Dead Letters: A Last Route Novel

By James Heppe-Smith

Dead Letters: A Last Route Novel
A failed mage. A forgotten route. A hedgehog with secrets.
A cozy fantasy of found family, gentle magic, and warm endings.

Wren Ashwick has hit rock bottom. Once a promising student at the Academy, she's been assigned to the Last Route-the most remote, unprofitable postal circuit in the realm. Seventeen stops scattered across wild coastline, lonely highlands, and an ancient forest. The route where the Postal Guild sends couriers it wants to forget.

She plans to survive one winter, then transfer somewhere civilized.

But the route has other ideas.

When a mysterious silver-quilled hedgehog appears in her courier bag, Wren discovers that her "broken" magic might not be broken at all. And when she finds letters addressed to a woman six months dead-letters from a daughter who doesn't know her mother is gone-she faces a choice: follow protocol, or follow her heart.

In a hidden valley called Mosshaven, a hedge witch with warm eyes and a kettle always on sees something in Wren worth staying for. On cliffs and moors and forest paths, connection finds her whether she wants it or not-and so does a slow-burn sapphic romance she isn't ready to name.

Perfect for fans of:
- Legends & Lattes (Travis Baldree)
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers)
- The House in the Cerulean Sea (TJ Klune)

Dead Letters is a cozy fantasy about finding home in unexpected places, the connections we carry, and learning that some deliveries are more alive than others.

Book 1 of The Last Route series. No cliffhangers. Warm endings guaranteed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GGSSZFM8
• ISBN13: 9798243924665
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"