Pairing: MM (slow burn)

Genres: Fantasy (coalpunk)

The stories are best read in order.

DEATH’S EMBRACE SERIES BLURB

Doran Ó Seanáin, former miner and leader of the Black Lung Gang, and his best friend, Lien, are almost at a breaking point in their ongoing conflict with the city of Arajon’s tyrannical ruler. Just as things are spiralling out of control, Doran crosses paths with Nathaniel Morgenstern, an apotheker with a mysterious past. As their relationship develops against the backdrop of the ongoing social turmoil, the secrets Nathaniel is keeping might threaten to destroy them all…

BOOK DETAILS 

BOOK 1

Book Title: Heart of Dust

Length: 59 000 words 

Release Date: 2019

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, single POV

Tropes: Stabbing leading to meet-cute, yearning, slow burn romance 

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights

Heat Rating: 2 flames

It leaves plot threads unresolved that are resolved in the next 3 books. 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40234780-heart-of-dust 

Tagline

Doran had a problem, and it wasn’t that he’d been stabbed.

Blurb 

Iole City is in turmoil.

Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both.

Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in.

Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.

BOOK 2

Book Title: Soul of Ash

Length:  86 000 words

Release Date: September 2020

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, two POVs (alternating)

Tropes: Yearning, former assassin, slow burn romance 

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights

Heat Rating: 1 flame

Some plot elements are resolved in books 3 and 4.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55264491-soul-of-ash 

Tagline

You can run, but you will never be free.

Blurb 

Half a year after the events of Heart of Dust, Doran Ó Seanáin now finds himself trapped between two worlds while belonging to neither: held in contempt by the Bronze for the turmoil he caused during Archon Bryson’s reign, and resented by the miners for selling out. Leonora Darkwater’s pursuit to own the mines may be the answer to all of his problems, but the offer is far more complicated than it appears, and the only person Doran trusts is the same man who threw his life into chaos.

Haunted by his past, hostage to a debt that cannot be repaid, and a slave to the poison that keeps him alive, atonement has never felt further out of reach for Nathaniel Morgenstern. Though the damage between him and Doran is too devastating to begin to mend, they have no choice but to face each other as their lives collide once more.

There is a rot in Iole City. The mines aren’t finished with Doran, and the sand in Nathaniel’s hourglass is running out.

BOOK 3

Book Title: Throne of Lies

Length: 63 000 words

Release Date: December 2024

Pairing: MM with hints of developing into MMF (slow burn)

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, three POVs (alternating)

Tropes: Political intrigue, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer

Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.

Heat Rating: 3 flames

The book ends on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221089728-throne-of-lies 

Tagline

There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze.

Blurb 

Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.

But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.

The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…

BOOK 4

Book Title: Valley of Secrets

Length: 123 000 words

Release Date: January 2025

Pairing: MM that develops into MMF (polyam), and a separate FF fast-burn relationship (femme/butch)

Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, four POVs (alternating)

Tropes: Political intrigue, resistance against military coup, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer

Themes: Lesbian romance, polyam romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup. 

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Most plot threads are wrapped up. Two further books are planned in the series but the series can also be finished here. 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221111698-valley-of-secrets 

Tagline

This city of fools will be brought to order! 

Blurb 

Deposed, her father presumed dead, her friends slaughtered and the cavern in chaos, Grace Harrington is on the run and entirely alone. The only ally she has left is the man she hates most in the world: Nathaniel Morgenstern, the assassin who murdered her mother and seduced her father.

Grace’s only hope of reclaiming the throne and saving her people is to seek the aid of Éamon Tadhg, the High Druid of Arajon. But she needs to survive the hostile streets of Iole City before she can even think about fleeing to the Violet Valley.

Nathaniel made a vow to Doran to protect Grace, but he could never have imagined how quickly and horrifically their lives would fall apart.

Grieving the dual losses of the man he loved and his new friend Tsa Lien, Nathaniel devotes himself to the service of the overthrown Lady Archon who despises him – even if it costs him everything he is.