Enter the world of Sparta as you've never experienced it before with the much-anticipated dark romantasy from USA Today bestselling author C.R. Jane, Shadows of Sparta. And we have a letter from C.R. Jane to you, the readers, all about writing her first romantasy novel.
To my readers,
Before I ever wrote dark romance, I was obsessed with Greek mythology. As a kid, I devoured every mythological book I could find and became completely captivated by Helen of Troy—not just as “the face that launched a thousand ships,” but as a woman trapped inside a story everyone else seemed determined to tell for her.
Even while writing my dark contemporary romances, those themes kept finding their way into my books: obsession, power, survival, dangerous love, morally gray characters, and women fighting to reclaim themselves in worlds that try to own them. Eventually, I realized I wanted to explore those ideas on a much larger scale. I wanted kingdoms instead of cities. Gods instead of corrupt men in suits. Ancient curses and forgotten magic alongside the same emotional intensity and darkness I’ve always loved writing.
That became Shadows of Sparta.
This story takes place in a brutal, cursed version of Sparta where the gods have vanished and the land itself feels wounded by their absence. At the center is Helena—a young woman who enters deadly trials not because she craves power, but because survival leaves her no choice. As war looms and ancient magic begins resurfacing, she finds herself caught between dangerous men, impossible loyalties, and truths that threaten to destroy everything she thought she understood about herself and her world.
Making the jump from dark contemporary to dark romantasy honestly felt incredibly natural to me because, at their core, I think both genres are driven by the same emotional intensity. I’ve always loved stories that feel consuming. Stories where love and obsession blur together. Stories about power, vulnerability, desire, survival, and the terrifying things people will do when they love someone deeply enough. Romantasy simply gave me a larger, more mythic canvas to explore those emotions on.
If you’ve loved the emotional obsession, morally gray characters, tension, and darkness in my contemporary books, you’ll still find those things here—just wrapped in prophecy, forgotten gods, monsters, war, and ancient magic.
More than anything, Shadows of Sparta is a story about reclaiming agency in a world determined to decide who you are. It’s about love and power and survival. It’s about becoming something dangerous after spending your whole life being treated as something fragile.
I’m so excited to finally share this world with you, and I truly hope Helena’s story burrows under your skin the same way it did mine.
Love,
C.R. Jane
Sparta is dying.
Gods once ruled the land, until King Menelaus cast them out and crowned himself in their place. Now drought scorches the earth, and a mysterious affliction steals the breath from the living, while defiance is answered with blood.
When the king resurrects the ancient trials meant to choose his queen, Helena becomes her dying village's only hope. Marked by a terrible beauty, she steps forward not for glory - but for survival. But beauty alone cannot save her from a crown stolen from the gods.
Alone in a dangerous court, Helena must decide whom to trust: Achilles, a legendary warrior bound to the throne by blood and oath, or a mysterious prisoner bearing forbidden magics and long-buried. One guards her cage. The other whispers how to escape it. And one of them is lying. If Helena chooses wrong, Sparta will not simply fall. It will kneel.
With the fate of her people resting on her shoulders, Helena must claim the throne of Sparta - or be destroyed by it.
