Callie Hart Talks BookTok Fame, ‘Quicksilver’ and Netflix News! (2025)

International bestselling author Callie Hart has long been a part of the romantic literary world. Over the past decade, she’s written more than 10 books spanning a variety of romance subgenres—from dark romance to paranormal—but it wasn’t until recently that she skyrocketed to the top of worldwide bestseller lists. In fact, before the success of her latest novel Quicksilver—a current BookTok sensation—Hart came close to walking away from her writing career. “This book was kind of like my Hail Mary,” she tells FIRST. “I really wasn’t sure I was going to continue writing if this didn’t do anything—it was vital that it did well.” Now, not only is Quicksilver a buzzing title in the romantasy world, it’s amassing millions of views daily on BookTok, gaining a passionate fandom filled with fan theories and fancasting—and Netflix just announced a 7-figure trilogy deal that will bring the story to life on the big screen.

FIRST recently caught up with Hart—who was just named executive producer on the forthcoming Netflix project—to discuss her rise to BookTok fame, how Quicksilver was originally just a “passion project” in her mind, Saeris and Kingfisher’s relationship, what she’s reading now and more. Keep scrolling for all the details!

What ‘Quicksilver’ is about

Quicksilver by Callie Hart is the New York Times bestseller currently buzzing among readers as “everyone’s next romantasy obsession.” The story centers on 24-year-old Saeris Fane, who knows how to keep secrets. She’s also an expert pickpocket who stops at nothing to protect those she loves from their land’s evil Queen. But when Saeris opens a gateway to another realm, she’s transported to a land of ice and snow. She’s the first of her kind to enter Yvelia in more than 1,000 years—and she mistakenly binds herself to a brutally handsome Fae warrior named Kingfisher. Will she ever make it out of Yvelia? And can she save those she loves back home?

Exclusive Q&A with Callie Hart

First for Women: Callie, thank you for taking the time to talk with FIRST! What drew you to writing andstorytelling initially?

Callie Hart: When I was really young, I started scribbling stuff down with my grandmother. Nana always used to write these little limericks for my siblings and me. So I used to write back poems and limericks and things like that. And she would always encourage me to write stories. I’ve always also been an avid reader. I enjoyed disappearing into my own little world inside these books. I always wanted to write a novel, so I started doing flash fiction, short fiction and poetry, but I always thought, oh, man, it’s such a huge task to write a novel. That’s for other people. It’s not for me.

Then I wound up living in the outback of Australia for three months and there was not much going on out there. I wasn’t working at the time either, so I was like, okay, it’s just me and my computer, so I figured I might as well give it a shot. I wrote my first book in the desert in the middle of nowhere in Australia. And I was like, that wasn’t that bad. When I look back now, I think that book was maybe 70,000 words long, which is technically a novel, but it’s a very short one. Now, I’m in the realm of 220,000 words. It’s a bit of a different game now, but it’s so fun.

FFW: You’ve written contemporary romance and, more recently, romantasy with Quicksilver. But first, what led you to the romantasy genre?

CH: I started writing paranormal romance back in 2012 and my series did pretty well. Then I started writing YA dystopian and I wrote that for a long time. In 2014, there was this surge of dark romance going on. And a lot of my peers and contemporaries were writing in that genre and they were like, people are ravenous for this right now—you should give it a shot. I was still working two jobs at that point and was hoping to be a paid working writer one day. I was really keen to pin that down and just write for a living. So I switched over to dark romance in 2014 and the first series I wrote in that genre was called The Blood & Roses series and that kind of took off, which was amazing. I absolutely love those characters. To this day, they’re still my OG dark characters that people reach out to me about and say, Hey, when are we going to get another Zeth book? I did write some contemporary romance standalones, but they had very dark twists. I also wrote seven books in the dark academia genre, which was fun—that scratched my Edgar Allan Poe itch.

But eventually I burnt myself out on that content. I was desperate for something a little different. My whole career I always wanted to go back to my original work—those magic and fantasy romance stories with world-building aspects. I had to reignite my passion for writing and I thought to myself, How do I do that? What does that look like? And I had the story of Quicksilver playing out in my mind for so many years. Since maybe early 2017, I’ve been planning this whole series out in my head. It was always the book I would write—it was my passion project, my reward for getting other books written. I was like, I’m going to make time for myself to write that story. When I finally sat my butt down, I said to myself, Okay, now is the time you get to write something for yourself, to give yourself back the magic and passion for this career. And it really worked. It really, really worked.

FFW: Was there a singular moment that sparked your idea for Quicksilver?

CH: It’s more like the whole story arc was playing out in my head for a very long time. There are these scenes I got to write in Quicksilver that have truly lived inside of me for so long. I write chronologically, so I was vibrating with excitement when I could finally see these moments coming on the horizon. It was such a fist-pump moment for me. I’m very visual in my mind when I write so I would envisage how these scenes would play out—from the looks on the characters’ faces to the emotion and building tension. It was just like magic to be able to write these moments between the characters.

FFW: Can you summarize the timeline of Quicksilver’s success? What was that journey like?

CH: This book was kind of like my Hail Mary. I’ve said that before and it’s because I wasn’t sure I was going to get to continue writing if this didn’t do well—it was vital that it did well. I’ve always tried to tell myself that I was writing this book for myself, so if it didn’t do well, at least I would still have the book. In recent years I have had a huge dark romance readership, but the crossover isn’t necessarily huge between the two genres (dark romance and romantasy). I was concerned about reaching romance readers. I self-published the book in June and I was holding my breath to see what would happen because I had no inkling if anyone was going to read it.

And at first, it did not do well at all. Historically, when this happens, the book loses steam and momentum, and that’s it. So I was in this limbo where I was like, Okay, I have the book and I’m proud of it and it was worth it but I genuinely don’t know if I’ll be able to keep writing. So I decided to give it one more college try on the social media front. I did some research on TikTok and searched for romance readers who were talking about books they enjoyed and who genuinely seemed to love the genre. I picked about 30 women off of TikTok and reached out to them to see if they would like to receive a special edition of the book. About half wrote back and said Please send it over! So about 15 women immediately started posting about it, which was incredible, and in a matter of two weeks, Quicksilver sort of went crazy. I was waking up every day and going, Oh my God, what’s happening? Oh, my God, this is amazing. It was just absolutely phenomenal and humbling and amazing.

FFW: We are beyond excited Netflix has optioned the rights to the story and that you’re the executive producer! Is there anything you can tell us about the project?

CH: Thank you! This has been so very exciting to me because, like I said, I’m a very visual person when I write and I always imagine these things playing out on the screen. When my agent came to me and said, Hey, Netflix is knocking at the door right now, it was incredible. It’s such an honor. Now they’ve attached an amazing producer, Elizabeth Cantillon, who just got done working on Alien: Romulus, which is fabulous. We are in the early stages, working through everything to make this thing shine. They’re also very collaborative and inclusive—I actually have a very considerable voice in everything as executive producer, which is also amazing. I’m enjoying the experience immensely.

FFW: Are you able to share any fancast theories? If not, are you and your teams looking at fan suggestions online or any of that fun stuff?

CH: I can’t talk about any names that are actually being passed around. I mean, lots of people are postulating and thinking about who would make a good Kingfisher and who would make a good Carrion and such. They’ve ranged from unknown actors to up-and-coming actors to very big names. So it’s very exciting. Like, you know, everyone wants Henry Cavill for everything and, of course, you can picture him in anything too, so it works. But I think a very talented up-and-coming person is also equally as exciting. So I can’t wait.

FFW: BookTok is anticipating the second book in the Fae & Alchemy series and we finally have a title: Brimstone, set to release in November of 2025. What can you tell us about book two in this series?

CH: Brimstone is a bit of a breakneck book. There’s a lot going on here—a lot of moving parts. There are new challenges the whole cast has to face in various ways. Each of them has their own challenges. Saeris—without any spoilers—is dealing with a very new situation where she’s figuring out a lot of things and learning about herself and where she fits into this strange world she’s just discovered. She’s also fallen in love with this really unlikely, grumpy Lord. So it’s still very much a story about found family. The story is also strengthening bonds between so many different characters, plus some really fun connections. We have some new characters on the scene—some of them good, some of them bad—and new conflicts. It’s a bit of a roller coaster from start to finish.

FFW: Without any spoilers, of course, do readers need to be worried about Saeris and Fisher’s romance? And will the book be just as long as Quicksilver?

CH: Brimstone is even longer—we’re definitely 700 pages or so on this one. It’s chunky! And as for the romance…it’s hard without giving spoilers but Saeris and Fisher are endgame. That’s all I’ll say.

FFW: We always love to ask our favorite authors for book recs! Have you read anything lately that you would recommend for readers to tide them over until Brimstone’s release?

CH: I am very strict with myself about not reading anything in my genre when I’m writing in it. So I don’t read romance, but I love sci-fi and fantasy, like epic saga fantasy. So I have been reading the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, which is absolutely phenomenal. I know a lot of BookTok girls love that series, too. It’s excellent and gripping.

And then, apart from that, I recently read Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea and it’s an unfinished series. The story takes you on this beautiful adventure and you don’t really have a clue what’s going on half the time. But I enjoyed that aspect. I’ve read the second one in that series, too. Now, I’m just waiting for the third book!

Pick up your copy of Quicksilver here and preorder your copy of Brimstone here.