Welcome to the
Hawthorn & Aster
Reader Hub
Your one-stop portal for ARCs, tours, blasts, and exclusive reader opportunities.
What’s Happening Now…
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Join Tracey Magruder's Tour for Between the Lines!
Join us as a reader, an influencer or a hype squad member for Tracey Magruder’s debut novel Between the Lines June 1st - 5th 2026!
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Join Sue Ward Drake's Tour for Defying the Odds!
Join as a reader, an influencer or a hype squad member for Sue Ward Drake’s book 4 in Big Easy Brothers, Defying the Odds, June 22nd - 26th, 2026!
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Join E.C. Gregory's ARC Team for The Bone Altar Bride, his debut romantasy novella
Join us in promoting E.C. Gregory’s debut romantasy novella, The Bone Altar Bride. Releases June 2nd, 2026.
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Join Ben Vic's ARC Team for Against the Cosmic Fade, His Debut YA Scifi Space Opera
Join us in promoting Ben Vic’s debut young adult scifi space opera, Against the Cosmic Fade, Book #1 in Vesperaun. ARC reviews due June 16th, 2026.
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Join Shyla Colt's ARC Team for A Chance of Sunshine!
Join us in promoting Shyla Colt, USA Today’s Bestselling Author upcoming book A Chance of Sunshine. Releases June 25th, 2026.
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Join M.A. Darke & Matt Mememaro's ARC Team for Hard Knocks
Join us in promoting M.A. Darke and Matt Mememaro’s upcoming release, Hard Knocks. Releases July 5th!
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Join C.G. Coppola's ARC Team for Into The Redwoods
Join us in promoting C.G. Coppola’s upcoming title, Into the Redwoods. Releases July 7th, 2026.
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Join Grace R. Hughe's ARC Team for her debut dark fantasy romance, When The Sky Breaks
Join us in promoting Grace R. Hughe’s debut novel, When The Sky Breaks, Book #1 in Skyfall. Releases August 18th.
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May 18th - 22nd, 2026
Join us in promoting C.G. Coppola’s upcoming fantasy, Into The Redwoods’ ARC team by participating in this weeklong blast!
May 18th- 22nd
Weeklong Blast
The Bone Altar Bride
by E.C. Gregory
Every thirteen years, a Blood Moon bride is sent to the Unnamed King—and the village calls it mercy.
When her little sister is nearly taken, Liora, a sharp-tongued healer, steps into the bargain herself, expecting a monster and a quick death.
Instead, she finds Kael, an immortal king in iron chains, cursed to serve a faceless god that feeds on devotion and stolen true names. Each ritual drags him closer to becoming the legend Alderfen fears—and each bride he’s forced to accept disappears into the altar’s hunger.
But Liora refuses the script. In a fortress that remembers, she hears the Remnants of past brides whispering through stone and shadow, and she begins to uncover the truth behind the Bone Altar and the Heart of the curse—an engine fueled by worship, blood, and identity.
To break the cycle, Liora and Kael must reclaim what was taken and defy a deity that would rather burn the world than loosen its grip.
Some bonds are chosen. Some rebellions are consummated.
Tropes
Blood Moon Bride / Sacrificial Bride
Healer Heroine
Forced Proximity
False Monster King in Chains
Tortured Hero
Dangerous Devotion / Dangerous-before-safe Romance
Names Are Power / True Names
False God / Corrupt Priesthood
Gothic Fortress / Sentient Setting
Captivity / Ritual Captivity
Open-door intimacy (on page), written with euphemism and emotion. Adult.
Content note: graphic violence, ritual sacrifice, captivity, supernatural horror.
Part of the ARC Team?
Against the Cosmic Fade
Book #1 of Vesperaun
by Ben Vic
At twelve, her blind faith cost a life. At seventeen, her survival will start a galactic war.
Raised to worship the Oracle's absolute law, twelve-year-old Syris believed she was fulfilling a sacred duty when she reported a heretic. She never intended for her childhood obedience to end in a brutal execution.
Years later, she masks her crushing guilt behind sheer cruelty. She has become the arena's most abrasive bully, openly mocking those who weep over the Degradation—a state-mandated ritual designed to slowly erase women’s minds and memories. But behind closed doors, Syris suffers from crippling panic attacks, terrified of her own impending erasure.
When her time for Initiation finally arrives, she expects to fade away. Instead, the unthinkable happens: she cannot degrade. Her biology completely rejects the process.
Branded a heretic for her failure to break, Syris is forced to flee into the monster-infested Dark Forest. But escaping her own people is only the beginning. What begins as a desperate flight from a planetary cult explodes into a sprawling cosmic war. With the regime she once served closing in and alien factions preparing to claim her for their own purposes, Syris must face her tainted past.
She thought her world was ending. But the universe is just getting started.
Tropes
forced identity erasure
morally gray female protagonist
loyal robot companion
anime-inspired fight scenes
planet-to-space escalation
chosen one with a twist
slow-burn romance subplot
non-binary representation
found family
sisterhood
Content Warning: violence and combat scenes, death of a named character, ritualistic identity erasure (memory loss, loss of autonomy), bullying, themes of institutional oppression and gender-based violence, and brief depictions of grief and trauma
Part of the ARC Team?
A Chance of Sunshine
Book #1 of Chance Falls
by Shyla Colt
Phil
After a brutal layoff and her father’s sudden attack, she’s forced to return to the slowly dying small town she once escaped. Now she’s stuck running the family business, surrounded by memories and not enough explanations for the strange things that seem to happen here.
Because this town isn’t normal, it never has been.
Korren
He came to town looking for a clean slate after a highly publicized tragedy that left his life in ruins—even if the verdict declared him innocent. Now he keeps his head down, running his family’s old video rental store and avoiding anything that might drag him back into the spotlight.
But small towns have a way of pushing people together.
She’s all sharp edges and skepticism.
He’s sunshine in human form–patient, warm, and steady.
He believes in second chances.
She believes in exit strategies.
The town has a unique outlook, and it’s not shy about playing matchmaker
Tropes
Grumpy Sunshine
He falls first
Small town
Content Warning: Panic Attacks, Mention of Stillbirth, Mention of fatal accident
Part of the ARC Team?
Hard Knocks
by M.A. Darke & Matt Mememaro
With the title on the line, can she help him recover before the title rematch, or will their professionalism get in the way of something more?
Alicia is just your average physiotherapist that gets taken to her first Muay Thai fight by a friend. At first, she does not know what to make of the fight, until her sights are set on the CSA light heavyweight champion Cain Axel “The Crow” Weaver. The fight ends with Cain sustaining an injury and, subsequentially, losing the fight. Alicia leaves the fight with a newfound appreciation for combat sports; however, she finds herself unable to stop thinking about the man that once was the light heavyweight champion.
Alicia’s work then finds her at the Hard Knocks Gym, where she runs into Cain once again. Yet this is not the same Cain that once stood proudly with the championship gold around his waist. This man is broken, and hungry for something more than just another title belt. He has his eyes set on Alicia and everything that she brings to the table.
Will Alicia fall for the rugged and commanding presence of Cain, or will his demons and past failures be too much for him to overcome?
Hard Knocksis the brand-new spicy MMA fighter romance standalone novel by Matt Mememaro as he makes his proper debut in the romance genre. Enter the world of Hard Knocks with characters that will leave you screaming, with a slow burn tension that will leave you begging to be a good girl for Cain.
Tropes
He's the fighter, she's the physio
Touch her and die
Jealousy
Workplace "professionalism"
Bends her over the physio table
Fuck it moment
Shared trauma
Content Warning: Violence
Part of the ARC Team?
Into the REdwoods
by C.G. Coppola
Brooklyn
I found Evelyn hiding in a tree when I was sixteen. That was the day everything changed.
I never thought I’d befriend a Mechanical, someone from the other side of the Redwoods. But when I take a wrong turn sneaking onto their land, I encounter Evelyn, and for seven years we meet in secret, sharing our lives every three months. That is, until the Mechanicals attack over the deaths of a mysterious drug. As protector of the Woodlanders, I must defend my people. But Evelyn is my priority too. When the time comes, I’ll need to decide what’s most important.
Evelyn
At sixteen, Brooklyn rescued me. I owe everything to her.
Nothing prepares me for getting lost in the Redwoods, so when I’m found by a Woodlander, I don’t know what to do. We’re taught our neighbors are savages, but Brooklyn only shows kindness when I feel helpless. For several years we secretly visit until a new ruling makes it impossible. Then, my people attack. Suddenly, Brooklyn and I find ourselves on opposite sides of an unexpected war. But I might have some leverage with my new title. After all this time, it’s finally my chance to save her.
Tropes
Nature vs Machine
Best Friends
Dual POV
2 FMCs
Time Jumps
Magic
Three Love Stories
Splash of Romance
Opposite Worlds
Content Warning: Allusion to suicide and drug use (off screen), depression, profanity, light violence
Part of the ARC Team?
When The Sky Breaks
Sorcha wasn’t meant to inherit the Outer Court like this.
One moment, the day was calm. The next, a portal tore open—light, sound, wrongness—and an eldritch creature killed her father where he stood. By dawn, Iksura of the Inner Court had already begun her coup.
With rivals closing in and portals appearing across the continent, Sorcha is forced into the one alliance she never expected to need: a strategic marriage to Neal, her father’s steward.
Their union was meant to secure her claim.
Instead, it becomes the first crack in everything holding her world together.
Neal is loyal to a fault—steady hands, steady heart, and a devotion he refuses to name. But even he can’t shield them from what waits beyond their borders: cults worshipping the abominations, creatures slipping through the seams of the world, and magic bending in ways it never should.
Sorcha and Neal flee across nations and oceans in search of answers, joined by Ansel, the Outer Court’s monster-hunter—sharp-eyed, unflinching, and far too acquainted with the things that crawl out of the dark. From desert roads to storm-lashed ships and haunted cities, each stop reveals another piece of a threat older and far more sinister than they imagined.
And with every mile traveled, one truth becomes clearer:
It isn’t the monsters they should fear.
It’s what they’re becoming to each other.
Tropes
Arranged marriage
Slow burn
Age gap
Found family
Reverse grumpy x sunshine
Touch her and die
Golden retriever MMC
Low spice
Intentional pregnancy
Cryptids and magical creatures
Eldritch demons and occultism
Political intrigue
Graphic, gory, and occult violence including animal mutilation and human sacrifice
Pregnancy including maternal/infant mortality
Loss of parent (on page and mentioned)
Mentions of child neglect
Cancer (brief)
Some religious content
Brief discussions on xenophobia and classism
Book #1 of Skyfall
by Grace R. Hughes
Part of the ARC Team?
Between the Lines
by Tracey Magruder
June 1st - 5th, 2026
Great Missenden Ever After #1
Some stories don’t just change your life.
They help you rebuild it.
After ten years in a toxic relationship, Sadie Reed is done being anyone’s cautionary tale. By day, she edits other people’s stories—polishing their words and pushing their dreams forward—while quietly abandoning her own.
So when she’s offered one impossible assignment—to fly to a quiet English village and convince reclusive bestselling author Corbyn Pearce to finish the novel he’s been avoiding—she says yes.
Corbyn is brilliant.
Corbyn is infuriating.
Corbyn is absolutely not interested in being handled.
Scarred by a tragic accident and locked behind walls he refuses to lower, he has driven away every editor sent his way—until Sadie.
Their clash is immediate. Sharp wit turns into creative friction. Creative friction turns into something neither of them is prepared for. And when a long-buried truth ties them to a single, unforgettable moment from their past, Sadie begins to wonder whether this assignment was coincidence… or something far less random.
As late-night conversations soften professional boundaries and tentative trust begins to form, old wounds resurface—hers from the man she escaped, his from the betrayal he never recovered from.
Now Sadie must decide:
Is she brave enough to rewrite her story?
And will Corbyn choose to be part of it?
Between the Lines is a heartfelt, slow-burn romance about healing, found family, emotional safety, and the quiet ways fate nudges us toward the people we’re meant to find—where love doesn’t erase the past, but grows patiently beside it.
Tropes
healing
enemies to lovers
grumpy sunshine
slow burn
found family
small town
English village
work romance
Part of the Tour?
Defying the Odds
by Sue Ward Drake
book Four of Big Easy Brothers
Law student, Maggie Macrae, has turned state's evidence
to put her crime family background firmly in the past.
But when she’s exposed and followed by her brother’s thugs...
she runs to Kurt Guidry, the only man she's ever loved.
Kurt isn’t the man he used to be.
A retired U.S. Deputy Marshal, he's stayed as far away from Maggie as he can.
She deserves more than he can give, even as his need for her still burns hot.
But when she seeks him out and danger closes in... he will fight for her with all he’s got.
Tropes
Second chances
Forced Proximity
Protector
Age Gap
Military/Police
Found family
Redemption
