by Katee Robert
First published 2022
Briar Rose has a fairy-tale name and a very real problem: a husband who scares her and a life she cannot escape on her own. When a demon offers her a deal, she takes it. Seven years of service in exchange for freedom. She expects hard labor. She does not expect to be sold at auction to a room full of monsters. The buyer is Sol, a dragon, and he is nothing like the threat she braced for. He is patient. He wants to care for her. He pays attention to what she needs. Briar has learned the hard way that men who seem good are usually not. She keeps her guard up. She keeps her plans in place. She intends to complete her seven years and go home, back to the human world, back to the life she knows. The problem is Sol. The more time she spends with him, the harder it gets to remember why leaving is the only option. Briar Rose does not want to fall for a dragon. She has survived too much to risk her heart now. But surviving and living are not the same thing, and Sol is starting to make her feel the difference.
Genres: romance, fantasy, adult, adult-fiction, dark-fantasy, fantasy-romance
Vibes: dark, emotional, intense, intimate, redemptive, slow-burn
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, protective-love-interest, second-chance-at-life, slow-burn
Setting: human world
183 pages · Paperback · Trinkets & Tales LLC
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse