His Cruel Kindness

Briony Okonkwo inherited half a decaying mountain hotel. Her stepbrother Emeka has been living in the other half for two years. He cooks for her. He fixes her car. He is in every room except the west wing, which he has never entered, and which has a key in her father's desk. To sell, they need each other. To stay, they would have to admit why neither has sold yet. And in the west wing is a summer that Briony has spent twelve years not naming, photographed and pinned and kept by a man who has been paying a debt that was never his. He is kind to her in the specific way of someone holding a door shut with his shoulder. A dark gothic stepbrother romance of mountain weather, closed rooms, and one demolition in spring.