Would you like an Advanced Reader Copy of my next book?
Prior Claim comes out on Friday, May 15th, 2026! You can pre-order it on Amazon and Kobo right now, or, if you like, put your hand up for an ARC in exchange for a review. It feels like it’s been forever since I released the end of Damian & Jun’s story last August, and also like we just did this yesterday.
ARC copies will be released starting May 1st, 2026. So very soon.
Short Description: Sevastyan dedicated his life to destroying the criminal world into which he was born, but the walls are closing in and it’s no longer just his life at stake. To save the man he loves, he must reach out to a ghost from his past, a lover he thought he’d lost forever.
FYI: Advanced Reader Copies, otherwise known as ARCs, are given out as a book is released, in exchange for reviews on sites like Goodreads, Fable, Storygraph, etc, or storefront where the book is sold.
I screen my ARC team out of necessity, so please be willing to answer a few questions in the above form. I do limit how many team members I have at any time so as not to get overwhelmed. If I cannot take you on directly, Prior Claim will also be available to ARC readers via Gay Romance Reviews.
Want to know more?
Sanctum Book 1 • MXM • Romantic Suspense • Second Chance Romance • International Crime • Found Family • Interracial Romance • Trauma • Hurt/Comfort
“You wouldn’t touch me, if you knew what I’ve done,” Sevastyan whispered.
Ellisandre’s fingers trailed over Sevastyan’s skin, certain and steady. “I know what you’ve done.”
“Impossible.”
“You’ve ruined lives. You’ve crushed dreams. There are souls that wake screaming to the memory of your face. You’ve failed. Again and again.”
Sevastyan shuddered. That was the Ellisandre he knew behind the mask. Honest to the edge of a blade. They had not so much found their way into him as cut their way in, bled him until there was room, and then set their throne up in the wreckage.
Ten years ago, Ellisandre tore a hole through the Eurasian criminal underground and disappeared, presumed dead. Now that same underworld is reaching out again, threatening the lives and freedom of Ellisandre’s new chosen family, and bringing back someone they had lost: their lover and submissive, Sevastyan.
Born into the fall of the Soviet Union, Sevastyan didn’t so much learn to survive as to persist. Restrained by a promise and shattered by the loss of Ellisandre, the criminal underworld dragged him under. Now, his greatest crime is also his greatest living love, the trafficked K-Pop trainee he rescued from fire and execution, Rei. But neither of them are free.
Once the leader of a K-pop group about to debut, Rei is now a veteran slave with a scared face. Masked and silent, he follows Sevastyan into the world’s most dangerous rooms, a breathing symbol of Sevastyan’s status. Now the same people who enslaved him are trying to sell his former members. But Rei remembers everything. And from his knees, he owns the heart of an assassin.
And Ellisandre was never going to be a footnote in the lives of others. They bathed the world in blood once, for righteousness. How much further will they go when they come to claim the man they lost and the slave he saved?
If you’d like to be an ARC reader, please fill out this Google form.
Couple of quick disclaimers.
This serial is a dark, modern MXM+ chosen family romance intended for mature audiences only. While Ellisandre, Sevastyan, and Rei are the central triad, this is a firmly polyamorous romance. There is no cheating. If you like your romance difficult and explicit, then this story is for you. A full list of trigger warnings is in the front of the book.
This is a stand alone serial. It contains spoilers for Collin and Damian & Jun in The Residency Boys Universe. Read those first if you want to avoid finding out some things early. Sanctum Episode 1 starts roughly a week after Damian & Jun Episode 1. The two serials run parallel, but neither has to be read to understand the other. Collin: Episodes 1-3 is the very first book if you wish to read the entire universe chronologically.
Trigger Warnings: The following is either a buffet table of favorite reading topics, or a warning label to be taken seriously. The gloves are off for this one. You decide.
• second chance romance
• massive kink for pagan mythology
• master/slave (the noncon kind)
• on page murder
• parents who should never have been allowed to have pets let alone children
• non-con/dub-con
• consensual power exchange
• blood play
• knife play
• guns where guns shouldn’t be put
• love that heals
• bondage
• erotic humiliation
• consensual non-monogamy
• polyamory
• sassy friends
• lost souls
• human trafficking
• egregious hurt/comfort
• disassociation
• burn victim and depictions of fire in a dwelling
• the grayest version of a knight in cracked armor
• a main character whose pronouns have changed over time (I have done my best to keep it from being confusing!)
• suicidal considerations
• eating out
• situations where there are no good choices
• Do I need to say C-PTSD? Because no one is escaping that.
There will be vengeance. There will be justice. There will be an HEA—hard won, but HEA—just not in this volume. This is a serial.
Ciara Darren 