This Safe Darkness
The Hunt was intended to make us an example, not a threat. That changes now.
Thirty-year-old Orelle Bren knows the best way to avoid death is to play by the rules of a society that only values women as wives and wombs.
Though it would be nice to reclaim the dream life her ex-husband stole from her, Orelle would gladly settle for a loveless engagement that exempts her from being among the ten unwed, childless women drafted for the annual Hunt.
It’s supposed to be an honor, being selected to leave their underground utopia to eliminate the Sols—humans who’ve been mutated with corrupt magic by exposure to the sun.
But Orelle knows it’s a glorified death sentence, especially for someone who’s already in a daily battle with their own body.
When her desperate attempts at enticement fail and she’s cast above into the fatal world of light, an unexpected ally challenges Orelle to find a new dream of living—and maybe even loving—out of spite.
To do that, there are few lines she won’t cross to uncover the true monsters before becoming one herself, or something even worse: prey.
This Safe Darkness is a romantic dystopian fantasy and the first book in the Sols & Shades duology that follows a disabled woman fighting to live out of spite in the deadly world of light after her eviction from the underground haven.
A weaponized lottery system, corrupt utopia, and slow-burn romantic sub-plot that’ll make you writhe over a simple wrist touch make this the perfect read for fans of The Hunger Games, The Handmaid's Tale, Blood Over Bright Haven, andGild.
Alexis Maragold
Alexis Maragold writes fantasy that feels alive in the bones, born from afternoons spent staring at the shifting light through pine trees near her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. She did not grow up dreaming of dragons and ruined cities simply to escape reality. She saw in her own experiences, especially living with chronic illness, the same fierce grit and tender longing that make speculative fiction so compelling. That tension between vulnerability and survival drives her work and draws readers into worlds that are strange but emotionally familiar.
Sols & Shades
In a world where light kills and darkness shelters, the Sols & Shades series follows those caught between survival and the fierce desire to live on their own terms. Beneath the earth, in the subterranean city of Caligo, women are valued only for what they can give—marriage, children, obedience. Each year, ten unwed, childless women are drafted for the Hunt, sent aboveground to face the Sols—once-human creatures twisted by sunlight and corrupt magic.
Sols & Shades consists of one book and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
