Join us for a fantastic evening with Vanessa Santos to discuss her latest novel, In Your Heart a Devil: a gothic tale of love and alienation, full of loneliness, yearning, and the unholiest of unions, that is inspired by Scottish folklore. As we approach spooky season, come along for a ghoulish night!

Date:
Tuesday 20th of October

Venue:
Max Minerva's, 47 Henleaze Road, BS9 4JU

Time:
Doors at 18:30. Discussion at 19:00. Finish approx 20:00.

Tickets:
£6 ticket only
£16.99 ticket with In Your Heart a Devil (Hardback)

You don't need to bring your ticket with you, we will have a list of names on the door. Books will be available to buy on the night. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Your Heart a Devil

Inspired by local Scottish folklore, In Your Heart a Devil is a gothic tale of love and alienation, full of loneliness, yearning, and the unholiest of unions.

For years, bonfires have been lit by superstitious villagers in the town of S—, intended to ward off the spirit of the man who was once their Laird. His widow still watches from the window of the big empty house on the hill. Isabel has heard the rumours about her husband, but only she knows what went on behind closed doors. Because behind every enigmatic man there is a woman with a heart full of secrets. 

It was decades ago that she left her grief-shadowed home in Portugal and began her search for her father. As her investigation led her to the rugged landscapes of Scotland, she couldn’t have foreseen the dark heart that was to win over her own, and how much she would come to understand the sharp pulse of longing and the deeper wound of rejection.

A gothic tale of unrequited longing and unfathomable betrayal, In Your Heart a Devil beckons readers through unforgiving halls where servants whisper, and shadows stir, into chambers where forbidden vows are bound in candlelight; and into the heart of a woman who is ready to emerge from her husband’s mythologised shadow to tell her own story.

‘Alchemical and utterly mesmerizing, In Your Heart a Devil is a stirring Scottish fable. Vanessa Santos writes her folktales with a rare, uncompromising beauty that ooze with gothic terror.’ — Lucy Rose, The Lamb

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vanessa Santos was born and raised on a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic. She now lives in Scotland (though still by the sea) and spends as much of her time as possible devouring stories, writing stories, and wandering the endless Scottish woods. Her short fiction has been published online at Samjoko Magazine and Idle Ink, and in anthologies by Sliced Up Press, Colp, and Solar Press. Make a Home of Me, published in 2025 her first book. In Your Heart a Devil is her second novel.