The Hollow Crown is the first book in this darkly delicious gothic romantasy trilogy, 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.
Perfect for readers who crave the gothic romance of Crimson Peak, the lush prose of For the Wolf, the cursed yearning of Belladonna, and the ancient magic of One Dark Window.
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About
Dark Romantasy Author | Lover of Gothic Decay & Forbidden Kisses
Grace Yarrow writes hauntingly romantic tales where love is a blade, shadows whisper secrets, and every crown comes with a curse. When she isn’t wandering mist-shrouded manors in her imagination, she can be found sipping black tea with too much honey, collecting antique keys (just in case one opens a portal), and arguing with her cat about whether haunted libraries need ghosts to be interesting.
Her stories are for those who crave love stories drenched in moonlight and danger—where the monsters are just as likely to steal your heart as your soul.
Currently residing in a creaky old house that may or may not be sentient.
The Dragon's Crown Trilogy
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 Dragon’s Crown Trilogy, 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.
The Broken Crown
Book Three in The Dragon’s Crown Trilogy. 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 claimed Eldermere with fire and fury, crowned herself in starlight, and set the world trembling. Beside her, Dravik, primordial dragon of shadows and starlight, answers every whisper of her rage with cosmic devotion. Together, they have remade the castle, bent courts to their will, and burned the chains of the old order to ash.
But some bonds reach beyond death, beyond time, beyond worlds.
In the void, Dravik’s siblings stir, primordial beings of life, time, and dreams. To find them, Elspeth and Dravik must cross shattered realms, challenge ancient courts, and wield a crown heavy with ruin.
Allies bow or break. Enemies kneel or burn. And mercy has no place in the empire of night they are building.
Yet power this vast does not come without cost. Old gods awaken, kingdoms fracture, and a prophecy whispers that even queens of infinite night may bleed.
Some crowns cannot be mended. Some must be broken and reforged in shadow and fire.
Her rage will break kingdoms...
Vesper Lockwood lost everything to monsters in the dark—her family, her safety, her faith in mercy. All that remains is rage, and a thirst for vengeance that will never die.
When she frees a dying dragon from his shackles, she doesn’t just save him—she binds herself to him. His magic brands her veins, marking her as something the fae courts will hunt, covet… and kill to possess.
Dragged into a realm of lethal beauty and ruthless desire, Vesper learns she is heir to a broken throne—and the key to uniting realms on the edge of war. But power never comes without a price. Two fae lords—one cloaked in shadow, the other burning with light—see more than a queen in her. They see a prize. A weapon. A temptation.
In a land where love is a weapon and destiny is a curse, Vesper must choose to bow, burn… or rule.
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