Book 1
A princess and her bodyguard are trapped inside a luxury submersible as a fatal, violent disease slowly infects the other passengers.
Sergeant Nix Marr is a damn good soldier, but she’s desperate to leave her haunted past in the bioluminescent ocean, buried alongside old friends…and old flames. Unfortunately, even the icy ocean can’t extinguish some fires. When Kessandra, everyone’s favorite princess—and Nix’s loathed ex—requests Nix’s help investigating a massacre in the abyssal city of Fall, Nix refuses. Vehemently.
But Kessandra always gets what she wants.
Consigned as Kessandra’s bodyguard, Nix grudgingly boards a luxurious submersible that offers the only transportation to Fall. It’s frustrating, irritating, how quickly Nix and Kess fall back in sync—much as she tries to fight, Nix can’t deny their spark. But Kessandra wasn’t truthful—surprise, surprise—and Nix quickly realizes their “investigation” isn’t about the massacre, but rather what caused it: an illness that incites its victims into a violent craze.
When another royal is brutally murdered, it becomes apparent the disease has spread—and no one on the submersible is safe. Suddenly, survival hinges on trusting each other, which would be a hell of a lot easier if Kessandra didn’t keep lying. Injured, fighting for their lives, Nix has to decide if she can trust Kessandra again…and what she’ll lose this time.
From USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Thorne comes a thrilling lesbian fantasy where Arcane meets Titanic.
Sapphic Romance
Enemies to Lovers
Princess and Bodyguard
Art Deco Fantasy
Check out the audiobook
Listening Length
10 hours and 33 minutes
Narrator
Natalie Naudus
Language
English
Content Warnings
This trilogy is NOT cozy. Please review the content warnings and decide if this book is right for you!
This book depicts:
Extreme violence, gore, blood, vomiting, near-death experiences, character death, dismemberment, decapitation, drowning, explicit sex, sudden spread of disease, loss of physical autonomy, PTSD, anxiety, manipulation, gun violence, hallucinations, war, thalassophobia.
Book 2
Trapped in an underwater city, Nix and Kessandra fight against zombies and time itself, desperate to discover a way back to the surface.
When Sergeant Nix Marr signed up as her ex’s bodyguard for a trip to the domed city of Fall, she doubted she’d return alive. But neither woman could have predicted the cataclysmic event that stranded them both beneath the ocean.
Worse, Fall has been completely abandoned, ruins of a once-grand city. Aside from the occasional infected citizen, there’s no indicator where the rest of Fall’s population went. And as Nix and Kessandra hunt for clues, a deeper evil prods Nix’s own mind.
With Fall’s iconic dome flooding and every answer creating more questions, the pair may have to descend deeper than they ever imagined to survive.
Welcome to Fall.
Death might be the only escape.
Sapphic Romance
Time Bubbles
Creepy Ruins
Eldritch Horror
This Obsidian Night
Book 3
The long-anticipated conclusion of the Gilded Abyss trilogy will be releasing in 2027. Stay tuned for more information!
FAQ – This Gilded Abyss
The trilogy as a whole was purchased by my publisher! Tor is the main imprint of the Tor Publishing Group (whereas my cozy fantasies are published by Bramble, its romantasy imprint).
In order to unify the series and slide This Gilded Abyss into Tor’s distribution channels (ie: into bookstores across the world), we have to re-launch the series, starting with book 1.
To make this transition as exciting as possible, we’ve redesigned the cover for This Gilded Abyss! I’m hoping to include the original cover as character art inside the new version, but it will be several months before we know if that will happen.
In the meantime, the more preorders we get of this book, the better off the entire series will be! If you enjoyed it and want to own the new cover, please preorder now! 🙂
You can grab a signed copy anytime you see me at an event, or anytime I’m doing a signed preorder campaign. Stay tuned for updates!
The Broken Binding is producing a special edition of this book! Grab your copy today!
The sequel is finished and in my editor’s hands! It’s scheduled for publication in Fall 2026.
(Get it? Fall?)
(That’ll kill in a year.)
I really loved This Gilded Abyss. And I had a ton of fun building up the drama and angst until this fantastic crescendo of chaos stranded them at the bottom of the fucking ocean with literally no escape. (Because I am a fucking moron.)
Long story short, true sequels–ones that follow directly after the first book–are hard as hell to write.
The reader anticipation literally paralyzed me. I sat on This Crimson Ruin for months, testing options, poking it, writing and deleting and writing again. Because you guys have been waiting, which meant it HAD to be perfect–and perfection is impossible.
I think I found a good middle ground. But I also think this will be the last trilogy I tackle for a while. Thank you again for ALL your patience as I learned, yet again, that I’m still just a student learning my craft.
Ah, yes, the “please forgive this agonizing wait” chapters.
Crimson Ruin IS finished. For proof of life, and as a profound apology for the long, long wait, I’m releasing the first few chapters here for you to read! It should help a tiny bit with that cliffhanger from book 1.
(Hopefully.)
You can expect those chapters around the holiday season, once folks have had time to read This Gilded Abyss. 🙂
Book 3 is tentatively titled This Obsidian Night, and I’m scheduled to write it in early 2026.
If you know me, you know that I write VERY fast. Average is about 6 weeks for a full novel. This Crimson Ruin took me, no joke, 9 months. It was agony.
Obsidian Night might be fast… or it might be agony again. I’m giving myself 6 months to finish it, so wish me luck.
Bioshock and Arcane.
Literally, I watched Arcane, and then was like, “What if Cait and Vi were trapped in Rapture?”
I’ve seen reviews that criticize that. In case you weren’t aware, I’m a big proponent of fanfiction. I think it’s a great way to tease out original plots without pressure, and an excellent way to learn how to write. I was delighted to watch Kess and Nix grow from their inspiration, and even more delighted to see how much you all loved them.
Basically, all authors are inspired by something. And if you want my Ao3 handle, it’s Wicked42.