The Hollow Crown is the first book in this darkly delicious gothic romantasy series, The Dragon’s Crown—where love is a weapon, and the crown always draws blood.
Some gardens grow flowers. Others grow graves.
When Lenore Ashworth receives a mysterious invitation written in living silver ink, she sees it as salvation from her uncle's grudging charity and her mother's recent death. The position at crumbling Eldermere Castle promises the botanist rare specimens, generous compensation, and blissful solitude.
She doesn't expect the castle to dress her, feed her, or rearrange itself for her comfort. She doesn't expect roses that sing in moonlight or portraits that weep real tears. And she certainly doesn't expect the mysterious duke, Thorne Ravenscroft, devastatingly handsome, heartbreakingly cursed, and bound to witness an endless cycle of brilliant women who arrive seeking knowledge... only to become something else.
As Lenore falls for both the man and the monstrous beauty surrounding him, she uncovers the terrible truth. Every garden keeper before her believed she was choosing love over duty. Every one thought her sacrifice would save the world. Every one was wrong.
But in shadow rose gardens where phantom lovers whisper in starlight, Lenore dares to dream of a different ending. Some loves transcend death itself. Some sacrifices plant seeds that bloom centuries later in unexpected hearts.
And some sacrifices are just the first verse of a much darker song.
The Hollow Crown contains mature content, and is therefore recommended for readers 17+.
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The Dragon's Crown
They say love can save you. But in Eldermere, it only makes you dangerous... A darkly delicious gothic romantasy where the villain origin story is the love story.
It begins with a girl and a garden.
When botanist Lenore Ashworth arrives at cursed Eldermere Castle, she believes she's there to study flowers. Instead, she awakens something ancient that has been waiting in shadow and starlight. Some loves transcend death. Others rewrite the rules entirely.
Hell hath no fury like a woman rewritten by her own power.
Two centuries later, Elspeth Hawthorne doesn't believe in fairy tales, until a living castle adores her fury, the gargoyles crown her in devotion, and the dragon bound in its crypt whispers her name. She will not be meek. She will not be merciful. She will burn the world before she bows again.
And some crowns are worth burning worlds to wear.
The dragon is free, his queen ascendant, and together they will tear through realms to reclaim lost siblings and remake the cosmos. Love is no longer sacrifice, it is dominion. Let the old powers tremble, a new order is rising, and it wears a crown of shadow and starlight.
From moonlit gardens to living castles, from forbidden desire to cosmic war, The Dragon’s Crown Trilogy is a shadow-drenched gothic romantasy about the women fate tried to sacrifice…and the monsters who crowned them instead.
Crown of Ruin
Book Two in the series, where rage is sacred, and vengeance wears a crown.
Two centuries have passed since Lenore Ashworth sacrificed herself to strengthen the cursed chains that hold the dragon god imprisoned beneath Eldermere Castle. Her statue weeps marble tears in the shadow rose garden while Thorne Ravenscroft tends her memory with the devotion of the eternally damned.
Until…
Betrayed, humiliated, and burning with fury, Elspeth Hawthorne arrives at Eldermere Castle with nothing left to lose and everything to destroy.
She expects dust and ruin. She finds Eldermere Castle waiting, alive with impossible enchantments. Ghostly hands dress her, the rooms change on a whim, gargoyles sharpen their claws in devotion, and the marble statues in the rose garden weep. Deep beneath the castle, a stone dragon grows warm beneath her touch. His voice finds her in shadows, worship and hunger twined as one. The world warns her to be afraid. The castle adores her rage. And the dragon answers her fury with fire of his own.
The world warns her to be afraid. The castle adores her rage. And when emissaries from distant realms come to claim its power, Elspeth answers with fire, ruin, and the promise of a crown.
Dravik, the Devourer of Stars, primordial dragon of shadow and starlight, should have destroyed worlds. Instead, he offers her a choice.
But crowns forged from the darkness between galaxies cut deep…some curses are meant to be broken. Some monsters are meant to be freed.
Let the old world tremble. The Queen of Infinite Night is coming, and she’s bringing her dragon with her.
Crown of Ruin contains mature content including depictions of graphic violence, and is therefore recommended for readers 17+.
The Broken Crown
Book Three in The Dragon’s Crown series. The final chapter in the gothic romantasy saga where love is dominion, and ruin is a gift.
The chains are shattered. The dragon is free. The Queen of Infinite Night has risen.
Elspeth Hawthorne has claimed Eldermere with fire and fury, crowned herself in starlight, and set the world trembling. Beside her, Dravik—primordial dragon of shadows and devotion—answers every whisper of her rage with ruinous love. Together they have remade the castle, bent courts to their will, and burned the old order to ash.
But some bonds reach beyond death, beyond time, beyond worlds.
In the void, Dravik’s siblings stir—gods of life, time, dreams, and endings—and they are coming for her crown. Their trials will drag Elspeth and Dravik through shattered realms and ancient courts where desire is weapon, mercy is weakness, and prophecy whispers that even queens of infinite night may bleed.
Empires fracture. Old gods awaken. And at the heart of it all lies a choice written in blood: sacrifice the child bound to her fate… or shatter the crown itself.
Some crowns cannot be mended.
Some must be broken—and reforged in shadow, fire, and love.
The Broken Crown contains mature content including depictions of graphic violence, and is therefore recommended for readers 17+. For a full list of tropes and CWs, please visit the author's website.
Content warnings for the books may be found here.
Did you find all the easter eggs Eldermere was hiding.... if not, here they are...
Christmas at Eldermere
Book Four in The Dragon’s Crown Series. This book may be read as a standalone, in any order.
A gothic Christmas tale of cursed castles, found family, and the kind of love that changes you forever.
They say those who cross into Eldermere lands are never seen again. For Maria Riverbottom, there is no other choice.
Fleeing a cruel betrothal to the Hollow Court with monsters on her heels, she crosses the boundary stones expecting death. Instead, she finds a sanctuary alive with magic.
The gargoyles crown her in love instead of sacrifice. The living castle shelters her with warmth instead of chains. And for three fleeting weeks before the winter solstice, Maria tastes freedom, safety, and the kind of belonging she never dreamed was possible.
But Eldermere has a master. The new Duke of Eldermere, Thorne Ravenscroft, knows what Maria does not: every girl who enters becomes a keeper—and every keeper becomes a statue in the shadow rose garden.
For the first time in centuries, the castle rebels. Corridors shift to hide her. Secret passages open at her touch. Yet if Maria remains past the solstice, she will be lost forever. And if she leaves, she must surrender the only home her heart has ever known.
A gothic holiday tale where the greatest monsters are not carved of stone, and the greatest gifts are not gold—but freedom, and a future claimed as one’s own