In an alternate modern day, wherein magic is real and paranormal beings live amongst humans, an unlikely group of human and supernaturally abled housemates escape their respective binds when they move into an old Victorian in the town of St. Claire, Illinois and find an unexpected family in each other. At the center of this found family is Iris Collins, a generous, affable, and self-deprecating 27-year-old who’s always been a little scattered and treated as the black sheep in her highly competitive family of psychic/energy vampires. Struggling to turn a profit from her fledgling jewelry e-commerce business and scarcely able to pay the rent in her shared apartment in Ohio, Iris is grateful for the opportunity to make a fresh start for herself when she inherits Violet Gables, a purple Victorian house in disrepair, from her great-aunt Gertie. With her minimal belongings packed into her car, Iris moves to St. Claire with plans to renovate Violet Gables and transform it into a bed-and-breakfast. However, Iris quickly realizes that the extent of repairs needed and the costs entailed prove beyond her physical capacity and financial means. She opts to instead rent out the extra rooms as a house share, and subsequently places an online ad for roommates. 

Iris decides to interview prospective roommates at the local coffee shop. It’s there that Eli Reese recognizes her while running errands for his recently retired grandmother. Eli is back in town for the sole purpose of fixing up and finalizing the sale of his grandmother’s house. A reserved and jaded shapeshifter two years Iris’s junior, Eli moved away from St. Claire and the social isolation he endured throughout childhood and adolescence the first chance he got. In adulthood, he has accumulated wealth and a nice real estate portfolio through developing successful apps. Now his only tie to the town he spent part of his youth in, and frequently the only tether to the human world preventing him from permanently flying off and living in his hawk form, is his grandmother. When Eli sees Iris in the coffee shop, he is flooded with a familiar mix of emotions. He’s been infatuated with Iris since the day she defended him against a bully in elementary school. For a lonely kid being raised by his grandmother and mercilessly teased by some of the other kids for his perceived oddities, that rare act of kindness has remained indelible in Eli’s memory. Over the years, he’s followed Iris on social media, hoping to one day be able to reconnect and thank her for the kindness she showed him in childhood. 

When he approaches Iris at her table, he means to reintroduce himself and tell her as much, but she mistakes him for a potential housemate. Instantly, he makes the clumsy and confounding decision to not clear up the confusion, reasoning that he’s just been handed the perfect chance to get to know her. Telling Iris that he’ll only need his room for as long as it takes to sell his grandmother’s house, Eli intends for their arrangement and his subterfuge to be temporary. However, with each day that passes living under the same roof as Iris, he finds himself increasingly drawn to and enamored by her and the interesting band of down-on-their-luck supernatural and human housemates who gradually fill out Violet Gables.

Like Iris before her inheritance, each person she rents to is either in immediate need of shelter, has limited options, or in some cases, no one else in their lives to whom they feel safe to turn. In time, the assortment of housemates includes Henry Dale, an elderly, curmudgeonly contractor; Sally, a gregarious, older divorcée who loves knitting colorful sweaters and scarves; Mira, a twenty-something, self-possessed “tech” witch with the ability to magically repair inanimate objects; and Rowan, a teenage, nonbinary artist who writes and illustrates their own webcomics.

Eli and Iris are well-matched. They are each socially anxious in their own ways, though Iris leans more towards extroversion, while Eli is a bit more introverted. The early loss of parents, disparagement from and rejection by family members, and a series of disappointments in their other relationships and social interactions with people has left them both feeling a little wary and alienated. Their romance is more sweet than steamy, with closed-door scenes of physical intimacy and a greater emphasis placed on the growing emotional closeness between them. 

Comparable to Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, The Only Purple House in Town merges fantasy with romance and explores themes of belonging, loneliness, identity, self-actualization, love, community, and the nature of family. Love between friends and fictive kin is gently portrayed and just as crucial to the narrative as the romantic pairing of the main characters. Much like the copious cups of tea that the residents of Violet Gables imbibe, The Only Purple House in Town radiates warmth and comforting, autumnal vibes. 

LOGLINE: In an alternate present in the supernatural town of St. Claire, Illinois, a benevolent but adrift jewelry designer from a family of psychic vampires and the solitary app developer and shapeshifter who’s been smitten with her since they were kids, form an unlikely family of misfits with their roommates in an old Victorian house.

MOOD: Cozy and heartwarming. With a similarly delightful charm to Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Aguirre brings together an endearing cast of characters in a magical rom-com that thoughtfully explores themes of family and belonging.

TITLE: The Only Purple House in Town

AUTHOR: Ann Aguirre

GENRE: Romance, Fantasy, Romantic Comedy, Paranormal Fiction

PUBLISHER: Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks

PUB DATE: 11 July 2023

LENGTH: 368 pages