A gothic fantasy of inherited hunger, family devotion, and a vineyard marked by a secret no generation manages to leave behind.
About Author
Novelist | Gothic Fantasy Writer | Storyteller
Joy Lantana is the author of The Crimson Harvest, a gothic fantasy shaped by family history, spiritual conflict, and an unsettling bond between people and the land they inherit.
Her work brings intimate family tensions together with supernatural elements, following characters whose choices are shaped by inheritance and the consequences of what they discover and reshape the family’s future.
Some Histories Refuse to Stay Buried
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What Happens When Wine Carries Blood?
Survival Takes a Different Form
4 Chapters Preview
Inside the Narrative
The first stages of The Crimson Harvest introduce Fabienne, Pasquale, and the event that changes the course of their lives.
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- Chapter 01
The Harvest Moon’s Wrath
Under a crimson Harvest Moon, young Fabienne Duval and her companion Pasquale are savagely attacked by a mystical swarm of bats, leaving them bloodied and forever altered among the vines.
- Chapter 02
Broken Bonds
While their mysterious wounds miraculously heal overnight, a terrifying new hunger awakens. To cure his dark cravings, Pasquale is exiled to a distant Spanish monastery, tearing the childhood friends apart.
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- Chapter 03
Roses and Sacrifice
Two years later, Fabienne struggles with a dark instinct that drives her to make a desperate, bloody sacrifice, prompting her mother to finally reveal the family’s secret, ancient, long-hidden grimoire.
- Chapter 04
Deep Despair and Rebirth
Tragedy strikes when a devastating fire destroys the fermentation building, claiming both of her parents’ lives and forcing young Fabienne to step forward as the vineyard’s sole, determined new vigneronne.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
Crimson Harvest
At Domaine du Nectar Sacré (Estate of the Sacred Nectar) in France’s Rhône Valley, Fabienne Duval grows up within her family’s winemaking tradition. After a mysterious attack leaves Fabienne and her childhood friend Pasquale Navarro with a consuming hunger for blood, she turns to her mother’s Romani grimoire, Lo Libre dels Sagnants (The Book of the Bleeding Ones) for answers.
Drawing on the grimoire and her family’s winemaking knowledge, Fabienne creates La Macération Rouge (The Crimson Harvest), a wine that helps quiet the hunger. What starts as a means of survival soon becomes tied to the Duval family’s history, with consequences that will reach the generation that follows.
Book Reviews
Shared Expressions by Readers
Okay, I’m just going to say it. I’m tired of all these gothic books that are just the same tropes over and over. But this one? A vineyard. A family that makes wine to survive a supernatural hunger. The daughter who might be more powerful than anyone realizes. I don’t know if the execution will work, but the concept is fresh. The preview made me curious enough to sign up for updates.
Rachel
I read the sample, and what stayed with me wasn’t the bats or the hunters. It was the line about how the grimoire wasn’t just magic. It was knowledge her mother passed down. That feels real. My grandmother had her own private rituals, nothing supernatural, but they were hers. This book seems to understand that kind of inherited private knowledge. Also, the wine stuff is really detailed. Someone knows their grapes.
Maria
I hadn’t heard of Joy Lantana before. The preview for The Crimson Harvest pulled me in. I don’t usually read gothic fiction, but this one felt different. The vineyard setting stuck with me.
Dan
I hadn’t heard of Joy Lantana before. The preview for The Crimson Harvest pulled me in. I don’t usually read gothic fiction, but this one felt different. The vineyard setting stuck with me.
Dan
I honestly don’t remember how I found this site. I think I was looking up something about Rhône wines and then fell a rabbit hole. Anyway, the excerpt is weird in a good way. A girl gets attacked by bats and then starts making wine with her blood? That’s either brilliant or insane. I’m leaning toward brilliant. Definitely bookmarking this.
Greg
