To be bid on was to be bought as a wife. To the winning bidder his prize, a maid, a servant, a child-bearer. That would be Poesy Laroche’s life, she realized, as she walked down the aisle to her future husband. He’d promised to break her into submission, and she knew his words were true.
In an act of desperation, she takes the reins of her fate and dives into the woods we don’t speak of. The screams that come at night become only whispers of stories about the mysterious Lady Venom. Her manor is filled with snakes and horrors. And when Poesy gets lost within her maze, Lady Venom claims her as her own mistress, with no hope of escape.
Poesy is locked into a haunted estate where the flowers watch, the ghosts whisper while the snakes slither, and everyone knows the deadliest of them all is their Lady that rules them.
But there are secrets to uncover both within the eerie walls and in the riddles atop Lady’s Venom’s forked tongue as she incites more danger and pleasure than Poesy ever thought possible.
But will it be enough to keep Poesy from her fate? Or will the hidden truths prove more fateful than a serpent’s bite?
Lady Venom is a haunted, spooky, lesbian romance with lethal women and gothic magic. It’s a twist on both Medusa and Beauty and the Beast and features femme dom and captive tropes with off the charts spice. This story is set in The Halloween Boys universe with crossover of lore, but you do not need to read The Halloween Boys before enjoying Lady Venom Takes a Mistress.
Excerpt:
Acoustics trembled down the path to the guillotine as my mother fluffed my outrageous creampuff dress. “I look like a goose,” I grumbled as she tied a thick pink bow around my neck. My collar, my leash, my cattle chain.
“You look fit for a lord.” She preened. “He will be so pleased when he sees you.”
I hated that. I wished to tangle my hair, blister my skin, and wear dirty potato sacks for all of time so men like him would never glance at me twice again. Maybe that’s what I should have done to avoid this union. Maybe I was too cowardly to harm myself. But this fate was sure and certain death. I knew my impending husband would make good on his threats of sexing me until I bled and cried for mercy. A fate worse than any demise I could imagine. My mother and two of the lord’s men helped me onto a white horse, my skirts billowing over the sides. I rubbed the animal’s ear softly, wishing I could trade places with the creature but knowing she was this man’s property the same as I was.
“We are both trapped mares, aren’t we?” I asked her tenderly as the attendants let go of her reins and she trotted down the aisle of onlookers to my waiting evil peacock of a future husband.
The whole town had shown to watch my beheading, I mean wedding. Nosy, bored jerks. Why was no one speaking up about how wrong this was? How this was no way to live or end one’s life? Why was I doomed simply for being a woman? The groom looked up at me as the priest spoke about love and duty. It may as well have been a reading of my final job description. Leaning in, the lord patted the horse on its snout.
“See, Poesy? All it takes is a few beatings and fuckings, and you’ll be as helpless and docile as Penny here.”
Penny. Even her name was similar to mine. And for some reason, imagining her beaten, her white fur marred with blood at his hands, lit something inside me. Something like rage, a feeling I’d scarcely allowed myself to truly embody. Trapped, caged animals with nowhere to go, nowhere safe from the men who hunted and captured us. A crow called from the forest beyond, pulling my attention. Nowhere to go except…
About Kat Blackthorne:
Kat Blackthorne is a bestselling author of haunting romance. She writes passion, characters, and worlds that linger past the last page. Her tales embrace cozy darkness with magical and spooky twists. Catnip for her is banter, begging, challenging norms, and beings who worship their women.
Kat lives somewhere deep in the mountains in a witch's cottage with her talking feline. She has a collection of quotes and character names a mile long, her favorite holiday is Halloween, and her favorite book is whatever she read last.
Join her spooky reader coven on Facebook: Kat Blackthorne and The Black Hearts Coven
Follow her on Tiktok where her hashtags have over six million views: @katblackthorne
Find her on Instagram: @katblackthorneauthor
Website: www.katblackthorne.com
Follow:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Reader Group | Goodreads |
BookBub | Newsletter | Website | Amazon | Pinterest | TikTok |
This promotional event is brought to you by Indie Pen PR
