The Wicker Saint

In Dunmere, every holiday belongs to a monster.

Nell Archer came to the island to document an old harvest tradition.

She was never supposed to become part of it.

Hired to record Dunmere’s Harvest Home before its history disappears, Nell quickly discovers that the village’s carefully preserved folklore has holes. Records have been altered. Women have vanished from the story. And someone has already added Nell to the festival schedule under a title she never agreed to accept:

Year-Bearer.

Then her blood wakes something in the orchard.

Sallow is ancient, inhuman, and bound to the trees the village has used for generations. His body is root, apple wood, and living wicker. The people of Dunmere call him their saint.

But Sallow remembers what they’ve done.

He remembers the women who came before Nell.

And unlike the humans preparing her place in an old and brutal rite, the monster refuses to take anything she does not freely give.

As Harvest Home approaches, Nell must uncover what really happened inside Dunmere’s wicker saint before the village closes its ritual around her.

Because this year, the sacrifice has a name.

And the monster has finally chosen a side.

The Wicker Saint is a dark folkloric monster romance featuring an isolated island village, corrupted ritual, buried women’s history, a protective nonhuman hero, and a heroine who refuses to become anyone’s offering. Each Dunmere Rites romance stands alone with a guaranteed happily-ever-after.