Ash and Amber

Name: Ash and Amber
Author: Eline Evans

Genre: Romance Fantasy LGBTQ+ M-M Romance

88 pages

A toymaker who has given up on love
A beautiful but unusual stranger
A mysterious doll, an ancient curse and a perilous journey of true love

Toymaker Selma Selander lives a quiet life in Norstad, running the store she has inherited from her father. Selma loves her craft—and she’s damned good at it. Living next door to her uncle and her cousin Alma, and with Helena, Alma’s girlfriend, as her friend and housekeeper, Selma isn’t lonely. In fact, she’s pretty content with her life.

Except one thing is gnawing at her. She’s convinced she’ll never find the sort of love she longs for. Norstad is a small town, and not many women are like Selma.

As the busy Christmas season approaches, Helena convinces Selma to hire help. Just returned from Stockholm, Selma’s uncle, an antiques dealer, gifts her a beautiful and ancient doll—masterful work unlike any Selma has ever seen.

When Lilja Norling, a stranger in the small town, walks into her store the very next day to ask for the job, Selma is skeptical. Lilja is disheveled, obviously frightened, and without references, but Selma takes pity on her and hires her. Lilja, quiet and meticulous, turns out to be great at the job, even if she is undeniably odd. She rarely talks of her past, but when she does, it only deepens the mystery of where she’s from and who she is.

Despite the riddle of Lilja’s past, Selma feels as though she has found someone whose soul mirrors her own loneliness. As the fall days in the store pass, they form a bond Selma has never felt before, but when an unusually harsh winter descends on Norstad, as wolves howl in the distance and strange frost flowers bloom on the windows, it becomes ever more clear Lilja is not of this world—and that she has a connection with the mysterious doll.

When on Christmas Night, a stranger kicks down Selma’s door, Selma, Alma and Helena embarks on a dangerous journey into the mountains to save Selma’s newfound love.

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