The Throne of Ash & Thorns: A Dark Gothic Romantasy

By Jeremy Richards

They buried her mother beneath the black cathedral.
Now the kingdom wants her buried too.
Elara Vey has spent her life among the dead, tending graves beneath the shadow of a cursed empire where nobles buy power with blood and the immortal king holds an entire kingdom together through sheer, terrifying will. She does not fear corpses. She does not fear darkness. She has never had the luxury.
But she is afraid of him.
King Lucien Draven has ruled for three centuries cold, ruthless, feared in ways that make the kingdom's monsters seem gentle by comparison. When a plague begins turning citizens into hollow-eyed, prophecy-whispering creatures, the empire looks for someone to blame. When Lucien arrives at Elara's graveyard with an offer she cannot refuse her dying brother's life, in exchange for her presence at court she tells herself this is survival.
She tells herself she will not let him under her skin.
She is wrong on both counts.
Beneath the palace, something ancient is waking. The gods the kingdom's religion claims are sleeping saints are neither sleeping nor saints they are prisoners, sealed beneath the stones for centuries, and the barrier holding them is crumbling. As rebellion tears through the empire, forbidden magic destabilizes reality, and an impossible dream bond begins pulling Elara and Lucien together in ways neither of them can afford, Elara discovers that she carries something inside her that the priests have been hunting for generations.
Something the imprisoned gods recognize.
Something Lucien was never meant to love.
Perfect for readers who love: Slow-burn, emotionally devastating enemies-to-lovers romanceMorally grey kings with 'touch her and die' energy and secret soft heartsGothic castles, whispering dead, and an atmosphere that wraps around you like fogHeroines who evolve from survivor to something the world has never seenMagic with real, brutal costs and a romance that makes those costs personalPolitical intrigue layered beneath deeply emotional character dynamicsThe kind of book you finish at 3am and immediately want to read againHe is not the monster haunting the realm.
But he is becoming one.
And the only person who can stop it is the woman he was never supposed to want.
The Throne of Ash & Thorns is Book One of The Kingdom of Graves Trilogy a dark gothic romantasy series featuring an immortal morally grey king, a gravekeeper's daughter with ancient power, and a slow-burn romance that burns everything it touches.
Claim your throne. The dead are already waiting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H1M42HBG
• ISBN13: 9798196663727
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"