Keep Sweet is here! My YA Novel 😊

My novel Keep Sweet officially launched yesterday. I also have an essay in an anthology on sibling loss and grief, The Loss of a Lifetime, which launched on Tuesday. We had a very emotional reading by the authors on Wednesday. It was recorded. You can watch and listen to the recording, which is on the book’s homepage.

Keep Sweet is about escape from a patriarchal cult. It officially launched yesterday (hello summer!). Available from the Publisher(Inlandia), Amazon, Bookshop.org, and Barnes and Noble. I handmade many beautiful fabric bookmarks. If you order the book from the Publisher (Inlandia), you will receive one as a thank you!

The cover of “Keep Sweet“ has the title across an image of a girl in a prairie dress facing sideways, her braid down her back. Overlaid in her image is a road with stark red mountains in the distance.

For Keep Sweet, we’ve had a fun countdown with the publisher, Inlandia Books. Here are some posts from this week:

If you haven’t seen the Netflix documentary on the FLDS and Warren Jeffs, I highly recommend that you do:

I’m a big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson. I previously posted about why her books belong in high school libraries.

Photo of the author (salt and pepper hair, blue eyes, glasses); the book cover of “Keep Sweet,” described in alt text above; the cover of Speak which is a close-up of a white girl’s face with gray tree branches in front of it; a photo of M&Ms; book ordering information; the text reads: “did you know …Victoria Waddle says, ‘I wanted my novel to pay homage to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. For 25 years, it has remained a staple in high school libraries, a consistent favorite with teens because it shows the importance of speaking out about sexual assault.’”

And you absolutely should not miss Anderson reading this poem!

A photo of Laurie Halse Anderson (slim white woman with long brown hair); the book cover of “Keep Sweet,” described in alt text above; the cover of “Speak” which is a close-up of a white girl’s face with gray tree branches in front of it; the text reads: On the tenth anniversary of “Speak,” Halse Anderson wrote a poem, “Listen,” using words from letters she’d received about it. Scan the QR code to watch it now.”

My post on why Speak and Shout belong in the high school library:

https://victoriawaddle.substack.com/p/speak-and-shout-why-librarians-fight

About Victoria Waddle

Victoria Waddle is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and has been included in Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest. Her books include a collection of feminist short fiction, Acts of Contrition, and a chapbook on grief, The Mortality of Dogs and Humans. Her YA novel about a polygamist cult, Keep Sweet, launches in June 2025. Formerly the managing editor of the journal Inlandia: A Literary Journey and a teacher librarian, she contributes to the Southern California News Group column Literary Journeys. She discusses both writing and library book censorship on her Substack, “Be a Cactus.” Join her there for thoughts on defiant readers and writers as well as for weekly library censorship news.

View all posts by Victoria Waddle →

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Victoria Waddle