Some wars begin with a single kiss.
Perfect for fans of Daggermouth and Red Rising, this action-packed debut is an intense dystopian sci-fi romance featuring a deadly wartime rivalry, high-stakes psychic tracking, and slow-burn tension.
Survival is a strategy. Love is a risk.
Dessa Frost can find anyone with her psychic tracking gift, magic drawn from the planet itself. Using it openly will get her exiled, but she’ll do what it takes to find her missing brother. Even if it means leading a search party into the one place nobody is allowed to enter.
What she finds inside is worse than exile. Her planet has been chosen as the universe’s next battlefield. Before she can act, Dessa is conscripted into the Taming, where off-world nobility descend on fringe planets and fight to the death for rulership. To survive, she must choose the champion she’ll fight beside. One prospect is a stranger who promises her a reunion with her brother. The other is Tavish Arran, the man who broke her heart, now begging for a second chance with a secret that could save them both.
But before the Taming’s bloodshed even starts, her dear friend is murdered. Caught between the love she fears and the revenge she craves, Dessa has to decide who she trusts with her life… and who she’s willing to lose.
