Structure and Status: A Novel

by J. Bear

John Thorne arrives at Riverton Hall to repair a broken latch—and finds himself drawn into a world he thought forever closed to him. A tenant farmer with a gift for making broken things whole, John has learned to expect little from the gentry beyond their distant courtesy. But Miss Prudence Ashford sees past his shabby coat to the brilliance beneath, and her brother Fitzwilliam—master of Riverton and prisoner of duty—recognizes in John something far more an equal.

What begins as gratitude for a mended door becomes an arrangement that defies every rule of propriety. As John works to restore Riverton's failing mechanisms, he finds himself caught between two the safety of obscurity and the risk of being truly seen. Prudence's curiosity opens doors, but it's Fitzwilliam who offers not condescension but conversation—and something far more complicated than friendship.

But the county is not blind, and love between different stations cannot remain hidden forever. When scandal threatens to destroy them all, John must choose between safety and honesty, between the life he's built from refusal and the one he might build from hope.

A queer Regency romance about the small rebellions that change everything, and the courage it takes to choose love over safety.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 24, 2025