The Thorns Between Us

When twenty-two-year-old Lira leaves the safety of Silverwood to investigate a cursed mansion in the human world, she expects danger. She doesn't expect to meet Zion, the mansion's first victim - alive but bound to its walls by a curse of thorns. Together with an unlikely fellowship of four others, they must unravel the house's cruel riddles and collect a series of relics - each cursed in its own way - before the mansion consumes them all.

As the trials intensify, Lira and Zion's fragile partnership deepens into something more, even as the house taunts them with illusions designed to tear them apart. With every test passed, the mansion grows weaker, but the price of freedom is steep: each relic demands a personal truth, a wound reopened, or a sacrifice offered. When the final thorn falls, the Order of the Thorned Sun may escape the curse - but Lira must decide whether her heart belongs to Silverwood or the human world, and whether love can survive between thorns.

The Thorns Between Us is a fantasy romance novel which blends gothic suspense with romantic fantasy in the vein of For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten and Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. It weaves together cursed-object trials, a slow-burn romance, and themes of honesty, endurance, and choice. Readers who enjoy gothic atmosphere, found family dynamics, and the interplay of magic and love will find it here.

Maria Nakayama holds a BA in Philosophy and a postgraduate diploma in Accounting and Finance, and has worked professionally in financial graphic design. Beyond her career, she's been building a creative portfolio, with this novel as its centerpiece.