3.9 (73 ratings)

Sour Rot: A Gothic Romance

Name: Sour Rot: A Gothic Romance
Rating: 3.9 (73 reviews)
Author: Lily A. Grace
ISBN: B0G6KB3GK5

by Lily A. Grace

ghosts

About this book

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“All I needed or ever wanted was him. Our bodies. The cold, wet soil. This exquisite death.”

Jane Eyre meets American Horror Story, set between Yorkshire and London. A complex young woman falls in love with a mysterious funeral director.

Lily A. Grace debuts book one of her gothic horromance series. A story of elegance and beauty among sorrow and decay. A place wh ere worms pulse in the soil of their devotion; where their love and longing grows...a nd where it festers.

They say love is madness. Grace Lockett learns that love is death; the death of everything she knows. When her parents die, Grace flees her dilapidated cottage for an apprenticeship at a funeral home run by the enigmatic Nicholas Crowthorne.

Exiled and surly, Nicholas recognises a darkness in Grace; a penchant for the disturbing which he has seen before. Her resemblance to Louisa, his long-dead fiancé, makes her all the more intoxicating. Among the formaldehyde, she ignites his need to protect and possess, while he awakens Grace’s dormant desires and allows them to flourish. But who, Grace asks, was Louisa? Can Grace find herself while she walks in the footsteps of the one Nicholas loved before?

Their burning passion illuminates the lies and corruption beneath the surface, and unveils their deepest secrets. Deceit, tragedy, and murder unfold in the wake of their love...but what’s a little death, in the funeral business?

Age gap, toxic love, dual POV.

A modern-day setting with a dark, nostalgic writing style.

Contains adult content, mature readers only.

Trigger warnings/themes:

Sour Rot is a Gothic Romance either detailing or referencing the following dark themes. If they bother you, trigger you, or offend you at all, please do not read this novel:

Childhood abuse, trauma, grape. Death, mortuary details, funereal practices. Ghosts, the supernatural. Some spicy adult scenes with graphic details. Mental health issues. Arson. Blood, violence, murder.

Publication Date: May 25, 2026
ASIN: B0G6KB3GK5

Reader Reviews

Unresolved Past Characters

April 1, 2026

A small town young woman moves to London and takes up a job with a handsome funeral director. She trains to prepare bodies before they are buried or incinerated into ashes. In spite of the gruesome vocation, Grace Lockett and Nicholas Crowthorne, fall in love with each other. Nicholas tries to resist Grace because he's older, but his effort doesn't last. Both characters grew-up with individuals that haunt them at the end of the story. The Gothic Romance, told in first person, includes Nicholas...

⭐⭐⭐ gothic, eerie vibes pulled me in

March 26, 2026

⭐⭐⭐ gothic, eerie vibes pulled me in Eerie in all the right ways, with a gothic setting that hooked me from page one. An entertaining, moody read if you love dark, crumbling Victorian estate vibes with shady dealings and secrets. #gifted (NG) )

A great gothic horrormance debut!

April 6, 2026

After the death of her parents, Grace abandons her crumbling cottage and seeks out a new life as an apprentice at a funeral home that is steeped in silence, decay, and secrets. There, she meets Nicholas Crowthorne, a man as cold and captivating as the bodies he tends to. Nicholas sees something in Grace, a darkness that mirrors his own. But it's not just her nature that unsettles him, but also the uncanny resemblance to Louisa, his long dead fiancee. Drawn together by grief, obsession and...

Rotten and Delicious

March 6, 2026

There’s something deliciously unsettling about a story that treats death not as an ending, but as a profession. Sour Rot: A Gothic Romance leans fully into that tension, unfolding in the shadowy corners of the funeral industry where grief, intimacy, and decay sit side by side. Lily A. Grace writes with a quiet, creeping dread. The atmosphere is thick—like the air of a room that hasn’t been opened in years—yet the story never feels stagnant. Instead, it slowly ferments, revealing the strange...

Love blooms in a gothic mansion

March 3, 2026

In Sour Rot, we follow Grace as she begins a new stage in her life. Always drawn to darker, more macabre things, she is excited to apprentice at a funeral home. When she meets her new boss, Nicholas, they both have trouble denying the chemistry and pull they feel towards one another. As she grows closer to Nicholas, Grace begins to have more and more questions about his past, and especially a particular woman from his past. This book has gothic, haunted, and moody elements in spades! There is...