Thornchapel
A decadent web of mystery, lust, and angst.
⭐⭐⭐
1. A LESSON IN THORNS by Sierra Simone
SYNOPSIS
Twelve years ago my mother disappeared into the fog-shrouded moors of Thornchapel. I left her memory there, along with the others. Of my childhood friends, playing in the woods. Of the crumbling, magical world we found, and of the promises we made beneath the wild roses. I moved on, building a life as a librarian in America, far away from the remote manor where my mother was last seen alive.
And then the letter arrives. A single word, in her handwriting, calling me back to England. Followed by a job offer I could never refuse, from a person I never could resist: Auden Guest. The new owner of Thornchapel, the seductive, elegant man I met as an imperious little boy when we were both children. Inside his private library, I begin to uncover the ancient secrets of the house—and the ones hidden inside my heart.
It’s so very easy to be drawn back into the world of Auden’s friends… and into the world of his worst enemy, St. Sebastian Martinez. The beautiful and brooding St. Sebastian is as irresistible as he ever was, and the three of us can't seem to unknot ourselves from each other. From the hasty promise we three made all those years ago.
As Thornchapel slowly tightens its coil of truths and lies around us, our reluctant threesome starts unraveling into filthy, holy pleasure and pain. Together we’ve awakened a fate that will either bloom like a rose… or destroy us all.
2. FEAST OF SPARKS by Sierra Simone
SYNOPSIS
Fate wasn’t supposed to have plans for me. I’m an outcast, a loner. The boy named for death who never quite started to live. But then Poe came back—the girl I once kissed in a thorn-covered chapel in the woods. She brought back memories long-buried, and I could no more resist her than I could pry out my own heart. She brought up secrets and set rituals into motion. She brought me to the man who owns Thornchapel, Auden Guest. And then she found the bones.
The only thing Auden and I can agree on is Proserpina Markham, and she wants us to find a way to be together—all three of us. But the past casts a long shadow. Eight years ago, I did something terrible to Auden. He hurt me back the only way he knew how. And so here we are: our hatred seasoned with pain and my loneliness spiked with longing.
If Auden wants to earn her as his submissive, then he has to earn me as well. That was the promise he made. But with the carnal revel of Beltane fast approaching, it’s becoming clear that Thornchapel’s secrets are much deeper and older than any of us could have ever guessed. They’re making us complicit. And they will have a cost. Because no matter how bright and merry a feast of sparks may be, it’s always followed by ashes. And darkness.
3. HARVEST OF SIGHS by Sierra Simone
SYNOPSIS
The genius and the sunshine girl. As children, we fought bitterly and often, bickering every chance we got. But then we grew up. Then we came back.
Delphine Dansey carries her heart on the outside of her body; she’s looking for love and chasing dreams. She’s spoiled and selfish, the kind of beautiful that’s made for money and fame. But somehow she’s ended up in my keeping: a pretty submissive I can’t seem to resist, a lover who obsesses and tempts me.
I thought I’d locked my heart away a long time ago, along with all my other weaknesses. But some doors won’t stay closed, no matter how hard I fight to keep them shut. She unravels me, just like our friends are unraveling, just like Thornchapel itself is unraveling.
All year long, we’ve been sowing lust and jealousy and pain, heedless of the consequences. But a harvest is inevitable, and so now we must reap our sorrows. And our sighs.
4. DOOR OF BRUISES by Sierra Simone
SYNOPSIS
Twelve years ago, our fates were sealed with a kiss. We are all, for better or worse, doomed to love each other until death do us part.
My heart belongs to Proserpina and St. Sebastian—even if he no longer wants it. Even if she has left it behind to follow him. Delphine’s fled back home, and Becket’s holy calling is in peril. And now only Rebecca and I remain at Thornchapel to face the unknown.
The door is open. The door that shouldn’t exist; the door that people have died to close. I don’t feel like the lord of the manor. I don’t feel like a king or a wild god. I am a friend and a boyfriend and a brother—and a failure at being all of these things. But the door doesn’t care about my guilt. It only cares about the sacrifice I’ll make to close it.
As the bruising dark of Samhain approaches, so does the fate of our circle, of Thornchapel and the village and the valley beyond it. And I must don the crown, because one thing is still true, even if I must face it alone.
Here at Thornchapel, the kings must go to the door. Here at Thornchapel, all kings must die.