Series Review: Death's Embrace Series by H. L. Moore
- Debbie
- 4 hours ago
- 14 min read
Book Details:
Author and Publisher: H. L. Moore
Cover Artist: Damonza
Pairing: MM (slow burn)
Genres: Fantasy (coalpunk)
The stories are best read in order.
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@author.hlmoore @gaybookpromotions @debbiereadsbook
DEATH’S EMBRACE SERIES BLURB
Doran Ó Seanáin, former miner and leader of the Black Lung Gang, and his best friend, Lien, are almost at a breaking point in their ongoing conflict with the city of Arajon’s tyrannical ruler. Just as things are spiralling out of control, Doran crosses paths with Nathaniel Morgenstern, an apotheker with a mysterious past. As their relationship develops against the backdrop of the ongoing social turmoil, the secrets Nathaniel is keeping might threaten to destroy them all…
Book Details:
BOOK 1
Book Title: Heart of Dust
Length: 59 000 words
Release Date: 2019
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, single POV
Tropes: Stabbing leading to meet-cute, yearning, slow burn romance
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights
Heat Rating: 2 flames
It does not end on a cliffhanger, but leaves plot threads unresolved that are resolved in the next 3 books.
Iole City is in turmoil.
Doran Ó Seanáin, leader of the Black Lung Gang, is determined to challenge the Archon, Arajon’s tyrannical ruler, for his brutal treatment of the miners. But Doran has more to deal with than getting stabbed and a city-wide lockdown that’s seeing his gang of ex-miners slowly starved out of their base. His daughter Grace has turned against him, and the death of his wife haunts them both.
Although he finds reprieve in Nathaniel Morgenstern, the apotheker with a mysterious past to whom he owes his life, the clock is ticking. The fate of the mines hangs in the balance and the Archon is closing in.
Doran’s plan to break the cycle may very well be his last.
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4 out of 5 (very good)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This book is billed as coalpunk. Now, I had no idea what that meant, and I had to look it up. The world runs on coal, surprisingly!
And it's coal that has become Doran's life. He wants the mines made safe or shut, but the Archon ruler just wants coal and to make money. He doesn't care that people are dying.
What I enjoyed about this most was the world-building. As the first in a series, in a completely different world, sometimes the world-building can feel tedious. Here, however, you get it in enough dribs and drabs to be able to form a picture that makes (some) sense, and you can add the dribs and drabs to it as it comes along. I loved being able to keep up with it all!
There is drama and action here, and it comes across wonderfully! Some are a little graphic, but I think it is needed to get the point across that Doran will do anything to free the people from the mines.
There is NO romance at all. Clean too. And I didn't even care about that!
What I did care about, though, and this is the ONLY reason this book gets 4 and not 5 stars, was that only Doran gets a say. I knew that, I really did, but I kept waiting for Nathaniel to speak, and he didn't. I think I needed in his head at key points along the way, mostly when Doran tells him his name. Nathaniel's reaction was unexpected, but you do get an explanation later on. But I needed Nathaniel, and I didn't get him.
I'm invested in these people and their lives; I look forward to catching up with them in the next book.
4 very VERY good stars
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Book Details:
BOOK 2
Book Title: Soul of Ash
Length: 86 000 words
Release Date: September 2020
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, two POVs (alternating)
Tropes: Yearning, former assassin, slow burn romance
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights
Heat Rating: 1 flame
It does not end on a cliffhanger, but some plot elements are unresolved (resolved in books 3 and 4)
Half a year after the events of Heart of Dust, Doran Ó Seanáin now finds himself trapped between two worlds while belonging to neither: held in contempt by the Bronze for the turmoil he caused during Archon Bryson’s reign, and resented by the miners for selling out. Leonora Darkwater’s pursuit to own the mines may be the answer to all of his problems, but the offer is far more complicated than it appears, and the only person Doran trusts is the same man who threw his life into chaos.
Haunted by his past, hostage to a debt that cannot be repaid, and a slave to the poison that keeps him alive, atonement has never felt further out of reach for Nathaniel Morgenstern. Though the damage between him and Doran is too devastating to begin to mend, they have no choice but to face each other as their lives collide once more.
There is a rot in Iole City. The mines aren’t finished with Doran, and the sand in Nathaniel’s hourglass is running out.
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5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This is book 2 in the Death's Embrace series, and it CANNOT be read as a stand-alone; you must read Heart of Dust First.
I said in my review for that book that I couldn't give it 5 stars, because we only got to hear from Doran. And guess what?? Here, we get Nathaniel too!! Hence the 5 stars!
Because I loved this too! It is a tad more political, and it takes a bit more reading. I had to concentrate more, in places, to follow the storyline and what was happening, but that's not a bad thing for me!
I loved that we heard from Nathaniel. I loved that we got a bit more about him and his upbringing and his history and, most importantly, his feelings and emotions. We get more of what he did and what's going on with this bloody plant that everyone seems to what and what it will do to Nathaniel, eventually.
There was a conversation about Tsa Lein, and some of that went over my head; the references were subtle, and I didn't get them all but it's only a comment I need to make, rather than a complaint. And I'm not entirely sure what Samuel has to do with anything, and it's driving me NUTS that I can't!
Things are moving fast, making the mines safe, but not fast enough for some, hence the political issues that are in this book. And I do feel for Grace at points. She needs to be strong, but she really is still young and a widow. And someone wants her gone.
Which leads us nicely into the next book! There is a bit at the end of this one, chapter one of Throne of Lies, and it lays out what's coming, what you SEE coming here. I didn't read it, though. I want to wait!
I am fully and totally invested in Doran, Nathaniel, Grace and Tsa Lein. I can't see where it's all going, and I both love and hate that I can't!
5 full and very black dusted stars
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Book Details:
BOOK 3
Book Title: Throne of Lies
Length: 63 000 words
Release Date: December 2024
Pairing: MM with hints of developing into MMF (slow burn)
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, three POVs (alternating)
Trope/s: Political intrigue, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer
Themes: Bisexual romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.
Heat Rating: 3 flames
This book ends on a cliffhanger.
Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.
But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.
The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…
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“I’m sorry. I, uh… I guess you probably want me to –”
Nathaniel braced his hand against the frame, using his arm to pause Doran’s advancement towards the door.
“Stay,” he said quietly.
He did not suggest it to continue what had been derailed by Leonora’s presence; neither he nor Doran seemed to be much in the mood for it any longer.
But Doran must have needed Nathaniel’s request, for instead of shaking his head and leaving, he closed his eyes and sighed.
“This wasn’t how I imagined the evening going,” Doran said.
Nathaniel laid a hand upon Doran’s chest. “Rest here tonight,” he said, and started to gesture to the main room where the couch was. “I can –”
Doran shook his head, opening his eyes again. “I’m not going to throw you out of your own room,” he said, a small smile finally returning to ease his features.
Nathaniel became sharply aware of the bed behind him, the darkness outside the windows, Doran’s hands that moved to rest upon his waist. The room was dim, illuminated only by a small oil lamp set upon the desk under the window that overlooked Arkadia Lane. Under the faint glow of the light, he held his breath while Doran moved his hands up his body then down his arms, urging his jacket off. It fell to the floor with a soft thump.
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “I have a wardrobe, you know,” he murmured.
“Maybe I want to see your clothes on the floor,” Doran replied.
The sudden rush of desire that gripped Nathaniel’s body rendered him speechless. Doran smirked, then kissed him.
It was deep and tender, slow and heated; milk and honey on Nathaniel’s tongue after years wandering the desert, finally stepping foot in the promised land he had denied himself. In that moment, Nathaniel felt there was nothing between them – neither pasts nor crimes, neither guilt nor regret; just them, their souls laid bare, and a barrier of clothes of which Doran was stripping away with barely restrained desperation.
He relished the gentle scrape of Doran’s evening stubble across his chin, groaned when Doran moved along his jawline and kissed his neck, urging him to tilt his head back and bare his throat, which Doran used to break for air and run his hand up Nathaniel’s chest. Then, with the flickering lamplight reflected in Doran’s eyes, his fingers began working the buttons of Nathaniel’s shirt undone one by one. He slid his hands inside under the fabric and around to Nathaniel’s back, up his shoulder blades, his fingers tracing the scars that latticed his skin.
Nathaniel allowed Doran to undress him, stripping his shirt to the floor beside his jacket, and moved backwards when Doran guided him until the backs of his legs collided with the edge of the bed.
“Sit,” Doran ordered.
Nathaniel sank down upon the mattress, his mouth dry as Doran knelt before him and began to unfasten the straps of his boots. He pulled off Nathaniel’s left boot first, then the right, leaving them askew on the floor – then Nathaniel’s hands clenched on the bedcovers and he groaned as Doran ran his hands up Nathaniel’s legs, curving around his calves, then over his knees, and all the way up his thighs and the strained fabric of his pants to reach for the buckle of the belt.
Hoarsely, Nathaniel said, “You don’t have to –”
“But I want to,” Doran interrupted, his voice low and heated. He rose to his feet now and stood between Nathaniel’s legs, gazing down at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “Do you?”
It had been years since Nathaniel’s last intimate encounter; longer still that it had been with someone for whom he had feelings that were not muted by the fog of Embrace. Such a thing was lost to him during his time with the Nameless. The physicality of sex had been heightened, certainly, while he himself was rendered as numb to the act as someone was used to the basic function of washing their hands. With a clear mind, he recalled of himself that some deep part not lost to the drug and his lifestyle must have found the experience undesirable, for he could count the number of unions he had engaged in during his adulthood on one hand.
Doran’s touch was more potent, more electric, than anything Nathaniel had ever experienced under the thrall of Embrace. He felt he would die if he went one more night without knowing how Doran’s body felt against his.
“God, yes,” Nathaniel rasped, and Doran closed the distance between them.
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
OK, so! Here's the thing: these books are a fair step out of my comfort zone, and I'm bloody LOVING them! But I also hate them. WHY?? I cannot, for the life of me, see where they are going, and it's doing my head in! But I am so fully invested in these people and their lives that I cannot give up. And if I do not get my answers in book 4, I will be mighty peeved!
This is book 3, and you need to read these books in order. It's very important!
In book one, we only got Doran; book 2 gave us Nathaniel as well. Now, in book 3, we get Grace, too.
And that girl has a world of pressure on her young shoulders, she really does. The forces that want her gone are circling, pressing in on all sides. They are, systematically, removing her support, piece by piece. And Grace fights, she fights hard, and I loved that she starts to find her feet.
Doran and Nathaniel continue to grow their relationship, but the book is mostly clean. The smex scenes are very much faded to grey, and I loved that here.
This is, though, a bit darker, I thought. Violent, too. But those wanting her gone play dirty, and deadly, and it all comes to a shocking cliffhanger that I did not see coming, and I was annoyed and angry, and all sorts of negative feelings that really erupted from me and my kindle hit the wall! (both wall and Kindle are unscathed!)
So now Grace and Nathaniel, the man she hates the most, and with good reason, are on the run. Those closest to Grace have been left for dead, and she has to trust Nathaniel; she really does.
I said in my review for book 2 that I'm not sure what Samael has to do with anything. I STILL don't know the answer to that!
Because these books keep me fully invested and entertained. Because I cannot see where it's going. Because I am both loving and hating these books in equal measure.
Just bloody because it's my review and I can star it how I see fit...
5 full and shiny stars
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Book Details:
BOOK 4
Book Title: Valley of Secrets
Length: 123 000 words
Release Date: January 2025
Pairing: MM that develops into MMF (polyam), and a separate FF fast-burn relationship (femme/butch)
Tense/POV: Third person, past tense, four POVs (alternating)
Trope/s: Political intrigue, resistance against military coup, forbidden romance, former assassin turned apotheker/healer
Themes: Lesbian romance, polyam romance, dark pasts including alcoholism, drug addiction, atonement, forgiveness, worker’s rights, political intrigue, coup.
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Most plot threads are wrapped up. Two further books are planned in the series but the series can also be finished here.
Deposed, her father presumed dead, her friends slaughtered and the cavern in chaos, Grace Harrington is on the run and entirely alone. The only ally she has left is the man she hates most in the world: Nathaniel Morgenstern, the assassin who murdered her mother and seduced her father.
Grace’s only hope of reclaiming the throne and saving her people is to seek the aid of Éamon Tadhg, the High Druid of Arajon. But she needs to survive the hostile streets of Iole City before she can even think about fleeing to the Violet Valley.
Nathaniel made a vow to Doran to protect Grace, but he could never have imagined how quickly and horrifically their lives would fall apart.
Grieving the dual losses of the man he loved and his new friend Tsa Lien, Nathaniel devotes himself to the service of the overthrown Lady Archon who despises him – even if it costs him everything he is.
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5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This is book 4 in the Death's Embrace series, and it cannot be read as a standalone. You need to know how Grace and Nathaniel got to this point in time, and everything is not recapped, and you really do need it!
Grace is on the run, and she has to trust the person who killed her mother. But she has no one else. Her father, Doran, is dead. Her closest friend, Tsa Lien, is dead and those who want her dead grow in number by the minute. The only solution is to get to the valley, to Eamon, the High Druid of Arajon. But getting there might cost her and Nathaniel their lives.
OK so! Doran had the voice in book 1, Nathaniel was added in book 2, Grace in book 3, and here we get someone else as well, and I loved the surprises she threw at me!! So we get everyone here, and I loved that.
I said in a previous review that I loved and hated that I couldn't see where this story was going. I think what I meant was, I couldn't see HOW it was going to get where it was going! Grace was always meant to rule. I just couldn't see how she was going to get there. She takes quite the long way round, but I think she really did need to, to ensure she stays there this time.
Grace needed Nathaniel (oooh! I just realised! Only Doran calls him Nate!) even if she hated him. And she learns a lot about him on their journey to the valley, and it makes her see a deeper side to the man who has her father's heart. I loved that Eamon won Grace's heart. He surprised me, too!
Doran has quite an adventure, too, after his tumble off the side of a cliff! There were some surprises for him in the valley, as well!
Oh dear Lord, I wanna rant and rave about this book, but it would really be full of spoilers, and I don't want to do that, because I really LOVED the surprises this book threw at me, and you need those surprises too, but when you are reading.
I have absolutely no idea what Samael has to do with anything in these books! Can someone explain, please??
This is book 4, the final book, in the Death's Embrace series. But as I was reading, the ending felt unfinished. It felt like there was more to come for this group of people, for Grace especially. And then I read the bit the author wrote at the end. It appears there are 2 more books to come! And I hope I can get my hands on them!
I have to commend Ms Moore. I usually read books heavy on the smexy side, and these books are very lacking in that department. Not a bad thing, not at all. But for Ms Moore to keep me fully engaged for 4 very VERY long books?? Outstanding work, really outstanding. So much so, I've added this book to my Masterpieces shelf!
I can't fault this, or any of the books in this series. So it can only get...
5 full and shiny stars
** Same worded review will appear elsewhere. **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
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H. L. Moore (she/they) is the author of the Death’s Embrace fantasy series and the Tales from the Jovian Empires sci-fi novella series.
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