Born For Silk by Nicci Harris

Book 1 of Cradled Common series

A spicy Beauty and the Beast meets The Handmaid's Tale.

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In the dystopian land of The Cradle, young Aster will be the King's Silk Girl. A common human bred to adore and pleasure him, and to provide The Cradle with healthy babies that will strengthen The Trade’s iron grip on what remains of civilization.

Adore. Pleasure. Provide.
That is her Meaningful Purpose.

But King Rome is more monster than man. As the heir of the genetically enhanced breed, he was designed to survive and rule this harsh new world. Through fear. Through intimidation.

With a heart carved from obsidian and ambition that knows no bounds, Rome lives only to reign. Until the moment Aster's fragile fingers brush against his calloused palm...

Now she occupies his mind.

But The Trade upholds that love is not a virtue, and instead, a weakness. Nothing could be more dangerous to the regime than having its merciless king obsessed with a common girl Born For Silk.

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For readers who would enjoy a spicy Beauty and the Beast, meets The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, with the barren, wild backdrop of Dune by Frank Herbert. Born For Silk is a romance-driven adult sci-fi novel set in a dark dystopian society.

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⚠Warning: The Cradled Common is a series of interconnecting standalones. Born For Silk features a seven-foot-tall, tormented hero in need of taming and an intelligent, yet sweet heroine who slowly chips away at his emotional armour. If you don't enjoy romance stories with a power imbalance and age gap, then you will not enjoy this one.