for a woman who has

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One more big shout out for @natkikicwrites on pub day! So cool to finally hold this book after so long. This is such a beautiful story and the ending is like a hug around your heart.

Thank you @thepaperheartbooks for always having the best selection! 🪻💜

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Happy publication day to @natkikicwrites's THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE, out today from @parkrowbooks!
🏚
A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood. The Lost Apothecary meets The Hacienda in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.
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#nataliekikic #thehauntingoflavenderhouse #gothicromance #halloweenreads #folklore

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Happy Pub Day @natkikicwrites! I wish I could be at your launch party, but I’m so glad we finally got to meet in person this summer. I was privileged to witness this book evolve and to read an advanced copy. It is fabulous!!! Can’t wait to hold my pre-order copy in my hands! ❤️❤️🪻🏠 @parkrowbooks

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📚 It’s New Book Tuesday! 📚 Here are our exciting #2026Debuts that are hitting shelves this week. Pick them up wherever books are sold!

Don’t forget you can head to www.2026debuts.com for a full list of our exciting titles coming out this year!

#newbooks #debutauthors #onsalethisweek #booklove

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Today’s a great pub day for women in horror!

🪻The Haunting of Lavender House by @natkikicwrites
📸 My Darling Girls by @marina_v_scott

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Happy #pubday to @natkikicwrites and THE HAUNTING OF LAVENDER HOUSE! 🥳🎉

A crumbling home surrounded by lavender fields. A decades-long curse. A nightmare from Croatian folklore with a thirst for blood in this multigenerational, haunting gothic saga set on the Adriatic Sea.

Available now! 📖📚

#bookstagram #bookbirthday #newreleases #books

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𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 by Natalie Kikić
Release Date: October 20, 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

This was such a beautiful debut by Natalie Kikić! The gorgeous cover pulled me right in, and I loved the creepy atmosphere and Croatian folklore woven throughout the story.

After her mom dies, Petra discovers her supposedly deceased grandmother is alive and living in their ancestral home in Croatia. Hoping to uncover why her mother left, Petra travels to Lavender House, where a dark family history awaits her. Through dual timelines, we also follow Magdalena in 1895, a healer accused of witchcraft whose story may hold the key to the curse surrounding the house.

The setting was SO good. I could practically smell the lavender and picture the fields surrounding this spooky old house. And the romance?! So well done! 💜

It kind of reminded me of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 by Freida McFadden, and what better time to read it than October? 🎃👻🕯️

💬 Do you enjoy a little romance mixed into your horror reads?

💌 Thank you @netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

#thehauntingoflavenderhouse #arcreview #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bookstagram

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📚ARC Review • The Haunting of Lavender House

📖 Natalie Kikic makes a stunning debut with a gothic, folktale, feminist horror, mystery, romance novel that pulled me in despite not being my usual fare. Through dual timelines and two women linked by a house on the island of Tolba, plus a limited point of view from the house itself, Kikic explores family curses, female rage, grief, and the consequences of unending cycles of revenge.

📖 As a second‑generation daughter of immigrants who grew up in the immigrant diaspora, I felt a real resonance with her exploration of ancestral distance, imposter syndrome, and the longing for the home of your roots. Petra’s present‑day search for identity and Magdalena’s 1895 story as a healer who is both needed and feared create a compelling parallel, especially as the mora folklore threads through both timelines.

📖 I won’t get into the political symbolism here, but the novel left me thinking about the ways the former Yugoslavia was torn apart by ethnic rivalries and inherited vengeance. A unique, atmospheric read with moments of beautiful lyrical writing.

✍️ Full review on Goodreads (link in bio. & today’s story)

Thank you to @harpercollins and @netgalley for the advanced copy.

❓💬What kind of stories have been catching your attention lately?

#BookReview #GothicFiction #feministhorror #ARCreview #gothicromance

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