BooksA Lesson in Thorns
When librarian Poe Markham takes the job at Thornchapel, she only wants two things: to stay away from Thornchapel’s tortured owner, Auden Guest, and to find out what happened to her mother twelve years ago. It should be easy enough—keep her head down while she works in the house’s crumbling private library and while she hunts down any information as to why this remote manor tucked into the fog-shrouded moors would be the last place her mother was seen alive. But Thornchapel has other plans for her... As Poe begins uncovering the house’s secrets, both new and old, she’s also pulled into the seductive, elegant world of Auden and his friends—and drawn to Auden’s worst enemy, the beautiful and brooding St. Sebastian. And as Thornchapel slowly tightens its coil of truths and lies around them, Poe, Auden and St. Sebastian start unravelling into filthy, holy pleasure and pain. Together, they awaken a fate that will either anoint them or leave them in ashes… From the author of the USA Today bestselling New Camelot series comes an original fairy tale full of ancient mysteries, lantern-lit rituals, jealousy, money, murder, sacred torment, and obsessions that last for lifetimes... A Lesson in Thorns is the first of four books in the Thornchapel series.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find A Lesson in Thorns Sierra Simone in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
9 books in catalog
Blending sensual intensity with taboo themes and detailed character development, modern erotic romance offers readers complex emotional narratives and high-heat storytelling. Works such as Priest and American Queen established a distinctive presence in contemporary romance, attracting a dedicated audience through explicit, forbidden love stories.
Author Sierra Simone brings an intricate, thematic approach to adult fiction, crafting standalone novels and interconnected series that frequently explore spiritual tension, mythology, and Arthurian motifs.
Before writing under her well-known pen name, author Bethany Hagen earned a creative writing degree, published young adult fiction, and spent several years working as a librarian who frequently read romance novels at the information desk. Her varied background includes firing ceramics and teaching living history lessons in a one-room schoolhouse while wearing full 1904 school marm attire. As a young girl, she aspired to become a nun and later planned to study theology before redirecting her creative focus to adult fiction after writing a Jane Eyre fan fiction that evolved into Gothic Victorian erotica. Transitioning into indie publishing to explore taboo and erotic romance on her own terms, she has released 28 books under the Sierra Simone name, earning spots on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, a starred review in Library Journal, and coverage in publications such as Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Buzzfeed, and Entertainment Weekly. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, two children, and two giant dogs.
Sierra Simone is an avid reader whose taste spans explicit erotica, non-fiction, and classic literature featuring brooding widowers. Her writing reflects a personal fondness for King Arthur, ancient mystery cults, foggy atmospheres, sparkling water, coffee, and leggings. She specializes in pairing explicit erotic romance with deep thematic themes, including faith, guilt, power dynamics, and pagan tradition. Whether reinterpreting Arthurian legend or placing religious devotion in conflict with intense desire, her work combines high-heat romance with emotional weight. Her novels have been published internationally in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Danish.
Thornchapel
