Every lie has a voice. His is the one she can't hear.Varvara Berezina has heard every lie ever spoken in her father's house. She has never once been wrong. Then he marries her to a stranger, to seal a peace neither side actually wants, and hands her one order: listen, and report what you hear.Boaz Harwick came north wearing the third of three names, sent to be a husband on paper and nothing more. He was never told his new wife can hear a lie in any voice on earth.Except his."I will not cross a shut door without your word."On their wedding night a ship burns at the quay, and the marriage built to end a war turns out to be the weapon that started one. As the architect of the conspiracy closes in on both their houses, Varya and Boaz have one thing left to survive it with: the one voice neither of them can verify. Each other's.She was sent to listen. He was built never to be heard. Neither of them expected to be chosen.A Ring for the Rival is a slow-burn historical romance and a spy mystery in one: an arranged marriage between two rival houses, two spies each sent to watch the other, a traitor inside the family, and a husband who waits for her yes. Open-door heat, on-page danger, and an ending that holds.A complete standalone. One couple, one full story, no cliffhanger, guaranteed happily-ever-after. Book Three of The Owner's Table, a series of dark romantic suspense novels set in one connected world. Read them in any order. A Standalone Novel in a Connected World.For readers 18+. Contains explicit consensual scenes and on-page violence.A heroine with a gift. She hears the lie in any voice.A husband she cannot read. Quiet, watchful, protective.Two spies, one marriage. Each is sent to watch the other.A slow burn that waits for her yes. Open-door, consensual, asked for out loud.An ending you can trust. Complete standalone. No cliffhanger. Guaranteed HEA.A slow-burn rivals-to-lovers romance of political intrigue, quiet competence, and the rare freedom of being seen without being used. For readers who love arranged marriages that become real, gifts that cut both ways, and the moment a forced alliance turns into the only table either of them will ever choose.Perfect for fans of:enemies-to-lovers, marriage of convenience, dual POV, atmospheric political fantasy, and romance where the greatest intimacy is the one person who cannot be read.
