Series: Her Five Monsters #1
Publication date: November 12th, 2021
Published by: Changeling Press
Synopsis:
Emilia is excited to start a house-sitting job, even if the house is creepy and more than a little on the odd side--as odd as the owner's requests. When she finds an unusual gaming console, she is drawn into a lusty video game in which she crosses paths with five inhuman creatures. She is drawn to them all, but when the five men keep telling her that the game is very much not what it seems, Emilia realizes she can no longer play along.
As the path she follows offers not just desire and intense experiences but also sadness, cruelty, and hurt around every bend, Emilia's resolve firms: she will free the five men, who tell her they are already a family, already lovers. Whatever she has grown to feel for them, she cannot let them suffer if saving them is within her power.
With the rules of a game she doesn't understand forcing her to play along, Emilia must find a way to get to the end of the game and get everyone out--whatever the cost. The freedom of her five monsters depends on her.
Available at:
Excerpt
Emilia, as if enthralled, took another step toward him. The gravel shifted under her silly boots, and the man looked at her. His eyes were vibrant copper, and they widened as he saw her. The melody stopped, and his mouth fell away from the mouthpiece of his flute.
"Traveler?" he said, the word somewhere between surprise and disbelief.
Emilia licked her lips. "You play beautifully."
After a moment of silence, he closed his mouth and smiled a contagious smile at her. "Thank you. It's nice to have someone listen to it. It feels like no one has, other than those glowworms, for the past century or so."
"Right. Because this is Rook's prison, and you are a prisoner."
He tilted his head. "You met Arden, clearly."
She cleared her throat. "He stole my underpants."
It took several long heartbeats before the flute player broke out in giggles. "He's been known to do that, but as far as I have experienced, only after he has seen to your needs."
As far as he has experienced? "That's one way of putting it." A noise caught Emilia's attention, and she turned. The greenery that made the bower was shifting behind her back, closing off the entrance to the flower-hung space. "Uhm." She looked back to the flute player. "Let me guess. I'm stuck here. And the only way to get out is... playing your flute?"
"Mmh. That's not the first time someone suggested that exact thing, you see. But yes, metaphorically speaking." He put the actual instrument into a case that he kept behind the cushion. "My name is Pheus, in case you need to scream something, later on."
Emilia snorted, but the noise died on her lips when Pheus stood. Oh, he was pretty, but also tall, lean, his hair reaching easily to the middle of his thighs. He wore something like a Japanese style bathrobe, though this was no cheap fabric. It made him look as if he were a Faerie prince, and Emilia found herself drawn to him, just as much as the hunter and his hounds at her back had made her want to run.
Alexa Piper writes steamy romance that ranges from light to dark, from straight to queer. She's also a coffee addict. Alexa loves writing stories that make her readers laugh and fall in love with the characters in them.
Hosted by:
