She came to free her father. She didn't plan to stay. The Otherworld had other ideas.
When Saoirse Ren comes home to find a cold hearth and a burned mark on the flagstone floor, she knows two things: her father is gone, and the debt that took him is one she never knew existed.
The mark leads her to the Veil - the threshold between mortal Ireland and the ancient, treacherous Otherworld - and through it to Ciarán, lord of the Ashen Court. Cold, precise, and exactly as dangerous as everything she has ever read suggested. He offers her a bargain: complete the Trials of the Hollow Crown, three tests no mortal has survived in four centuries, and her father goes free.
The terms are written down. Saoirse reads every word. She signs anyway.
What she doesn't know - what nobody told her - is that she is the last living descendant of a bloodline a very powerful woman has spent three centuries trying to extinguish. That the trials are not designed to break her but to find out what she is. And that the lord who built them has been waiting, with the patience of something very old and very deliberate, for exactly her.
A Vow of Ash and Ruin is a Celtic mythology romantasy for readers who like their slow burn slow, their love interests dangerous and principled, and their heroines sharp enough to read the fine print.
Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Hannah Nicole Maehrer.
Tropes: enemies to lovers - forced bargain - deadly trials - hidden lineage - slow burn - morally grey love interest - fae court intrigue - Celtic mythology - forbidden bond - HEA guaranteed
Book 1 of the AVOA series. Story arc continues in A Crown of Iron and Grief.
