Author and Publisher: H. L. Moore
Cover Artist: Damonza
Pairing: MM (slow burn)
Genres: Fantasy (coalpunk)
The stories are best read in order.
Universal Buy Links for the Series
Five characters from the book/series (with a soundbite of what makes them interesting or important to the story).
I’m going to do something a bit different here and talk about five supporting (secondary and tertiary) characters rather than main cast, because as much as I love to talk about the main cast of Doran, Nathaniel, Lien, and Grace, I’m also keen to give the spotlight to these beloved/beloathed characters…
Gertrude Harrington: Gertrude Harrington is the mother-in-law of main character Doran Ó Seanáin, and the grandmother of Grace Harrington. She starts off as the typical loathed mother-in-law – the one who cut contact with her daughter for running off with a lower-class man, the one who constantly disapproves of her son-in-law, stern and humourless, stuck-up and extremely proud of her high standing in society. But beneath that cold and classist exterior is a woman who has suffered deeply over the years, and by the time of Book 4, we learn about a terrible secret she has kept hidden for years…
“I’m going to get you out of here.” Doran tried to help her to her feet, but Gertrude pushed him away.
“Leave me,” she said, desolate. “Just go, leave me here, this is what I deserve –”
“I’m not going to leave you!” Doran said, outraged he was hearing such a thing from her. “You don’t deserve this, no one deserves this –”
“I do,” Gertrude continued, her lip quivering as she spoke. “Because – because this is all my fault. I used to sit on Archon Brianna’s council. She was going to name Bianca as her successor, but I – I convinced her otherwise. I told her Bryson would be a better ruler. He was headstrong and had cruel impulses, yes, but Bianca would be easily manipulated, especially by Odessa. Everyone knew that was the only reason Odessa married her, so that she could become Archon by proxy. Brianna agreed with me and disinherited Bianca.”
(From Valley of Secrets: Book 4 of Death’s Embrace)
Captain Reagan Iovanius: Introduced in the second book, Reagan Iovanius is the new Captain of the Royal Guards. Professional, driven, and ruthless, she is the only reason why Grace Harrington has not been usurped as the Archon of Arajon by other opportunistic members of the upper class. I’d love to say more about Captain Iovanius, but something major occurs in Book 3 that will absolutely change the way people think about her. What I will say is that some of the best lines in the series come out of her mouth. This woman belongs in the theatre, not in a uniform. (That said, she does pull off the uniform incredibly well.)
“You had your chance to be the Archon Consort thirty years ago,” Iovanius snapped. “But you couldn’t handle a few bruises around your neck, so you conned Bianca into marrying you instead, and then when Brianna made sure your fingernails would never squeeze the life out of this city, Bryson fell mysteriously ill for weeks with a fever that cooked his balls so well done that they wouldn’t even have been fit to serve to a street dog.”
(From Throne of Lies: Book 3 of Death’s Embrace)
Dorran O’Sullivan: Dorran O’Sullivan – not to be confused with Doran Ó Seanáin, the main character – is the former Captain of the Guards (Iovanius’s predecessor) who was fired after the death of Archon Bryson II. He started off as a joke/throwaway character, but ended up being more important than I realised he would. His introduction in Book 3 is like if Grima Wormtongue thought he was Aragorn:
Doran spotted a cloaked figure, shrouded in the darkest, furthest corner of the tavern. His face was obscured by a hood. When he saw Doran and Nathaniel, he lifted his whiskey, beckoning them over.
Doran held up the note. “You’re the one who sent this?”
The man sat strewn in a rickety chair, his ratty, sludge-stained boots raised and crossed upon the stained, greasy table. Though Doran couldn’t see his eyes, he felt it as the man raked him up and down with a leering gaze from beneath his hood.
“Doran Ó Seanáin,” the man drawled, rolling Doran’s name on his tongue like it was a slur. He swirled his whiskey, his dirty, uneven fingernails dragging across the lip of the smudged, scratched glass. “We finally meet again. It’s been a long time coming. I wasn’t sure you would dare show your face… My archnemesis, here in the flesh –”
“Sorry,” Doran said, slowly, “do we know each other?”
There was an offended pause. Then the man dropped his legs from the table and leaned forward into the candlelight, yanking down his hood to reveal a middle-aged unshaven, gaunt face, his yellow teeth bared.
“Seriously?” he snapped.
(From Throne of Lies: Book 3 of Death’s Embrace)
Professor Meirav Kaufman: Professor Kaufman is a cranky octogenarian physician/physicist/inventor and the Albert Einstein-equivalent of the Death’s Embrace series. She’s old, she’s snarky, she’s done with everyone’s shit, and her inventions and contributions to science have essentially shaped the world as it is. And despite her age, she isn’t slowing down yet! (That said, she does plan to retire to a beach so she can enjoy her final years with the warmth of the sun on her old saggy tiddies.)
Doran asked Kaufman about what the alternative to coal would be, but she scoffed and said, “There is plenty of time for me or someone else to invent something better. I am particularly interested in the properties of uranium.”
“Isn’t uranium deadly?”
“Everything is deadly in high enough quantities. See, this is the trouble with you Arajoni – no one is forced to invent new things because there is nothing to drive progress, so you all think what exists already is fine forever. You are all too comfortable. This country needs a war to drive some scientific advancement – I am joking,” she added, noticing Doran’s horrified expression.
Doran wasn’t so sure she had been.
(From Throne of Lies: Book 3 of Death’s Embrace)
Leonora Darkwater: Can’t keep a bad bitch down! This woman has never met a situation she couldn’t talk her way out of (with a little bit of persuasive singing/music magic to smooth her words). Leonora was introduced in Book 2 as a potential saviour to the main character Doran’s problems, but like with everything associated with her, the offer was too good to be true. Leonora is a thorn in the side of the protagonists; occasionally an ally (with conditions and caveats), often an enemy and a rival who will not hesitate to throw someone else in front of the bus to save her own skin; and always acting with an ulterior motive. Leonora, you see, is obsessed with the family wealth her grandfather lost when he sold his shares of the coal mines of Arajon. Regaining that wealth and societal standing is her birthright, and she will do anything – and say anything – to win it back. Keep an eye out for her in future books – her story is far from over.
Nathaniel turned on the intruder and said, in a low and dark voice, “That’s quite enough of your parlour tricks, Lady Darkwater.”
The humming ceased.
Leonora Darkwater drew down the hood of her cloak, turned to face him, and spread her hands out before her with a coy smile as if to say, you caught me.
“What are you doing here,” Doran spat.
Leonora swept a hand around the establishment. “I’ve been enjoying browsing Mr Morgenstern’s wares.”
“Mm,” Nathaniel mused. “If only you could afford something to justify your presence.”
Leonora’s expression darkened, just for a moment. She tilted her head, sweeping her hair behind an ear. The movement exposed a glistening diamond earring hanging from her lobe.
“I’ve no need for charity, least of all yours,” she said. “I merely wished to make your acquaintance properly. It only seems polite.”
(From Throne of Lies: Book 3 of Death’s Embrace)
Thank you.
DEATH’S EMBRACE SERIES BLURB
Doran Ó Seanáin, former miner and leader of the Black Lung Gang, and his best friend, Lien, are almost at a breaking point in their ongoing conflict with the city of Arajon’s tyrannical ruler. Just as things are spiralling out of control, Doran crosses paths with Nathaniel Morgenstern, an apotheker with a mysterious past. As their relationship develops against the backdrop of the ongoing social turmoil, the secrets Nathaniel is keeping might threaten to destroy them all…
BOOK DETAILS
BOOK 1
Book Title: Heart of Dust
Length: 59 000 words
Release Date: 2019
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, single POV
Tropes: Stabbing leading to meet-cute, yearning, slow burn romance
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights
Heat Rating: 2 flames
It does not end on a cliffhanger, but leaves plot threads unresolved that are resolved in the next 3 books.
Doran had a problem, and it wasn’t that he’d been stabbed.
Blurb
Iole City is in turmoil.
Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both.
Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in.
Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.
BOOK 2
Book Title: Soul of Ash
Length: 86 000 words
Release Date: September 2020
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, two POVs (alternating)
Tropes: Yearning, former assassin, slow burn romance
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights
Heat Rating: 1 flame
It does not end on a cliffhanger, but some plot elements are unresolved (resolved in books 3 and 4)
You can run, but you will never be free.
Blurb
Half a year after the events of Heart of Dust, Doran Ó Seanáin now finds himself trapped between two worlds while belonging to neither: held in contempt by the Bronze for the turmoil he caused during Archon Bryson’s reign, and resented by the miners for selling out. Leonora Darkwater’s pursuit to own the mines may be the answer to all of his problems, but the offer is far more complicated than it appears, and the only person Doran trusts is the same man who threw his life into chaos.
Haunted by his past, hostage to a debt that cannot be repaid, and a slave to the poison that keeps him alive, atonement has never felt further out of reach for Nathaniel Morgenstern. Though the damage between him and Doran is too devastating to begin to mend, they have no choice but to face each other as their lives collide once more.
There is a rot in Iole City. The mines aren’t finished with Doran, and the sand in Nathaniel’s hourglass is running out.
BOOK 3
Book Title: Throne of Lies
Length: 63 000 words
Release Date: December 2024
Pairing: MM with hints of developing into MMF (slow burn)
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, three POVs (alternating)
Trope/s: Political intrigue, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.
Heat Rating: 3 flames
This book ends on a cliffhanger.
There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze.
Blurb
Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.
But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.
The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…
BOOK 4
Book Title: Valley of Secrets
Length: 123 000 words
Release Date: January 2025
Pairing: MM that develops into MMF (polyam), and a separate FF fast-burn relationship (femme/butch)
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, four POVs (alternating)
Trope/s: Political intrigue, resistance against military coup, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer
Themes: Lesbian romance, polyam romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Most plot threads are wrapped up. Two further books are planned in the series but the series can also be finished here.
This city of fools will be brought to order!
Blurb
Deposed, her father presumed dead, her friends slaughtered and the cavern in chaos, Grace Harrington is on the run and entirely alone. The only ally she has left is the man she hates most in the world: Nathaniel Morgenstern, the assassin who murdered her mother and seduced her father.
Grace’s only hope of reclaiming the throne and saving her people is to seek the aid of Éamon Tadhg, the High Druid of Arajon. But she needs to survive the hostile streets of Iole City before she can even think about fleeing to the Violet Valley.
Nathaniel made a vow to Doran to protect Grace, but he could never have imagined how quickly and horrifically their lives would fall apart.
Grieving the dual losses of the man he loved and his new friend Tsa Lien, Nathaniel devotes himself to the service of the overthrown Lady Archon who despises him – even if it costs him everything he is.
Excerpt from THRONE OF LIES (Book #3 of Death’s Embrace)
“I’m sorry. I, uh… I guess you probably want me to –”
Nathaniel braced his hand against the frame, using his arm to pause Doran’s advancement towards the door.
“Stay,” he said quietly.
He did not suggest it to continue what had been derailed by Leonora’s presence; neither he nor Doran seemed to be much in the mood for it any longer.
But Doran must have needed Nathaniel’s request, for instead of shaking his head and leaving, he closed his eyes and sighed.
“This wasn’t how I imagined the evening going,” Doran said.
Nathaniel laid a hand upon Doran’s chest. “Rest here tonight,” he said, and started to gesture to the main room where the couch was. “I can –”
Doran shook his head, opening his eyes again. “I’m not going to throw you out of your own room,” he said, a small smile finally returning to ease his features.
Nathaniel became sharply aware of the bed behind him, the darkness outside the windows, Doran’s hands that moved to rest upon his waist. The room was dim, illuminated only by a small oil lamp set upon the desk under the window that overlooked Arkadia Lane. Under the faint glow of the light, he held his breath while Doran moved his hands up his body then down his arms, urging his jacket off. It fell to the floor with a soft thump.
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “I have a wardrobe, you know,” he murmured.
“Maybe I want to see your clothes on the floor,” Doran replied.
The sudden rush of desire that gripped Nathaniel’s body rendered him speechless. Doran smirked, then kissed him.
It was deep and tender, slow and heated; milk and honey on Nathaniel’s tongue after years wandering the desert, finally stepping foot in the promised land he had denied himself. In that moment, Nathaniel felt there was nothing between them – neither pasts nor crimes, neither guilt nor regret; just them, their souls laid bare, and a barrier of clothes of which Doran was stripping away with barely restrained desperation.
He relished the gentle scrape of Doran’s evening stubble across his chin, groaned when Doran moved along his jawline and kissed his neck, urging him to tilt his head back and bare his throat, which Doran used to break for air and run his hand up Nathaniel’s chest. Then, with the flickering lamplight reflected in Doran’s eyes, his fingers began working the buttons of Nathaniel’s shirt undone one by one. He slid his hands inside under the fabric and around to Nathaniel’s back, up his shoulder blades, his fingers tracing the scars that latticed his skin.
Nathaniel allowed Doran to undress him, stripping his shirt to the floor beside his jacket, and moved backwards when Doran guided him until the backs of his legs collided with the edge of the bed.
“Sit,” Doran ordered.
Nathaniel sank down upon the mattress, his mouth dry as Doran knelt before him and began to unfasten the straps of his boots. He pulled off Nathaniel’s left boot first, then the right, leaving them askew on the floor – then Nathaniel’s hands clenched on the bedcovers and he groaned as Doran ran his hands up Nathaniel’s legs, curving around his calves, then over his knees, and all the way up his thighs and the strained fabric of his pants to reach for the buckle of the belt.
Hoarsely, Nathaniel said, “You don’t have to –”
“But I want to,” Doran interrupted, his voice low and heated. He rose to his feet now and stood between Nathaniel’s legs, gazing down at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Do you?”
It had been years since Nathaniel’s last intimate encounter; longer still that it had been with someone for whom he had feelings that were not muted by the fog of Embrace. Such a thing was lost to him during his time with the Nameless. The physicality of sex had been heightened, certainly, while he himself was rendered as numb to the act as someone was used to the basic function of washing their hands. With a clear mind, he recalled of himself that some deep part not lost to the drug and his lifestyle must have found the experience undesirable, for he could count the number of unions he had engaged in during his adulthood on one hand.
Doran’s touch was more potent, more electric, than anything Nathaniel had ever experienced under the thrall of Embrace. He felt he would die if he went one more night without knowing how Doran’s body felt against his.
“God, yes,” Nathaniel rasped, and Doran closed the distance between them.
H. L. Moore (she/they) is the author of the Death’s Embrace fantasy series and the Tales from the Jovian Empiresci-fi novella series.
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