The most dangerous thing he's ever faced
isn't a war zone.
It's her.
Cal "Bear" Meridian is not supposed to exist. A former Special Forces operator and CIA black-ops veteran who died on paper years ago, he's spent six years building a quiet life on six hundred acres above Blackthorn Ridge, Montana, seven feet four inches of operational calm and carefully chosen solitude. His closest company is a genius tech billionaire who can't read a room and a rehabilitated 1,400-lb grizzly named Brutus.
Then Sage Thompson walks into Mary Sue's Diner one snowy night, eighteen, on the run, armored in dark humor and heavy eyeliner, and everything Bear has spent years building begins to come apart. What follows is the slowest, most inevitable fall in the history of two people trying very hard not to fall: comedy and devastation in the same breath, and a found family built one quiet kindness at a time.
18+ Dark romance for adult readers (18+). Please check the content warnings before reading.
Blackthorn Ridge is a slow-burn, age-gap dark romance with a protective hero, a survivor heroine, and a found family. Please take care of yourself as you read. This book contains:
- Childhood sexual abuse (survivor, referenced)
- Sexual assault (depicted)
- Childhood neglect, poverty, and food insecurity
- Homelessness
- Parental abandonment
- Death of a parental figure (off page, prior to the story)
- PTSD, dissociation, and trauma responses
- Suicidal ideation
- Drug use
- Violence and combat (referenced and in backstory)
- Explicit sexual content (slow burn; the spice builds gradually)
- Age-gap romance (hero in his forties, heroine eighteen)
- A consensual Daddy/little dynamic that develops organically through the heroine's healing
If any of this hits close to home and you need someone in your corner, RAINN's hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at rainn.org.