ONCE UPON A RUIN · BOOK ONE · TALIA LORNE
Stranded, A Rapunzel Retelling
Dark Fairy Tale Romantasy · Releases November 20, 2026
She lowered her hair to lure a monster. He came to steal it.
Every life Rapunzel saves leaves a curse trapped in her golden braid. The thief who climbs her tower can devour dead magical bargains—but loses a memory whenever he feeds. He needs to rescue his brother. She needs to survive the Night of Calling and escape the woman who calls captivity protection.
They are drawn together by dangerous magic, a desperate bargain, and a secret capable of destroying their trust.
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About Stranded
For thirteen years, Rapunzel has healed strangers from inside Voss Spire. Her golden braid holds every suffering she has taken away, and cutting it could return the harm to those she saved.
Rafe Veylan enters the tower on orders from the Exchange. He can consume completed supernatural obligations, but every feeding takes a piece of his history. Rapunzel needs his strange gift to uncover what holds the tower together. Rafe has signed a dangerous agreement he cannot bring himself to confess.
As the Night of Calling approaches, their uneasy alliance becomes forbidden attraction—and a test of whether love can survive betrayal without becoming another form of ownership.
What readers can expect
- A gothic, adult reimagining inspired by the Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel
- First-person dual POV: Rapunzel and Rafe
- Morally gray love interest, slow-building attraction, dangerous bargains and forced collaboration
- Costly curse magic, psychological tension, betrayal and earned repair
- A complete central romance and happily-ever-after
Reader advisory
Adult dark fantasy romance featuring coercive captivity, psychological manipulation, physical violence and injury, supernatural exploitation, and consensual on-page intimacy. Not erotica.
About the series
Once Upon a Ruin reimagines classic fairy tales across the Veiled Marches, where curses are presented as blessings and freedom always has consequences. Each interconnected standalone features a new couple and a complete romantic ending.
Explore Once Upon a Ruin · About Talia Lorne · ARC and preorder details
Advance reader copies and release
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