Author Archives: authorlilymayne

Out June 30th 2023

Berries and Greed, the first book in my new monster romcom series Deep Earth Dating, is available for preorder and will be released on June 30th 2023.

You can find out more details below! As always, it will be available on KU and paperback.

---

Berries and Greed features the sweetest (and possibly laziest) monster hero who is a precious, submissive cinnamon roll, and a strong-willed human heroine who gets to discover herself for the first time after leaving a very unusual situation.

This MF monster-human romcom is cosy, low angst, (hopefully) funny and with a purely romance-driven plot. It has a Domme/sub dynamic, lots of fictional pop culture, is set in a new modern-day universe with a brand new type of monster, and is just super fluffy and sweet.

---

Greid

I may hate everyone, but you can only take being alone for so long. Sooner or later, you get desperate enough to visit a human cult that worships your species as greater beings in the hope of finding a new roommate to fill the lonely void. We’ve all been there… right?

I swear I was only looking for a roommate. Just someone to watch TV and eat dinner with. Nothing… romantic. No way. But when I see all these humans gazing at me with open adoration and blatant lust and other things that make me wildly uncomfortable, I realise what a terrible mistake this is.

Until I spot the one human woman in the group who is definitely not pleased to see me. In fact, she’s scowling at me. She looks really, really annoyed.

I’m kind of into it.

---

Beryl

I’m not a true follower of The Order of the Greater Beings. I don’t worship the demiurgus—the monstrous species that lives alongside humans. I definitely do not want to become a demiurgus mate.

So when one shows up at the cult’s compound—the first in the entire twenty-five years I’ve been flying under the radar here—I want to make sure he knows that I think he’s a total creep for taking advantage of worryingly adoring humans this way.

Until I realise… I don’t think that’s why he’s here. He’s kind of awkward. And anxious. And wildly out of his depth. And when he offers me the chance to finally escape the cult—to go out into the real world for the first time, to create a life for myself—all for the low, low cost of an easy, platonic friendship… I take it.

Now I’m navigating the outside world, and I’m roommates with a big, awkward demiurgus called Greid who lives in his pyjamas, watches a ridiculous amount of TV and is high most of the time. He’s also the sweetest guy I’ve ever met, and he’s funny and generous and easy to talk to.

But I’ve spent my entire life making sure I didn’t get sucked in to the cult’s fervent worship of the demiurgus—there’s no way I’m going to fall in love with him.

Right?

---

Preorder here: https://books2read.com/u/bzn8jE

OUT MAY 19TH 2023

A Collection of Monstrous Short Stories (Volume 1 – because we all know there will undoubtedly be a second) is now available for pre-order and will be out on May 19th 2023!

As ever, it will be on KU, and the paperback will be available on the day of release.

The collection features:

• 16 Monstrous short stores (including two brand-new, exclusive ones!)
• A series of letters from Orlith to Wyn throughout history
• More Orlith content!
• A 20k-word novella featuring a brand-new Monstrous couple! A super adorable one! And you HAVE actually kind of, very briefly, sort of met one of them before… or a part of them, at least.

This GORGEOUS cover was designed by grandmechantlapin and it is just… so perfect. I keep staring at it. The details are just so, so good. Can you pick out everyone’s symbols?

I can now officially announce that the Monstrous series is coming to audiobook! Courtesy of Podium Audio and narrated by Michael Lesley.

Soul Eater will be out on February 7th 2023, and the preorder is now live!

So happy and grateful to be working with Podium and Michael on this.

Here is my vague schedule for 2023! My anxiety doesn’t allow me to give firm dates or promises until all my ducks are in a row for each book. I also tend to jump between projects depending on my mood and once I’m deep in the zone I hyperfixate and can think of nothing else until it’s done. I appreciate you all putting up with my inability to give firm answers on things until close to the time!! Well, I just appreciate you all in general 🖤

🍧 January 27th 2023: Lor (Monstrous: Book Seven)
🦴 February 7th 2023: Soul Eater (Monstrous: Book One) on audiobook
😈 Spring 2023: A Collection of Monstrous Short Stories: Volume One (because we all know there will be more. Plus, this will include exclusive extras with a SURPRISE!)
🍄 Spring 2023: King of Death (Folk: Book Three)
🥰 Summer 2023: My current not-so-secret-anymore project – a fluffy, contemporary MF monster romance with a Domme/sub dynamic and the most adorable monster MMC who is the most precious baby, possibly more precious than Seraph, and I love him. He’s also a giant dork
💙 Later in 2023: Lyri (Monstrous: Book Eight)
👁️‍🗨️ Sometime in 2023: An MM monster romance with the amazing Nikole Knight! We will be sharing more details about this in the coming months 😍

Also coming this year…

💌 Monstrous merch! Finally! Bookmark and stickers to start, with more to come!
🖤 More bonus Monstrous shorts (because of course)
💛 A story in an anthology that there’ll be more info for at a later date!
💚 And possibly, if I can fit it in (which I want to), a Monstrous novella for our Nebraska camp medic, Apollo.

Seraph, book six of the Monstrous series, is now available for pre-order and will be released on Friday September 9th!

I am so excited for you to read Lilac and Seraph’s story. The tone of this book is a little different to the others, which I think is evident by its cover. But I’d also say it’s absolutely the sweetest of the romances so far. And maybe the spiciest? I’m not sure. Either way, you will finally get a look into the mind of the aloof machete-wielding, plant-growing, figurine-whittling camp assassin Lilac.

Seraph takes place over the same time period as Moth, but set largely in the camp, so we will get to see what happened over the months that Charlie and Moth were off pretending they weren’t already madly in love with each other.

I’ve already mentally prepared myself to kill the screaming, murderous monster in the cage outside our camp.

I’m used to it. It’s what I do here. Kill monsters and other people. And this monster, Seraph, is particularly unstable—has been since the moment he arrived from Collector Mary’s monster menagerie to the west, where the military stashed him away.

He’s in pain. I can see it. But he’s not a mindless beast. Not like some of the others think.

When I start guarding him in his cage every night, I begin to see the person beneath the agony that tortures his every waking moment. I begin to see who Seraph could have been if he hadn’t been twisted into this monstrous creature.

I realise that I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to kill him, even for his own sake, but it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s already dying, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Not even when new visitors at our raider camp bring with them secrets about Seraph. Secrets the military has tried to hide.

Secrets that reveal the true extent of the horror he’s been put through.

And now… Now, I will kill anyone who tries to hurt him again.

Seraph is Book Six of the Monstrous series, a post-apocalyptic m/m fantasy series that features monsters and human men falling in love. It is best to read the series in order.

Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It also contains non-human genitalia, depictions of violence, serious injury, death, and one instance of violence between the MCs.

---

Death’s Bloom: A spicy MM retelling of Bluebeard, you say?

In other exciting news, I also have another book coming out in October! It’ll be a busy couple of months. I was honoured to be invited to take part in Monsters & Mayhem, a collection of classic horror retellings with an MM romance twist, and I am in good company with a group of amazing authors!

Mine is Death’s Bloom, a retelling of Bluebeard, the French folktale of a wealthy man who is a serial marrier-and-m*rderer. This was fun and challenging to tackle, and I hope you love these characters even if they’re… not the best people. This is darker than my other books, but still heavy on the sweet romance! It’s out on October 3rd.

Over the next two weeks, the authors of this collection are revealing their covers in the Monsters and Mayhem: a Celebration of MM Horror group, one each day. Prizes and giveaways to come!

Please make sure you check the content warnings at the bottom of the blurb.

He’s the most perfect man I’ve ever met, but something is… wrong.

I don’t see it at first. All I see is the gorgeous man with dark eyes and long hair and that unusual blue beard. The piercings and the tattoos, the beautiful smile. All I can focus on is the way he touches me, the sound of his voice in my ear, the perfect life he draws me into.

I hide it from him at first. The fact that… I think I’m losing my mind. That I keep seeing something lurking in the corners of rooms, keep hearing a terrible voice mumbling in the dead of night, keep seeing white eyes watching me in the dark.

Something is haunting me. Tormenting me. Trying to ruin this perfect life I now have with Theo, so I do my best to pretend that everything is fine. That I’m not terrified I’m losing my mind, or that a demon is stalking the halls every night trying to… get me.

Until I can’t pretend anymore. Until I realise… the monster in my nightmares and my perfect, loving boyfriend are not so different after all.

Death’s Bloom is an MM horror retelling of Bluebeard, as part of the collaboration Monsters & Mayhem: An MM Horror Collection, adapting some of your favourite classic horror stories with an MM romance twist.

Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It includes mild BDSM, including restraint and breath play, and MMM elements as well as graphic depictions of death, gore and violence, a somewhat toxic relationship and morally reprehensible characters.

I said I’d do this a while ago – a reading order list for all the novels, novellas and shorts in the Monstrous series to date. Obviously this will become out of date fairly soon, and I’ll remake it when it does.

You can find all of these shorts under Extras >> Bonus Content.

1. Soul Eater (Novel – Danny and Wyn)
2. Edin (Novel – Hunter and Edin)
3. The Rycke (Novel – Ghost and Aury)
4. Moth and the Rycke (Short – Moth and Aury)
5. Wyn (Novella – Danny and Wyn)
6. The Adventures of Danny and Wyn – Part One (Short – Danny and Wyn)
7. The Adventures of Danny and Wyn – Part Two (Short – Danny and Wyn)
8. Gloam (Novel – Rig and Gloam)
9. A Monstrous Christmas on the Homestead (Short – Hunter, Edin and Charlie)
10. Ghost and Aury Take a Trip (Short – Ghost and Aury)
11. Moth (Novel – Charlie and Moth)
12. Charlie and Moth’s Safehouse Honeymoon (Short – Charlie and Moth)
13. Moth and the Soul Eater Have a Bonding Experience (Short – Moth and Wyn)
14. Hunter and Edin Pay the Nebraska Base a Visit (Short – Hunter and Edin)
15. The Adventures of Danny and Wyn – Part Three (Short – Danny and Wyn)
16. Moth and Wyn Visit a City (Short – Moth and Wyn/Charlie and Moth)
17. Seraph (Novel – Lilac and Seraph)

Any time after Soul Eater:

• Orlith Tries to Seduce Wyn (Short – Orlith and Wyn – Set 500 years ago)

Forgotten Vows, book two in my mm fae romance trilogy Folk, is now available for pre-order and will be released on Friday 10th June 2022. (It will also be on KU and in paperback.)

Book one ended on a teensy little cliffhanger. If this concerns you, you can find out how book two ends (remember, this is a trilogy about the same couple) in the content warnings at the end of the blurb below.

Blurb:

My mortal skin is gone.

I’m one of them. One of the Folk. And all I feel is anger.

I’m going to kill the Carlin and her sons for everything they did to me. It’s all I care about.

But first, I have to navigate this new world. My new skin. My new brother. And, when I fall into her clutches, my fae mother—the Brid. The Seelie Queen.

I don’t like what I’m becoming, but I can’t stop it. Something’s wrong with me. Something’s missing. There’s a hollow ache in my chest and I can’t fill it, no matter what I do. It’s like I’ve forgotten something vital from my time on unseelie land.

Why do I feel so incomplete? Why do I have an oath etched onto my skin, one I don’t remember making? Why is there a tiny black feather nestled in my throat that I can’t bring myself to take off?

Why do I feel so much longing every time I see a beautiful black-haired, black-eyed unseelie fae, even though I don’t remember him at all?

My life has become yet another game of cat and mouse, but this time it’s not just the Carlin and her sons trying to get me. New threats lurk, and I have to force myself into this new fae skin to be able to fight them.

Forgotten Vows is the second in a mm fae romance trilogy about a dark fae assassin prince and a ‘mortal’ who is thrown into the cruel world of the Folk.

Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It also contains depictions of violence, serious injury, death, minor drug use and deals with the death of a close family member. This trilogy follows the same couple who get their HEA eventually, but book two ends on a HFN.

I’ve recently joined some more social media platforms, having only been on Facebook before. So I thought I’d list them below so you can find me on your favourites!

If it helps…

• My Facebook Group is where I often post teasers for books and shorts, run polls to decide who I’ll write the next short about, etc. This will be the place to get to see stuff first, usually (if it doesn’t go to my newsletter subscribers first, that is)
• My Facebook Page is for infrequent, official announcements about new book releases, etc
• Twitter is where you’ll find NSFW, 18+ only artwork – both commissioned by myself and fan art drawn by wonderful readers
• Instagram is most likely going to end up being for memes!
• I have a TikTok account, mainly for mindless scrolling. I am unlikely to post on there, but please feel free to tag me in any TikToks you make about the books!

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all the stupid names I’ve made up for monsters when we see them,” I said, shooting him a huge grin.

He glanced over at me with a tiny, wry smile, but it dropped when his eyes darted to my mouth. He flushed and looked away again quickly as my gut gave a little swoop.

Yeah, I was attracted to Moth, even though he was an asshole most of the time and in love with a raider. And I was pretty sure that he was attracted to me too, even just a little.

I was also pretty sure that he hated it.

---

Book five of the Monstrous series, Moth, is out now and available to buy or read on KU! Charlie and Moth are… just the best. Seriously. The best.

What’s next?

Next in the Monstrous series is the one I think everyone has been waiting for—Lilac’s book! Our quiet, aloof camp assassin who has a machete. A machete that we haven’t seen him use yet.

Before that, though, will be the second book in my m/m fae romance trilogy, Forgotten Vows.

The first of my new mm fae romance trilogy, Folk, is available for pre-order and will be released on January 28th 2022. (It will also be on KU.)

I am very excited for you to read it! A moody fae assassin prince and a mortal guy who gets thrown into the cruel world of the Folk. But, of course, they are drawn together despite everything that should be keeping them apart…

Blurb:

I first saw the Folk when I was a little boy. When they started appearing in my garden, with their unnatural, cruel beauty and honeyed words and veiled taunts. I grew up with big green eyes watching me from the forest. Whispers from the trees. Shimmering skin darting between the bushes. Black creatures always lurking in the shadows.

While they were here, I thought nothing of them. It wasn’t until they were gone that I realise it wasn’t… normal.

But it isn’t until I’m twenty-one, when my life is in ruins, that they come back to take me away.

They say I’m not fully mortal. They say I should be among them. The Unseelie Ruler wants me on her land for reasons no one will explain to me, but it’s her aloof, painfully beautiful son who captures my attention and refuses to let go.

The cold, black-eyed assassin prince who strikes fear into the hearts of all Folk. Who I’ve been warned about, repeatedly.

Who watches me always.

I don’t trust the Folk, so I ignore their fearful advice to stay away from him. I ignore all of them except him, despite everything telling me that he can’t be trusted—that he’s just as bad as the rest of them, that he’s playing games with me, the clueless mortal held here against his will.

But I want him.

Mortal Skin is the first in a mm fae romance trilogy about a dark fae assassin prince and a mortal who is thrown into the cruel world of the Folk.

Warning: This m/m love story contains explicit sexual content and is not suitable for young readers. It also contains depictions of violence and deals with the death of a close family member.