Terms of Release

By Lisa Briley

She stood up to save the man who made her school years miserable. Now she can't walk four hundred paces from him, and neither of them can tell a lie.The war is over, and Edmund Kerr is going to hang for it. The former reagent master is condemned as a collaborator and suspected of poisoning a student, and the only man who could prove he spied for the resistance is dead..

Then Hannah Birch, decorated war heroine and the student he tormented for years, finds a forgotten law that can set him free. The price is marriage. A binding brewed into their blood ties them together, and every lie either one tells the other stops both their lungs.

For a spy who has lied for twenty years, it's a special kind of hell. For a woman who never stops asking questions, it's the first time he can't refuse to answer.

But a week after the wedding, a tribunal witness dies of a poison only Kerr could have made. Someone wants him back on the gallows, and Hannah with him. And the binding that forces them to tell the truth is slowly failing.
To survive, they'll have to uncover a secret buried for thirteen years, and say the one thing neither of them is ready to say out loud.

Perfect for readers who love:

Marriage of convenience
Grumpy and sunshine (if sunshine had a medal and a temper)
Former teacher and student, years later
Age gap
Forced proximity with a magical tether
Truth spell tension
Slow burn, closed door
Postwar historical fantasy with a murder mystery at its heart

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HMVQQJWQ
• ISBN13: 9798160299341
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"