Kirani Chronicles No. 1 — Sci-Fi Dark Romance

Breach of
Protocol

She might lose her license and her life.

A dual-POV slow burn set on a prison ship during a dying war.

A Novel by Celeste Bywaters

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Melencolia I, Albrecht Dürer, engraving, 1514
Fig. 02 Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514
Field Notes

About the Author

Celeste Bywaters is a romance reader and writer. She is a fan of romance of the pitch-black variety — nearly irredeemable heroes, trapped heroines, and a body count both literal and metaphorical.

She grew up reading Georgette Heyer, Victoria Holt, Daphne du Maurier, and Charlotte Brontë, and was inspired to write dark science fiction romance to take the Gothic out of the estate and into space.

In addition to holding a PhD in American Culture Studies with a background in data and digital culture, she makes a perfect Aperol spritz.

Celeste Bywaters lives in New York City. Breach of Protocol is her first novel.

Manuscript File — 100,000 Words

Breach of Protocol

A prison ship. An ethically dubious medical trial. A meeting that might be a murder.

Aboard the prison ship Askvig, against the background of a grinding war between the human-led Federation and the alien Kirani Confederacy, Dr. Delphine Adler finds herself drawn to lone alien inmate Zev Ahren. As conditions in Askvig deteriorate, Delphine has to decide whether to risk her life to pull off a prison break and her career confessing her feelings, a breach of doctor-patient protocol Zev wouldn't mind.

Tropes: slow burn, doctor–patient, he falls first, forced proximity Vibes: Alien 3 × Severance — but sexier Dual POV
Status: On Submission Updates via the transmission list →
The Drawbridge, from Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons), Giovanni Battista Piranesi, etching, ca. 1749-50
Fig. 01 Piranesi, Carceri, ca. 1750
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