The Declan Hunt Mysteries by Peter E. Fenton

SERIES TOUR

The Declan Hunt Mysteries by Peter E. Fenton

Declan Hunt is good at solving mysteries, but cracking the case of his evolving relationship with his new office assistant Charlie Watts is proving to be more challenging than expected.

This four part detective series is filled with emotional twists and turns, secrets, crimes of passion and an unlikely partnership that simmers beneath the surface.

Declan and Charlie's adventures take them from the skyscrapers of downtown Calgary, to the prairies near The Badlands of Alberta and onward to the rugged mountains of The Canadian Rockies.

But will these cases bring them together or tear them apart?

You'll have to read to the very end to find out.

Are the stories standalone or do they have to be read in order?

The first three books CAN be read as standalone, but the final book wraps up the entire plot arc.  The series is best enjoyed in order, as the relationship between the central characters evolves.

Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill

Publisher: Pride Publishing/Entwined Publishing/First for Romance

Pairing: MM

Genres: Contemporary Mystery/Gay Detective

Tropes: Hot Detective, Canadian, Slow Burn/Low Heat, Co-workers

Themes: Relationships between gay sons and their fathers

Tense/POV: Multiple POV

Overall Heat Rating:

The first and second books are 3 flames.

The third and fourth book closer to 2  flames.

BOOK DETAILS 

BOOK 4 - RECENT RELEASE

Book Title: The Attercop

Length:  249 Pages

Release Date: August 4, 2026

This book is best read after reading the first three books.

No cliffhanger. The door is left open for this duo to solve more cases, but at present there aren’t any other books in this series planned. HFN ending

Goodreads

 Available in Kindle Unlimited

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 How far would you be willing to go to keep the one you love?

 Blurb

Charlie Watts has found the perfect partner in Declan Hunt, and he hopes that they can spend the rest of their lives together. But when your boss is sexy and talented, sometimes you're not the only one who wants to tie him down.

The Attercop, a clever adversary who is good with disguises, starts to spin a web of lies and deceit to get Declan for his very own. And as the two detectives look into a break-in where nothing is taken, and a random beating at a gay bar, their perfect partnership begins to unravel.

Will Charlie be able to stop the worst from happening, or will The Attercop get his wish and take Declan away from Charlie forever?

An excerpt from The Attercop

He stood naked in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, took a sip of his vodka, and stared out at his view—which, he acknowledged, was courtesy of his father who had essentially paid for it by having the decency of dying and leaving him a healthy inheritance.

The money had come as a great surprise because his father had heartily disapproved of him. Not so much because he was gay—although his father had loudly carped that a queer son wouldn’t produce another generation to carry on the family name. No, the expansive parent–child chasm had grown out of his father’s determination that his son was weak and useless, just like his mother, who had run off with another man. He’d never met the other guy, but he had, after all, only been five when it had happened.

His father had further declared that his son “had no gumption” and that if he didn’t prove he could make something out of himself by the time he was thirty, he would be cut out of his father’s will. In the end it didn’t matter. Fate had intervened and the old man had died just a few days before his son’s thirtieth birthday.

The year surrounding that event had been filled with unexpected surprises, such as the reappearance of his mother. She’d said that she’d been watching him from afar and wanted to help him establish himself. She had used her connections to land him a decent job in a small, financially stable firm. He was all set for success. It looked as if he was going to prove his father wrong after all. But no matter how hard he tried, things never seemed to go his way, especially in his search for love, because nobody really liked him. Every time he thought he’d found ‘Mr Right’, it always turned into ‘Mr Right-Now-But-Never-Again’.

At first, he couldn’t understand why. He was good-looking and intelligent. He was certain he was good in bed. His major flaw, from what he could see, was that he fell in love too easily, and that was something he couldn’t help. He was a giver and, to those he fell for, he gave everything. He became infatuated with them. And what did he get in return? Another view of the curb he’d been kicked to—again and again.

Well, he’d had it with that. He was done with being ‘Mr Nice Guy’. He took another swig of his drink and lay on the carpet by the window. A small spider made its way along the floor and crawled up his naked body, past his carefully groomed pubic hair, slowly working its way toward his navel. He put his hand on his stomach to block its path, but it simply crawled up onto his fingers. Nothing was going to stand in its way.

He held the spider up to his face and watched its tiny legs working in precise synchronicity as it traversed the back of his hand. It was persistent. It had gumption. 

Many people would have thrown the spider to the floor or squashed it where it stood. Spiders were repulsive to most—things to be feared, to be reviled. But he liked spiders. They were patient and meticulous and never gave up. Even when people tore down their webs, they started again. He needed to become more like a spider. He needed to decide what he wanted and go after it. And if anyone stood in his way, he would show them what a spider could do. Like the ones in his favourite book The Hobbit, he would ensnare his enemies, keep what he wanted, and make the others feel pain and suffering. ‘Attercop’ was what the character Bilbo had called the spiders. A term that meant ‘poison head’ in old English. It was intended to be an insult, but he liked the description.

He gently lifted his hand to his face. It was time for he and the spider to become as one. He set it on the end of his tongue and swallowed. He knew what his purpose was. It was time to become The Attercop, spinning his web. And soon, he would pounce. He would snare the thing that he wanted most and if anyone got in his way, he’d suck them dry and discard their empty husks. And there was one person in particular he yearned to snare. Declan Hunt would be his. 

START THE SERIES

BOOK 1

Book Title: Mann Hunt

Length: 295 pages

Release Date: August 29, 2023

 It is the first part of a four part series.  It can be read as a standalone.

It is clear that there is more in the series to come, but it doesn’t have a cliff-hanger. HFN

Goodreads  |   Buy Links

 How far would you be willing to go to finish the job?

Blurb

Declan Hunt is having a bad week. His kidnapping case is showing little progress, his office assistant has left him on short notice, and his latest investigation has left him literally battered and bruised. But things change when he hires twenty-four year old Charlie Watts to help out at the office. They form an unlikely partnership trying to solve two seemingly unrelated cases whose threads begin to weave together when the missing person case turns to murder.

The investigation takes them from the dark alleys, gay bars and bath houses of Calgary, to the richest parts of the city during the world-famous Calgary Stampede.

The investigation takes them from the dark alleys, gay bars and bath houses of Calgary, to the richest parts of the city during the world-famous Calgary Stampede. 

But will they be able to discover who the killer is before another life is lost? And will Declan be able to solve the mystery of his relationship with Charlie who is clearly attracted to him — especially since it is evident that the attraction is becoming mutual?

BOOK 2

Book Title: Hoodoo House

Length:  253 Pages

Release Date: June 25, 2024

It can be read as a standalone, but is better read as the second book in the series.

It is clear there is more in the series, but it does not end on a cliffhanger. HFN

Goodreads

 Available in Kindle Unlimited

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 How far would you be willing to go to keep a secret?

Blurb

When writer Malcolm Tull is discovered dead at his writing desk, all signs point to suicide. But Malcolm' s editor isn't so sure. There' s the matter of the man' s missing computer, a mislaid manuscript and the fact that he didn't seem the type to take his own life.

Declan Hunt and Charlie Watts are called into action and make their way to the mysterious Hoodoo House nestled on the edge of the Badlands of Alberta. Soon they are embroiled in a case involving blackmail, gay tricks and possibly even murder.

As the secrets of Hoodoo House come to light, Charlie discovers that his boss has been keeping a few secrets of his own, secrets that could impact their romantic relationship outside of the office. And before this investigation is done, Charlie will have to get to the truth, even if it means this might be his final case for Declan Hunt Investigations.

BOOK 3

Book Title: The Burnt

Length:  243 Pages

Release Date: August 5, 2025

This book references a case in the earlier books, so it is best to have read books 1 and 2.

The book ends on a cliffhanger. HFN

Goodreads

 Available in Kindle Unlimited

Buy Links

 How far would you be willing to go to reveal the truth?

Blurb

Finding work-life balance isn't always easy when you’re sleeping with the boss. Charlie Watts is feeling stressed as he studies for his private investigator’s license, starts taking on his own cases and tries to navigate his relationship with Declan Hunt. He thinks he can handle it, but every time their relationship is going well, work always seems to get in the way.

While Charlie investigates a threatening note that appears to be from a boy who mysteriously disappeared ten years ago, Declan tries to find the meaning behind the final words of a man who was brutally murdered. As Declan and Charlie work to solve these mysteries, secrets from the past are exposed, Charlie is haunted by ghostly dreams, and Declan is forced to confront some terrible truths from a hidden past.

Ultimately, the truth will be revealed, but at what cost? And will Declan and Charlie be able to solve the mystery of where they want to go next with their relationship before things at work take a terrible turn? 

About the Author 

Peter’s first novel, The Woodcarver’s Model was released by Pride Publishing in April of 2022 and was a four time nominee in the Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Awards.

Following the success of the first book, Pride Publishing/Entwined Publishing released The Declan Hunt Mysteries series which includes Mann Hunt (nominated for a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Award and translated into German, Italian and Spanish), Hoodoo House, (also a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers’ Choice Award nominee and now available in Italian and Spanish), and The Burnt which came out in August of 2025 in English, Italian and Spanish with Entwined Publishing. The Burnt was also nominated for a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers' Choice Award in the Mystery/Whodunnit category. The fourth and final novel in the series - The Attercop -  was released in August of 2026.

2024 also saw the release of the critically acclaimed teen novella Not Not Normal, published by Lorimer Press. This book was also nominated for a Goodreads M/M Romance Readers' Choice Award.

Peter's previous work was focused on writing for the stage, with award-winning productions of The Giant’s Garden, Newfoundland Mary, Bemused, and The Detective Disappears being produced across the country.

All of his novels are proudly set in Canada and are filled with humour and heart.

He spent many years working in palaeontology in remote locations including the Canadian Rockies, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Peter lives in Toronto, Canada with his partner of twenty-five years, Scott White. At heart, he is an incredible romantic.

Author Links

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From A to Us by Amy Aislin

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: From A to Us

Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin

Series: Vermont Trailblazers 3

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

Release Date: October 6, 2026

Tense/POV: third person past tense

Genres: Contemporary MM hockey romance

Tropes: Friends to lovers, coach’s son, sister’s ex, age gap, forced proximity

Heat Rating: 3 flames: 

Length: 66 125 words / 220 pages

It is the final book in a trilogy but stands on its own.

It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon  |   Apple  |   B&N   |   Kobo     

Buy direct to get the bonus scene included

Blurb

Eli worked his butt off to earn a spot with the Vermont Trailblazers, and he has absolutely no intention of losing it. Unfortunately, his second NHL season has brought a sophomore slump, an endless parade of team obligations, and the possibility that enthusiasm might not be enough to keep his plates spinning—or keep him from being sent to the minors. So naturally, this is the perfect time for Nolan Madolora—his coach’s son, his sister’s ex, and the man Eli had an impossible crush on a decade ago—to walk back into his life.

Nolan knows a thing or two about not fitting in, which makes getting paid to figure out why the Trailblazers work so well together almost funny—he’s in Vermont to conduct a team culture audit and deliver an objective assessment. What he shouldn’t do is get involved with one of the players, especially when that man is Eli Parker: his ex’s little brother, ten years his junior, and all grown up in ways Nolan is trying very hard not to notice.

When Nolan and Eli stumble across an old set of unsent letters at the arena, amateur sleuthing gives them an excuse to spend more time together—and makes ignoring their growing attraction increasingly impossible to resist. Eli’s old crush has a chance of becoming something very real, while Nolan’s carefully maintained objectivity doesn’t stand a chance against the one person he never thought to look at twice. The closer they get—to the truth and to each other—the harder it becomes to remember all the reasons getting involved is a terrible idea.

99c/99p SALE

Book one in the series, The Best Parts of Him (Vermont Trailblazers 1), 

is on sale for $0.99/£0.99 until October 13.

Buy Link for Book 1

Excerpt from From A to Us

“Okay, wait. Wait-wait-wait-wait.” An hour and a half later, Nolan sat back in his seat and waved his hands, cutting Eli off. “You’re saying that if you had the option to know how you die, you wouldn’t take it?”

Eli’s grin was a little tipsy. Nolan had lost track of the number of beers Eli had consumed to Nolan’s one, but as Eli went to rest an elbow on the table and missed it entirely, Nolan mentally revised tipsy to most of the way drunk.

“Noooooo way,” Eli said, red-cheeked from too much booze but not slurring his words. So there was that. “If I knew how I died, I’d be constantly thinking about the future, just waiting for that day to come instead of living in the moment, and that would suck the joy right out of life. Would you want to know?”

“Yeah. I think so. That way I could avoid the thing that eventually kills me and maybe prolong my life a little longer. Do the things I want to do, accomplish what I want to accomplish, say the things I need to say.”

“But what if the thing that kills you is cancer or some other disease? Can’t avoid that.”

“Maybe not, but I can get screened earlier than I might’ve otherwise and try to catch it early. You really wouldn’t want to know?”

“Absolutely not,” Eli said. “Because what if I die, like, choking on a bagel or something? Then breakfast becomes a high-stakes event for the rest of my life.”

“You could cut the bagel into small pieces,” Nolan offered.

“And engineer my carbs around fate?”

“You could just not eat bagels.”

Eli gasped so hard that Nolan thought he’d choke on his own spit. “Rude, Nolan. Don’t get between a hockey player and his carbs.”

Nolan laughed. “Duly noted.”

“Hey, guys.” Their server appeared between them and placed the bill on the table. “We’re closing in a few minutes, so you can settle up at the bar.”

Nolan checked his watch. Almost midnight. Damn, they’d shut the place down. He hadn’t done that since his university days.

“You can pay.” Eli slid the bill Nolan’s way. “Since you invited me.”

“Sure,” Nolan said, laughing as he stood. “Be right back.”

He’d invited Eli out tonight because Eli was the only person he knew in Burlington aside from his dad. He was friendly with a few of the Trailblazers—had even attended a Trailblazers event or two in the four seasons Dad had been head coach—but he didn’t know them enough to call them up to hang out.

Eli, though? Nolan didn’t know him well enough either, but he had been a familiar face from his past. Nolan hadn’t expected to enjoy getting to know him as someone other than Michelle’s little brother as much as he had. Hadn’t expected to have this much fun or to wish the night would last longer. Hadn’t expected an Eli who was both funny and smart and wiser than Nolan would’ve given him credit for.

About the Author 

Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.

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Boomerang Street by Garrick Jones

RECENT RELEASE BOOK BLAST

Book Title: Boomerang Street

Author and Cover Artist: Garrick Jones

Publisher: GRJ Press

Release Date: September 15, 2026

Genre: LGBT Historical/Crime Thriller

Themes: Political Thriller; Action Thriller; Rags to Riches

Heat Rating: 5 flames  

Length: 135 000 words/389 pages (paperback version)

It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy links

Amazon  US  |  Amazon UK  |  Amazon AU  |  Bookshop Org  |  Kobo

Blurb 

“ … it started off by finding a few floaters in the harbour, but that caused a huge amount of attention in the press. It’s only a theory that they’re linked, but we’ve found six men, almost skeletons, in the past seven months dumped in all sorts of places, all with the same ligature marks and signs of abuse on their backs.”

1932, Sydney, Australia, in the height of the Great Depression, Joe Ing, one man among the two-thirds of Australian men out of work, will do anything to put food on the table for his family.

A casual job as a waiter at a private party leads to more opportunities, some of which push his limits and lead him into dangerous waters. The disappearance of his best friend, selling his body in the darkened streets of the city, precipitates a train of events that cause a change in his circumstance; both for better and for worse.

In Depression-era Sydney, jobless Joe Ing will do anything to feed his family. A waiter’s shift at a private party opens doors to risky work, dangerous secrets and a city’s underworld. Then, when his best friend vanishes, Joe is pulled into events that may save him—or destroy him.

Excerpt 

“Over here,” the man said, moving to the end cubicle and standing inside it, holding the door open.

“Bit risky,” Joe said, even though he’d already walked across the tiled floor. His penis led him, not his head.

The man chuckled, then moved to one side to allow Joe to go into the cubicle with him. He closed the door.

“Stand on the seat if anyone comes in,” Joe whispered.

“I know what to do,” came the reply, accompanied by a look of amusement and a very cheeky smile. “What do you like?”

Joe shrugged noncommittally, smiling back.

He enjoyed it far more than usual, the man’s head resting on Joe’s shoulder and breathing into the crook of his neck while they worked each other’s cocks. It felt good to have an arm around his back, the smell of the man’s brilliantine in his nose … besides, he was one good-looking coot and he certainly knew what to do, squatting down at the last minute to encourage Joe to spurt into his opened mouth. Joe couldn’t help himself: he arched his back as he was about to spoof and ran his hand behind the man’s neck, giving him the go-ahead to swallow his spunk. He throbbed out four spurts into the man’s mouth, the man looking up into his eyes as he did so.

“Fuck, that was lovely,” the man whispered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Not half,” Joe said with a grin. “Your turn now?”

Joe pulled him to his feet and undid his top trouser button. The man’s strides fell down to his shoes. It wasn’t something Joe did often, but he liked this bloke for some unknown reason and wanted to see whether he had golden hair on his legs; he was a sucker for red-blonds. Joe pulled the man’s underwear down, crouching down as he did so, the man’s cock inches from Joe’s face. It was truly impressive, standing out stiffly from his body, the foreskin stretched back along the shaft, his penis long and sleek and fat. The pale thicket of blond pubic hair was a surprise—Joe had imagined something darker or redder, but he was very aroused by what he saw, even though he’d just let go into the man’s mouth. He felt the familiar temptation, that as-yet unfulfilled desire to run his lips over the head of the man’s cock and then take it in his mouth, wondering yet again for the umpteenth time what it might feel and taste like.

As he squatted, his cock was still hard, throbbing, bouncing on the top of the waistband of his underpants. He spat in his hand, then started off slow, twisting his hand around the man’s shaft, gradually increasing speed. It wasn’t long before Joe noticed the grip and release in the man’s thighs; things were getting close.

Before he could get to his feet, the man groaned softly and spurted onto the wall over Joe’s shoulder, grasping the back of Joe’s neck, then panting softly until his orgasm subsided.

“Thank you,” he whispered, a moment or two later, looking down at Joe.

“No—thank you.”

Joe played with the man’s cock until it softened, something he rarely did, but he really liked the shape, size and feel of this bloke’s penis: it was a knockout. It felt so good in his hand that he was reluctant to let go of it. Even flaccid it was semi-turgid, full of blood and heavy in his hand. It was the manifested form of the fantasy cock that he thought about when he squirted onto his belly in bed at night. Damn, he thought: given half the chance, he could play with it for hours.

When he eventually stood, encouraged by the man’s hand on his shoulder, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he was still hard and he was oozing a bit.

“Want more?” the man asked, smiling and then running his hand around Joe’s erection.

Joe nodded, shrugged again nervously, then watched as the red-blond settled on the toilet seat and then sucked a second load out of him.

Back at the bar, Joe scored the encounter as up there with the best he could remember, and for a moment was tempted to change his mind and accept the offer the man had made to meet up again. He’d vacillated, but hadn’t acted on his second thoughts; it would have been a first had he done so. Instead, as they’d left the gents’, he’d just patted the man on the back and shaken his hand, leaving him to return to the bar with a traditional “Catchyalaydah,” a farewell that in Aussie slang meant something like “See you again perhaps, but don’t hold your breath”.

Maybe he’d regret it, but it was too late to do anything about it now. Joe’s attitude to the blokes he liked and what he did with them was odd. He didn’t understand it himself.

About the Author 

From the outback to the opera.

After a thirty-year career as a professional opera singer, performing as a soloist in opera houses and in concert halls all over the world, I took up a position as lecturer in music in Australia in 1999, at the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music, which is now part of CQ University.

Brought up in Australia, between the bush and the beaches of the Eastern suburbs, I retired in 2015 and now live in the tropics, writing, gardening, and finally finding time to enjoy life and to re-establish a connection with who I am after a very busy career on the stage and as an academic.

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Dragon’s Ending (Wings Over Albion 4) by Joy Lynn Fielding

RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: Dragon’s Ending (Wings Over Albion 4)

Author and Publisher: Joy Lynn Fielding

Cover Artist: Miblart

Release Date: September 24, 2026

Tense/POV: Alternating first person pov/past tense

Genres: Paranormal MM Romance

Tropes: Slow burn, Dragon-shifters, Flirtatious x serious MCs, Academic MC

Themes: Family expectations, Legacy and inheritance, Trust

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 92 000 words

It can be read as a standalone story. It contains spoilers for earlier books in the series. 

It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited  

Amazon US   |   Amazon UK

Dragon history was easy. This particular dragon? Anything but.

Blurb

I was sent to Dragon's Ending to uncover lost dragon history. What I found was Dominic Bedwyr.

The heir to one of Britain's oldest dragon-shifter families, Dominic has a reputation for turning heads and causing trouble in equal measure. He flirts. He provokes. He has an infuriating habit of appearing when least expected and interrupting my research.

And each time I think I've worked Dominic out, he proves me wrong. Because behind the studied indifference, I catch glimpses of someone else entirely. He’s a man born to inherit everything, yet trusted with nothing.

Before long, I catch myself listening for his footsteps. Waiting for him to appear by my side, pretending not to help and somehow making me laugh anyway.

But dragon families are complicated. Dominic’s, most of all.

It's one thing to fall in love with Dominic. It's another to fall in love with the Bedwyr heir.

Excerpt

Dominic tilted his head and met my gaze, amusement in those dark brown eyes, which deepened as I moved my chair away from him slightly. 

“Find what you’re looking for yet?” he asked.

I couldn’t be sure, but I felt that was double-edged. I chose to answer the question and ignore any other meaning. Perhaps he was used to guys simply keeling over into his arms whenever he wanted, but I had no interest in being one of them.

“I’m not looking for anything specific,” I told him.

“You’re sure about that?” he asked, and that lazily amused smile was still in his eyes. Which I was going to stop looking into right now.

Unfortunately, I tore my glance away just in time to notice the way he hitched his hip onto the table. Right next to me, making it impossible not to notice his thighs or think about the fluid ease with which he moved. It was as calculated as everything else about him.

“You know,” he said, “I’m sure I could help you out.” 

I wasn’t always the quickest to pick up when someone was flirting with me, but there was no mistaking the intent in his voice. It had lost its usual drawl, turning low and smooth.

“Can you read medieval Latin?” I asked him. “Because that would be helpful.”

He just looked at me, his lips tugging slightly at the corners. “Does Welsh work?”

“Oh, God, yes.” Because I’d already discovered the limits of my Welsh. Before I could stop myself, I was reaching for the document I’d had to put to one side earlier. “There’s this whole section here—”

 “So what made you decide to start halfway through the records rather than at the beginning?”

My irritation at his interruption evaporated as I realised what he’d said. Surely he couldn’t mean there were even more?

“I haven’t found anything further back than these yet,” I told him.

He shrugged and moved away. To my relief.

“And you’re just hoping something turns up.” He leaned against the shelves like he had every right to be there. Like they’d been put up for that purpose alone.

“That’s the general idea.”

“So what happens when the thing you need to see is actually somewhere else?”

That made me pause. “If you have something to say—”

“I do,” he said, pushing off from the shelves.

Too close again. Deliberately so. My dragon stirred, low and uneasy as he reached out to the ledger in front of me and moved it slightly, just enough to be out of square. It took every bit of willpower not to correct it immediately.

Dominic glanced down at the papers, then back at me, as if weighing whether I was worth the effort.

“Come on,” he said.

I frowned. “Where?”

“You want older than this,” he said.

My attention sharpened despite myself. “What does that mean?”

He watched me for an instant, and I saw that flicker of satisfaction again. He’d got me hooked, and he knew it.

“The castle.”

Phoebe had told me about it over supper. Only she’d said there was hardly anything left. “The ruins?” I checked.

“Unless you’ve found another one.”

“Your father—” I started.

“My father,” Dominic said, very mildly, “isn’t here.”

I hesitated. Rhodri didn’t like information shared without his consent.

“Come if you want,” he added, already turning towards the door. “Or don’t.”

Which was deeply irritating, because he knew I couldn’t resist. I closed my laptop with more force than necessary.

“If this turns out to be a waste of time—”

“You can come back and alphabetise something,” he said over his shoulder.

I stood up, because it was either that or hurl my laptop at his head.

About the Author 

Joy Lynn Fielding lives in a small English market town, where she nurtures enthusiasms for vintage aircraft, horses and gardening. An avid researcher for her books, she delights in uncovering unusual facts and sharing them with anyone within earshot. She insists this has never led to anyone hiding behind the furniture.

Joy writes at the pace her health allows, powered by enthusiasm, optimism and, above all, coffee. She hopes her books offer good company to anyone navigating their own winding paths.

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The Crucible by Aoibh Wood

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: The Crucible

Author and Publisher: Aoibh Wood

Cover Artist: Rebecca Frank

Release Date: September 28, 2026 (InkColors) / October 5, 2026 (Amazon, Kobo, and wide)

Tense/POV: First person, present tense, single POV (Mora), with a brief closing interlude.

Genres: FF Fantasy/Romance (adult sapphic romantasy; dark academy elements)

Tropes:  Enemies to lovers, forbidden love, hidden identity, slow burn, found family, morally gray love interest, sparring as flirtation, knife-gifting as a love language

Themes: identity and self-determination, loyalty vs. duty, surviving institutional cruelty, chosen family, queer joy (queernorm world — no homophobia)

Heat Rating: 4 out of 5 flames

Length: approx. 147 000 words

It is Book 1 of a planned series — the central romance arc resolves in this book (no romance cliffhanger); the wider series plot continues.

Goodreads

Buy Links

InkColors (early release, Sept 28)

Amazon (preorder, delivers Oct 5)

Additional wide retailers live on October 5 

What the Empire forges, the heart unmakes.

Blurb

The Crucible: the Empire’s brutal war academy, where the Aethyr-touched are forged into weapons and attachment is a crime.

Aethyrim like Mora Dray don’t enroll. They’re delivered.

Property of the Empire. Trained to kill. Culled when they break.

Mora walks through the gates with quick knives, a closed mouth, and a secret that will hang her if anyone looks too closely. So the plan is the one that’s kept her breathing this long: be nobody. Head down, scores middling, name off every list. She has invisible down to an art.

Nobody warned her about Liora Skaggs.

Violet-haired, knife-scarred, a Fourth-Year who teaches First-Years how to survive their own knives — lethal by training, worse by reputation, the most dangerous woman in the Crucible. Everything about her should read as threat. Instead, she looks across her crowded training yard and sees Mora for who she is. Not the quiet candidate. Not the middling scores. Her.

And being seen by Skaggs doesn’t feel like the death sentence it should.

It feels like the first time anyone’s ever said her name.

What Skaggs offers isn’t kindness. It’s a blade flipped into the dirt at Mora’s feet and an unspoken order to pick it up. After that, every rule bends. Keep quiet becomes stand out. Stay hidden becomes midnight matches in borrowed leather. Stay alive, stay alive goes out the window somewhere around the first sparring session that ends dangerously close to desire.

But they’re both property, and property isn’t supposed to want things. Wanting Skaggs is the first thing Mora has ever done just for herself, and she is stupid with it, reckless with it, starving with it.

Beyond the walls, the war she was built for is creeping closer, dragonfire is no longer rumor, and the Empire’s version of the truth is fraying at the edges.

Her secret could get her killed.

Skaggs almost certainly will.

She can’t get enough.

Excerpt 

Setup: Mora Dray, days into her first year at the Empire's war academy, is called into the pits for close-quarters combat assessment. The Fourth-Year running her ring is Liora Skaggs.

Skaggs is wearing a Mournborn knife on her hip, just like the one I’m carrying. Instinct has my hand dropping to hide mine, but all it does is get her attention, and her gaze dips. It lands exactly where my palm rests on the hilt and the corner of her mouth curves upward. Then she stalks over and looks down at me like I’m late for something, hands on her hips.

She has at least six inches on me.

I gulp.

She leans closer and sniffs.

“You, Northern girl,” she says, flipping her knife into the dirt at my feet. “Hand off that blade and follow me.”

“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath. I really didn’t want to go first, but I do as ordered, handing my knife to Rendi. “Hold this, please.”

She takes it, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

I shoot her a rude gesture and make my way into the ring. I don’t strip this time. I’d rather she get a handful of shirt than, say, my arm. Or a tit. I like my parts where they are.

“Sir” has already engaged with someone in the other ring, and he’s not really trying very hard. He doesn’t have to. The kid’s slow as fuck and can barely remember to keep his hands up.

Ranson watches them for a minute, then turns to us. “Well?”

“Skaggs,” she says by way of introduction.

“I know,” I answer. “You have a reputation.”

She shoots a look over her shoulder as we enter the ring. “Do I? And what do they say, Northern girl?”

I look away trying to hide my flush, as my heart does that thing it does when a pretty girl looks at me like that. Kitty looked at me like that, and we ended up in bed ten minutes later.

I stuff that thought down… hard.

Head in the game, Mora. Head in the game.

In the ring, Skaggs drops into a pretty standard Mournborn fighting stance. I mirror it. I need to make this look convincing, but I need to lose. Probably not hard given the shape I’m in. Trina was outmatched by skill. This girl is on a whole different level.

She steps forward and takes a few half-hearted jabs at my face. I dodge easily.

She takes a few more. They’re a little quicker. I dodge left and right, then have to lean back as she follows with a hook.

My left hand snaps out and catches her in the mouth. Her head rocks back, but I don’t press. I swap my footing, hopping a bit.

As I circle, I catch Brask and Ranson watching us. I don’t pay attention to their conversation, not really, but I can hear them. I catch bits and pieces: “not bad,” and “scary with a knife.”

Skaggs moves in, putting in a lot more effort. Her blows come insanely quick, and the best I can do is retreat, block, or weave my head out of the way. It’s a pattern, though, and one Miriam taught me. I jump and spin-kick as her leg sweeps low. It leaves my boot print on her shirt and sends her to her ass with a loud grunt.

Everyone’s up now, watching us.

It won’t be much of a show. I’m already winded and my shoulder’s killing me. Still, give me a few months of conditioning and healing, and this will be a whole different match.

She rolls up, licking a bit of blood off her lip.

Well. I’ve got her attention.

She barrels in, and I’m down in four hits with a split lip and a vicious shot to the eye that I’m sure will swell shut.

It isn’t flashy. It isn’t even dramatic. It’s efficient and clinical. I lose the rhythm for half a second and she takes the rest of it from me.

Then she drops down on my chest, pinning my arms beneath her shins. Her weight settles like a verdict. She’s not even breathing hard, and her violet eyes lock on mine like she’s waiting to see what I do with humiliation.

Her crotch is practically in my face.

“Make her lick it!” someone calls.

I scowl, ready to spit back something filthy.

Skaggs’ hand settles at my throat. She doesn’t squeeze. She just leaves it there, long enough to let me know she could.

Heat floods me, somewhere between need and humiliation.

Her eyes bore into mine. Not offended, just… curious. Like she wants to see what I’ll do with that cat-call.

My mouth curves. “You’ll have to buy me dinner first.”

Her lips twitch with just the hint of a smile.

Not for them.

For me.

Then my hand slaps the sand.

Gods help me. My head is definitely not in the game… well, not the right one.

She stands and hauls me up like I weigh nothing, then marches me back toward my seat beside the ring. As she scoops her knife from the ground, her gaze flicks to mine. And the spark there is electric. Then she turns away and wanders off to select another victim.

“I couldn’t decide if she was gonna fight you or fuck you,” Sirenna says when I sit down.

I cough to hide my laughter, then pat my chest and whisper, “Be still, my beating heart.”

About the Author 

Aoibh Wood is the bestselling author of The Senator’s Widow — a #1 title in Amazon’s Lesbian Thriller category — and the Cait Reagan urban fantasy series. A veteran of the tech and cybersecurity world, she writes romance, intrigue, and the supernatural with queer women at the center. Her sapphic enemies-to-lovers romantasy, The Crucible, releases September 28 on InkColors and everywhere October 5. She lives with her wife and their cat, Papaya.

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