by Ruby Dixon
First published 2024
Aspeth Honori faces ruin when her father gambles away their family's magical artifacts. As a Holder's daughter, she knows these items protect their position and their lives. The Royal Artifactual Guild offers a solution. Guild members explore ancient ruins and recover powerful arcane objects. Aspeth applies to train as an adventurer, but the guild refuses women without chaperones. She finds a workaround. Marriage to a guild member will grant her apprentice status. She chooses a surly minotaur who needs his own favor fulfilled. Her new husband will teach her the trade, but complications multiply quickly. He enters his mating cycle just as their partnership begins. Aspeth hides her noble birth because he despises aristocrats. She must pass the guild's demanding tests while a fortune hunter threatens her family's remaining assets. Underground expeditions prove dangerous, but her feelings for her horned husband create different risks. Aspeth races against time to master artifact hunting, protect her hold, and navigate an increasingly passionate marriage to a creature she never expected to love.
Genres: romance, adventure, fantasy, fantasy-romance
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, found-family
Setting: Royal Artifactual Guild
Period: ancient
432 pages · Hardcover · Ace
Content warnings: violence