Everything comes with a price. In 1716, a capital crime costs a man nothing short of his head. If the condemned can’t come to the hangman, there’s no need to worry: Old Jack Ketch will come to him. Emmat Bird does what she must to keep her parents under a solid roof and her fool brother out of trouble, even if those things are dangerous and most days illegal. Today, that involves forging a stay … involves forging a stay of execution from Judge Couch and racing it to the gallows before her brother’s neck stretches. A fine mess, indeed, but the only solution she can think of to keep her parents from disowning her once and for all. She just has to get the executioner to buy it.
Bartholomew Vane travels his country circuit, meting out punishments demanded by the law. Shunned to live on the fringes for the taint of death surrounding his post, he cares very little for the wants of others. Why should he? The world shows him no mercy, and he sees fit to return the favor. When the third rider in the same grey morning appears at the foot of Gallows Hill attempting to stay the noose of the witless convict he’s about to hang, the executioner finds himself losing patience.
But then the pieces fall together. The flaming red hair, the name. He knows who the final rider is. Reason leaves him, and in its place, a terrible plan takes shape. The hangman makes a bargain.
Against her better judgment, Emmat accepts.
Follow award-winning author Eris Adderly off the beaten path where outcasts do what they must, and urges long-contained rise up to take what they want. Let her decadent, filthy prose sweep you into the past, into the unyielding arms of the hangman.
This dark erotic romance novella twists across the page with graphic descriptions of sexual acts, and is intended for mature readers only.
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“Come home with your brother or not at all”
With her families’ instruction running through her thoughts, Emmat gives herself to the hangman in exchange for her brother’s life.
What follows is a delicious enemies-to-lovers romance in which two damaged people come to terms with one another. It is brutal and gorgeous and over all to soon.
Highly Recommended.
This is the first book I have read by Eris Adderly and wow did I love it! Novella length stand-alone with HEA. I wish there was more story or an epilogue with them further into the future, I wasn’t ready for their story to end!
I’m a sucker for a good, slow-burn love story. While this novella may not be as slow-burn as others I’ve read (including another of the author’s works – looking at you, An Emperor For the Eclipse), I’d still put it firmly in that category. I loved this story for that facet AND for the intriguing plot it contained. Sure, the sex does come rather early (and with a delightfully delicious dub-con element to it), but the real drive to the story builds slowly and progressively, with Emmat, our main heroine, fighting against her nature as she comes to see the man she’s dealt a bargain with in a completely different light than she does at the beginning. And watching that unfold is what kept me captivated throughout this story.
Now, this author has always been, for me, a master wordsmith. She paints with language images the way a Master does with brush, and this novella is no different. But there is another thing this author does that is both tortuous, and yet luscious at the same time.
She cock-blocks with the best of them.
As already stated, the sex does come early in this story, so this is not cock-blocking in the traditional sense of the phrase. But what does take place with our heroine easily constitutes it, IMHO. The delay in the inevitable HEA, the lingering build-up to that point, and the way the author plays with the readers emotions to the final dénouement is such that there were moments where I was gritting my teeth in frustration, saying “Oh, for the love of… seriously!?” Ms. Adderly builds characters that do things that make you want to reach through the pages, literally grab the characters by the shoulder, and go “Wake. The. Hell. UP!” The payout at the end may be all the sweeter for the teasing journey, but in the heat of the moment it does not stop you from those “Arrrgh!” moments.
I’m not super big on historical romance, although I will not shy away from one. And while this *is* a historical romance, readers should not turn away from it fearing that it will be more of the traditional style for that. This is a wonderful story, teasing in all the right ways, a splash of dub-con that turns quickly to something far richer than that, and all written with the glorious wordcrafting one has come to expect from this author. If you have not read this, highly recommend that you do.