From New York Times Bestselling Pepper Winters comes a Dark Romance with a twist…
For twenty years, Lucien Ashfall has been caged by the very men who profit from his blood.
He’s dangerous, uncontrollable, and deadly.
He’s also the only one carrying his bloodline and they need another.
Every six months, thirty girls are sent into his prison and tasked with one goal: Make him create an heir by any means necessary.
But everyone who goes in, never comes out.
Until Rook Snowdon is thrown into Cinderkeep by mistake.
She isn’t a seductress.
And she certainly isn’t there to save anyone.
In fact, she only has three goals in life:
One, hide her true identity for as long as possible.
Two, nap and self-medicate with wine.
Three (and most problematic) ignore the fact that stress is slowly killing her.
Lucien only has one goal: escape and burn everything to the ground.
Unfortunately, everyone has their secrets and these two have many.
They just don’t know it yet.
Because she might be the key to getting him free.
But if he gets out, it’s not the world that will burn.
It’s him.
This isn’t just a Dark Romance.
It’s fated, feral, and dangerous—until it becomes something else entirely.
Tropes:
morally grey, caged & tortured antihero
chronically ill heroine with a twist
emotional support pet (unalives for fun)
captive / captor tension
touch-her-and-die energy
her touch terrifies him for a good reason
luxury palace built to cage a monster
slow-burn obsession → forbidden, fated bond
modern dark romance that mutates into fantasy
Author’s Note
This is a Dark Romance with a twist.
In my thirteen-year career and forty-plus books, I’ve always dabbled along that line of contemporary versus magical. Most of my books have some element that exceeds normal parameters, but I’ve never strayed completely into blending fantasy with modern fiction.
Until today.
This book starts like any of my others: dark and angsty with splashes of taboo. However, it evolves into a world that far exceeded my expectations and delivers:
More darkness.
More desire.
More danger.
More despair and death and destiny.
What begins as a twisted, obsessive, captor/captive romance unfurls into a world where trauma becomes shackles.
Where pain becomes power.
Where the villain becomes the only one capable of loving the heroine…
…and she becomes the only one capable of leashing him.
It’s angsty and mysterious, with an insane slow burn that will ache so, so badly.
However, when they catch fire…the world will burn.
Literally.
If you’re ready, prepare to enter Cinderkeep…
The content may be hard to read at times, so please enjoy responsibly.
(One final warning: I didn’t shy away from using clichés, em dashes, and plenty of human idiosyncrasies. Purely to show that every word of this book is written by me and not AI. And if you find a typo…well, it only proves I’m human and not a machine. :))
Happy reading!
