When beauty is monstrous, taming her will awaken a beast of his own... When Dr. Marcus Reed inherits his grandfather's remote estate, rumors of a haunted conservatory pique his scientific curiosity. But nothing prepares Marcus for the impossible truth hidden behind its glass—a secret that will upend his beliefs about the natural world and his own analytical heart. Flora Laurent, once a brilliant botanist, now exists as a human-plant hybrid after a catastrophic experiment. Dependent on the conservatory to survive and without her mentor's protection, she faces a terrifying future as rival scientists seek to claim her for study while her unstable form develops strange new abilities. Against all scientific propriety, Marcus finds himself hopelessly drawn to this uncanny woman who blooms like midnight orchids under his touch. Their forbidden affair steams up the hothouse glass as Victorian restraint dissolves in the face of Flora's exotic allure and Marcus' growing addiction to her intoxicating nectar. With Flora's life measured in wilting days rather than years, these desperate lovers abandon all societal constraints—she using her botanical abilities in ways no proper lady would dare, he worshipping every luminescent inch of her hybrid form—knowing their time together may be as fragile as the glass walls that both imprison and protect their impossible love.Petals and Thorns is a Victorian Gothic love story loosely based on "Beauty and the Beast." It is the first tale in "The Gentleman's Grimoire" a collection of re-imagined fairy tales for the discerning male reader.