Sorrow for ThornsA gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast retelling

Mira is on a hopeless quest. She's traipsing across the Floral Realms seeking a weapon hidden in a cursed castle that might not even exist. But it's that or be cast out of the Witches' Guild, and then she'd be destitute and alone in a world at war.

When Mira is attacked by wolves near the ominous Blacklily Castle, she thinks she's found her curse – except now she's wounded and at the mercy of the castle's recalcitrant lord, Raphael.

Raphael is clearly hiding a dangerous secret, and he won't talk about it. Worse, Mira is having strange dreams about a love lost long ago, and the longer she stays at Blacklily Castle, the more she realises nothing is as it seems. Not the castle, not Raphael, not the woman in her dreams, and not the Guild she's risked her life for.

Then the curse turns deadly, and Mira must untangle the castle's secrets in time to save herself, Raphael and any chance of a happily ever after.

Sorrow for Thorns is the third book in the Floral Realms Fairy Tales, a series of novellas with high drama, low spice, and angst up to 11. Each title is a standalone romance but the books are best read in order to understand the series arc.