About
Briar Somerset is an emerging author of Medieval Dark Romantasy. She has a soft spot for turbulent main characters, the inner turmoil of love interests with voracious appetites, and sweeping Happily-Ever-After-Alls.
Somerset is a Filipino-American vampire girl and enjoyer of fantasy RPGs, scalding cups of tea, and jotting down maladaptive nightmares of an arcane sovereign and a fanged botanist-barkeep with a voracious appetite.
In all facets of her craft, she enjoys exploring the ominous—disenchanting, if you will—undertones of history, romance, and the arcane.
She is a member of the Medieval Academy of America.
Disenchanted (Young Adult Edition) was a Readers’ Favorite 2020 Finalist.
The Disenchanted (Ruinous Reign: Book One) audiobook, narrated in Duet by Krys Janae and Zachary Johnson, produced by Daniele Lanzarotta of Elysian Nightfall Studios, is a 2024 SOVAS nominee for Best Sound Engineering, and a Sultry Listeners’ Awards 2024 nominee in the Fantasy Romance category.
If you’d like to keep in touch, join me on Substack, at A Treatise on Thirst. There, you’ll have early access to exclusive snippets, commissioned art, release information and more.
In June of 2025, I decided to continue publishing under the pen name Briar Somerset. This transition will be transparent and I plan for it to take place gradually, starting with my social media platforms and website. Then, onto my book covers. Not to fret; Lilac and Garin remain stubbornly unchanged—still venomous, self-repulsed, and clawing their way through darkness toward each other.
Book one, Disenchanted, will remain available under “Brianna Sugalski,” a nod to where my journey began. From Disillusioned (#2) onward, the Ruinous Reign series will be published as Briar.
This is a quiet turning of the cloak, nothing more. I anticipate a few bumps in the road and some confusion, but this decision is one I’ve been mulling over for a while now; there’s power in the names we carry, and it feels more at home in the realm of tarnished kingdoms and cursed bloodlines, better suited to the stories I tell.
If you’ve stayed with me, I’m honored beyond words to walk these mist-shrouded roads with you.
Author’s note: My Vampire Romance/ Dark Fantasy debut, DISENCHANTED, was originally released as a Young Adult standalone with The Parliament House Press in 2020. It’s since been rewritten and self-published under the same title for New Adult readers in 2022. The Ruinous Reign Series will follow this updated rating. DISILLUSIONED (Ruinous Reign: Book 2) will release summer 2025.