Thorned Crown
She sold herself to save her sister. She never planned to fall for the man who bought her loyalty.
When debt collectors drag Rowan Ashford's younger sister through a broken shop window to settle a blood debt she never knew her father owed, Rowan does the only thing left to a woman with no coin and no power: she follows the trail down a well behind the tanner's row, into the Bone Market - a vast, bruise-lit bazaar built inside the bones of something ancient, where horned Kindred lords trade in mortal debts, stolen memories, and lives bought and sold under seal.
To gain standing to reopen her sister's sale, Rowan strikes a bargain no sane mortal would take: she binds herself, body and service, to Caelan Duskryn - the Thorned Warden of Law, a man as exact and unyielding as the crown he's spent eleven years refusing to claim. He doesn't want her gratitude. He doesn't offer comfort. He offers only the plain, unsoftened truth of what the bargain will cost her - and somehow, that honesty is more seductive than any promise could be.
As Rowan is pulled deeper into a Court seething with old grudges and a succession crisis eleven years unresolved, she and Caelan are drawn into a dangerous, simmering pull neither of them wants and neither can stop. But a rival Warden with golden eyes and a decades-old grudge is building toward a forbidden rite that will seize the crown by force - with Rowan's sister as its price. When betrayal seems to shatter the fragile trust Rowan has built with the one man who could save them both, she'll have to decide exactly how much of herself she's willing to offer a Court that has never once given anything back for free.
Thorned Crown is a complete, standalone dark fantasy romance featuring:
- A fierce, independent heroine who refuses to be anyone's victim
- A slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance with a guarded, morally exacting hero
- A sinister underworld court of horned Kindred lords and ancient bargains
- A forbidden bargain with everything on the line
- Political intrigue, a shocking apparent betrayal, and a high-stakes rescue
- Moderate spice, fade-to-black - no cliffhanger, fully satisfying HEA
If you love Raven Kennedy, Carissa Broadbent, or Danielle L. Jensen, step into the Bone Market - and find out what a crown freely chosen is really worth.
Customer Reviews
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