Cover Reveals

Cover Reveal for Learning To Bleed

Cover Reveals5 months ago3 min readAdd comment

Today we’re excited to host a cover reveal for Learning To Bleed by Cat Rector, the sequel to Coal Gets In Your Veins, a gothic horror romance set in part-rural Canada. Cat’s books have been on my TBR for a LONG time now, and you may recognize the author from The Goddess of Nothing At All, a BBNYA 2022 finalist!

Coal Gets In Your Veins is all about exploring generational trauma, featuring queer vampires, so let’s see what the sequel has in store:

You can take the girl out of Penny Harbour, but you can’t take the monster out of the girl.

When Spencer and Laurel left Penny Harbour after her death, he promised she could learn to control her hunger. Once she stops being a danger to the people she loves, he can bring her home. His centuries as a vampire should have prepared him to guide her, but every night, he cleans the blood from her hands and hides the corpses she’s made. No amount of careful planning stops the inevitable, and Spencer can’t figure out why.

Laurel is lying. The monster that took root in her veins never left. It whispers to her, robs her of reason, and twists the truth. Out in the big, broad world for the first time, she’s overwhelmed by cities, her own queer reckoning, and the monsters waging war inside her. Terrified of what will happen if she tells Spencer, Laurel has decided to push through in isolation. Things were supposed to get easier, after all. With practice, she should have been in control by now.

Will Laurel be able to overcome the rage long enough to take advantage of her new freedom, or will the violence destroy everything she’s fought so hard to get?

This book is the second part of a queer Gothic horror series with romantic themes and handles heavy, complicated topics such as generational trauma, spousal abuse, and grief. A full list of trigger warnings can be found on Cat’s website.

Are you ready for the cover reveal? It’s a stunner!

Here…

We…

Go:

Isn’t this cover absolutely amazing? It was designed by the incredible Scherville.

Learning To Bleed by Cat Rector is the second book in the Vampires of Coal Dust series and is releasing Spring 2026. View content warnings. Want to get your hands on an early copy? Apply for an ARC and get a free copy of the first book, Coal Gets In Your Veins.

About the Author

Cat Rector grew up in a small Nova Scotian town and could often be found simultaneously reading a book and fighting off muskrats while walking home from school. She devours stories in all their forms, loves messy, morally grey characters, and writes about the horrors that we inflict on each other. After spending nearly a decade living abroad, she returned to Canada to resume her war against the muskrats. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing video games, spending time with loved ones, or staring at her To Be Read pile like it’s going to read itself.