The Tryst

by L. Marie Wood

A moment in time… insignificant and fleeting for most, but for Nicole, Mark, and Eric, it is life-altering. Three strangers meet in a town they don’t know in a place they hadn’t expected to end up only to find that they are exactly where they were supposed to be… again. Love always finds a way. Through space and time, past and future, through lifetimes and storylines, they were destined to find each other, love each other, lose each other—coordinates and weapons, scenarios and demographics be damned. A malfunction, to be sure. But when Ryan tries to tinker with his project, a weapon the likes of which has never been seen in all of the Galactic Collaborative, he finds out just how inexorable their link is… and how insidious. The beginning of an experimental series that will challenge the way you think about love, life, connection, and purpose, The Tryst will catch you in its whirlwind and never let you go. Each book in the Affinity series will combine of mixture of mystery, thriller, psychological horror, action, suspense, science fiction elements in differing measures, always with romance as an undercurrent. Love always finds a way. But sometimes that way is paved with bones.

264 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2022

About the author

L. Marie Wood is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is the recipient of the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper, as well as the Harold L. Brown Award for her screenplay Home Party. Her short story, "The Ever After" is part of the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology Sycorax's Daughters. Wood was recognized in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol. 15 and as one of the 100+ Black Women in Horror Fiction. Wood holds an MFA in Speculative Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University and serves as the Director of Curricula for the Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction (DWASF.org). She is also the Director of the horror track for MultiverseCon.

Visit lmariewood.com to learn more.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 1, the story looks at what 'fate' means. Three ordinary lives cross paths unintentionally, but with a reason none of them are aware of consciously but will soon discover their dark fates. The story tells from three different perspectives and are distinguished based on writing style. For example, Eric's mind is erratic while Nicole is articulate. Their connection reads as forced and unnatural, contrary to how it should feel since Eric, Nicole, and Mark agree their connection seems normal as they discover multiple common grounds.


I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Booksprout, Hidden Gems Books, and author.

[Keeko McKween · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I pick up a book, I wonder: How will it end? And I absolutely love it when I can’t guess what’s going to happen next. I also enjoy a hot MMF romance, where the writer doesn’t pull their punches during the s3x scenes, meaning the male characters touch each other. That makes ‘The Tryst’ a triple pleasure in my humble book-reading opinion.

The main characters, Nicole, Mark, and Eric, are drawn together for reasons they can't explain. Though Nicole and Mark are married, they carry on an affair and find themselves unable to leave the others behind. This book is slipstream (not my usual genre), but I got into the romance aspects of the novel and the mystery aspect: What's really going on? Who is pulling the strings? I'm terrible with spoilers, but I enjoyed this book and look forward to completing the series over the summer.